Ditched Pioneer VSX 1016 TSV For Onkyo TSXR804S

[Robert-The-Rambler]

Well, I decided to give up on my Pioneer for a variety of reasons. First of all is a design flaw that simply drives me nuts. There is not enough bass when listening to 5.1/7.1 analog sources. The procedure to boost the bass was too much to bear for me. I won't even get into it in great detail. It involved getting up and going to the front portion of the receiver. You had to press and hold buttons while turning the receiver on. That is so laughable that you can't just press a button on the remote to boost LFE from to 0 to plus 10.

The lack of HDMI audio finally got me. I just got tired of analog as I started to find that CDs with a pure digital connection sounded so good that I wanted to avoid analog for everything except when it is unavoidable with my PC with a 7.1 Soundblaster X-Fi. I haven't really got to watch an entire HD-DVD but the difference is notable. Particularily the bass is so much better with HDMI over the analog inputs with the Toshiba HD-A1SN. Still there is a loss of gain when you watch in Dolby True HD compared to Dolby Digital Plus. It does not matter because there is enough gain even for my Behringer EP 2500s to sing wonderfully.

Anyhow, I don't dislike the Pioneer 1016 but the Onkyo even at more than twice the price offers so much in flexability and just better sound in general. As long as you get the right players in the future with the right decoders the HDMI 1.1 interface should support every audio format that might come along save anything Sony introduces like SACD though BLURAY should work great.

I'm leaving on a jet plane, babe I hate to go.............

Country roads, take me home to the place where I belong............

I caught a ride on the Dreamland Express............

Oh it sounds so damn good. Sing it JD. <>___<>

[jrhymeammo]

Congrats on your puchase.

Who da tell is JD?

[Robert-The-Rambler]

Congrats on your puchase.

Who da tell is JD?

Thanks. JD is John Denver.

[Tarheel_]

Robert, you made a good decision....i posted a review on this receiver a month or so ago and complained about a few things, but the most important was sound.
I think the design is flawed and sounds terrible in the 6 and 7th speakers..i mean it sounded like a scratched album.

Anyway, i sold it and bought a used Marantz SR-5600, and can say this $650 retail receiver is in another league than the 1016.
Sound, setup, tweaks, looks...everything i need without all the latest bells/whistles.

[Robert-The-Rambler]

Robert, you made a good decision....i posted a review on this receiver a month or so ago and complained about a few things, but the most important was sound.
I think the design is flawed and sounds terrible in the 6 and 7th speakers..i mean it sounded like a scratched album.

Anyway, i sold it and bought a used Marantz SR-5600, and can say this $650 retail receiver is in another league than the 1016.
Sound, setup, tweaks, looks...everything i need without all the latest bells/whistles.

I don't care as much about quality in there but I'm confident the Pioneer will do well. The Pioneer specific DSPs like Advanced Game mode are so good with Xbox that I will have a hard time letting it go altogether. It is a great receiver if it fits your needs. If you try to push it to become the everything source for a serious theater its design flaws become a real problem. As a Dolby Digital, DTS, THX solution it is good all in digital format. Analog is not too good. Anyhow, I'll listen for those problems with the rears. I wonder how much distortion the rears really put out?

Good luck with your new receiver!