Club Pioneer

[John Holmes]

I am the proud owner of the VSX27TX Pioneer Elite rcvr. It has been one of nice surprises of my system. I bought it because it was one of the few rcvr's on the market (and still is) that offered THX processing, an RF de-modulator, and a phono input. Not to mention the fantastic sound that is puts out and it beauty!

Though I have no desire to upgrade, I know there has been issues with this series of "Elite" units. Let's get in here talk about the pros and cons as well as the satisfaction or dislikes of these products.




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's (http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mycollection.asp?alias=jt357)

[Lex]

i could participate in a Club Pioneer, and Club Elite of course:)

Lex

[John Holmes]

Lex,

I was wondering what was taking you so long to post to this thread! :) Heck, it was your enthusiam/satisfaction with your Elite rcvr that convinced me to look further into this line ( but this was during those days of the other forum!).

I thought about attempting an "Elite" only club. Then realizing that some of the technology trickles down to the standard line, it seemed natural to just include all of the product lines.

I'm glad you choose to swing by! :LOL:




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's (http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mycollection.asp?alias=jt357)

[David Meek]

Hmmm, does an Elite RPTV qualify me to play? Oh, we've also got that portable DVD player (8" 16:9 screen) Pioneer came out with a couple of years ago.




David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater" (http://www.htguide.com/bilder/index.cfm?fuseaction=arkivbilder&userid=0&selecteduserid=18)
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker (http://www.dvdtracker.com/custom_report.asp?ReportID=2980)

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[John Holmes]

Of course you can play to David! 8) I would go as far to say that, you own the most sought out Elite product...period! The Elite televisions have been well documented as the pinnacle (subjective) of RPTV. And those that own them have always been, well ;x( yeah, what that sign means! :LOL:




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's (http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mycollection.asp?alias=jt357)

[anthonyh]

I am debating right now between the Elite VSX-56TXi and the Rotel 1056. I have them set up in my living room attempting an A/B type of evaluation. Although I do not consider myself an audiphile, I do appreciate music, which is why I am only evaluating 2 channel music. I figure if they perform well on that, movies are a piece of cake. Can anyone offer any advice as my loaner period on the receivers expire soon? I should add this receiver needs to be durable, as I am just now replacing a Carver HR-895 Pro-Logic receiver I've had for 12 years and I hope to have a solid foundation from this next purchase for many years also. The Elite obviously has many more whizzbang features, but it does have a good sound as well, IMO, it blew away the Denon 3805 in this regard. The Rotel, has quite a following and many rave reviews under its belt unlike the Elite. It has a 5 year warranty compared with just 2 on the Elite. Of course there are no whizzbang features on it. So I am truly perplexed which one to purchase. Help, advice, feedback needed!

[billz260]

No elite here but I did just get the new 1014 and it is a very good unit for the budget, $450! Very clean, clear and I like all the options. It could have a couple more digital and component inputs but that's about my only complaint.


I would like to know if other recievers offer the "7-ch Stereo" option that the 1014 does. I really like that it fills the room with stereo comparted to just my bookshelf fronts. Anyone have any comments towards this?

[JohnH]

anthonyh: i've been looking at the VSX-56TXi vs the Denon 3805 as the replacement for my old receiver - curious as to what made you like the Pioner more? I'm planning to make the purchase soon and wsa happy with my last (old two-channel amp) Pioneer, but a friend is pushing the Denon as better but i'm not convinced.

Thanks.

[Kevin P]

Hey, we have a club I can fit in to! I have a Pioneer Elite DV-59AVi DVD player. :B So far in the limited amount of playing with it it seems to be a very impressive piece of gear.

Now I just have to rebuild my house so I have a home theater to put the DV-59AVi in!

[anthonyh]

JohnH,

Well, let me explain the situation. I was in an HT store that had a room full of Receivers. They had it set up in such a way to allow simultaneous A/B switching. So with the same source component (dvd player), and the same speakers (Def Tech powered towers), I was able to play multiple cds and switch between the 2 receivers. I only auditioned 2 channel music as my theory goes, that if it works well on music, HT shouldn't be a problem.
The first disc I put in was Bela Fleck and to my ears, the Denon sounded better. But with the rest of the 4 or 5 discs I listened to, the Elite was the hands down winner. This is all very subjective of course, but I found the Elite to have a warmer, more relaxed sound, especially in the high frequencies. There was more depth to the soundstage and a huge difference in the lower register. The bass was more pronounced with the Elite than the Denon.
Feature to feature, they certainly are comparable and with street prices, the Denon is several hundred dollars cheaper. But with the sound difference I heard that night, the extra dough would have been worth it, as I don't upgrade all that often. As most people on here will tell you, you need to listen to them yourself. Ask the sales rep what the policy for auditions are. Take it home and demo it on your speakers, with your gear, in your room. That really is the only real way to know for sure. I hope this helps. I also have to confess that I am perplexed with the direction I will head in my receiver purchase. I had to return the Rotel on Sunday, I have a couple more weeks before I have to return the Elite, so for now, I'm doing A/B with it and my Carver until I can bring something else home to demo. Let me know what you decide. Good luck!

