VSX-94TXH First Impressions & Build Quality

The last Pioneer receiver review I personally did was in 2005 on an entry-level product (the VSX-815) which struck me as a good balance between available features and power. It will seem pretty obvious when I say that this flagship Elite AV receiver product trumps my last experience by quite a bit. It also, however brings a certain amount of expectation. Being a top of the line model, the VSX-94TXH has a lot of competition and is going to need to distance itself in some areas before being crowned the leader in any particular department.

Keeping Up with the Joneses?

While I don't recommend it for personal finances, keeping up with the Joneses is a necessity for today's flagship receiver products. If you can't maintain some sort of edge in this market, there are plenty of companies with the infrastructure to deliver a product that can quickly dominate the market. Pioneer has its share of special features, but let's see how they compare in a quick survey of the market:

Manufacturer	Pioneer	Marantz	Denon	Yamaha	Onkyo
Model	VSX-94TXH	SR8002	AVR-4308CI	RX-V3800	TX-NR905
MSRP	$1800	$1999	$2499	$1699	$2099
Power	140Wx7	125Wx7	140Wx7	140Wx7	140Wx7
HDMI In/Out	4/1	4/1/1	4/2	4/1	4/2
HDMI Version	1.3a	1.3a	1.3a	1.3a	1.3a
Deep Color	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
xvYCC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
HDMI Upconvert	1080p	480p	1080p	1080p	1080p
THX Certification	Select2	Select2	No	No	Ultra2
Room EQ	MCACC	MultEQ	MultEQ XT	YPAO	MultEQ XT
Video Processing	DCDi	SD-only	DCDi	ABT1010	Reon-VX

When taking a look at the other AV receivers in this price range, the Pioneer has the cards somewhat stacked against it. It's not overpriced and it certainly has a lot of important features, but it isn't exactly rising to the top of the pack. What that said, companies like Harman Kardon don't even have a seat at the table. Some of the notable features of the Pioneer VSX-94TXH include:

• THX Select2 Certified
• Home Media Gallery (Internet radio, Neural Music Direct)
• Support for Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, dts-HD Master Audio
• Deep Color, xvYCC and SACD Support by HDMI
• 1080p Upconversion of SD signals via HDMI
• XM HD Surround by Neural THX Technologies
• RS-232C control, two 12VDC triggers
• 2nd Zone Audio/Video Output
• Faroudja DCDi video processing

First Impressions & Build Quality

Pioneer's flagship AV receiver (we're not counting the delayed-but-impending SC-09TX which debuted at the 2007 CEDIA) is simply beautiful. The receiver has a piano gloss finish and, unlike the competition, places the annoying requisite technology logos across the top edge of the receiver instead of the front panel. This leaves the receiver clean and beautiful - definitely a visual step-up from other designs we've seen. Like most receivers, the input selection knob is on the left and the heavily-weighted master volume is located on the right. The detents on the input selector are solid and I really liked the way both knobs felt when turned. The Master Volume only increases in 1dB increments, however I don't see this as an issue for most users. With the front panel door closed, there are only six buttons present in addition to the Standby/on function. There is no hard Power Off switch on the Pioneer; you'd need to unplug it to take it out of Standby mode.

The clean front panel opens smoothly to grant users access to various features such as the Video/Game 2 input and menu controls. You can also control some tuner functions, connect headphones and a USB storage device, and of course the MCACC microphone. Multi-Zones can be activated and deactivated here and you can control the Signal type for each input (important for insuring you route the correct audio to the selected source.)

Cracking open Pioneer's flagship receiver I immediately noticed the gigantic EI Core transformer that dominated the side of the unit, joined by a couple of 15,000 uF capacitors. The power supply is clearly large enough to drive the amplifier section of the receiver to its rated specifications. Once I made it past the robust power supply, I couldn't help but be drawn to the two rather cheap-looking and thin aluminum heatsinks that ran down the center of the receiver. While it appeared to do the job, it certainly didn't look like something I expected to see on a flagship product. Typically, you will see a thicker aluminum heatsink like that which I just witnessed on another manufacturer's receiver I reviewed this past week which costs about $400 less than the VSX-94TXH. This isn't a big deal, but flagship products like this command a particular aesthetic from users that needs to be met.