Customer Reviews

Pioneer VSX-816-S 7.1-channel XM-Ready A/V receiver, Silver

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Other than the confusion that occurs anytime my wife grabs the old remote to try to turn down the volume, I am very pleased with this receiver.

Now, I'll begin by saying that I am NOT an expert on audio stuff. Though I can hook up and program the things just fine, the end results are hitting layman's ears. However I did have the benefit of a generally picky "friend" coming over with intent to scoff at my system.

The second thing that I will disclaim is that I did not get $1200 worth of speakers. No Bose 7.1 system. No fancy little wall-mount stuff. I grabbed a cheap subwoofer and a set of seven cheap bookshelf speakers. The end result? The friend is quite annoyed and is trying to figure out how to justify to his wife getting rid of his thousands worth of speakers and getting the cheap bookshelf speakers.

However this is not a rating of the speakers.

I don't do MUCH fancy. No digital video components. Do have optical from the DVD player and the PS2 though, but setting that up was mostly a matter of remembering what I connected those to. Hint #1: Take notes on what you connect to where.

The automatic set-up for the speakers goes without a hitch. Plug in the microphone and set it up where you listen. As a note: If you don't have a tripod, best to put it on the BACK of the couch, closer to where your head is, not sitting on the couch where your rear end normally goes. Make sure that nobody will be noisy, then activate the thing. It proceeds to make various white noises and ticks before it gives you a readout of numbers to verify. The distances are pretty darn accurate with my setup and while the balance number mean very little to me, they result in good sound.

I'll make a note: Getting the XM receiver that plugs into this is NOT EASY. I had to get mine from Circuit City (Couldn't actually find them in-stock anywhere on Amazon). The old "Receiver and antenna" combination system has been phased out in favor of a modular receiver and separate antenna and module holder. The intent is that if you have multiple antenna-and-connection systems that will handle the module, you can take the module to various places with you on only one account.

Other than the wife grabbing the old stereo's remote far too often, the system has thus far been glitchless and worked well and sounded good. If it meets your feature needs, go with it.

One great feature it has is what Pioneer calls MCACC (Auto Multichannel Acoustic Calibration). Combined with the included microphone and OSD (On screen Display), it makes extremely easy to properly setup the receiver with your set of speakers and your room acoustics. You can then try to improve the automatic setup by tweaking it manually but for myself, I wasn't able so far to do any better.

When my VSX-816 first arrived, and I after carried out the MCACC setup, it fooled me that everything is working as it should. But it isn't. The center and satellite channels were responding in MCACC but were working/not working intermittently with sound from DVD's. I was initially busy testing the receiver with just CD stereo sound and it took me a couple of days to confirm that the receiver is broken. It helped that eventually the other channels stopped responding altogether, MCACC or DVD's.

I returned the receiver and Amazon rushed me another one with no problems. This the one I have now for a couple of months. Both, the first and the second, were poorly packaged. Crumbled starfone pieces everywhere. The receivers were not even in a plastic bag, so I had to painstakingly remove small pieces of starfone that attached themselves electrostatically to metal surfaces of the receiver. When I got my second, present receiver, I could sense that something was loose inside it. When I took of the top plate, I could see that it was power transformer moving a little bit back and forth due to loose screws that were attaching it to chassis. Fortunately, nothing serious. Later though, I discovered a real fault. The power (Pioneer calls it standby) button doesn't work as it should. It actually works like a power button, not like a standby button. As a standby button, it should light up when you power plug in the receiver, but it stays OFF. Then you push the button and it turns ON the receiver. When you plug in a device with a "regular" power button then, depending on the state of the button, the receiver either just stays OFF, or immediately turns itself ON. So, for example, you cannot tell by just looking at the receiver whether it is disconnected or switched OFF, or you have to be careful plugging it in as might be ON full blast.

I actually liked the VSX-816 enough to decide that it is not worth the hassle of returning again this model and so I am keeping it as is.

Consider my rating as somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.

What's good:

Generally a good design with well balanced set of features. Has more than enough power to drive most, if not all, 8 and 6 ohm speakers. Good remote and display, and of course, MCACC.

What's not so good:

Inadequate packaging.

Ugly and almost impossible to remove advertising sticker smucked right in front.

Manual.