Aiwa AV-D55

I decided to go to Best Buy one Saturday and look at some lower end recievers and their prices. There was a large selection of Sonys, Yamahas, and Aiwas. The Sonys were in the upper price ranges. Both Yamaha and Aiwa had a reciever on sale for $250. The Aiwa on sale was the Aiwa AV-D55 and the Yamaha on sale was the Yamaha HTR-5230. I decided to later go up to a smaller shop in Chicago where I could have these connected to full systems. Here's what I found with the Aiwa AV-D55:

Price:
The Aiwa AV-D55 was on sale for $250 at Best Buy. Both the Yamaha and Aiwa were at this price range. Just from looking at the system (As in first impressions), you can tell that the Aiwa is better than the Yamaha because it looks a lot better, technologically advanced, and has more features. The Yamaha looks a lot more...empty. Very basic looking reciever, built on an older frame. "Don't judge a book by its cover..."

Both systems were hooked up to a fairly inexpensive theater system which included a Yamaha CDC-575 CD player, Sony DVPS360 DVD player, Boston Acoustics VR940 front-channel toweres, Bose VCS-10 center channel, KLH 911B rear-channels, and a Sony KV32SF12.

The first reciever that I hooked up was the Yamaha HTR-5230. The Yamaha had a .7% THD level and 75Watts x 5. The Aiwa had a 100Watts x 5! Just from looking at the statistics, the Aiwa blew the Yamaha away. So I tried out the Yamaha, and it worked like a charm. It got incredibly loud (I think it's a high current reciever), and I was able to use it easily with no problems at all. The Aiwa was much worse when it came to performance. Statistics don't tell all... The Aiwa lacked the features of the Yamaha, it truly lacked sound, and it's controls were very messed up...It lacked everything that the Yamaha did...

Warranty:
The Aiwa AV-D55 came with a 1 year full parts&labor warranty. there's only one thing I can say...You'll need it! Yamaha has better...haha.

Durability:
The Aiwa AV-D55 doesn't have that solid feel that a Yamaha or Onkyo have. It seems to have a much lighter plastic material, the material feels weaker than the materials that build up the Yamahas. The Yamaha HTR-5230 had a much nicer feel to it... The Yamaha will last forever, and the Aiwa...Be glad that you have the warranty.

Looks and Styling:
This is the only point at where Aiwa was able to do a good job. It looks a lot 'cooler' than the Yamaha, because of its multi-colored LCD and colored buttons. But don't let fools fool you. Buy what's on the inside, not the outside.

Installation:
The Aiwa AV-D55 wasn't hard to hook up. It had 8 audio inputs. It also had phono, a pretty cool feature. Those black records keep turning! There really wasn't anything difficult about hooking this thing up to the speakers and components.

Sound:
The sound on the Aiwa AV-D55 was simply terrible. Even though they say the Aiwa AV-D55 has 100Watts per channel... It doesn't... I don't know what they're talking about. When I first tried the Yamaha HTR-5230, and turned it up all the way... it sounded simply amazing. The sound was simply blasting at very loud levels out of the front channel speakers. I couldn't get myself to believe that the Yamaha HTR-5230 is rated at only 75Watts per channel. The Aiwa is rated at 100Watts, and the volume level is read from 1 to 30. I turned up the Aiwa AV-D55 to maximum volume, and I said... How do I get this thing to go louder? It was quiet... It simply couldn't get loud... 100Watts is a joke... It sounds like this has 10Watts per channel! The Yamaha destroyed the Aiwa in sound tests. Neither had distortion at high levels, but one sucked, and the other didn't. The Aiwa AV-D55 simply can't get loud at all, the sound was very flat and simply terrible. Sound is the most important aspect of the reciever, and Aiwa has clearly failed.

Video:
The video was fine. When I played The Matrix on DVD, the image looked fine on the TV. Even though the sound was terrible, the video quality was about the same as the Yamaha HTR-5230. This is another point at where Aiwa didn't screw up in.

Ease of Use:
Even though the interface to this reciever looks easy. The way they made the controls makes it near impossible to use. When I used the tuner dial to switch between inputs, the red light which indicates which input I selected was going haywire and moving randomly at random speeds. On the Aiwa, there is a huge knob that looks like a volume knob. You use it to change the inputs on the reciever. Instead of having each one on the LCD, it uses little red lights to show what input you choose. I would've thought that the lights move in a clock-wise fashion, but it randomly went from place to place. I asked the shop owner if I could try another one, and the same thing happened. It took me a couple of minutes to select the CD input. If the Aiwa was to work properly, then it wouldn't be any harder to use than the Yamaha HTR-5230. The Yamaha was very easy to use, and it worked like a dream.

The Verdict:
The Aiwa AV-D55 was probably one of the worst recievers that I have ever seen in my life. It does have pretty high specifications, but it simply doesn't live up to those standards. The sound on the Aiwa AV-D55 is very weak, and it also felt hollow. It seemed like it couldn't hit those low ranges that you expect, while the Yamaha was able to hit every range precisely. The Aiwa AV-D55 is quite expensive compared to other recievers. There is no comparison between the Aiwa AV-D55 and the Yamaha HTR-5230. The Aiwa AV-D55 may look really cool, especially with its tuner knob and LCD, but it couldn't get any where close in performance to the Yamaha. If you're looking for a reciever for a ~$250 - $300 price range, then the Yamaha HTR-52(#)0 series is the best choice.