Customer Reviews

Pioneer VSX-919AH-K 120 Watts A/V Receiver with Full Color GUI/OSD, Advanced MCACC and Analog to HDMI Up-Conversion (Black)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Pros: . THD: 0.05 %: SOUND QUALITY IS SIMPLY UNBELEIVABLE
. EASE OF SET UP. I HAD TO READ SOME THROUGH THE MANUAL, BUT THE OSD and GUI are so easy, really, a cave man can do it.
. multiple decoding modes.
. Nice Blue screen with big letters and numbers.
. Sturdy, Well constructed, appears durable.
. programmable remote.
. 2 zones AUDIO control.
. beuatiful clear lows, and distinct highs, appeases to the musical ears.
. easy to configure manually, the base, treble, and eq,..
. nice shiny black. dimmable light, sleep mode. PS: the remote lay out actually makes sense, unlike my yamaha 565 (see appropriate rview).
.3 hdmi, 2 opticals, one coax, multiple other inputs,. easy to rename and reassign.
. ability to control crossover for subwoofer and manually set up your system. also can use included microphone.
.My biggest plus remains the beuatiful pure sound coming from the ceiling speakers. it blows my yamaha vx 565 away....far away

Cons: the manual may be a bit confusing, but once you get a handle on what button is for what, u can consult the manual less frequently. it is intuitive. also the osd diplay makes the set up a breeze.

I can not actually think of any con. having owned the yamaha 565 and 361, and sherwood receivers, i can say this one delivers the best sound and has the best controls. the price is eggcellent,..thank you newegg.

Other Thoughts: I received the VSX-919AH-K & was very anxious to set it up. i have researched it extensively before placing my order, and it came down to choosing between this receiver and the Yamaha VSX565 which i already own, but was on a discounted price prom. Avoiding duplicity, I bought this receiver knowing it has only 3 hdmi inputs and ability to upgrade signal from component only to 1080p, but in the next 1-2 years all video component would be alrready in 1080p, so unless you are using old system it will not matter.

I am extremely satisfied with the sound from this receiver, much more then the one in my main room, the yamaha 565, and here is why

. 120 watts versus 90 watts, and pay attention: 0.05% THD versus only 0.9 % THD on the Yamaha. yes the wattage is not the only criteria, getting a pure sound is the bottom line.
. great sound experience, hooked up to a 5.1 configuration with OSD speakers, C640i series, 150 watt ( each) spearkers and 100 w sub.
. easy to operate, and set up

Hooking up everything to this was simple. The GUI is a nice feature (I had a very simple one with my Yamaha RX-V730). Turning on/off inputs and renaming them are very simple and so is setting up the speakers. The manual is easy to follow.

The remote is pretty simple to use for setting up, but I will be using our Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote Control (Black) after the set up.

The lights on the display aren't blinding, but the shiny finish can make it a little difficult to see the displayy.

The KURO Link is compatible with AQUOS Link, so seeing the volume change can be shown on my display and turning the display off can turn off the receiver.

The sound is good. Since I am using Definitive Technology Mythos SSA-50 Speaker (Single, Silver) and
Definitive Technology ProSub 800 120v Speaker (Single, Black) there isn't really any extra setting up involved. I just turn off any delays, set speakers to small, turn on sub and it is good. The sound coming out is as good as I can tell. I mean, it makes me happy.

It is also is compatible with my Apple iPod touch 8 GB (1st Generation). I can control the music with the remote and I can also watch any videos that I have on the iPod to it on my display. I probably would never have tried that out or even thought about using it, but it actually comes with an adapter cable for connecting an iPod to the receiver so I think it will come in handy when I take advantage of multi-zone and put some speakers in our backyard.

Xbox 360 Pro 60GB Console plays games through HDMI to the receiver at 1080p and the DVDs played through it also get played back at 1080p. I played The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition) to test out some DTS using the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player and it looked great and sounded great.

The TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder plays back in 1080i and is connected with an HDMI cable. There aren't any issues with sound or video.

I have everything running through the receiver to my Sharp LC52E77U 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV, Black using HDMI to one HDMI input. When change the input on the reciver from the TiVo to the Xbox, the signal is sent to the TV and will change the input name from "TiVo Series 3 HD" to "Xbox 360" so the information passed through the receiver.

