Official Pioneer SC-05 and SC-07 Owners Thread - Page 5

I didn't really state what I was trying to say very well with that post. I was wondering why he could hear it with classical music but not other types. You would think it would work across the board. My guess is content is important, better quality music will benefit the most.

I have narrowed my choice down to the NR-906 or Pioneer SC-07.

In general does anyone have any opinions on the difference in audio, for example which is brighter / brasher etc.

I used to have a Yamaha DSP-A1 (that i had to sell) i loved the sound it had, the low THD etc - i am using the same B&W 600 series speakers and I am looking for something that gives both depth and brightness without being harsh or too bright.

Oh i will be connecting it to a Kuro V1 plasma.
Perhaps someone who has experience with a 905 might weigh in?

Any opinion welcomed, thanks!

Hmm, I'm still in the 30 day return window on my Denon 4308. For a little bit more (about $400) I could get the SC-07. Has anyone here had the 4308 and if so, how does it compare to the SC-07? Is it worth trading in the 4308 plus an additional $400?

I don't have experiance with the Denon but for the price I paid for the sc-07 I do not think that I could have got a better reciever. The pioneer has met all my expectations and then some.

The modulation and compression used in recording most "pop" albums is what makes the difference. A good pop album can be created on the mixing board, while a good classical recording strives to reproduce the instruments/space as honestly as possible. Most of our current pop "artists" couldn't stand up to this type of recorded scrutiny.

Does anyone know if the SC07 will support firewire? I currently use firewire to connect a DV59 to a VSX56 for DVD-Audio and SACD and would rather not lose the convenience as I have neither room nor money for 3 good pairs of analog interconnects. I also wanted to know about sound quality, any opinions?

Thanks

Chip, I would find that unacceptable. I can't imagine they didn't envision the user wanting HDMI as the default turn on mode when that's become the de facto standard. Are you sure there isn't something you're overlooking?

If it were me, and there was no way around it, I'd sooner forget the HDMI control and use a universal remote. I want everything via HDMI as I currently use. There is no reason you should have to switch from HDMI to component and eliminate the one wire convenience (to say nothing of the other benefits of HDMI).

The only current Pioneer receiver that I'm aware of that supports firewire is the Elite flagship Model SC-09TX

Hi Zebulon & welcome as a new member to the forum.

Unfortunately, no Ilink on the 07. For that feature, Pioneer only has it on the flagship SC-09. And every other mfg has already dropped Ilink. I, like you, heavily use the 59AVi for SACD/DVD-A duties so I decided to pony up for the 09 earlier this yr.

The only other option & be current with the latest HDMI & hi-rez audio formats is trade your 59 for a Denon player with Denonlink and go with one of their receivers.

Or use analog multichannel inputs.

ss9001

SS9001, thanks for the reply. I thought about the SC09, but thought I would be better off getting Krell amps and using the SC07 as a preamp. I am currently running a Sonus Faber system; Grand Pianos, a Solo and three Walls with a Martin Logan Depth Sub. My primary concern is sound quality, how do you feel about the amps in the SC07 and the SC09? Getting just the SC09 would save me some dough but I have a spare no expense theory when it comes to sound. My monitor is a PRO151FD.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Nice speakers!
Magnepans are what I use with a Velo DD18 sub. I've listened to Sonus & Vienna Acoustic's and was impressed with their soundstage & imaging. Very nice!!

The ice amps in the 09 are pretty robust. Dave Vaughn at UltimateAV has finished his review & said it should get posted next week sometime. Hopefully, they'll have some bench test measurements on the amps to compare against the Krells you have in mind.

As far as sound quality - I compared to an Innersound amp I use for the fronts. The Innersound amp is more powerful (300 wpc/8 ohm) than the 09's amps so its bass slam seemed very slightly more robust, but the Ice amps seemed just a tad clearer. Of course, this is with magnepans which are pretty inefficient & probably harder to drive than the Sonus'. The more power you give maggies, the better they sound & come alive. I would say the differences in sound quality that I heard was subtle & would require extensive listening to pin down.

I've never owned Krells, but I know they are great amps

Or buy an Oppo player and send it to the Pioneer over HDMI. Kal Rubinson has reported good results with one of the models, not sure which one, and his Integra prepro.

http://www.oppodigital.com/

Hey guys,

Has anyone looked at the SC-05 closely yet? Any owners out there? Will appreciate feedbacks.

