Anyone heard about these Reievers?

[kaseaman]

So I was shopping at my local Best Buy a few days ago and stumbled upon two recievers that I have never seen before, the Pioneer VSX9300TX and the 91000TX. Their prices are around $900 and $550 respectively. I was intrigued when I saw them, so I tried to pick up the more expensive of the two, to my surprise this thing weighed a ton, my guess would be around 45 pounds. Just by judging this, my guess is that they are good recievers, but when I went to look on the internet I could not find anything on them. Has anyone heard about these two recievers before?

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

So I was shopping at my local Best Buy a few days ago and stumbled upon two recievers that I have never seen before, the Pioneer VSX9300TX and the 91000TX. Their prices are around $900 and $550 respectively. I was intrigued when I saw them, so I tried to pick up the more expensive of the two, to my surprise this thing weighed a ton, my guess would be around 45 pounds. Just by judging this, my guess is that they are good recievers, but when I went to look on the internet I could not find anything on them. Has anyone heard about these two recievers before?

Funny you ask. Pioneer is dumping some rebranded Elite models on the Best Buy market, to see what happens. They are waiting to post specs on the Pioneer site to see how the market responds. My guess is that your typical Best Buy customer doesn't have the dinero to drop that type of cash on an upper level receiver, and doesn't realize the quality of these new "9000 series" receivers entail. I hope the Pioneer execs read this thread, and drop these models, offering them to those who are "in the know."

 

[av-man]

Buckeyefan,
That makes sense to me. Best Buy is shaking in their boots because Wal-Mart is hammering away at the low end electronics business. Best Buy has announced their intention to start catering to the higher end customers.

 

[mitch57]

Buckeyefan,
That makes sense to me. Best Buy is shaking in their boots because Wal-Mart is hammering away at the low end electronics business. Best Buy has announced their intention to start catering to the higher end customers.

The reason they are starting to cater to higher end customers is because they bought out Magnolia Hi-Fi. Magnolia Hi-Fi is a higher end dealer that has stores in California and Washington State.

Best Buy is revamping some of their larger stores (California primarily at this time) in order to accomadate some of the higher end lines that Magnolia carriers such as Martin Logan, Venice, and many others.

 

[av-man]

Exactly. The purchase of Magnolia Hi-Fi was the first step in the planned transition. I think it is a mistake for them. There is not enough high end buisness to support major chains and their installation will be horrible. The result could be the opposite of their intention.

 

[Spiffyfast]

Yeah but if they are the first mass marketed store to offer higher end goods they may be able to find a niche market of these people that have the money to spend on higher end equipment but just dont want to bother going to a specialty store to do so. Like for instance where I live in St. Louis, there are 3 Best Buys within 10 or 15 miles but if I want to actually go check out some high end audio prodects I have to drive 30 miles away, Itd be great if I could just go to Best Buy. They just have to be sure they actually train their salespeople to deal with these products.

 

[Takeereasy]

I have to say I think the move by Pioneer to go with the rebadged Elites is pretty smart. It can provide a truly great receiver to someone for the price of an entry level model. Attract the masses with your high value receivers and they will stick with you when it's time to upgrade, or at the very least they will drop your name to friends and family looking to get a new receiver once they see the deal their receiver was. High performing low cost DVD players and receivers are what Pioneer is becoming famous for on all of these sites. I think that this rebranding of their image is a great ploy. What they need to make sure they do is keep enough goodies set aside for elite models only. That way they can retain their "snob appeal" and differintiate between brands. I say good on them. Are there better buys for the dollar than a new 9000 series right now? I know it's a matter of taste but these units are very competitve with anything I can think of on a $/performance ratio. I think if Pioneer keeps it up they will soon be backordered. These units are already becoming hot topics on audio boards, and this is what, the 3rd or 4th thread about them here.

 

[Thunder18]

I just received my Pioneer VSX-9300TX

I just got it from the UPS man on friday. It's a nice looking unit! It has the piano black aluminum face from the Elite models, but doesn't have the aluminum door(just piano black plastic) on the front. This unit is Identical to the Elite VSX-56TXi save for the firewire input and output. Even the remote is identical.

As for Best Buy, I spoke to a guy and he gave me the low-down. With the introduction of Magnolia into Best Buy stores, they will be offering not only high-end product, but high end service. When you purchase high-end equipment from the Magnolia section, you will have one well-trained sales consultant who will actually give you his card and encourage you to consult with him over whatever questions you may have. He will pretty much be your personal consultant after that and your first point of contact. They will also be doing in-home set-up and custom installation of these products.
They will be carrying names such as Krell, Sunfire and Pioneer Elite just to give an idea of the market they are getting into.

 

[Spiffyfast]

Wow, bout time that starts happening, there aren't enough specialty audio shops around where I live that carry higher end equipment, I hope our best buy gets those soon.

 

[Thunder18]

You're right. I tried to find the local Tweeter about a week ago and I actually couldn't find it. The local Ultimate Electronics around me have all closed down. There is a place very close to me called Advanced Home Theater Systems, but I'm a little too intimidated to walk in there after seeing their website.