Official Pioneer SC-05 and SC-07 Owners Thread - Page 500

Hey guys i wanted to send some pics from my iPhone to the thread. What is the best way . Can I cut copy paste images. Or do I have to attach. I don't know how to do that cuz it said it required a URL . The option to upload from cumputer or iPhone in my case was not available it was greyed out.

Didn't work where says choose photos is greyed out . Maybe cuz trying to do it from I phone if anyone has done it from phone before please let me know how thanks.

One of each please!
Hold the check.

Well, without some sort of blind test it would be difficult to test my recent experience. I have hooked up my L/C/R/Rears to my SC-05. I listened to that setup for a couple months before putting Adcom amps to drive the fronts and rears. I made every effort to be objective however in the end I do feel like through the Adcoms the sound became louder quicker and even though the two power amps rated are differently, the Adcoms seemed louder than the ICE at their peak levels. That could all be in my head though. When I ran the center channel through a B&K ST260, I wasn't expecting to hear much of a difference. And I didn't right away. However over the next couple of days I started to realize that the information coming out of the center channel was less harsh but crisper if that makes sense. It seemed that sound was less fatiguing and more defined than when it was run through the Pio. Dialog was easily discernible during loud passages whereas before (in comparison) it was less so. Even my wife noticed the difference and she didn't know I had changed the amps.

I don't really know 100% though, the power of the mind is beyond our imagination and I could be hearing, even partially, what I expect or want to hear, consciously and sub-consciously.

^^^

Are you experiencing a hard sound with your SC-05 compared to your amps?

What do you mean by a hard sound?

edit: I googled hard sound and found this... amazing lol

Hard drive speakers

Charles, don't shirk you're involvement. You were right there with everyone else.

Looking back, oh....about roughly a year ago, I had a Sony 60" LCD RPTV (1080i). It was all fine and dandy. Absolutely lusted after a KURO....just not the price tag. When I saw that Costco was selling them (right before Pioneer decided to get out of the plasma business), I jumped on a 6020.

That meant I had HDMI at my disposal for my display. At the same time, I sat on the sidelines while the whole HD-DVD vs BD war sorted itself out. As soon as Toshiba threw in the towel with HD-DVD, I went BD. That gave birth to the PS3 (the "fat" one) in my system (still in use today). That meant another HDMI source I could utilize.

That gave me reason to be inquisitive about HDMI switching in either a pre-pro, or an AVR. Originally, I was going to get the EMOTIVA pre-pro to go with my EMOTIVA amp (which had replaced an Elite 59TXi). Waited, waited, waited....no EMOTIVA HDMI pre-pro (I guess it finally starts shipping this month).

Focused on an AVR with HDMI capabilities. That led me through, in order...

-Onkyo 805 (returned)
-Onkyo 875 (returned)
-Marantz SR 8002 (better, but not quite what I was looking for)

That's when I happened over here. Before I even knew it, I've got an SC 05 in my system. That's it. That's what I was looking for, in spades.

Now, I'm all HDMI with the exception of my son's Wii and XBOX.

Charles, you and Chris were big influencers in that decision. Mac, I'm not forgetting you. I followed your posts, also. But, Charles, you were the one who influenced the move from the PS3 (good for what it is....lacking in SQ and DVD upcoversion) to the BDP51, not once, but twice. First one came from Costco, too. Still had some bugaboos at that point with the unit. Returned it to Costco.

Tried, in no particular order.....

-Samsung BD players (a couple of them). Can't recall the model numbers, but still not what I was looking for. Too many operational glitches. Returned both.
-JVC "fast load" BD player (current model). Yes, it was faster. Still, had operational glitches (freezing) and fell down a bit on AQ.

Saw BB closing out the BDP51 for $150. Decided to give it another go. This time the 1.32 FW was available. Downloaded that (and then the 1.37 FW later). No glitches. No freezing. Didn't care about BD live, nor streaming. I wanted the best PQ/AQ I could get. For $150, I couldn't do better (probably couldn't do significantly better unless I went to the OPPO BDP 83 for $500). Still feel the same way. I don't know if it's become faster, but I don't think I mind the speed, given the AQ/PQ.

I turn on my system. Go find a disk to play. By the time I'm ready to load, it's all booted up.

This is where Gov comes in. I see all of his questions and experience with the Epik Phoenix. I'm pleased with my MFW. But, like everything else A/V related, more is better (just ask the guys who have a Susano). What would happen if I added a Phoenix?

Only one way to find out. I follow Gov's exploits. Ask him some pointed questions. Before I know it, UPS guy is wheeling another huge box to my front door.

A little set up here, a bit of tweaking there, and I've got dual subs all dialed in.

That's where I'm at, now.

I dunno. What else could I possibly do? One of the alleged "gotta have" 3D displays? I'm not convinced that those won't go the way of HD-DVD. Can't see me wearing those special glasses to watch a movie. I know the couple I have seen in 3D, I've been very underwhelmed. Yeah, there are some 3D effects, but at the expense of poor color rendition. And still, to get the effect, you have to wear those glasses.

I think I'm set, for now. Very pleased with the set up for the first time in a long time.

^^^^^^
Glad I could help spend your money!

Haha...now there's someone with way too much time to spare.

