AIWA AV-DV75: Swiss army knife of receivers

I am more of a “feature-phile” than an audiophile. I know people who will spend more than $1000 on a receiver that does one thing, but has the best sound ever. I, however, want to pay less money for more “stuff” and still get good sound.

With that in mind, I bought the AIWA AV-DV75 multi-function, multi-tasking, swiss-army knife of a receiver. I have been pleased with it, especially for the $250 I paid.

The functions
Switching functions is pretty easy - it is done with two dials - a function dial and a “jog dial” that allows you to set each of the different features. You can shift between each of the inputs and you can set different outputs. Thus, if you want to record from one video to another (nothing copyright protected, of course) or put a CD soundtrack on your video, you can do that.

Tuning AM and FM is easy, but it isn’t really a jog dial, so it can take time to get to a far away station.

There are several sound processing options, including a built in equalizer that you can manually set, or that has 4 pre-set options. There is also a DSP to give CD’s a surround sound feel.

You can tweak the output to different speakers so that your sound is balanced. I haven’t bothered to do it, but it is yet another feature I like to know is there.

The sound
The sound is pretty good. It is better than any stereo I have ever owned, that’s for sure. My Acoustic Research speakers (check our my other review) sound great with this. There is sufficient wattage - 120 watts each for the front channels - to drive just about any high quality speaker without distortion. I have not noticed any distortion even at the highest volumes.

There is also a “T-Bass” option that boosts the bass in analog signals, as well as a clarity type processor that supposedly cleans up analog signals. These are of less value with digital signals.

The home theater
You can hook up three video devices to it. I have a Sharp stereo VCR and a Toshiba DVD player with Digital Dolby 5.1. The stereo doesn’t support DTS, but I haven’t missed it. The sound on DVD’s is fantastic. I have watched all sorts of movies - science fiction, Disney animated films, drama, action, etc. and everyone who watches comments that it is definitely ready for the big time.

There is also support for Dolby Pro Logic (also very good - I tested it with Disney’s Lion King on VHS, one of the better opening sequences for this), and also “phantom” for non-stereo/non-Dolby sources.

The connections
The stereo has the standard connectors - in and out for CD, tape, phono (in only), one TV monitor (out only), and three video. There are also two optical inputs and one coaxial inputs for the video. This is really nice because I can plug my Toshiba SD 2109 DVD player (see my review) into the coax (no optical) and I can plug my Pioneer 301 CD changer (see my review) into the optical. Let me tell you that you haven’t heard a CD until you’ve heard it through an optical cable with zero bit loss. There is a noticeable difference in clarity, even to my non-audiophile ear.

There is a “backup” video input source on the front of the unit, so that you can hook up your camera.

There is output for 6 speakers: two front, two rear, and a center channel that all use regular speaker wire. There is also an RCA jack output for a self powered woofer. I have mine sent out to an old amp, which powers a cheap, non-powered KLH subwoofer, and I still get better bass than I ever got with my old Yamaha amp.

An added bonus is that there are extra front speaker outputs, and you can switch between the speaker sets - I have my second set running out to the hot tub - quite nice.

The Remote Control
The remote control purports to be “universal” but it is nothing special and only has room for 3 devices or so. Also, it is not a “standard” remote, so it did not automatically work with my current universal remote. This is especially annoying because some of the remote features depend on holding the button (rather than just pressing it). My universal remote has no concept of learning a “held” signal - it only learns the “press” signal. The upshot is that I have to manually turn dolby on an off when switching between CD’s and DVD’s.

The remote does have all of the functions, so you arguably never have to touch the actual machine.

Overall
In general, I have been very happy with this unit, and it has served every need I have had. I am quite happy with it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a high quality lower end multi-function receiver.