Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver (Black)

Comments about Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver (Black):

Great buy. No complaints. Great video output!

Comments about Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver (Black):

This Pioneer AV receiver has met all my needs. i have the home theater set up in my main room and a second amp for the patio and other rooms in the house. It replaced a much more expensive Rotel unit that had many issues after three years of use, i am much happier with this product. the easy set up including the easy speaker set up was great, and it sounds fantastic.

Comments about Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver (Black):

Most excellent receiver for the price.

Comments about Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver (Black):

I bought this receiver to replace an older VSX816K. My expectations were very high since I loved the sound quality on the 816, but needed multi-zone capability. This unit did not let me down.
I have my DVR, DVD, and TV plugged into it and a set of Polk Audio RM6750 speakers driven by it. It took me about 1 hour to get my old receiver unplugged and this one plugged back in its place.
Connectivity - No problems at all.
Setup - I used the Advanced MCACC mic to detect the speakers and configure them appropriately. The system kept stating that my left speaker and center speakers had the '+' and '-' wires crossed - which they did not. I was able to ignore the message and keep going. It took a little tweaking, but the sound quality is now great!
I love the new unit and feel it was very good value for the money specially since B&H had it on sale, but it has a few cons
- The small plastic cover on the front of the unit that covers up the USB port etc should have either been a sliding door or not there at all. It serves no purpose other than to get lost.
- Remote should be backlit
- User manual is contradicts itself and is confusing. However, the unit itself is pretty intuitive.
- Crossover for the subwoofer not granular enough.

The purchase experience from B&H was also great! You have to be patient though since the unit does not seem to be readily available all the time.

Comments about Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver (Black):

I searched Atlanta and finally found one as an open box. It is amazing. Anyone who complains about the complexity of setup and the remote should have bought an HTIB, (or spent 3 times as much money, if they are not into value).

Comments about Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver (Black):

It's mystifying why Pioneer would emphasize the appearance of its receiver and its iPod connectivity, and then make those two features totally incompatible. Instead of letting you plug your iPod dock into the back and leave it sitting next to or on top of the receiver, Pioneer forces you to remove a door and have a wire dangling out of the front of your sleek, glossy receiver all the time. And what do you do with that panel you just removed? Throw it in the kitchen junk drawer? Missing front panel + dangling wire = junky-looking setup.

The receiver has only a finite number of source connections on the back, so why doesn't it have an input-selection button for each source? If you want to watch a DVD, you should be able to press the "DVD" button (since you're already standing there, having put the DVD in the player). But nope, Pioneer forces you to turn a wheel and go through the entire list of inputs while reading text on the display to determine the right one. They don't even show a list of inputs in the display with an arrow pointing to the current one, so at least you could turn the knob in the right direction. This defies decades of receiver design, as well as common sense.

The receiver's HDMI output suffers from a major technical flaw, especially unforgivable on a product that touts its video-conversion features. The on-screen menus are output only in 480i, which is not compatible with many HD monitors. This was Pioneer's explanation for why I'm not getting any menus on my Apple Cinema Display, although it did indicate a signal. As far as I know, there aren't any SD monitors or TVs with HDMI inputs. Why on earth would Pioneer output only SD signals, when HDMI allows the receiver to query the display for its resolution?

Then they emphasize the analog-to-HDMI conversion, but fail to provide S-video inputs. Why wouldn't you want to start with the highest-quality signal from your analog source? The unit's going to have to separate the signals internally anyway, so why not provide a connector for already separated signals?

The poor documentation for this receiver is already pretty legendary if you read reviews, and the poor communication continues into the menus. As a result, people have encountered major problems assigning the digital ports to certain inputs; they find that the inputs they want are greyed out in the menu. It turns out that you have to disable "Kuro Link" to free up those inputs. Pioneer inexplicably fails to note this in the menu.

Don't assign anything to the "Aux" input though; this one is simply missing from the remote control. There's a space amongst the other input buttons where it could go, but it's not there.

The channel indicator does not illuminate correctly. According to the manual, it's supposed to tell you which channels are being received through a digital input, but it shows zero channels received when playing stereo audio from CD, DVD, or computer. Pioneer support says that this indicator "may not show anything" if you're getting a two-channel signal. So what's the point? And the manual is simply wrong?

The lack of phono input will obviously only concern people with turntables. It's a little lame, but forgivable given the fraction of users that'll want to use a turntable.

In summary, we have a lot of potential here that's sadly wasted by bad design decisions and a lack of testing. It also reveals how superficial and poorly executed most "reviews" are, since I've yet to read one that noted these problems. Plugging in some speakers and running the automatic EQ routine doesn't constitute a review.