i picked up the 308 for my basement office. connected to it is an HD-DVR cable box & Oppo 80 (later I'll connect my pc via dvi to hdmi). i get full HD lossless audio either LPCM, DTS-HD-MA or Dolby TrueHD from my Oppo 80 and 5.1 DD from cable. it powers TSi100's L&R, CS10 center & 2 small surrounds ceiling mounted that came from a Logitech Z-680 speaker system (which now belongs to my daughter with 2 other spare small speakers i had laying around!) the sound is perfect, it's got plenty of power as i'm not trying to power a concert hall! i sit about 5' from all of the speakers so the 65w is plenty and it's a secondary HT in my office. my main gear is upstairs. i only have on issue and it's not the 308. i have a lcd computer monitor that supports 1080p and is HDCP compliant for DVI. however, it has been known to have problems with some things connected to it and not working correctly. i had a different blu-ray player before and it wouldn't work with it and every once and a while the cable box gave it some trouble. so of course, it doesn't work with the 308. which is fine. it gives me a reason to get a small HDTV about the same size (it's a 24" but i've found a 26" tv that will do the job) and but it in it's place. I'm gonna sell the monitor with a computer I have and it will all but pay for the new HDTV. the other advantage of having an actual LCD HDTV over the current LCD only monitor is that it will have a digital tv tuner built into it and i can connect my cable directly to it as well as my cable box so that if my cable box ever goes out or if i'm recording 2 programs and want to watch something else, i can switch to the tv's tuner. of course i could also just connect an OTA HD antenna to it and work with that. i will tell anyone that this receiver is an incredible buy at it's price and it's feature list not to mention it's 3D ready for those looking to get into that or at least it's nice to have it for future growth. lots of folks have very costly receivers with features they do not and will not use. this is "future" bare bones and you can't beat the price. for under 250.oo you can have your lossless, HDMI, iPhone/ipod or HD-radio docks (optional) decent power and of course it's 3D ready. i would highly recommend this to anyone. i'll be fully in the drivers seat in my basement office when i get the new monitor. for right now, i'm running component out from my cable box and oppo into 308 then out to the monitor (getting 1080i for oppo & 1080i/720p for HD cable and this works fine. the good thing is that i have the blu-ray player connected to the 308 via hdmi so i can get the HD audio to the receiver and the video goes out through the component. and YES, it sounds incredible. the component cables will go away with the new monitor for one HDMI cable!
Oh yeah, something else i wanted to mention that unlike other almost (I suspect it's actually all but there might be one) other receiver maker, at this price range, with this feature set you are getting something that they don't offer, in fact you usually have to pay much more just to get it. DSD.
I use my 80 in the basement office (much like the 83 in my HT system in the big setup upstairs) to listen to SACD's streaming DSD via HDMI and the 308 accepts DSD via HDMI. so anyone that loves SACD's mastered in DSD (most, almost all are) you will appreciate this seldom seen feature at this price. it is also has great Multichannel in (HDMI from the player) for DVD-A music too. Just that alone at this price range is hard to find now, couple that with all of it's features and it's a homerun, out of the park!
I'll post again once i get the new monitor for the basement office.
again, i do highly recommend this receiver to anyone that's entry level or just has a small room and dosen't want to spend a fortune on a receiver.
Oh yeah, something else i wanted to mention that unlike other almost (I suspect it's actually all but there might be one) other receiver maker, at this price range, with this feature set you are getting something that they don't offer, in fact you usually have to pay much more just to get it. DSD.
I use my 80 in the basement office (much like the 83 in my HT system in the big setup upstairs) to listen to SACD's streaming DSD via HDMI and the 308 accepts DSD via HDMI. so anyone that loves SACD's mastered in DSD (most, almost all are) you will appreciate this seldom seen feature at this price. it is also has great Multichannel in (HDMI from the player) for DVD-A music too. Just that alone at this price range is hard to find now, couple that with all of it's features and it's a homerun, out of the park!
I'll post again once i get the new monitor for the basement office.
again, i do highly recommend this receiver to anyone that's entry level or just has a small room and dosen't want to spend a fortune on a receiver.
