AV Receiver Reviews

Before you buy the Pioneer or any other A/V receiver, you owe it to yourself to shake hands with it by grabbing the remote and checking out its operation. Unless you’re comfortable with the operating system, you won’t enjoy using it. And you won’t enjoy it if your significant other constantly whines and complains about it, either. That’s one reason I don’t recommend Internet A/V receiver shopping—or mail-order brides, for that matter.

Performance
Here’s where the Pioneer really excels. The receiver uses seven Bang & Olufsen–developed ICEpower Class D amplifiers. These efficient, switch-mode amps have an impressive level of clarity, detail, dynamic range, and power.

The receiver uses highly regarded Wolfson 192-kHz/24-bit DACs that produced smooth, rich, yet finely detailed music and movie sound. There’s also a PQLS jitter-reduction feature, which is only accessible via the HDMI Control Setup. What does that do? It “makes the HDMI control function settings.” I don’t know what that means, but when I selected it, it permanently cancelled all of the component video output settings I’d made elsewhere. (I use HDMI to connect Blu-ray to the receiver to access the lossless/uncompressed audio and output the picture via component video.) It turns out that this functionality can only be engaged when you use a compatible Pioneer Blu-ray player. I didn’t have one on hand during the review period.

In preparation for eventually watching The Dark Knight on Blu-ray (I’m waiting for the installation of a JVC front-projection system), I watched Batman Begins. I found the SC-07’s dynamic presentation to be nothing short of spectacular. The SC-07’s sonic punch will make you jump when the director wants you out of your seat.

These amps never ran out of sonic gas, even when ascending the most thunderous peaks. They could also instantaneously drop to a whisper without losing clarity or nuance. I didn’t think the Tannoy Highline Arena speakers I used could deliver that level of dynamic performance (they’re more of a lifestyle product, but a very good one). The Pioneer drove the Tannoys to ridiculously high SPLs with ease without sounding strained or running out of headroom on the Stones movie Shine a Light. Pioneer hedges the output specs, however: 140 watts per channel (20 Hz to 20 kHz, 8 ohms, 0.09 percent distortion) two channels driven, and 100 watts (1 kHz, 8 ohms, 1 percent distortion) all channels driven. On the other hand, when you watch a movie, how often does it simultaneously drive all the channels? Probably never, but this gives insight into the power supply’s capabilities.

As for the Batman movie, the director copped out on each and every action sequence by treating viewers to a series of confusing, close-up blurs instead of well-choreographed fight scenes. Are blurry close-ups and shaky cameras your idea of a good action movie? There was more action from the camera than from the actors. I was also struck by the subservient role the music played: awfully recorded and mixed well behind the dominant noise. Even during the closing credits with the noise gone, the music sounded thick, congested, airless, and suffocating. This was probably the fault of Pro Tools in the hands of the wrong music mixer, not the receiver.

When I switched to multichannel SACD (via the SC-07’s analog inputs), the Pioneer’s Class D ICEpower amps again produced excellent dynamics, clarity, and especially image focus on familiar recordings. If you like solid soundstaging and well-fleshed-out, three-dimensional, stable images, the SC-07 delivers. However, like all Class D amps I’ve heard, they also sounded somewhat dark and lacked the air, transparency, and full palette of harmonic colors that even modestly priced non-switch-mode Class A and A/B amps deliver with ease. I heard some gorgeous-sounding prototype Pioneer Class A monoblock amps at CES two years ago, so I doubt Pioneer’s engineers would argue with me on this one.

My Lexicon RV 8 can’t decode the latest surround sound modes or switch HDMI (and never mind that it cost $8,000 in 2005). When I returned it to the system, its discrete analog amplifiers produced a profusion of air, color, nuance, and supple instrumental and vocal textures that no Class D amp I’ve heard can match. Class D subwoofer amps? Unhesitatingly recommended. But above the bottom octaves, not so much. When you shop for a new A/V receiver, be sure to audition receivers that use both technologies.

Some listeners willingly trade some of the air, finely rendered textures, and transparency for the dynamic slam, rhythmic drive, sonic images delivered in sharp three-dimensional relief, and dramatic clarity that some Class D amps can produce in abundance. The Pioneer was no exception in this regard. In fact, the SC-07 may be the most dynamically assured A/V receiver I’ve yet reviewed.

Listening to movies was never less than exciting through the SC-07. Be sure to listen with each of the audio processing features turned both on and off since there are always trade-offs involved. These are similar to the video “enhancements” that most display devices offer. We know how many of those prove to be useful (like next to none).

For instance, the full band phase control produced the promised rhythms with crystal-like clarity but also resulted in some textural and harmonic loss—two things in short supply to begin with from this (or any Class D) receiver I’ve heard. Despite the trade-off, I often found it worthwhile, particularly with rock concerts (less so with acoustic music). You can easily run the system in Stream Direct, and “all unnecessary signal processing is bypassed.”

The receiver easily synched to my iPod Touch and displayed all of its playlists. However, when I tried to listen to a tune that the screen indicated was playing, I got nothing but hum. When I inserted a USB drive and tried to play an MP3, I got an “Incompatible Format” message. If I selected a JPG image, the front-panel readout just said “Loading” and never produced a picture on the screen. Perhaps the SC-07 is iPod compatible but not when you use it with a Mac computer? The manual is mum on this.

Conclusion
Pioneer’s SC-07 is a powerful, ultra-versatile THX Ultra2 Plus–certified receiver. Although its ergonomics aren’t stellar, (particularly the less-than-user-friendly remote control), the SC-07 offers a smorgasbord of useful features and unusual functionality (unusual at any price point), much of which you may never use. But given the receiver’s relatively moderate price, im-pressive sonic performance (par-ticularly in terms of dynamics), and high build quality, those extras are included free of charge.

Although I carped about the receiver’s ergonomic weaknesses, you can always substitute remote controls. Once you’ve got a handle on the system, and assuming you’re just going to be switching inputs and surround modes, the manual will end up where it belongs—on a shelf gathering dust.

The SC-07 deserves to be on any A/V receiver buyer’s short list if its implementation of Faroudja’s DCDi upconversion and processing is as effective here as it is on other receivers that use it. (I’ll leave that to the resident video expert; see the Video Test Bench.) If your room is a problem, the SC-07’s unusually wide range of corrective features should put it at or near the top.