Pioneer VSX-521 user reviews
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User reviews1
Daniel Peixoto Martins 24 August 2012
Good: Very clean sound, great for movies and very flexible. Decent for music, even better than I would expect
Bad: Bit complicated to operate
Comment: Bought this product on low expectations as I tried it out on the store, hooked up to an iPod and d«thought the sound was not all that great.
Bought the one sold in kit with the speakers.
When I arrived home, installed it in place and finally turned it on after MCACC did it's job it was a hole different thing. With speakers set in place and at hear level and after MCACC, it sounded great with rich sounds.
Was particularly impressed by how the music sounded as typically home theatre systems are rubbish for music.Great for acoustic performance and unplugged like performance and very good on my 80's collection. Could be better while playing Murray Head «One Night in Bangkok» as the speakers are not intended for music playback I do miss some of the middle tones, in that particular song it is best to keep the sound only on the tv (Philips 7000 so good sound there anyway) than to use the A/V system. Great bass, nice treble but it lacks something in between. I know changing front speakers for 3-ways (or even 2-ways) wooden speakers would solve the problem.
I wish it was a bit more simple to operate and to set as all the different settings might be a bit confusing for rookies. On the other hand MCACC does a pretty nice, simple job in calibrating the hole system.
Currently using it hooked up to a Western Digital TV Live media station via optical cable (HDMi directly to tv) and DVD player also connected to it via optical.
Don't care about HDMI capabilities as my Philips LCD as enough ports and it is actually easier to select them at the TV than on the amp.
Lack of a good on screen menu is a let down and and the writings next to the buttons on the amp are difficult to read but I only use the remote anyway.
Plan on constructing a complete system around this amplifier and in future connect a nice dedicated CD player to it and maybe change speakers.
The looks and aesthetics of the beast are great and it really does look much more expensive and goes nicelly with my Philips big screen.
Very happy with this set and if it happens as usual with Pioneer it will last for a lot of years to come.