I also have a Wii connected to the receiver with component cables. The receiver takes it and sends it to the TV through the single HDMI cable at 480p. The picture looks normal.

Based on what the manual says it converts 480i to 480p. Basically makes it progressive to the HDMI cable. I don't think it upconverts all the way to 1080p.

I wanted to get a 7.1 channel receiver that had HDMI and some sort of up converting and ended up getting that and a lot more with the iPod adapter and pretty GUI.

I ordered this on Friday and if I wanted to get it on Monday, it would have been $3.99 more with my Prime account, but since this was an impulse buy, I spent $6.99 to get it the next day on Saturday. It was there and hooked up and ready to play video games and watch movies and television for a lazy weekend.

You can pay 3 times more and not get a better receiver then this Pioneer. Bought to get the HDMI switch, After a month of using I am still amazed at the sound! I would get this just for the sound clarity. The auto tune really does a fine job - better then when I brought the professional sound equalizer in. I even noted a cleaning up of the SD video coming from the sat- box. To test I took the 2 component video feeds from satellite one to the tv direct and one to the receiver to allow A-B testing on an older TV avoiding the HDTV that I know worked well. The VSX919 was better! Pioneer really tryed to get it all in. This box really hits the sweet spot for all critical video while keeping the sound as 1st priority. The Bad -such as it is: The sound processing delays the sound enough that you cannot have TV sound on from the source and have the receiver sound on too. Need to shout off the TV sound, a pain sometimes. But the clarity of sound, and control avail. make this box - and if you can live with 3 rather then 4 HDMI, save $ from off the VSX1019. Manual hard to read, but quite complete. Prepare to send some time getting to know all you can do with this unit.

I bought the 919 to replace a 3-year old Pioneer 1016TX-V that served me very well, but was hamstrung in its HDMI handling capabilities. As my home theater was expanding, I needed more HDMI inputs and the ability to convert analog inputs to HDMI without the use of additional output cables to the TV.

While the 1019 would have been the logical choice for me (coming from the 1016), it provided more capability than what I required, since I will not require playing a digital source in a second zone nor do I believe in tasking a receiver with video scaling (that should be the domain of the TV or input source, such as a Blu-Ray player). As such, the 919 fit the bill. I did consider the Onkyo RC-160, but have never liked how hot Onkyo receivers seem to run, and was discouraged by some early professional reviews indicating sound quality that wasn't up to par.

Set-up wise, the 919 is a snap if you've dealt with other Pioneer receivers. I had previously done installations with both a 1019 and 819, and as such was versed in the setup of current Pioneer VSX lineup.

The Advanced MCACC does an admirable job of calibration, on par with Audyssey, but like Audyssey, still required some fine tweaking of the center & subwoofer levels, along with the crossover frequency. I will note that it correctly identified the size of all my speakers - something the MCACC on my 1016 did not do.

With a Sony S350 outputting bitstream to the 919, it correctly identified and ostensibly decoded the requisite HD formats, producing a sound quality that seemed to be a level above what my 1016 was capable of - even my wife remarked on the perceived difference! The difference was subtle, and could be attributed to the way each receiver was calibrated, but it was still noticeable.

The iPod/iPhone interface is something special, not only because an adapter cable itself is included, but that that adapter cable hooks into a non-proprietary, can-be-found-anywhere USB port. Kudos to Pioneer! If you ever lose the cable, I'm sure you'll be able to find a relatively cheap knock-off replacement here on Amazon.

A special note about the iPhone/iPod interface: on the 919 and 1019 it is graphically based, but on the 819, it is completely textual and rather displeasing to the eye. Something to take into account if that is important to you.

I was initially hesitant with the 919 due to its MUCH lighter weight and more compact package as compared to my old 1016, but I'm now suitabily impressed. Overall, the 919 is a great buy, especially since you can find it for $350 or less as of the writing of this review. The only improvement I would make is to add one more HDMI input.

I ordered one of these and ended up returning it because I could not get any HDMI video/audio to work. My original purchase was from the "Amazon Warehouse Deals" department which are used items. I figured it was not tested correctly and was busted so I returned it.