Hey Gang, Considering VSX-1018AH-K or, more likely, the Elite VSX-03 or SC-05. I would be hooking to a 5020 and BDP 51. A couple questions...
1. Will I need high end speakers to get the benefit of the SC-05? I currently have a 5.1 entry level Klipsch set.
2. Also, I belive my Klipsch are rated at 100w/400w max. Will that be a mis match with the 130 watts of the SC-05?
Thanks, Blue

1) No, you don't "need" high end speakers. That being said, if it was me, i'd certainly be looking to spend money upgrading my speakers WAY before i'd be looking to spend any type of significant money on an avr.

2) It will work fine. You don't need to "match" wattage.

imo, and only imo, buy the vsx. put the remainder of the money into a "speaker upgrade fund" envelope.

Right now you could run those Klipsch speaker with a 10 watt receiver. What receiver you go with next will most likely be dependent on what kind of speaker you upgrade to... or the other way around.. You won't get a mis-match with any of the AVRs you listed with your current speaker setup. I however will be using a 4ohm Dynaudio C2 speaker and the ICE Amps will come in handy here since my speakers are not as efficient as I would like.

ccotenj and Garman,
I really appreciate the replies. That's good info. My receiver is 4 years old and does not have HDMI and can't process the new HD audio codecs. That's why I'm thinking about replacing the receiver before the speakers. Thanks, Blue

Just curious if anyone has found any sort of "volume leveling" functionality in these new receivers?

I'm growing weary of picking up the remote every time a station goes to commercials. Especially with the DirecTV 5.1 broadcasts on the HD channels. Thanks.

Quick question about the SC-07. After movie playback/several hours of being on, my SC-07 appears to give off a fair amount of heat from the left side of the panel (not evident on the right side). I was wondering if this was normal for everyone else? Also, in the manual it mentions a fan in the troubleshooting section (pg. 112), yet I was under the impression that no internal fan was in place due to ICE power ( I certainly hear no fan running at any point during operation) . . . am I missing something? Thanks for your time, everyone.

The amp section is prolly on the left side, shouldn't be a problem. There are fans in almost all good AVRs. They run silent, but at ref levels, they turn on faster. (My Pioneer 811S has a fan and as soon as the vol goes past a certain loud setting, you can hear the fan kick up a bit. You can bearly hear it even with no movie playing) I think all is ok with your unit.

I pulled the trigger today and ordered my SC-07. It will be here Friday so I will have the long weekend to play around with it. From what I have read I am hoping for an upgrade in sound from my VSX45tx.

I don't own an SC-07 yet, but I almost surely will. This sounds like something very important you have figured out here, but your description is a little bit criptic. Perhaps it is stunningly obvious what you have done to anyone who has the sat box and SC-07 in front of them, but it is not to me at this point. It sounds like fine work on your part developing this work-around, and to make it available to all, could you spell it out a little bit more clearly please?

You have TWO connections from your sat box to the SC-07- component AND HDMI? You lose me with "added a toslink to opt1". What is that- an input or output on the SC-07, and running to what? I know, stupid questions, but I think your workaround is going to be important.

[quote=CHP_VR;14513017].
However, I found my workaround to be much more satisfactory! 'cause now instead of settling for 1080i from the Satbox, I can have the SC-07 do the upscaling to 1080p. Still a one wire solution.. I just output the component from the HR-21 to a component input on the SC-07 added a toslink to opt1,and I still have the HDMI plugged in anouther input on the SC-07.. Everything works perfectly and if I want to A/B it, all I do is press the HDMI botton on the SC-07 remote.

About 3 weeks ago I was at BB and they had a Pioneer '92 running. I got down on my hands and knees and put my hand all over the top of it. It was just warm. Not hot at all. So I (foolishly) thought from that that the SC-07 would be no hotter- and certainly would not "give off a fair amount of heat". Shows you can't assume new models are always as good or better than prior ones.

It's not just Pioneer. Lots of people are using component from their sat boxes because of all the HDMI issues many of them seem to have. They just don't play well with others and component + toslink is less hassle and doesn't seem to hurt PQ or SQ any.

About the heat, the ICE amps should run pretty cool but the video processor is still a big heat source.