Pioneer has been late coming to the 1.3 HDMI gen amps and there are not too many brothers here owning this.

 

Thanks to Francis Woo for allowing me into his home and checking this out.

 

Some specs:

http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/products/42/98/405/VSX-LX70/index.html

 

Pictures:

 

 

Front:

 

 

Back

 

 

 

Remote:

 

 

This was partnered with the format neutral Toshiba XA2, PS3 20G, a 7G Panasonic 50" and the speaker system was a NHT 2.5 with matching centre and Zeros for rears plus a Sunfire Sub in a corner.

 

 

 

More input when I awake.... :)

Very quick notes:

 

All the bits are decoded.

 

Plenty of fine adjustments

 

Good built quality, nice black color.

 

MACC works - to a certain extent...

 

The MACC doesn't quite correct for the 2 large spaces on the left and right of the front pair.

 

3 HDMI in, 1 out

 

No toroidal transformer. Quiet in operation, fan sound minimal, the XA2 was louder.

 

Jacks not gold plated. But plenty of inputs.

 

Remote:

 

I like hard buttons, but as Francis can tell you, the buttons are rather small and not friendly to those of us that are presbyopic... the tiny letters are hard to see

 

Simple rules

 

- you can't just plonk good money down and expect everything to work, even with auto-everything.

 

- spend some time positioning the system, and the million dollar device:

SPL (not Sha Po Lang) but Sound pressure meter...

 

- slight bass suckout from 40-60Hz tweak the settings, bro, and the main issue is the speakers which have been around a bit, and not the amp IMO.

 

The setting is a rather large hall, with mostly plain walls and glass panels. The vieing distance is about 3-4m. The couch is backed up against the rear wall, and if you move it about  feet forward the hole surround effect will improve a notch. Then point the rears to fire forwards towards the new sitting position instead of towards each other.

 

Some room treatment might be useful, a carpet, paintings to dampen the reflections on top But the vast expanse at the sides means there is a suckout to deal with.

(think of KEC's main showroom, which is about the same size, and is too dampened and has a 60Hz suckout too IMO)

 

Since you are moving to add a SVS, you can position that close to the front set or next to your sofa for the tactile sensation.

 

when you add the sub, it is imperative that you spend some time integrating it with your front pair, even try using them in a 'small' instead of 'large' and see, in case the old side woofer isn't performing well. In PCM I can sense the sub is working but it is still not configured in the other modes. Expanded actually sounds nice, if you can get the sub to kick in...

 

Play around and see :)

Very quick notes:

 

All the bits are decoded.

 

Plenty of fine adjustments

 

Good built quality.

 

MACC works - to a certain extent...

 

Simple rules

 

- you can't just plonk good money down and expect everything to work, even with auto-everything.

 

- spend some time positioning the system, and the million dollar device:

SPL (not Sha Po Lang) but Sound pressure meter...

 

- slight bass suckout from 40-60Hz tweak the settings, bro, and the main issue is the speakers which have been around a bit, and not the amp IMO.

 

But when I gather my thoughts, I will re-write this.

 

Bro NHT 2.5s are known to be bass animals therefore might not be the speakers deficiency in this case.

That was quick!!  Tks, yr thoughts on the short comings.  Will slowly correct these (I hope) when I play around and tweak the set up with proper tools and room treatments (place just to big lah for HT)..... ;)

The NHT speakers may have a rep for bass, but it may not always be the case, as Francis can tell you, I am just telling you what I heard, I went there with an uncle who has a $100 000 system, and he felt the same way.

 

Francis has a huge living area, which is brilliant for audio and his other speakers, but there is a large distance between his front 3 and the rear surrounds, so this affects his soundstage and ambience.

 

The sub is fine, and will rival any small SVS up to the SB 12+ easily.

 

The day he hooks up his Other set.... thats a different matter and when you use the ATI 1506, then the system will move up a few notches. Right now the Pioneer needs to play at -11db or so and feels a little strained. Bear in mind this is a THX Select amp.

 

But see this stuff waiting to be hooked up...

 

 

and this

 

150w times 6....

 

 

 

Bro NHT 2.5s are known to be bass animals therefore might not be the speakers deficiency in this case.

I beg to differ.

 

Having a large room means you need a powerful setup to fill the huge space. From the photo, it looks like a living room and the open space will further affect the soundstage. Having setup my equipment in my hall for years, I do appreciate the advantages of having a smaller dedicated room. Having said that, there are other acoustics issues to tackle, too.

 

For starters, I think there is definitely room for improvement in speaker placement. More "breathing" room for the floorstanders and sub perhaps?

 

Phil

 

VSX-LX70 is pretty & solid. How I wish I can get the price he paid for VSX-LX70. Definitely not in S'pore. :(.

 

Hope after some tweaks & room treatments, and near future with SVS sub integration, his HT set-up would be alot of enjoyment. Oh yeah, don't forget to invite me over when full HD projector has in-place.  ;D

The sub is fine, and will rival any small SVS up to the SB 12+ easily.

