Living Room Which Choice VSX-918 Or RX-V463

Originally Posted by BleedGreen

Why is the VSX-918 week on bass & power?
I'm looking hard at the VSX-918 since it's priced low at Newegg.com for $249 right now.

It rec'd a good review from It passes PCM over HDMI which is nice for a receiver at this price point, although it doesn't have the latest codecs like DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD. It has 120W per channel (actually 95W) and low distortion (0.05% THD) and decent S/N ratio of 98 dB, so I'm curious to why you say it's weak. Have you heard both with your own ears? Similar equipment, settings, room, etc?

"I guess I went into the purchase of this receiver with expectations set far too high.I have owned Pioneer receivers for years and was saddened by the death of my Pioneer vsx-608D.I really liked that unit alot.It came out in 1999.It did have Dolby Digital 5.1 sound with DTS.When I got this new 918 hooked up I was very happy with the sound of Dolby Digital and DTS movies.They sounded fabulous.I do however like to listen to music alot.When I switched to the cd input I thought my powered subwoofer had stopped working.I tried everything I could think of to get the bass level up.I made sure the Plus setting was turned on.This setting makes sure that bass signals sent to the large front left and right speakers are also sent to the subwoofer.I ran the auto set-up where you hook a microphone up to the system and it goes through a series of test tones to determine the best set-up for your room.Well,after going through this, all I heard was a trace of bass.I turned on the midnight setting and noticed a positive result.I tried the loud setting and it too made a more noticeable difference in the output of my subwoofer.The midnight setting however was better to my ears.It sounded like the subwoofer was putting out very little bass.I finally called Pioneer customer support and they ran me through a bunch of settings trying to get to an answer to my problem.Nobody was able to tell me anything that could explain the cd input's lack of bass.Finally I was told to take the unit back and exchange it because I had probably gotten a defective unit.After getting my new 918,I was saddened to find out that I was stuck with the exact same problem.I again called tech support and this time was told that the 918 was not designed to play cd's with stereo sound.I was told that it just wasn't capable of outputting a good bass signal to the subwoofer.I couldn't beieve my ears!!He said that this model is designed as a home theater receiver to decode 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS.It is "not designed for 2 channel music".I just don't understand why this unit can't do both.Why did they bother to even put a cd input on the amp?I ended up taking the 918 back and trying a Yamaha model RX-V463.What a difference.I can hear my 5.1 and DTS movies with plenty of bass but more importantly,the Yamaha puts out great bass to the subwoofer for great sounding music cds recorded in stereo.I'm through with Pioneer although in all honesty it had fantastic Dolby Digital and DTS sound.This one issue over music cds ruined the Pioneer experience for me.Pioneer 120 Watts X 5 Hybrid Receiver"

Originally Posted by tonycincy85

no bass lost, the guys on amazon are just stupid. i had no issues, connecting to the other ports. this is a great receiver for the price.

Originally Posted by Shaggie13

Thanks for the comments guys. Tony, look forward to hearing your results from this weekend. Was looking at the pioneer at amazon, but have an account with newegg, so I'll see what their price point is, too. Thanks

I'm thinking that the guy from amazon didn't set it up properly.

Originally Posted by rnatalli

I don't think NewEgg is an authorized Pioneer dealer so they may not honor any warranty issues that might come up. Check out 6th Avenue as they're authorized and if coupon code "Fall101608" is still working, the 918 is $248.39 shipped.

Originally Posted by dafeist

Any of you guys with this receiver run the lossless codecs through it? If so, what setting do you put the receiver on and what does the front panel say? Does it actually say (DTS-HD, etc. or does it say LPCM?)

Originally Posted by Shaggie13

Finally hooked up my receiver and ran the auto setup MCACC and it sounds like there is no bass coming from my sub? I have some crappy klh speakers and sub, but the bass was a lot harder hitting with my old home theater in a box klh receiver? Should I run the setup again? I have to put it around -35 to get the lcr speakers to be loud enough, and even then the bass is almost non-existent.

Originally Posted by SkiSmuggs

When you run MCACC, be sure the gain/volume on the sub is 1/3 to 1/2, the ON, AUTO, OFF switch is set to ON and crossover is set to the maximum.
If you want more bass after MCACC, just tweak the volume knob up a bit. Many like a lot of thump, but MCACC will set it more acoustically correct.

Originally Posted by dudisimo

Does anyone know what hdmi version Pioneer VSX-918 has?

In fact is it possible to connect different hdmi versions. 1.3a in LCD Panel and 1.2 in AV-receiver, for example?

I am planning to use it with small Jamo speakers with 6 Om and 60/80 Watt per channel. I hope switching to 6 OM in Pioneer VSX-918 works fine. I haven't bought AVR Sony-820 only because it woks with 8 Om.

Originally Posted by Shaggie13


The only thing I'm concerned about is the the A2 and A3 are 4 Ohms and the 918 is only rated for 8 and 6 ohms.

Originally Posted by dudisimo

Thanks for reply

Do you think this is highly dangerous to use together receiver rated higher then speakers?
6 with 4, or 8 with 6

Nominal Speaker Impedance

A nominal impedance value is not always accurate because most systems vary with frequency. A speaker that is rated by the manufacturer as 4 ohms may not be 4 ohms at all frequencies. It can wander above or below this value and is unique for different systems.

Originally Posted by MidnightWatcher

Anyone?