I then decided to order it new (costing me an extra $50). Once I got it I hooked it up and the same thing happened. For the life of me I could not get HDMI to work. I am by no means an AV guru but I have hooked up other systems before and to me it's not brain surgery to at the least be able to get a picture and sound. In any case I was at the end of my ropes, I was going to return it again and go with another brand when I decided to do some more research in a last ditch effort to resolve this issue. I found a review of a different brand receiver where the guy mentions that he had problems with HDMI and to make a long story short he found in his user manual that it stated he needed to use "category 2" HDMI cables. I wikid this and found that there are a few different versions of HDMI cables one of which is category 2 or "high speed" HDMI. Up until then I thought that all HDMI cables were the same. The last time I read up about HDMI was over a year ago so things have apparently changed since then.

Anyway, I checked the Pioneer manual and no where did I see a reference to needing to use high speed HDMI cables. I checked the Pioneer website and FAQ and saw no mention of the need for these cables. I had tested the cables I was using by directly connecting them to the TV, bypassing the receiver so I know my cables were working. I however noted that my cables were not "high speed". I decided to buy a pair of category 2 HDMI cables and try again before returning this receiver. Once I hooked this up using these high speed category 2 HDMI cables I was able to get video and sound.

I have not spent much time using my receiver so this review is based solely on my experience thus far. My opinion is that Pioneer has seriously dropped the ball by not including this HDMI cable information anywhere. I am very surprised that there have not been any other complaints on Amazon about this (I think I only saw one other person with a similar problem), must be everyone is buying these high speed cables now. There is no excuse to not at least mention somewhere in their manual or website that if you have problems with HDMI that it could be because the type of HDMI cable you are using, especially if they REQUIRE that you use this type of cable.

I hope this post helps others that may have this problem not have to go through what I have had to go through.

I will add to my review once I've actually experienced my receiver in actual use for a while.

My $1200 Denon blew up after a year which is when I discovered that the large local chain I'd bought it from was not an authorized dealer and thus my 2 year warranty was worthless. Got a Sony DN1000 but the HDMI inputs didn't work and the Customer Service sucked.

This AVR sounds at least as good as the Denon using it bi-amped with my ancient Polk SRS3.1tl front speakers.

Features and drawbacks have been well documented by others. The manual is virtually worthless, but most of the functionality is intuitive, the rest just takes a little patience and luck.

I can't believe you can get this much AVR for so little money. For a hundred and fifty bucks more you can get the 1019 which has one more HDMI input and one more coax digital input but is otherwise IDENTICAL. I figure if I really need that fourth HDMI I'll buy a twenty dollar switch. They're just cables, they aren't magical.

One other note, it's a half inch narrower than all my other components (16.4 vs. 16.9), so Anal Retentives of the world beware.

This is a great receiver, especially for a newbie like me. Setting it up was very easy and the sounds is great. I opted for the 919 over the 1019 since I don't plan on using more than 3 HDMI ports. I have a Dish Network DVR and a PS3 which is the CD/DVD/BluRay player. I run HDMI cables from the DVR and the PS3 to the AVR and one from the AVR to the TV, that's it. The only thing I will add is an Xbox and there would be nothing else I could possibly need - hence the 919 version is perfect, plus you save about $100 this way.

As much as I wanted to rate it 5 stars, there are a few things that take away one star. Small quirks, but far from perfect.

* The manual is almost useless. That said, I had no problem setting the system in less than 15 min., wiring excluded.

* There is some feature that turns off the power to the sub if no bass is fed for a few minutes, then turns it back on when bass is fed. Maybe not a big deal, but prepare to hear a lot of clicking (On and Off) from the sub, especially if you use the AVR to listen to TV. I am not sure if I can turn it off.

* Sometimes when I start the TV or switch between TV and DVR I would lose sound. Since it happens every now and then and I have not changed anything in the meantime - the problem is not in my set up. The only thing that fixes this is restarting the AVR. Obviously this takes away from the rating of the 919.

* Every now and then an "HDCP Error" would display when I turn on the TV. Everything seems to be working just fine. The manual says that this error could be displayed even if nothing is wrong. Still, it makes me nervous...