 

The Sunfire should be MUCH louder than a SB 12, more like a PB10 or 12. These little fellas have a 2700W amp (True Sub). Only issue is they are heavily EQ to maintain a reasonable frequency response and are unlikely to be as accurate as SVS' much larger subs.

Yes I was trying to convince Francis that it could do nicely in his new HT system. A PB 12 plus 2 or PC Ultra will be nice.

 

The Sunfire should be MUCH louder than a SB 12, more like a PB10 or 12. These little fellas have a 2700W amp (True Sub). Only issue is they are heavily EQ to maintain a reasonable frequency response and are unlikely to be as accurate as SVS' much larger subs.

Bros, I am convinced.  The PC Ultra it will be........ :)

Bros, I am convinced.  The PC Ultra it will be........ :)

yeah, i'm convinced too n the sunfire will b moving to a new home ;D

Bros, I am convinced.  The PC Ultra it will be........ :)

 

Do consider two PB12+/2, which are on closeout at 1,099ea. You will get a total of 1800W compared to 750W for the PC Ultra.

Bro why don't you

- get yourself invited to his place

- take the pics yourself

- and do a write up after....

Lets see what you can do

Or

 

There are magazines you can buy for reviews with nice pics...

 

side track, get a proper digicam, handphone really doesn't do justice to the equipment there...quite an eyesore IMHO.

But bro, no matter which sub you get, you need to integrate it into the system to avoid the suckout.

 

Actually I feel your Sunfire is a rather decent sub and will do nicely even in your current system.

 

Bros, I am convinced.  The PC Ultra it will be........ :)

Nice setup. The TV console looked like the one Cellini offered for $699 during the Kuro launch event.

 

Having owned a Pio AVR (AX5Ai that costed < S$2k) previously I am puzzled why Pioneer stopped featuring gold connectors and back-lighting remotes in the recent generation of receivers despite their "high-end" pricing.

Bro why don't you

- get yourself invited to his place

- take the pics yourself

- and do a write up after....

Lets see what you can do

Or

 

There are magazines you can buy for reviews with nice pics...

 

 

just an opinion and seems like you took it as an offense, i will delete it then...

Can someone tell me ...what is a "suckout"?

 

I am using the Sunfire too but mine is getting too old for the job.....

 

(Audio)

Hi HT, you're right.  The console is from Cellini and I got it early this year for a much cheaper price during a Sale.

 

You're also right about the absence of gold connectors and back-lit remote in their current batch of hi-end AVR which is very disappointing.  Like you, I had the AX5Ai before and found it to be more robust and the remote more stylized and

solid with back-lit.  However, I do really like the look of the LX70 and it blends well with my decor.

 

I went thru' the instruction manual in the evening and started to tweak the settings.  I switched to direct streaming letting the Tosh output the Dolby True HD direct without decoding in the AVR, moved my sofa closer to the TV (about 8 feet, previously it was 11 feet), moved my Sub nearer about 4 feet from the right speaker, 9 feet from my sitting position when previously it was 12 feet away), the over-all soundstage and ambience become more focus now although sound is still straying to the left and right open spaces.  Still feel an SVS will improve the mid and low frequency slam and some sound absorbers to keep out unwanted defraction for further improvement.

 

Francis, didnt have chance to listen your HT last time round, the stereo is sweet though ;D Actually I think it is quite hard to tell the huge space Francis's living room have from the pictures here.

 

Just a thought, maybe a very thick curtain to partition the HT area with the rest of area? I used to know a friend did this and achieve a rather good effect. When you are not watching movie then just close the curtain and your living room remain the same.

 

Fook Lai

Tks FL for the suggestion.  The curtain across wud certainly help but it will also clutter the area and affect the aesthetic look of an contemporary open space design.......hmmmmm..san-lou-ching.... ???

However, I do really like the look of the LX70 and it blends well with my decor.

 

Looks like we have the same decor tastes.. piano black! I would have gotten the 2m-long Cellini console if not for the limted space in my room. Well, went for Sonorous instead.. loved its hidden rollers that make rear cable/connection adjustments easy.

 

Francis, the SVS is good at deep bass, so the mid bass thump you may be looking at may not always be fulfilled by the SVS. But try setting the speakers to small, and let the sub do more work.

 

The main bit missing is around the 60Hz region, so get a SPL meter and tweak some more. The auto-setup does not detect the empty spaces, resulting in this void (suckout) where the 60Hz frequencies are simply swallowed by the two sides. Does the Pioneer have parametric equalisation? A boost in the 80-60Hz region might be in order. But wait for Jag and J Yeo to read this thread and offer their kung fu...

Does the Pioneer have parametric equalisation? A boost in the 80-60Hz region might be in order.

 

The LX70 has option for "Manual MCACC setup (9 Band EQ)" for each individual speakers. Will it help?

It may, but the open spaces left and right are really imposing unless I block them by wall partitions or curtains.  Did you manage to get LX70!!!!