Pioneer VSX-1121 Owner's Thread - Page 102

So did you like the sound after making manual reverb adjustments? I got a lot of bass back but i am divided between which sounds better after redoing cals. WIth shorter reverb setting I do get a lot of bass but the sound seems a little muddy. I wish I can best of both worlds. Maybe will need to play some more with cals

^^^

i'd measure, personally...

I think this will vary depending on your room. I thought the sound was tinny and echoey with way too much reverb and no punch. After messing with the reverb I got a much tighter sound that just sounded better to me.

My tests were not very scientific as I was changing things all over the place as I learned more. For instance, I think a proper photo tripod might be an absolute necessity (or something like it). My first time funning MCACC I used the shipping box for the receiver to hoist the microphone up. That could have also contributed to the horrible sound coming out of it at first. After reading the MCACC thread I incorporated a lot of their advice, including reverb adjustments and using a tripod and liked the results.

I'll have to look into that. I've run MCACC a number of times, but I have not done any manual adjustments.

So I'm in the market for a new receiver as my 816 has no HDMI and I could really use that now. I wouldn't have a problem getting the current models except that they seem to be a significant downgrade from last years. So I've been looking all over trying to find an 1121 and it's either grossly overpriced at amazon or at a very low price from ebay, which is what I'm thinking about now. My question is, is this unit really that good that I should consider buying it from some place like ebay. I actually got my 816 from ebay back in the day and haven't had any problems a banana plug didn't fix. But considering this one is a year old already I'm not sure if I should consider trying to get it from any place I can or if I should even be considering a different brand since the current models aren't exactly up to snuff.

i got minds from ebay ..new in box at a good price...i have not had any real problem yet ...seems to be just as good as if it was bought from a major retail store......get it while you can....

Yes I used the tripod too although using 30-50ms reverb delay gave me too much bass that was making overall sound muddy.
I moved the reverb to 60-80ms and I think bass is less but not too sure as I can barely tell the difference .
With standard reverb MCACC setting the sound is clearly less bass which many will call tinny sounding.

For me I saw improvement when lowering the delay. I think I'm at 20-40. Maybe even 0-20.

I would like to get a new center channel speaker. The one I am looking at is 6 ohms. Can you configure the 1121 for just the center channel to be 6 ohms?

^^^

you don't need to do anything special... just leave the avr set to 8 ohms... you will be fine...

Hi All,

I have this receiver with a Samsung UN55ES8000 TV and have some questions. I have all of my HDMI sources plugged into the receiver which I use for all HDMI switching, with the one HDMI out going to my TV.

1) What do you recommend regarding video output resolution? Auto? Pure? 1080p? Or do you turn this off entirely and let it passthrough with the TV handling all conversion

2) Are any of the video adjustments worth using, such as block noise, mosquito noise, stream?

Thanks!

i think you are ok...when it comes to your source content..you have hdmi at all inputs..sources as you said so i think you do not need to upscale ...unless you have some 480/720p content running then ...i can see you upscaling to 1080p and by the way the 1121-k does a very good job ..with the QDEO..
Edited by pioneertop - 11/14/12 at 12:05pm

I have a question hopefully someone can help me with, I have the front wide setup but the only inputs I can choose when pushing the standard button on the remote is wide surround movie, music, stereo and dolby. I have a uverse box its set to surround in the audio options but when I put it to stereo in the audio options im able to get neo 6 pro logic and a lot of other options when pressing the standard button on the 1121 remote is there a way to get these options still when the uverse box is on surround, there has to be more options when using the wide surround set up i want to be able to output all the surround options when ever i want with the wide surround set thanks in advance who ever can explain what is happening or give advice.

Well, some of you may have read some of my posts regarding the many issues I've had with my VSX--1121K. After two trips into the local authorized repair shop, and third that was pending, Pioneer offered to make good on the warranty. So, I spent $80 in shipping to send the unit back to Long Beach, California at my own costs as Pioneer doesn't pay for that. But, I figured since the AVR has a respectable MSRP on it, it was worth it.

Pioneer sent me the replacement and I was disappointed to see that they sent the VSX-1122K model which has less power, less weight, no certified THX, and lesser features in some ways too.

I just emailed back the Pioneer rep I was working with in the Warranty department. I'm displeased and disappointed. I don't want a cheaper, lesser featured, lesser powerful AVR to replace the one that I bought. I RARELY downgrade. Is this typical for Pioneer, or did they just make a mistake?

Thanks, I appreciate input from anyone who's ever dealt with Pioneer replacement/warranty units before.

Robert

PS: I'm kinda thinking I may have to jump ship on Pioneer if this whole experience leaves me with a bad feeling. The whole hassle has really been a pain to deal with- multiple trips to the repair center, shipping costs, time to setup/unsetup, setup/unsetup, and setup/unsetup again.... And I don't want to be left with a feeling of horrible customer satisfaction for a company that I thought had as good a rep for service as their products lines were.

