VSX-82TXS Build Quality and Setup
The VSX-82TXS is quite a looker. Even though it spends most of its natural life in the dark, the few times it does see the light of day, it never fails to impress. The front plate has a reflective finish that is the bane of the photographer (notice the reflections?) but the boon of the owner. You can get lost in that faceplate. The display is adequate for viewing from a distance though many of the less important readouts are invisible from more than a foot away. What is most important in day to day operation is what mode you are currently in and the volume. The mode is clearly visible at all times though the volume is a bit small at rest. When making changes, the volume takes stage center and is clearly visible. If I had to make a change to the display, I'd make the readout to which speakers are currently receiving input a bit bigger. On my Denon AVR-3805 , you can see a graphical representation of what is coming in and what is going out (2 speakers in, 7.1 out for example). With the 82TXS, there is a graphical representation of what is coming in. I'd like to have both but if they are going to stick with only the inputs, I'd like to make it a bit bigger. It just seems a little too close together and condensed at the top. 
As you can see from the specifications above, there are a ton of inputs on this receiver. Three component, three HDMI, four optical, two coaxial, and a set of 7.1 analogue inputs... the list goes on. The unit is XM-ready and can be connected to your iPod with an included cable. At the time of this review I had what can only be described as an obscene number of products in-house to test with. I had no problem connecting everything I needed with plenty of room to grow. The three HDMI inputs are more than any but the most gear-happy users will ever need. One thing that I really liked is how much room there was between the speaker terminals. If you were going to attach your speakers via bare wire, I felt like you'd have a lot more room to get your hands in there to feed in the wire.
There is an onscreen display of the menu system which is nice. It is a bit rudimentary (white text on a black background) but functional. I would have liked to have seen an onscreen overlay of the volume when making a change. Personally, I find this to be one option I can't do without. Fortunately, the readout on the receiver was easily viewable from all the seating positions in my room but I know that this isn't the case for everyone. As an aside, the readout of the volume on the display shows to one decimal point. But you can only change the volume by a full decibel. So basically, it always reads .0. I scoured the manual looking for a way of enabling volume change at the .5 level but to no avail.
Installation and Setup
The menu system on the 82TSX is surprisingly intuitive and easy to navigate. There are a couple of terms that you won't know without looking at the manual. Once you do, you can promptly forget them because you probably won't use them. The most important of the menus are the Surr Back System , the Manual SP Setup, and the Input Setup. Anyone need me to translate those? The unit is defaulted to a 7.1 setup with all speakers set to small and the crossover set to 80Hz. Beautiful. I didn't have to touch it. And neither should most people.
The Surround Back System menu simply has you scroll between Normal (surround backs on), Second Zone , Front Bi-Amp, Multi Room & Source . If you were going to use this receiver in a 5.1 setup and didn't want to use the extra amps for anything, there isn't a way to just shut them off from this menu. You need to do it from the Manual Speaker Setup menu described below. So, I'm sure you are wondering what the difference is between Second Zone and Multi Room & Source . According to the manual, the Second Zone is just for stereo playback, Multi Room & Source allows video to be sent as well. But what does that mean? I hooked it up to check. You can have a maximum of three zones (including the main listening room). Here's where it gets tricky: the second Multi Room zone will only support analogue audio plus iPod and XM Radio. The third multi-zone (connected to the optical digital audio output of the receiver) will take only digital audio input sources. The second Multi Room zone can use the Surround Back amplifiers if they are assigned to this function in the Surround Back System menu. Confused? Here, the generally well written manual completely failed. It was only through trial and error that I figured out what I did. The Manual SP(eaker) Setup menu is fairly intuitive but it does have a couple of confusing terms. The Speaker Setting submenu lets you choose the size of your speakers (Small/Large/Off) and your crossover (50, 80, 100, 150, 200Hz). The limited number of crossover points is disappointing. Once again there is a bit of logic behind the speaker settings. If you don't set your mains to Large, nothing else can. You can't set your main speakers to Small if you don't have a subwoofer. You can't turn off the Surrounds and have the Surround Back speakers "On". Yes, it is all very logical. One thing I really liked was the THX recommended settings. Every time you selected a speaker it would tell you what THX recommends (all speakers set to small, crossover at 80Hz). This is also a good reminder of what the defaults are.
Also under Manual SP(eaker) Setup is a couple of more confusing menus. First is Bass Peak Level . It is actually what it sounds like - it limits the Maximum volume your subwoofer will play. When adjusting this setting, the receiver puts out a test tone. You increase the volume of the test tone until it is as loud as you ever want it to go. If you have neighbors that constantly complain, you could have them tell you when they can start hearing/feeling your sub... and then bump it up a few dB.
The last menu that needs describing is the X-Curve . According to the manual, movies can sound too bright in large rooms. In reality, the term describes the standard pink noise target curve used in most motion picture dubbing stages and movie theaters throughout the country. This setting (basically a renamed version of the traditional THX Re-EQ setting) lets you correctly roll off frequencies above 2kHz to compensate for the differences between a movie theater (typically very damped and large) and a smaller, less-damped, home theater room. They even have a little chart in the manual that correlates the setting to the square footage of your room. It is only to a maximum of 3dB so even if it is engaged accidentally (default is "Off"), it shouldn't make too drastic of a difference. This setting is only to be used for movie modes and not music. It is disengaged during THX movie modes as the THX DSPs apply Re-EQ automatically.
The Input Setup menu is nicely laid out with the name of the input across the top with all the available connection types on the bottom. So if your DVD is connected into the HDMI-3 and Optical-1 inputs, you set the digital in to Opt1 and HDMI to 3. Not exactly hard. This is a lot better than having to navigate separate Audio Input and Video Input menus as found on most receivers.