* Does not support Zune. This really bummed me out, I was hoping to use the USB to connect my Zune, but it doesn't work (maybe it's not FAT). I did put a few songs on a cheap USB thumb drive and they played just fine.

For the life of me, I cannot find the EQ. As I said, the manual is quite useless and not much is being said on the forums. (If anyone can help, feel free to comment on my review).

All those things are relatively small, but bothersome and that's why it doesn't deserve a 5-star rating. That said, it offers an amazing sound when watching movies. I replaced a $500 Panasonic HTiB with this and now I hear sounds I've never heard before on the HTiB (my wife would often look through the house window when doors are being closed far away in the movie's background:), you hear every sound, and it's very clear (and loud if you want to).

Bottom line: If you don't mind the few setbacks, this is a great buy!

I was looking to upgrade my surround sound receiver from my Yamaha YHT-380 Home theater in a box due it's lack of HDMI connection's and the feeling the receiver wasn't quite putting out the sound quality I wanted. I spent a lot of time browsing, reading reviews and product specifications on various mid range receivers and settled on this one due to it's overall higher customer satisfaction ratings and I can absolutely see why, it is an amazing receiver for my needs.

Setup - Setup was easy considering I had the speaker's already setup taking the only time consuming step, running the speaker wires out of the equation. Hooked up my Dishnetwork ViP722 DVR HD Receiver , PlayStation 3 120 GB , and Xbox 360 Elite Winter 2009 Lego Batman / Pure Bundle to the HDMI connections ran a single HDMI cable to the back of my Sony BRAVIA XBR KDL-32XBR9 32-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV then plugged in the setup mic included with the receiver and off I went. The on screen GUI came up immediately making running speaker auto setup quite painless. The speaker setup took about 10 minutes playing tones of various quality from each speaker and my subwoofer once it had finished I used the on screen GUI to quickly and easily rename the inputs of my plugged in devices. I highly recommend keeping the manual next to you during setup and referring to it often to ensure a smooth setup it's a little long winded in sections and contains a lot of input/sound settings to sift through, but I guess that is one of the issue's with a system that does so many different things. It is however entirely easier to read then my previous Yamaha system's manual.

Sound - As I previously stated I felt my old receiver was not producing the best sound I could get through my speakers and I was absolutely correct the sound quality out of this system, even through sup-par speakers is mind blowing. The low's are low and clear of distortion which can be said of all the sound produced even at max volume. The sound while playing Star Trek (Three-Disc +Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] through my PS3 is astonishing. Playing Modern warfare 2 on my 360 is equally incredible with each sound being clearly produced, even down to the sound of individual shell casings hitting the ground. And music anywhere from Flogging Molly to Johan Sebastian Bach is lush and pleasing to the ear.

Video - Using a single HDMI connection to my LCD is very nice and the video quality is just as good as if you plugged each device directly into the set. I haven't had time to see what my Nintendo Wii look's like so I cant speak to how well component/RCA connections fair when played through HDMI, but if it is anywhere near the quality of the rest of the receiver I have nothing to worry about.

Construction - The unit is about as large as my previous Yamaha, but just feels a lot more solid. It does get a little warmer then my Yamaha, but not by much and as long as you keep it in a ventilated area heat should not be an issue. The front panel Button's and volume/tuning knobs feel great and work as intended, but unless your remote dies you really wont need to use them.

Remote - The remote is really my only gripe with the system, it's rather large, but feels good in the hand and feels well constructed the issue is the button layout feels a little messy and confusing. Roughly half the button's have secondary uses which I encountered using my Yamaha's remote, but there were not nearly as many. I am assuming it is due to the fact this remote can be programmed like a universal remote to run your entertainment system, but even then the location of the controls for "TV" feel awful and small compared to the rest of the remote. If your only using it to control the receiver it may take you a while of sitting down and playing with it to figure out how to use each feature, but at least the manual is helpful in this regard again read the manual or you may end up lost. One thing great about the remote though is the small slider at the base of the remote to switch from "main" to "zone 2" speakers which if you have a second set of surround speakers setup in another room makes it easy to switch between the two, compared to having to physically toggle between each zone on my old receiver.

