Pioneer receivers 2012 - VSX-xx22 / SC-xx22 / Elite VSX-6x / Elite SC-6x

VSX-322 - 5.1 - €220 Not for the US market
VSX-422 - 5.1 - €300 Not for the US market
VSX-522 - 5.1 - $250 / €400
VSX-527 - NOT YET ANNOUNCED - 5.1 -
VSX-822 - 5.1 - $380 / €450
VSX-827 - NOT YET ANNOUNCED - 5.1 -
VSX-922 - 7.1 - €550 Not for the US market.
VSX-1022 - 7.1 - $450
VSX-1027 - NOT YET ANNOUNCED - 7.1
VSX-1122 - 7.2 - $600 / €650
VSX-1127 - NOT YET ANNOUNCED - 7.2

Elite VSX-42- 7.1 - $450
Elite VSX-60 - 7.2 - $650

-- Class D --

SC-1222 - NOT YET ANNOUNCED - 7.2
SC-1227 - NOT YET ANNOUNCED - 7.2
SC-1522 - NOT YET ANNOUNCED
SC-2022 - NOT YET ANNOUNCED - 7.2 - €999 - Not for the US market.

SC-LX56 - NOT YET ANNOUNCED - 7.2 - €1499 - Not for the US market.
SC-LX76 - NOT YET ANNOUNCED - 9.2 - Not for the US market.
SC-LX86 - NOT YET ANNOUNCED - 9.2 - Not for the US market.

Elite SC-61 - 7.2 - $1100
Elite SC-63 - 7.2 - $1300
Elite SC-65 - 9.2 - $1600
Elite SC-67 - 9.2 - $2000
Elite SC-68 - 9.2 - $2500

---
UPDATE - OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF 2012 RECEIVERS

VSX-522 - VSX-822 - VSX-1022 - VSX-1122

Official Pioneer USA 2012 Receivers

Elite VSX-42 - VSX-60 - SC-61 - SC-63 - SC-65 - SC-67 - SC-68

Official Pioneer USA 2012 Elite Receivers



----- OLD UNCONFIRMED INFORMATION BELOW -----

As information is starting to appear about the Pioneer 2012 lineup, I thought I'd start a thread. So far I've only seen things about the lowest (most places) entry-level receiver, but you have to start somewhere, right?

So here's what's up with the VSX-522, compared with the previous year's VSX-521. Some pretty radical changes.. the back panel of this thing looks EMPTY.

CONNECTIVITY:

Speakers : 5 channel amplifier. Same as last year. Banana for fronts, clip for center and surrounds. Nothing surprising. 20-20kHz 8Ω 0.08% THD - 80+80W - 1kHz 6Ω 1% THD - 140 wpc.

Pre-out : 1+2 - subwoofer as well as back surround OR height but not both. Same as last year.

HDMI : 4 in, 1 out - Same as last year. Seems about right for the bottom rung receivers. If you have more than four devices to hook up, it's time to stop looking at the lowest level AVRs.

Component : - GONE. Last year it was 2 in, 1 out. Was bound to happen eventually. Everything bought in the last five years has hdmi.. no one really uses component anymore. The analogue sunset is here.

Composite : 2 in, 1 out - Was 4 in, 2 out.

Front mini portable / MCACC port - now MCACC only, no combined 3.5mm stereo input.

Stereo RCA : 3 in 0 out - Was 6 in, 2 out. Down, but you don't need that many anymore.

Coax digital : 1 in, 0 out. Same as last year, these aren't that common compared to optical anyway.

Optical : 1 in, 0 out - Down from two last year. This feels stingy, most people don't have a set with ARC and need this for their TV audio. Which leaves zero free optical audio ports.

Radio : FM/AM - Same.

Bluetooth Adapter port : GONE. I don't know if anyone used this with a 5xx receiver since the dongle was almost as expensive as the receiver itself. The optimistic implication of this is that the adapters will disappear from the 2012 range and be built in. Or perhaps more likely use USB instead on the higher models.

USB port : 1 front. - New for this year. Plays mp3/aac/etc and is Made for iWhatever so it will use the receiver remote to control and OSD to display information. Cool but lame since there's no HDMI upscaling and will only be available over composite with the 1980s GUI the VSX-5xx units have been stuck with. Still, this is a feature that most people would use.