Update! I received an email from a very helpful person at Pioneer and she has informed me that they will be sending me a return packing slip to send the VSX-1122-K back and they will now send me a SC-1222-K as a replacement. Pioneer has restored my faith in customer service!
Edited by grandmaison - 11/21/12 at 11:17am

Great to hear that,1222k is nice little upgrade over 1121k

i guess we will not see you on this forum

So I just bit down and bought the 1121. I needed one with HDMI and the current gens aren't exactly an upgrade so I found one on ebay and so far everything is working great. That said, this is the first receiver I've had that can be updated. My question is should I bother updating it to its latest firmware (as of this moment I'm not sure what it's at anyway) or should I just leave it alone if everything is working well as it is?

well ...you should ..

No, I may still stop by. :-)

I am hoping that the RMA shipping label arrives today so I can send this VSX-1222-K back to Pioneer. I am really looking forward to finally being able to reconnect all my equipment.

Just checking to see if there might be any hope of a work around to get OSD of the volume level on my vsx-1121-k. If I would have known about this issue prior to purchasing, I would not have gone with the 1121.

well as .. to the OSD of volume level...i do get it on my kuro plasma tv when hdmi control is on....if you have a display with hdmi control.. compatibility you should see your volume level..when you use the 1121-k......

Thanks. I have a Panasonic 65GT30 but hdmi control doesn't seem to give me OSD volume although I may not be setting it properly.

Hi All-

I've been out of this thread for months and am just jumping back in. I've searched posts but haven't seen this topic mentioned so I'll ask:

I bought my 1121 last black friday from amazon. For my menial system it's been great. However, for the last couple of months the "popping amp" problem has become normal. When I start the system up, if my comcast cable box is tuned to a hd channel, the speakers pop and then there is no sound. It takes anywhere from 6-10 power cycles to get the problem to stop. If the cable box is tuned to a sd channel- no such issue, until I change the channel to an hd channel - unless the receiver has been turned on and warmed up for 5 mins or so.

I called pioneer and they claim they don't hear many problems with the 1121 and advised me to bring it to a service center. The problem is two fold though: first, I realize I should have bought from newegg as amazon isnt an authorized dealer and probably not covered under warranty. Secondly, I never had a chance to get to the service center before the year ended. So.... for those of you that have had this issue- is it an expensive repair or do I just ditch it and say goodbye to pioneer?

Thanks.

OSD doesn't work on all models of the HDMI control. With Pioneer it works perfectly. On other brand models you don't get all the bells and whistles if their HDMI control code doesn't support it. My Samsung didn't show me anything, but I have an LG also that does show it.

Yeah, Amazon isn't an authorized dealer. It sounds like it's an HDMI handshake issue. Especially since it works fine on SD channels. Have you tried using a different HDMI cable? Maybe switch with another component to see if it works? Just for the hell of it I would also try plugging in the Comcast box into another HDMI input on the receiver and see if it still does it then. Also, I would change the Comcast box settings to maybe only output at 1080P for all sources and see if that does anything (You have to turn off the box then click menu to see additional options). If the box when you first turn it on switches from SD to HD while the Pioneer is turning on it could cause a handshake issue. So keeping it set at a high resolution so it doesn't need to swtich could solve it, if that is what it is. Unfortunately there are so many different things that could cause this... including a bad 1121.

On my setup, the handshake issue manifests itself everytime the cable box switches from an HDMI signal to a standard definition signal (or vice versa). My television goes dark for several seconds, shows a picture momentarily, goes to black again, and finally displays the picture of the new channel. While distracting, at least it always ends up working. I am sorry if the handshake issue is causing your system to not show the picture at all.

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't think it's a handshake issue but I most certainly could be wrong. As these suggestions don't cost anything to try, I'll give it a shot before bringing it in for service.

The kicker is that the reason I got this in the first place last year was because my 2 year old Denon fried it's hdmi board. I called a service center and they told me it was disposable- the cost to fix was more than it was worth. Somehow I get that deja vu feeling all over again. I feel very old when I say they don't make em like they used to....

that would be "normal", not an issue... what you are seeing is the actual handshake taking place... the change in resolution is forcing a new handshake... to avoid this, set the sd override in your cable box to "off"...

re: handshake issues with cable boxes... this is an ongoing issue since day one... it's not the avr, it's the cable box itself... the recommended workaround is to use component/spdif from the cable box to the avr rather than hdmi...

cable boxes suck... one of these days, they'll get off their cans and get them properly certified...

Chris,

I knew it was normal. I was simply bemoaning the fact it occurs. This is not a Pioneer issue -- it is an industry issue since the HDMI standard is agreed to by manufacturers. Standards are suppose to ensure compatibility between different companies' devices. However, it is more often the case that, even within a manufacturer's own line, there are incompatabilities.

I will try setting my cable box differently, but the cable companies don't make it easy to modify "their" hardware.

I had a question about an issue I cant seem to fix. When I try to run Pandora, I get a server error. I have no issues with Internet radio. I have it wired directly into my system . I have reset both the modem and the router but nothing has helped. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I think the Pandora issue is either pandora or pioneer. I'm guessing Pandora has changed something on their end... Maybe moved servers or the link to log in. I'm having an issue as well, and this just started 2 days ago. I've tried just about everything to fix it. Everything else works perfectly Internet wise. I hope Pioneer issues a firmware update to fix soon.