I remember when I first auditioned the ICEamps. It was at a Magnolia Audio/Video store. While listening to the character of the SC-07, I noticed, what I like to term, a "Hard" or "In Your Face" sound, compared to the two other AVRs that I was comparing it to. I noticed that the very top end was being clipped too. At first, I didn't like this hard sound nor the clipping. Once I brought it home and hooked it up to my own loudspeakers, and compared to my two other amps, I figured out what was happening. This hard sound that I was hearing was, in fact, the "Sock You in the Stomach" dynamics that these amps possess. Also, on my loudspeakers that play out beyond 50 kHz, the air or clipping that I was hearing in the showroom was still there but minimized in my room. Once I ran MCACC, it was minimized even further to acceptable. Now, for me, there are too many positive attributes of the ICEamps that outweight any negatives. I guess, it was getting used to a new better sound compared to what I was used to hearing with my A/B amps.

As were you for others.


Like Gov, I'm always happy to spend someone else's money.

The funny thing is that I posted for a long time here without actually owning an SC. I felt a little guilty about that, but I wanted to participate in this, my favorite AVS thread. During that period, I tried to limit myself to basic audio comments as well as things I had learned from my VSX-01, which has a lot in common with its big brothers. Your comments together with Charles' and Chris' were among those that led me to decide I "must have" an SC-07, which I now do. (Have to give FilmMaker a nod here, too.)

So you aren't off the hook either.

I am reading up on the thx settings and the say set the sub. to 80 hrz. but it also has a filter on off switch and I have also read the reciever can set the best setting for it on its own if I shut off the filter? Is this tru? and if so how do I do this Thanks so much The sub is a mirage 10 in. powered sub and I am also using 2 subs with an rca splitter is that the best way to do dual subs with this reciever?

i'm not taking all the blame for gg's transgressions upon his discretionary income...

what's interesting is that those posts are from 13 months ago... at which point the emotiva piece (supposedly shipping now) was already over a year late (and supposedly shipping next month)... i think it's safe to say, that even if we can be blamed as enablers (although i liked the way gg put it as "influencers"), he made the right decision...

even if the emotiva piece turns out to be the best thing since sliced bread (complete with "toasted" and "peanut butter" mods ), the bird in the hand for the last year certainly has worked out well... the sc series (along with the kuros) certainly proves that pioneer can make top of the line a/v equipment "better" than any of the other cem's when they put their mind to it...

sadly though, pioneer has also proved that they can't make money while doing it...

yes, you should defeat the filter... you don't have to do anything "special" on the avr side... just defeat it on the sub... after you run mcacc, if it sets your speakers to large, go in and make them be small and make sure the xover is set to 80hz...

yes, you are doing it the correct way by using the splitter...

It's best to let the AVR handle your bass management, so turn the sub's crossover filter switch off. After that, set the receiver's crossover to 80Hz if you haven't already (Pioneer's default to this on their own). It's not desirable to have both filters active.

The RCA splitter is fine. I've used as many as three of them without problems.

Edit: Well, this time Chris beat me too it. Got to do something about my pathetic typing speed!

^^^

that's because i'm "working" so hard... while you guys are contributing members of the workforce today, i'm counting the minutes until i close down my office for the year...

macfan, clear your pm box...

Or, become a Gold Club member.
The pricing has come down and it's a good investment to boot.

Already done. Didn't realize it was full until AVS nagged me.


Didn't know that was a benefit. I'll have to look into it.

I would think if mcacc sets your speakers to large or small and you then adjust them, you would then be altering what it just adjusted/calculated to do. I had always thought if, as in your example, you want your speakers set to small and mcacc doesn't, you'd need to set them all to small manually and run auto mcacc in the "keep speaker settings" mode? Seems like 2 different things to me.

Well whatever got you guys spending your money on Pioneer stuff is good news to the rest of us. I and others (I am guessing here ) appreciate all the help from CHP, Macfan, CCOTENJ, GG and all others that I am forgetting about.

Thanks a bunch. This year meant my entry into better audio and I still have a ton to learn. I like coming here and getting comments about everything including my SC-07. I also managed to do it without breaking the bank......well kind of. My wife has no issues with the amount of money I spent on the HT (she asked how much was spent in the room and I answered truthfully).

I wonder if she will ask how much is spent on the stuff in the equipment closet feeding the HT.......

Anyways - thanks a bunch to you all!

nope, it doesn't effect anything... keep in mind that mcacc doesn't eq the sub, it only eq's the rest of the speakers... looking at it simply, when you set them to small and an xover of 80 (for example), it's just eliminating the 63hz filter and leaving the other frequencies unaffected...

some do rerun it, but only because "they" like to... but it won't change the outcome (outside of the normal margin of error)....

I'm one of those "run it again" guys, too, because I also like an excuse. But it isn't necessary.

If MCACC sets any of your speakers as Small, manually change them to Large, then go back and look at the MCACC settings. You'll see that MCACC has calculated the 63Hz band adjustment even though it isn't using it. I'm fairly sure it makes its Large/Small call after calculating the adjustments, not before.

It set my center to small and the towers large? should I change the towers to small too? In addition to that I noticed that If I do not set the subs to plus I get no sound through them so is plus correct? Thanks again you guys are a great help!

it's the S-10 omini sub

"Best practice" says set all your speakers to Small, towers included. That's the way to get the most accurate and most consistent bass.

That said -- and "expert" opinion to the contrary -- many people like to use the Plus setting, so it's an individual call. Plus can only be used if the mains are Large. If you have your speakers set as Large and the sub Yes (not Plus), the sub will only get LFE. It will not be active when stereo recordings are played in two channel mode or with multichannel recordings that lack an LFE channel.

Now that makes complete sense ty very much