New features:
HDMI STANDBY THROUGH;
So your receiver can be off but still funnel the cable box to your TV. You get the choice of displaying the last thing used when the AVR was switched on, or one specific HDMI input selected in options. Nice addition.


So, summing up..

I/O options SLASHED - not counting speaker outputs they've literally cut the number of connectors by HALF. Analogue is gone.
More ipod-friendly.
Cosmetically identical to last year as far as I could tell.
Still no OSD over HDMI.
MCACC room correction - microphone included.

Seems like a price cut is in order.

I got a little bit more information on other models. The models listed are 522,822,1022. No 922, so that might be discontinued? The non-US models didn't differ much between the 9xx and 10xx anyway.

VSX-822
Speakers : 5 channel amplifier. All banana connectors. No Zone B.

Pre-out : 1+2 - subwoofer as well as back surround OR height but not both. Same as last year.

HDMI : 6 in, 1 out - All on the back. Up from 4 inputs last year.

Component : - GONE. Was 2 in, 1 out.

Composite : 2 in, 1 out - Was 5 in, 2 out.

Stereo RCA : 3 in 0 out - Down from 6 in, 2 out.

Coax digital : 1 in, 0 out. Same as last year.

Optical : 1 in, 0 out - Down from 2 in

Radio : FM/AM + internet Radio.

USB+Composite for ipod

Bluetooth 5V adapter is there on the 822 and 1022, so I spoke too soon in the previous post.

Summing up VSX-822
Analogue is gone.
More ipod-friendly.
Cosmetically identical to last year as far as I could tell.
Still no OSD over HDMI.
Added internet connectivity.
Removed Zone B.
Removed Sirius radio.
Removed front composite+stereo - is now ipod USB+composite.

Well I don't know that for sure. It's just odd that the three models mentioned skipped the 922. The 1022 was just mentioned incidentally when differences between models was noted, ie "Internet radio on the 822 and 1022, but not 522"


No public link, sorry.
Last year the 521/821 5.1 channel amps had information released in Mid-late January, the 921/1021 in mid February. So they're a few weeks behind this year. The first Elite was April.

I think anything above the 1022 (and 922 if available) would still have component inputs as they've had analogue-to-digital upscaling and decent OSD the past few generations so they need the processing anyway.

The 1022 is mostly similar to the 822 except for the following:

VSX-1022
1 component input. No component output, just upconverted to hdmi.
OSD on HDMI Setup menu over HDMI, not just analogue.
9 speaker outputs (7 channel amplified - surround back OR height, but not both - they have separate speaker connectors).
Zone 2 - stereo audio - multichannel inputs are downmixed. I think that might be new. Did the 1021 allow digital inputs on zone 2 or just analogue?
Pre-out - subwoofer only.
520W (450W for VSX-822)

Ok, I double-checked and that is a new feature.

Zone 2 now downmixes digital inputs to stereo, whereas previously you were restricted to analogue inputs for the second zone. Which is good since there's hardly any analogue inputs left to use anyway, certainly not enough to double up with extra cables from units to get multi-room functionality. With ARC and the new zone 2 digital processing, for once you actually can use a single HDMI lead per machine without losing some of the features.

The 1022 seems like a decent receiver to me. A single component input seems stingy, but how many legacy video units do people have anymore? It also seems like there's been some costs cut, so hopefully the retail pricing will reflect that.

I don't think information on any more units will be coming for a while. Next up should be the low-end Elites, maybe an 1122. Which, presumably, would have some more high-end features like RS232, IR in/out, triggers, pre-outs, etc.

Good point. Cable companies are a bit weak like that, DHCP issues aren't uncommon here in Australia.

VSX-1122 seems to be coming out around the same time as 522,822,1022.

Don't know much about that one yet.

Digital audio is down from 2 coaxial in / 3 optical in / 1 optical out on the 1121 to 2/2/0 respectively.

Same as before:
6 /1 HDMI
9.2 pre-outs (7.2 actual - surround back OR height)
9 speaker outputs (7 channels amplified)

Last year's models were announced March 8th, 2011.

It should be fairly soon.

Right, sorry.

I was referring to GUI setup over HDMI instead of just over analogue, as is the case with the lower models.

Not information/volume overlay, I haven't seen anything about a feature like that.