[JohnH]

Thanks Anthonyh. I do intend to audition both receivers in the next few weeks. I tend to keep electronics for a while (the "outbound" receiver is 10+ yrs old) so i like to get a few experienced opinions as well as my own. I've had good experience with Pioneer, but none with Denon, so i lean towards the familiar.
I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks.

[anthonyh]

Great, I hope it goes well. What can you tell me about Pioneer, specifically their Elite series. I am currently auditioning their Elite VSX-5TXi receiver.

[JohnH]

I haven't owned an Elite series yet. My last stereo power amp was a Pioneer and it had fantastic sound and lasted forever. When i was growing up we always had Pioneer equipment at home - it always sounded good and again, lasts forever (my mom still has Pioneer equipment we bought in the 70's).
My wording above may have been slightly confusing (now that i've re-read it); when i said "none with Denon" i did mean i've never owned a Denon, not that i've had a bad experience with them.
I'm taking a few audio disks & movies to the local dealer today to start comparing the Pioneer to the Denon, then i hope to try them at my home. I'll keep you posted.

john

[JohnH]

After spending time with both the Denon 3805 and the Elite VSX-56TXi I found that the Pioneer won hands-down and i am happy to say the Elite 56TXi is now mine. The specs are similar between the two receivers, but i liked the sound of the Pioneer much better - especially after the audio room calibrations were run. The Pioneer system did a much nicer sounding calibration - the Denon sounded harsh; as if it was optimized for maximum sound pressure for each frequency instead of having a smooth overall response. The 56TXi has a 'warmer' sound to my ears and a much better overall balance; movies can be played loud without being painful. The same was not true for the Denon.

I've got the remote set to operate all the components except the Motorola HDTV / PVR cable-box. For some reason that unit is not on the list - i'll have to manually program it.

But anyway, i am very happy with the sound from the Elite receiver - i've been re-watching movies over the weekend and they sound completely new - i'm hearing things i never heard before (my old receiver was 10+ years old and did not perform any audio processing - everything had to be decoded in the DVD player).

Cheers!
John

[krek]

Although the last message in this club is from a couple of months back, I enjoyed reading your reviews of the Pioneer vs the Denon receiver. My experiences where exactly the same when comparing a vsx-2014i to a denon 3805. Maybe we should post our findings on Club Denon to let them know what they are missing ;) .

Michel

[speakerboy]

Hey...is this the forum to discuss Pioneer Elite equipment? If so, does anybody know when the SC-09TX flagship receiver will come out? I heard Spring 2008. I'd like upgrade my flagship 59TXi receiver. For the price of the 09TX receiver, I thought I might consider the Integra line and Marantz line as well.... Any particular opinions on other flagship receivers?

[Yasvanth]

Hi Lex,

Is there a Club Arcam, and if not how do I set up one?

Cheers

Yas

[Chris D]

Just post a new thread in this subfourm! (do a forum search first, for "Arcam", seeing if there's a dedicated thread"

[hifiguymi]

Hey...is this the forum to discuss Pioneer Elite equipment? If so, does anybody know when the SC-09TX flagship receiver will come out? I heard Spring 2008. I'd like upgrade my flagship 59TXi receiver. For the price of the 09TX receiver, I thought I might consider the Integra line and Marantz line as well.... Any particular opinions on other flagship receivers?
The SC-09TX is shipping in March. Pioneer has started taking orders and is on schedule to ship in March.

Eric

[KRC]

I just bought a Pioneer BDP-HD50 Blu-ray player. Awesome picture and sound, even playing regular CD's and DVD's there is an improvement. My pet peeve is it is so damn slow in powering up, scanning a disc and starting to play. Is this normal?

Kevin

[Dmantis]

I just bought a Pioneer BDP-HD50 Blu-ray player. Awesome picture and sound, even playing regular CD's and DVD's there is an improvement. My pet peeve is it is so damn slow in powering up, scanning a disc and starting to play. Is this normal?

Kevin
unfortunately it is. All stand alone players are very slow. The only player that boots up quickly is the Playstation 3. I like the Elite players after they boot up.