Pioneer Elite SC-61 7.2 Channel Network Ready AV Receiver

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Price: $799.00    

Product Feature

• 7.2 Channel Class D3 Amplification provides the highest quality sound reproduction with power to spare.
• AirPlay® and Pandora � Radio.
• Multi- Zone with Zone 2 Subwoofer.

Product Description

SC-61 7.2 Channel Network Ready AV Receiver featuring, class D3 amplification, AirPlay , Pandora �, iPhone � and ipad � Certified, and Multi-Zone AV The Elite SC-61 receiver provides a large assortment of connectivity and control options, all designed to give the genuine home theater enthusiast the truest, most realistic fidelity for your home entertainment experience. Designed for those who settle for nothing less than the very best in audio and video, the state-of-the-art performance and specifications of the exceptional SC-61 are the result of uncompromising standards of engineering, manufacturing and testing. Living up to its name, and reputation, the Elite SC-61 simply delivers a home entertainment experience others can't.

Pioneer Elite SC-61 7.2 Channel Network Ready AV Receiver Review

In the past year I've owned a Denon 2311CI, an Onkyo TX-NR809 and this Pioneer SC-61. Here are some comparisons.

Sound quality
1. Pioneer
2. Denon
3. Onkyo

The SC-61 sounds smooth and non fatiguing. It pairs really well with my Polk LSI system. The Denon sounded smooth as well, while the Onkyo was a little bright.

Loudness
1. Pioneer
2. Onkyo
3. Denon

The Pioneer is loud. Even though it has 125 W per channel vs the 135 W of the Onkyo, its class D3 amplification must be way more efficient because this receiver at -15 db sounds as loud as the Onkyo at reference (0 db), and way louder than the Denon.

Video quality
1. Pioneer and Onkyo
3. Denon

They all look good, but the Pioneer and Onkyo look better than the Denon.

Remote
1. Onkyo
2. Denon
3. Pioneer

The learning Onkyo remote is a pleasure to use with nice, soft buttons and four macro buttons on top. The Denon remote was good too. the Pioneer one stinks: small buttons, no macros, small text. You need to buy a universal remote for this guy. I know I will. Amazon has one for $19 or so with great reviews. URC WR7 Universal Remote Control for up to 7 A/V Components with 4 Favorite Channel Buttons

GUI
1. Onkyo
2. Pioneer
3. Denon

The Onkyo had by far the best GUI. The Denon I had was a 2011 model, not sure if the 2012 Denons have a better GUI. The Pioneer GUI is pretty bad, looks like it was designed by the DOS people. It doesn't even overlay on your screen. And volume levens don't show on the screen OSD, not sure if it's me or just something this receiver can't do.

Airplay
1. Pioneer
2. Denon
3 Onkyo

The Onkyo does not offer Airplay. If you have Apple iTunes and the Apple Remote app for iOS devices, you can send your iTunes music to the Pioneer receiver and even control the volume through the remote app or the iTunes volume slider on your computer. Pretty cool. The Onkyo does not have this.

If you have a DLNA media server, all receivers will connect to it. You need a PC for this. If you have a Mac, you'll need a program like iSedora ($25 or so). My Onkyo and Pioneer receiver were both able to see my Mac as a DLNA server through iSedora, but neither one has a very usable GUI when accessing DLNA content. Skip. Airplay is 100 times better.

Looks
1. Pioneer
2. Denon
3. Onkyo

This is subjective, but I like the Pioneer and Denon looks better than Onkyo. The Pioneer has pretty amber and blue lights too.

Unit Display usefulness
1. Denon
2. Pioneer
3. Onkyo

The Denon is great because its display visually shows BOTH input and output formats.

Learning how to use the receiver
1. Onkyo
2. Denon
3. Pioneer

The Pio is more convoluted. I usually don't need to read manuals to configure receivers. I had to with the Pio.

MCACC vs Audissey
I prefer MCACC. Audissey MIGHT be better if you have a subwoofer (MCACC will not touch your sub at all, you need an external tool for that), but, first, I hate subwoofers and don't have one in my setup, second, the Audissey calibration is too flat and boring. MCACC does a much better job, with a more lively sound, and it SHOWS what it does after it's done calibrating your system. You can review the calibration data and see decibel changes to each speaker, charts, and EQ parameters. You don't get that with Audissey.

ONLINE PURCHASE
Pioneer will NOT honor its warranty if you purchase any of its ELITE receivers online. If you do so, make sure you either get a warranty from the seller or from Square Trade.

Overall I prefer the Pioneer. I'm willing to live with its idiosyncrasies because I like how it sounds and how loud it goes without distortion. They've managed to make their class D3 amplification very, very musical.

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