TLDR:
Update the firmware
Use Dirac Live
E-ARC with Atmos is great
Use Dirac Live
First things first, update the firmware on this unit, it did not work with my TV out of the box.
Once that was fixed, my first impression with this unit was the bass out of my subwoofers sounded much wider and deeper than on my 11-year-old Sony STR-DN1010. So, we were off to a good start. Once all the speaker cables arrived, I proceeded to setup the 4 height channels on my ceiling. I fired up a bunch of Atmos titles on various streaming services and was impressed with hearing the sounds come from overhead.
I started playing with MCACC at this point to try and fine tune the system. It did a great job of measuring the distance to my speakers from my listening position. I also did run the auto EQ setup. While it did adjust the frequency response of the speaker, it did not adjust the crossover points to the subwoofer like I had hoped. That is when I discovered that, while the Sony would allow me to set a frequency crossover point on a per speaker pair basis, this unit did not have that capability. Checking the EQ settings on the subwoofer, I was not thrilled to see that there was only 31hz and 63hz adjustments available when using an 80hz crossover point. While using a miniDSP UMIK-1 calibrated microphone and REW software, I had a hard time leveling out the frequency response of the subs to the speaker. Between the room gain and frequency tuning of my subwoofers, there was around 9db(aka twice as loud) in the 40-50hz range, and not having a granular enough EQ adjustment capability was not going to fix it.
Enter Dirac Live, using their software on the computer allowed me to use the calibrated microphone. You can use it on your phone with the included microphone as well. I had three options for the sound stage, and I chose to setup the wide area option, which requested up to 17 measurement points. The software then measured all 9 speakers and the subwoofers at Once all those data points were collected it calculated the frequency corrections per speaker and crossover points. After that I sent the filter to the receiver, and WOW! What a difference. The sound stage is so much better than it was before, movies sound amazing. The bass sounds much deeper as the subwoofer’s response has been flattened. The inclusion of this software on this receiver makes this a solid recommendation if you are looking to have a great home theater experience.

I was looking for a good receiver for my home theater, I found the best deal in Best buy with best pickup experience, I’m enjoy it.

So far best receiver I have purchased to date good features and easy to setup, great sound love the calibration features I rate this 10 out of 10.

So far so good on this. I bought an open box version to save a few bucks but everything seems in working order. This replaced an old Pioneer from 2004 that was a workhorse but just outdated. Initial setup was easy as well as tuning individual speakers more to my liking. The 4K upscaling shows as clear as a theatre picture on my Samsung and the IMAX/Dolby digital brings a whole new level of sound separation for each sound zone in my living room and provides enough power to really make my surround speakers shine. They’re a little older but still do the job well. Haven’t used the multi-room feature yet. My only issue is that the Bluetooth seems to be really spotty even if my phone is sitting right on top of the unit. At 15 feet away it just wouldn’t even connect which seems concerning. I also had some minor issue figuring out how to get audio from the optical cable (TV) to play on the receiver and had to play with the audio feedback to make it work.