Official Pioneer VSX-521k owners thread - Page 10

I'm sure you are right but still wondering : sub is mono so why it has stereo (Red/White) inputs...? Why isn't it enough for example to use just white from old AVR to white to sub ?

Stereo is 2 channels so there could be signals in one channel that doesn't go through the other channel that gives you the "stereo" effect. The 2 channels are not identical.

The Low Pass Filter (LPF) of the sub will only produce the low frequencies of the stereo channels. This is technically different from the LFE discrete channel ie the .1 in 5.1/7.1 but can be similar audibly depends whether the source folds the bass into stereo and your LPF setting.

I recently acquired the Pioneer VSX-521K and went through the setup process.
After a few hours I managed to get all my sources to play via the VSX-521-K.

One HDMI port is giving me a problem, it is the port labelled "BD" which does not allow audio to be heard (Video is OK).
I tried different HDMI cables (No result)
I switched my BluRay DVD player to another HDMI port. (Audio and Video OK)
I tried my SONY PS3 on the troubled "HDMI-BD port" (Video OK no Audio)

Question is my HDMI BD port just broken or is there an audio setting which I am missing, e.g BD Muted?

Another question, during the MCACC analysing test it takes rather long before my LH REAR speaker is activated, all other speakers respond to the noise test immediately, but LH REAR takes a while.

Any thoughts on these issues?
Have a nice day
Brasto

Thanks specuvestor, I think I now have a good understanding with this issue. Using an Y-cable with LFE channel output does not bring anything 'more' to the audio but maybe it gives more 'watts' to the sub because it sounds better and stays on (auto on/off).

Brasto : I don't thing there are no separate audio 'mute' settings to those 4 hdmi inputs, try first using 'auto setting' as the manual advises. Maybe your BD input is in some strange mode...

"MCACC analysing test it takes rather long before my LH REAR speaker is activated", this is beacuse MCACC searches after right rear for an optional middle rear and since there isn't one there is a silence for a while.

No it doesn't give more watt. You are comparing vs LFE or using one of the L/R cable? It stays on because there is always signal passing through the stereo channels. LFE is discrete and is mixed by the source/ sound director. You have to figure out why there is no signal in the LFE channel.

For my own setup I uses stereo input to 521k for 2.1 so I have to set my bass to PLUS to get signal to the subwoofer after setting front speakers to LARGE.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882117398

For me the Pioneer VSX-521-K for $139 was a no brainer. This goes into my budget bedroom system and should do all it's required to do. The disparaging comments toward this receiver have been aimed at the video section, a feature I would never use. I believe in pure direct sourcing whenever possible.

I have been wanting to upgrade my 10 year-old receiver to something that will decode DTS-HD and Dolby Digital HD. The Pioneer VSX-521K looks like a good option, but I have some questions based off some other comments I have read here and other places.

Is the only way to get DTS-HD and Dolby Digital HD is by running it through via HDMI?

One complaint I saw was some black spots in the video when running it through HDMI. Is this a common problem? Is there a fix for this?

What is everyone's overall opinion of this receiver (likes and dislikes)? I only watch a few movies a month, so I don't need a high-end receiver. That's why this one appeals to me. But I also wants something that performs as it should. Thanks.

Yes. Optical and digital Coax do not support the HD formats, so you must connect your Blu-ray or media player to the receiver via HDMI.


It appears common in that a few members here are seeing it. Mind you, in order to actually see the black dots, you must be sitting 3 feet away from your TV or less.

I changed my HDMI cables to higher quality cables and the dots disappeared. They say a cable is a cable, but I think sometimes you get what you pay for.


For the price, I think it's a good unit. Plenty of features, plenty of inputs, has all the most recent audio decoders and it's easy to use. The sound is very clean -- which is a good thing -- but I do recommend getting a subwoofer if you want a decent amount of bass.

I already have a sub, so that's no problem. Thanks for the answers and input.

I am simply playing music through the receiver at this time and have the speakers setup as:

Front Large (two speakers that produce great bass and highs)
Surround No (no speakers)
Center No (I dont have one)
SubWoofer Plus

Basically, I had an older receiver that allowed me to blast the music (bass and all) from the main speakers which sounded good and simply add the subwoofer without routing lows in any particular direction. The subwoofer has it's own crossover so I'm not worried about any frequencies reaching it that shouldn't.

