The "Official" Pioneer Elite SC-55/SC-57 Owners Thread - Page 2

I think you will be very pleased with the sound quality of the new Amps. Our resident speaker guru (Andrew Jones) was very pleased. We even have the SC-55 connected to a pair of TAD Reference ones ($70,000 a pair) that we will be listening to tomorrow.

As far as a matching Blu-ray player we have those coming as well (The are very nice, and for your reference I use an OPPO BDP-93 right now, but will soon be replacing it with our new high end model).

Let me get back to you on the 4 ohm issue. I want to confirm something.

As far as what you are calling a usable OSD Overlay, what information would you like to see?

I noticed your handle says Coltsfreak. Are you in Indianapolis? If so, will you be coming to Cedia. If you do make I would be more than happy to walk you through the booth...

Chris Walker
Pioneer Electronics

I bet those reference ones sound fantastic; I've never been given the opportunity to hear them, unfortunately. I'm glad to hear that you are replacing that oppo, which is currently my favorite bd player, with the new pioneer.

With regard to the OSD, I'm not really sure what I'd want, besides the ability to display volume, surround mode, and the channel display (pretty much everything on the AVR front panel). All I know is that I don't like using HDMI-CEC to do that because it only gives you volume in an arbitrary number instead of a decibel reading. I don't know if they changed that in the past few years because in that room I've kept the VSX-94TXH with a kuro and haven't really worried about replacing until now. I know I could use the iPad for controlling and viewing these things, but oftentimes (as in most of the time) I won't have my iPad handy.

No I'm not in Indy; I used to live a few hours away, but I moved off to more southern places. Unfortunately, there's no way I'd make it to CEDIA; I think there is a gun show in town this weekend.

I'm confused at your response.

Can you run the back speakers in a 7.1 setup with the front height speakers at the same time to make it 9.1?

In the previous model you couldn't run both at the same time.

Can you with this new model? Walkamo can you confirm if you can do this or not?

If not I'll stay with my SC-37.

Hello Chris,

As long as you're asking

the previously mentioned independent crossovers per channel would be very helpful

and (hate to sound like a CD on repeat - used to say broken record )
an upgrade package for the SC-09TX/LX90 susano and if Pioneer's budget permits, a susano II model with the latest features. Just a new model alone won't help existing owners who've spent a lot on the flagship, we really could use an upgrade/update package, the minimum updates we'd want are PQLS on HDMI, Dolby PLIIz/NeoX.

Thanks for listening

Frankly, I am a little disappointed to hear that the SC-35 that I purchased in January has amps that Pioneer says suffer from ringing, and are much less efficient than the ones in their new Elites. I waited 6 years to replace my VSX-54TX, always fearing that I might not be happy with anything else.
The improvement in sound quality from the 54 to the 35 was nothing short of astounding, in my opinion. Having said that, reading the marketing guy's take on the improvements in this year's models makes me wish I had waited............

The reason it is so inexpensive, is because us europeans are paying over 50% more than you are for the same product. You fancy paying $3266 for the same product? Not looking so great now, is it? Oh well, maybe it's me, and it just costs $1266 to have it shipped...

This sort of practice should be made illegal.

I have an aging Pioneer AX5Ai, the last of the decent analogue amps, and was thinking about upgrading to last years model (SC-37 but the EU equivolent), but the lack of Airplay support actually put me off, as I saw this feature coming from a mile away. I was going to purchse the 57 (SC-85 in the EU), and have no problems spending over $3000 for one, it's just now I wont on principle of not wanting to be ripped-off just to help you guys in the US be able to afford yours. The whole world is in financial decline, not just the US. This kind of thing builds resentment, and now my money will not go to Pioneer. See if that helps you out...

I'm sorry for the tone of this, but when I found out the price difference (I was just going to pre-order a 57 (SC-85) today) and it just totally rubbed me the wrong way, and im really dissapointed, as I love my AX5Ai, and wanted to stay with Pioneer.

How do you arrive at the conclusion that for this Pioneer AVR a higher price in the EU specifically subsidizes a lower price in the US?

AJ

That's good news.

The way the press release for the SC-37 I thought you could run the rear speakers in a 7.1 with the front height speakers at the same time.

You couldn't. Just wanted to make sure with this receiver you could.

Thanks for verifying.

That's what I tried, albeit a bit poorly, to explain to you in my last post. When I said both are able to output 9.2, I meant 55 and 57. The previous sc receivers ONLY could output to seven different channels plus one sub. These output to 9 channels plus two subs.

Filmmixer- If you are listening to stereo sources, can you output front, front wide, and front height at the same time in addition to two subs? That would be neat.

Ssaul, everyone suffers from buyer's remorse when new stuff arrives. Don't get hung up on it, the 35 sounds great, and if you have had it since January and not noticed any ringing, then you probably won't.

Stimpy, I'm sorry for your frustration, but most things are similarly marked up in Europe in my experience. It likely isn't, as others have said, to lower the us price, but I can understand your frustration. I've noticed pioneer Europe has long been more expensive that pio USA.

