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Review 4 of 11
Price Paid:
$380.00
from Altex Store, Iasi, R Summary:
I want to share my one month experience with this receiver. First of all, the European version is slightly different. There are no component video connectors on the back, just svideo and composite. There is no subwoofer button (the sub can be configured via remote though); instead it is used for the help function. And the help button is used for RDS (Radio Data System). Maybe RDS is a European only facility.
The good news is that the SA-HE100 is for sure Dolby Digital EX compatible. It is mentioned in many places on the web, in the manual and I also found it on the Panasonic website. This is what I found on the web: ''Please be advised that Panasonic SA-HE100 also has Dolby Digital EX. Up until February 2002 the only way a company could advertise Dolby Digital EX was if the receiver was THX certified. After that time the condition was lifted and now manufactures can promote this feature without THX certification. Unfortunately lifting the THX certification requirement so late in the production development of the SA-HE100 did not allow Panasonic the necessary time to change the programming code for the microprocessor, the silk screening of the unit, the manuals or the box.
To turn on DD EX with older 5.1 films simply depress the "Enhanced Surround" button. Newer films with Dolby Digital EX logo include a "flag" that will automatically turn on the DD EX decoder in the SA-HE200 Receiver.
With the SA-HE100 this "flag" is not detected. As mentioned above, simply manually select the "Enhanced Surround" button to activate 6.1 decoding. Also please be advised that with all DD EX sound tracks, the surround back channel is in Analog. Dolby simply uses a Dolby Pro Logic chip to create the surround back information from the discrete surround channels from the 5.1 recording''. The manual suggests using Enhanced Surround too for Dolby EX. And this is what I found on the Panasonic main website (resellers corner): ''Built-in Dolby Digital and DTS-ES decoders with Matrix 6.1 and NEO 6.1 Enhanced Surround for a 6.1 ch. surround sound reproduction (Dolby Digital EX playable).''
As I had a Technics amplifier before, I was pleased with the way the receiver sounded. Although the S/N ratio is lower, this is not a problem as there is no audible noise even at high volume. I am using a pair of Technics loudspeakers for the front channels, the SB-M500. These are excellent speakers but I noticed that the bass was not very powerful at low and normal volume. So I purchased a Panasonic SB-TP10 surround system, composed of five 40W satellites and one 100W active subwoofer. For 260$ these speakers are quite decent and the low frequency problem was immediately solved! To my surprise the LFE channel works with stereo too and gives punch to the low volume auditions. Of course the subwoofer can be adjusted or even completely shut down via remote. One neat thing is that the volume of the sub is memorized differently on each surround mode. Now concerning the various processing modes, don’t imagine that stereo recordings will sound better with Prologic II or NEO:6 because they don’t. Thankfully the stereo mode is gorgeous. There were some concerns about the heat generated by the amp and the fact that the players piled upon it could be affected. This is not a problem, I have the tape deck and DVD over the receiver and even at sustained high volume its surface temperature never went over 40C (104F). The receiver is great for movies too, giving a new dimension to the experience. Be advised that you will need an extra speaker for the central rear channel. If you already have large hi-fi speakers for R and L you can use one of the satellites for RC (rear center). I haven’t found any DTS ES or Dolby EX DVD’s, but the RC can be used even with normal 5.1 sound and it works pretty well. The tuner part is quite complete, with auto tuning and station name display. There are also PTY (program type) and RT (radio text) functions. There is a sleep timer and a wake function. As mentioned before the manual is a joke, but I had fun discovering the numerous and sometimes undocumented features. It’s like they had this super versatile product and they were afraid people would be frightened by the possibilities and so they hid them! The remote is ok, working with my other Panasonic products, and though some of the features are not accessible through it (treble, balance, etc.) they are not important. Strengths:
This is really a good hi-fi amplifier with a great sound and a good power reserve. And it is DVD Audio compatible! Weaknesses:
What I don’t like: lack of a second Tape or Aux input, no analog/digital input selection via remote and no enhanced surround/NEO:6 switching through the same remote. These are just some small nags that don’t affect the great value of this receiver. Similar Products Used:
Technics, Sony
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4.18 of 5
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4 of 5