My settings above don't sound great in the main speakers, I want more voice and clearer sound.

How?

Also, is there a way to turn the crossover off? It seems to affect how the main speakers sound. Set at 200 hz they sound closer to what I want but not quite. I know 200 is high, but again my subwoofer is set to 80hz so no biggie.

Did u EQ using MCACC?

The sub doesn't have crossover. It has low pass filter (LPF). Your setting is losing roughly 80-200Hz range. Set the AVR crossover lower.

Maybe I can figure it out if someone can answer this:

I have a VSX-521-k model, just to make sure we're talking about the same thing.

Is there a way to manually adjust highs, mids, lows? An equalizer WITHOUT using MCACC calibration automatically?
That most likely will not work for me, I'm not going for best sound but maximum loudness and bass using only two main speakers and my subwoofer.

I ended up getting a VSX-521k up from Newegg for just $140. However, I'm not sure if it is really going to work out for me. According to Newegg the receiver has "HDMI Standby Through". Does this mean it should be able to pass the audio and video through to the TV if the receiver is off? If so then it doesn't seem to be working for me. Is there a certain setting or is that not the function of "HDMI Standby Through"?

This is my first home theater build so I probably should of done some more research before purchasing but the price was just too good to pass up.

Thanks,

I think none of us have actually gotten HDMI standby passthrough to work. Receiver needs to be on.

At first I was bummed out about that, but after a couple of weeks of usage I realized I much prefer the receiver to be on, even for just casual TV. DPLII adds a nice dimension to any TV show and the sound quality is so much better than what any TV speaker can produce.

To each their own.

My main thing is that it would be nice to be able to just use the TV speakers at night when there is people sleeping. Other than that I have no problems at all.

I do like how when the HDMI control is turned on, the receiver automatically turns on when I turn on the TV. The TV is also able to control the volume of the receiver which is nice.

Problem: When using HDMI connection from the BD in to TV. The picture disappears shortly after using, but the sound still works.

Solution: If I have my TV on first then power up my BD, then the receiver, it seems to be ok.

Does anyone else have this problem?
Also my receiver used to automatically turn off when I turned off my TV, but now it doesn't. Any ideas why it would stop working?

I have my TV connected via HDMI to the receiver, and also an optical to TV (since it doesn't have HDMI out or return)

I had originally hooked up my cable box directly to the TV via HDMI to do that, with an optical (or coax) cable from the cable box to the receiver. Best of both worlds - watch tv with or without the receiver.

The K just means black. Kuro is the Japanese word for black. But I believe all the 521's are black over here.

I seem to have a similar problem. I'm using HDMI connection from my XBox to the receiver and HDMI to my TV and after a while (less then 2 minutes) I loose the video signal, but the sound stays and the TV still detects the XBox.

I've tried to plug the XBox in various HDMI input in the receiver and also change HDMI port on TV but still, the problem occurs. I also tried the solution above (and other orders) but it doesn't change anything.

Does anyone knows why and how to correct the situation?

Hi All

I am new to ARC and I just replaced my old pioneer with this unit to match my new LG 3D TV

New Cables certified ARC compliant

TV >>>> HDMI >>>> VSX-521-K >>>>> My devices as sources

It was my understanding that if I use Netflix on the TV smarthome it would use the ARC to have sound avail through receiver

Set the ARC on in the Receivers antiquated menu with a component cable - set the TV on HDMI to have ARC On

Tried a different new cable with ARC support - still no sound from TV to AVR

I am obviously missing something.

Any thoughts?

Hi All
I recently purchased the VSX-521K. I have connected TWC DVR (Moto 6416 III), WD TVLive Plus, Toshiba BD Player all via the HDMI to the 521K and the 521K Receiver is connect to my Toshiba Regza TV via HDMI. Everything works fine however I have two issues that i hope the folks can help

(1) Need composite audio out - I have the a Russound receiver (for music in 3 different zones in my house) where I would like to get the composite audio out of the receiver into the Russound. I am not able to figure out how to do it at all.

(2) I have an old subwoofer from Sound Dynamics that has a red&while input. On the receiver, I only have a one black subwoofer out. How should I connect the subwoofer?