I currently have a Denon AVR-5600 which I have loved. I am looking at the SC-55 as a replacement due to its amps and (finally) getting digital video switching . Plus the amps in the receiver driving the front left and right speakers are dying .

One question - Can these receivers output both multi-channel output and a combined stereo output at the same time? I have my system as the hub for my home theater in my family room but I feed line-levels out to a whole-house audio system with a separate switcher and amps. When I play music through my HTPC (e.g. Windows Media Center or equivalent), that channel is 5.1, which sounds great in the room. However, the sound the rest of the house gets is just the front left and right channels. I'm really hoping this receiver can output a stereo signal at the same time so I don't have to switch the audio mode in the family room.

Perhaps you have explained this earlier, if so, just link to your previous posts.

I know you work professionally in the field, could you list what type of equipment you use?

It also seems that you are a serial receiver owner. What are you looking for in your receivers vis-a-vis what you do professionally? Basically, are you still looking for sound accuracy as referenced to what you did in the studio or are you speaking as an enthusiast (i.e. more audiophile sounding)? I just want a reference when you talk about sound.

Because I really can't see any other reason (for such a large difference, a smaller one to allow for shipping costs etc, is expected...). Price gouging is commonplace for companies that sell goods and services globally. Higher prices in so called "richer" territories. I really don't know how some companies arrive at these conclusions. Yes, our wages are slightly higher than the US, but we pay far more tax, and tax is also applied to a wider range of items and services here, so we have about the same income/expenditure.

I simply can't believe that the reason such an already expensive item is more than 50% higher in price here, is down to different (maybe) PSU and power cable. I'm pretty sure PSU technology is not what it used to be when HiFi had a voltage selector on the back, meaning it's more than likely the same PSU as the US version.

If you have a better idea, please share it with me. I just can't imagine how you are going to justify such a crazy price difference.

FilmMixer, can you clarify your two statements above? The first indicates that iControlAV2 does display audio status info, but the second seems to indicate just the opposite.

AJ

Plus you guys get VAT. When I see the tons of tourists in midtown NY, that's why they are buying electronics like crazy. That said, why not start another thread?

Good call on the remote; I forgot about that.


I, as well, only have 7.1 (but possibly getting another sub with the 57), but I'd bet stereo sources like music sound fantastic with 6.2 channels (LR, LW, RW, RH, LH, 2 subs). I know that the subs aren't stereo, though.


You can have 5.1 channels in zone 1, 2 channels in zone 2, and 2 more channels in zone 3. You also can have 7.1 channels in zone 1 and 2 channels in zone 2. So yes, you can output the stereo signal at the same time while listening to a surround signal in your HT.

Video switching would be great! Like having the baseball game on in the background while listening to music from another source.

That you assume there could be no other reason does not make it so. Rather, you need to show evidence that Pioneer decided, "Let's soak the Danes for all they've got so that we can give the Americans a nice price break." Additionally, "price gouging" is not really an economically appropriate term in this instance unless a Pioneer AVR is a necessity, we are under civil emergency, and/or Pioneer has anti competitive market share.

For an equally compelling theory to explain your higher prices, maybe Bang & Olufsen convinced the Danish government to place massive tariffs on Pioneer products because Pioneer dropped B&O ICEpower amp modules from its SC series AVRs this year.



AJ

Will the highest Elite player be Pioneer made or a rebranded sharp?

On a side note, somebody may want to fix the website where it says the SC-55 has more power output than the 57 (149x9 compared to 140x9)

Hmm, this is interesting. So, AirPlay (as implemented here) does not appear to be sample rate converting the audio, since it maintains the original 44.1 kHz sample rate. Alternatively, it could be sample rate converting everything to 44.1 kHz.

As for the inability to pass DTS CD WAVs, that also presents at least two possible explanations. The AirPlay data path is not bit transparent, perhaps due to aforementioned sample rate conversion. Or the path could be bit transparent, but the network receiver does not know what to do with a DTS bit stream.

AJ

Hahaha, I know what you mean I'm actually from England, so I'm looking at prices there, not Denmark. It's sometimes cheaper to drive to england and bring it back!

I totally get you about B&O, overpriced crap. But their stuff is nice if you put asthetics over SQ. Me personally, would rather spend my money on more higher quality hardware. If I had THAT kind of money

Oh well, enough of me moaning about price fixing...


FilmMixer, What are your thoughts on the SC-57 MCACC calibration, have you had chance to try it out yet? Is it the same as the previous models? And have you had the chance to flex that new D3 amp, to see what it's made of? One thing that bothers me, is that if you look at a picture of the amp PCB, the actual amp chips have no heatsinks on them. I'm sure thats fine for most volume levels, but what about when your enjoying a bit of "reference level" listening?

As networked audio is still in its infancy, it seems that the DSP section (which processes DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Pro Logic IIx, etc.) and the network receiver (which processes MP3, FLAC, etc.) are like the proverbial right hand and left hand. The right hand often does not know what the left hand is doing and vice versa. In other words, it certainly has not been safe to say that, because an AVR can decode DTS, it can do so with a file via Ethernet or USB.

AJ