Overall - I highly highly recommend this system for someone looking to upgrade an older receiver whether they be looking for HDMI input's or amazing sound quality this receiver has it all and is reasonably priced. I don't know if I could recommend it for a new user though as it may be overwhelming and the manual is only easy to understand due to my past experience with my Yamaha system and will more then likely overwhelm a new user. It is however the perfect mid range unit for my uses and again the sound quality even out of sub-par speakers is ear drum blisteringly perfect.

I recently purchased the Pioneer VSX-919AH-K, which replaces an older Pioneer receiver without HDMI connections. The new receiver seems to be every bit what I expected from the folks at Pioneer. It has enough clean power to fill my living room and more. It has 7.1 channel surround sound, which goes well with my Premier Acoustic speakers. The auto MCACC calibration was easy to use and I am happy with the result. This receiver has a lot of bells and whistles which I will never use, such as the ipod and Sirius capabilities; also the 7.1 channel analog audio input. If I had a complaint, it would be that this receiver tries to be all things to all people. If the rear panel were cleaned up a little, the speaker binding posts wouldn't be so cramped for space. I highly recommend using single bananna plugs because the posts are too close together for dual bananna plugs and makes bare wire very cumbersome. I purchased a new 42 inch lcd tv along with this receiver and hooked them both up together. Adding my Pioneer DV400 Dvd player, all with HDMI connections, and the result is nothing short of spectacular, both audio and video are beyond my expectations. Way to go Pioneer!

I am extremely happy with this product, and I'm very glad I didn't buy the Onkyo or HK I'd also considered. I wish I'd found this one, and all the positive reviews (and negatives on the others) sooner, as I spent far too much time researching and making sure I had the right one! This is the right one for us (and for most folks, I suspect). My prior receiver was an HK that cost 3x more, weighed 2-3x more, and didn't sound nearly as good. The surround on my prior-gen HK AVR635 was muddy compared to this Pioneer VSX-919AH-K. A few years back I'd also had a previous generation Pioneer Elite that cost a lot, and this new (and inexpensive!) toy is far more useful due to advances in technology. For the first time, surround actually works well enough for me to use it. I'm a bit of an audiophile, and I have a stereo-only rig for that; I actually got the VSX919AH-K for a media room for my wife. She loves TV and movies and has a pretty discerning ear, so it's a tough test to pass. She loves this thing. Once it was set up and she heard it she became very enthusiastic about the sound quality, how clearly she can hear dialog on both TV and movies, and all the convenience features (2nd room, etc.). Happy wife means happy me, so that's a win! I used the manual set up, which was quick and painless. Reviewers are right; the manual is very nearly useless. Fortunately, the default settings on most things work entirely adequately (you do need to do the speaker set up, either manually or auto), although there are so many features one could play with it for ages if one were so inclined. For TV, movies, and FM it's outstanding even with just minimal set up and the rest on default settings. The remote is a bit confusing, with so many modes and buttons, but I think it is better suited to a "power user" who has learned many of the functions. Kids could easily change some of the not-so-obvious settings with this remote, leaving the system in a suboptimal configuration that might not be noticed but which was less than pleasing. A universal remote, without all the rarely used buttons of the unit's dedicated remote, may be a good complement if that's an issue for you. I found the VSX919 a better value than the VSX1019 (which has a fourth digital input and somewhat better video upconversion). Reviews indicate you can get much better video upconversion in a good new Blu-ray player, so it's really not important in the receiver. Blu-Ray players, and upconverting capabilities in general, are still evolving so fast that spending more on the 1019 to get capabilities that are already marginal just didn't make sense to me. OK, on to sound quality! Stereo sound is good for the price, but a finicky user with high end tastes and fancy speakers and sources won't mistake it for anything but a good consumer unit. The sound tends more towards clarity than warmth or smoothness to my ears, but that's normal for mass-market solid state gear. I think this is a pretty good example of that, and a great value at the price. More than that, if you're in need of a home theater style receiver with a range of inputs, a ton of functions, and good surround...well, you'd be hard pressed at this price to do better than the VSX919AH-K.