Thanks
dallasburn
PS: I also tried to use the composite audio out of the TV to try and feed the Russound but unfortunately, no audio is coming through. It appears that 521-K Receiver is only sending the video signals to the TV and not the audio. Is this correct?

Dallas_burn: if by composite audio you just mean stereo L/R RCA jacks, then use the CD/TAPE Outputs (the top two terminals), as indicated on page 17 of the manual "Connecting other audio components". For the Subwoofer, you can either just connect the Subwoofer out to the "L" or "R" channel and turn the gain up, or use a Y-adapter/splitter from Radio Shack to split your single Subwoofer output to two outputs.

Now my questions

I just bought my VSX-521-K on a black friday deal. This is my first experience with the MCACC feature and so far I think I'm pleased with the results after running it, but I'd really like some way to see the results of the tuning such as the EQ and possibly the phase adjustments. The 521 does not have the "advanced MCACC", just the "yes" (basic?) version. The on screen display doesn't seem to give me any more information than just using the receiver display, am I missing something, is there somewhere I can get a little more information about the MCACC calibration?

Also, kind of related to the above question, the specs on the Pioneer list a "Symmetric EQ" feature. What exactly is that? I can't find any literature on that feature... and I'm trying to figure out what a "Symmetric" equalizer could possibly be.
edit: nevermind on the second question, finally dug up some information. Basically means the speaker pairs (front L/R, rear L/R, etc) are equalized (tuned) identically, because they assume they are the same speaker type, to keep the system from adjusting your L speaker different than the R.

"The Symmetric EQ (Equaliser) is a left and right symmetrical acoustic equaliser which delivers enhanced stereo accuracy.

The default Symmetry setting implements symmetric correction for each pair of speakers to flatten the frequency-amplitude characteristics"

in order to get analog audio out, you must send analog audio into the avr...

yes, that is correct... it will either process the audio in the avr OR send it to the tv... not both...

I would tell anyone to avoid this product and all pioneer - I just spent 20mins on hold and then talked to a support person.

They informed me that if I read the fine print on page 35 of my manual it says that their ARC may not work with all devices.

I have everything setup but that they do not guarentee it will work even though all sales materials and pre-buy says ARC compliant - now they tell me I should try to return and get something different.

It was also clear that this is a known issue

hi ccotenj
Hmm I Guess that would imply that I cannot use the CD/TAPE Output for a HDMI sources as motrhed suggested. bummer.

A few other options that I am thinking...
(1) Can I use the Surr Back/Front Height L/R jack instead? Anyway to configure this output to send stereo out?
(2) Can I use the subwoofer preout and an "Y" splitter to connect to Russound. It will be Mono not Stereo...

The other option is to go for 2 Zone receiver. I bought the 521K for $139 from newegg which I thought was a great deal. I may need to get to a higher end system.

Any other options that might work?
Thanks
dallasburn

Still going to return

Have to switch AVR to TV/SAT start program on TV and then power cycle AVR - seems to work fine

Are you sure about that? I haven't tried it, I'm assuming you have and that's why you know this, but seems like kind of weak sauce. I can see this being true for digital-to-analog video because some additional conversion is required, but for audio the reciever is processing analog signals anyways, why not pipe it out the audio output at the same time?

I guess you could always get a headphone-to-Y adapter? But then that would be volume position dependent...

Stuck in Time Setup Menu!
I just got my VSX-521K and have hooked everything up. After powering it up, it goes to the "Time Setup Menu", but none of the remote buttons will do anything to that menu!
I can use the remote to change the volume, input, etc... but I can't seem to change any of the menu settings, or close the menu.

Any ideas?

Okay, figured out the first problem. The menu being displayed is for my DVD player.
What happened is that I powered the thing up, hit the receiver button, then the setup button - and just then the DVD powered up to it's Time Setup menu.

The real problem is that my VSX won't display it's setup menu - at all. Doesn't matter how many times I press the buttons, no menu is displayed.

Not sure where to post this so I'll try here. I have this very same receiver, absolutely love it. However, when playing some games on the PS3 which have DTS audio I get Dolby Digital instead. I have 3 or 4 that play with DTS just fine but most of em play with Dolby. Any idea what the issue may be? It's not a real big problem or anything but I find that DTS audio sounds a lot better, well for me at least.