News

Pioneer's Audio Heritage Shines With New A/V Receivers (13/1/2004)

Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc., a leader in home entertainment technology, today introduced its 2004 line of digital audio/video receivers, including the VSX-1014, VSX-D914, VSX-D814, VSX-D514, all designed to give consumers the ultimate control over their home entertainment experience. The VSX-1014 is the second receiver in the Pioneer product line to be THX certified.

With multi-channel music and movies continuing to drive sales of DVD players, consumers are adding five, six, and seven speaker configurations to their home theater systems. As a result, Pioneer continues to develop new audio/video receivers with features to enhance the home theater environment. Three of the new receivers offer Pioneer's multi-channel acoustic calibration (MCACC), allowing consumers the ability to easily and accurately set-up their speakers with optimal performance based on the room environment.

"Pioneer receivers are a critical component to completing an 'Advanced Home Theater' system due to the high quality sound processing, build quality and component selection," said Russ Johnston, senior vice president of marketing for the Home Entertainment Division of Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. "And while many companies are limiting their offerings in the audio area, Pioneer continues to leverage its audio heritage to design and produce the most innovative A/V receivers in the market."

Setting the Stage for Great Sound

While most consumers know when they hear a great home theater system, they don't necessarily have the experience to fine-tune the sound system on their own. Pioneer's VSX-D814 receiver offers a manual multi-channel acoustic calibration (MCACC) feature that gives the listener a reference point for their ears, ensuring that the system is set up for optimal listening. That means that each speaker delivers sound to the listener at precisely the same time and at the same level. The room-tuning feature coaches the listener through the set-up process in a step-by-step method. Two of Pioneer's higher-end A/V receivers, the VSX-1014 and VSX-D914 offer automatic MCACC which utilizes a small microphone to set the speaker levels instead of requiring the consumer to set the levels manually. The VSX-1014 takes this process to the next level providing a five-band EQ for even more precise room calibration and tone equalization between speakers.

All new models come with either a standard remote or a preset/learning remote and Quick Setup feature for easy room setup. The Quick Setup feature walks the consumer through the set-up process choosing the number of speakers connected and selecting the room size for very easy and accurate surround sound performance when utilizing the MCACC function is not desired.

Getting All the Right Effects

George Lucas established THX technology as the big-theater audio reference standard and then brought those same standards to the home. Now, Pioneer pushes the envelope in home theater surround sound with THX Select found in the VSX-1014, designed for high-impact multi-channel audio in rooms of up to two thousand cubic feet.

Key features THX Certified products provide for the consumer:

* Re-Equalization, smoothes out the frequency response allowing for more even audio.

* Timbre Matching, matches the tone from the front speakers with the tone of the surround speakers allowing for the smooth movement of sound.

* Adaptive Decorrelation, restores surround spaciousness on mono surround signals.

* Bass Peak Level Manager, protects your subwoofer from overloading.

* Bass Management Electronic Crossover, sends the bass signal to the subwoofer increasing the dynamic range of the speakers.

Both Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES surround decoding technologies add sound to a rear center speaker or speaker pair, while left- and right-surround sound is created by left and right side speakers. The addition of this new surround channel at the rear center gives the listener true "fly-over" and "fly-around" effects. These effects are more accurately placed, either directly behind or directly beside the listener.

Dolby Pro Logic IIx is an advanced two-channel matrix decoder that derives six and seven-channel surround (left, center, right, left surround, right surround, left surround back, and right surround back) from any two-channel stereo program material. On Dolby encoded material such as movie soundtracks, the sound is more like Dolby Digital EX, while with two-channel encoded material such as music CDs, the effect is a wider and more encompassing sound field with more localized vocals.

Turn Up the Volume ... And Increase the Quality

All of Pioneer's A/V receivers offer equal, high-power amplification with 100 watts of power to each channel (110 watts per channel with the VSX-D914), eliminating the possibility of one channel dominating a particular sound field. All amplifiers are of discrete configuration and utilize Pioneer's hybrid amplification system to ensure that the correct amount of bias signal is applied to each transistor for very low distortion. Pioneer's amplifiers are designed to handle the full bandwidth of Dolby Digital, DTS, and DVD-Audio encoded software.

The VSX-1014 is equipped with advanced direct energy MOS FET amplification giving reliable power output through all channels, exceptional sound quality, and clarity in every audible detail, even at low impedance.

Pioneer's receivers offer component and S-video switching to allow both progressive and interlaced NTSC and HDTV signals to be passed to the television or monitor. To maintain future compatibility, all of the receivers have multiple, assignable digital inputs (both coaxial and optical).

The VSX-D914, VSX-D814, and VSX-D514 will be available in March at a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $475, $365, and $275 respectively.

The VSX-1014 will be available in August at a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $700.

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