Brief Review of the Pioneer Elite VSX-92THX A/V Receiver
Urushi is the Japanese craft of laquerware. Those shiny black and red lacquered wooden bowls and boxes represent examples of urushi. What that has to do with home audio/video is another matter. Pioneer refers to the finish on the aluminum front panel of the VSX-92THX receiver as urushi. Whether the finish is actually urushi or just black and shiny is probably immaterial. It creates an elegant look.
The VSX-92THX occupies a position in the Elite lineup right behind the VSX94THX which is a similar unit that adds network connectivity to the mix. With a MAP price of $1300 this unit falls in the upper middle price bracket of big name A/V receivers. If you want the connectivity, $300 more will buy you the Elite VSX94THX.
CONNECTIVITY and SETUP
The back panel of the 92 features 3 HDMI 1.3a inputs and an output. If you use analog connectivity it also has 3 assignable component video inputs as well as an output. 6 S-video and 7 composite inputs finish out the video array. In case you were worried, there are also a total of 10 analog audio inputs so you shouldn’t run out of connectivity. There is even a phono input for moving magnet cartridges in case you want to add a turntable to your A/V system. There are also dedicated inputs for Ipod, Sirius and XM radio. You should be able to connect any and every input device you own to the 92.
My own collection of input devices include a DirecTV DVR and three disc players that connect via HDMI. I have the three players on a switch so I only used two of the three HDMI inputs, leaving one for future expansion. My Wii game connects via component video so it was just a matter of plugging it in and assigning the component video section to the Game 1 input to which I connected the audio. There are also 5 optical and 2 coaxial digital audio inputs and a couple of outputs. My Slim Devices Squeezbox connected happily to one of the optical inputs. I have a 5.1 speaker setup and wired it up using tinned bare wire as I always do. The connectors are strong and of high quality. The sub connected to one of the 3 sub pre-outs and a little wire served as an FM antenna. That’s all there was to it for my home theater. There is plenty of room for future additions to the system.
MCACC is the name of the speaker setup and room equalization routine in the receiver. It works about like any of them do using a little microphone that is supplied. It is quite comprehensive. You can run the setup automatically or manually as you prefer. It has 9 bands of equalization. It has a feature called Full Band Phase Control that is designed to correct phase distortion in case time delays in the speaker array cause it. It corrects for standing waves, reverb and about anything else you could imagine. It even features setup presets that you can save to memory and recall as needed. That allows you to have different MCACC setups for different listening positions or different input devices. It is very comprehensive and effective.
PROCESSOR
The VSX-92THX has a clean and accurate digital processor. It produces no audible artifacts and steers the signals exactly as one would expect. The sound presentation is right on the money and exciting to hear for someone like me who hasn’t had a high quality processor as good as this one before. It features decoders for about every digital audio scheme ever devised including the latest Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master. It provides video scaling up to 1080p with a Faroudja DCDi scaler. It provides conversion from analog to HDMI or lower analog connections to component video.
Are there better processors? I’m sure there are but this one blows me away since my prior experience is just with an old Marantz pre/pro that had nothing beyond Dolby Digital and an Onkyo 605 receiver which has a very poor processor compared to this one. I could be blown away again, I suppose, but I’m pretty impressed with this one.
The processor also features some unusual capabilities like SACD and DVD-A audio transfer from HDMI, just the ticket for my HDMI-connected Oppo 980 player. It has 24 bit converters – 96khz for the ADC and 128khz for the DAC.
The receiver is THX Select 2 certified and handles all of the decoding automatically. It senses whatever is fed to it and decodes it automatically in either of 3 THX modes. If you want to enhance stereo signals for matrix surround or any number of DSP modes, those are available in profusion either under the TXH umbrella or not. I tried out the “classical” DSP mode, which adds some auditorium-like reverb to the sound presentation, and it was amazingly realistic to me. I’m not sure I’m a huge fan of this sort of processing but I have to admit it is pretty well implemented in the 92.
Of course, there is a direct stream mode that bypasses any processing that might otherwise lay in the audio path. You don’t have to use the processor when you don’t need it or want it.
AMPLIFIERS. The Pioneer Elite line is all about amplifiers and the VSX-92THX has an array of seven muscular 130 watt amps. This is the 8 ohm rating. They are rated at 160 watts each into 6 ohms. I heard a demonstration of this receiver at the dealer’s showroom driving 4 ohm speakers uncomfortably loudly. There was no clipping and no audible distortion. While the amps aren’t rated for 4 ohms, there is no question that they can drive such a load. The amplifier stage is well supplied with current and runs as cool as any amplifier I’ve ever encountered. Even in my enclosed home entertainment center, the top of the receiver cabinet gets just barely warm to the touch.
The receiver has preamp outputs, of course, but I don’t think I would buy a receiver with amps this good if my plan were to add an outboard amp. There are receivers and pre/pros with competent processors for less money. The amplification in the 92 should handle virtually any home theater in virtually any normal home. It is that good.
The VSX-92THX also provides for multi zone connections and provides 12v triggers to control power to outboard amps or other devices for multi-room listening.
CONCLUSION
I’ve left out many of the features and capabilities of this unit in this brief review simply because it can become overwhelming and because I didn’t use or test all of the available functions.
By now you have probably guessed that I like this receiver a lot and I do. It’s hard to imagine what else I could want in a receiver besides a great looking, feature-laden unit with a muscular amp section, a clean and accurate processor and even a great performing FM tuner. Perhaps it is network connectivity and that is easy to add by simply choosing the VSX-94THX instead. Personally, I don’t intend to stream video and I do my audio streaming and internet radio with my Slim Devices Squeezebox so this was probably the right unit for me.
Whenever I talk about a product, I like to talk about the negatives. This receiver has no negatives or “cons” for me. It might for someone else but it is everything I ever wanted in an A/V receiver and I wouldn’t change a thing, personally. That could change as my experience with it matures over time but I think it is very well designed and implemented. Really, I wouldn’t change a thing. If you are in the market for a great A/V receiver in the middle price range, visit your Pioneer dealer and check out the VSX-92THX. You’ll be glad you did.
