AV Receiver Reviews

Pioneer Elite VSX-52 A/V Receiver HT Labs Measures

HT Labs Measures

Five channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads:
0.1% distortion at 88.5 watts
1% distortion at 109.2 watts

Seven channels driven continuously into 8-ohm loads:
0.1% distortion at 77.8 watts
1% distortion at 90.0 watts

Analog frequency response in Pure Direct mode:
–0.23 dB at 10 Hz
–0.07 dB at 20 Hz
–0.05 dB at 20 kHz
–2.69 dB at 50 kHz

Analog frequency response with stereo signal processing:
–1.74 dB at 10 Hz
–0.50 dB at 20 Hz
–0.42 dB at 20 kHz
–27.70 dB at 50 kHz

This graph shows that the VSX-52’s left channel, from CD input to speaker output with two channels driving 8-ohm loads, reaches 0.1 percent distortion at 108.7 watts and 1 percent distortion at 136.8 watts. Into 4 ohms, the amplifier reaches 0.1 percent distortion at 164.5 watts and 1 percent distortion at 211.2 watts.

There was no multichannel analog input to measure. THD+N from the CD input to the speaker output was less than 0.045 percent at 1 kilohertz when driving 2.83 volts into an 8-ohm load. Crosstalk at 1 kHz driving 2.83 volts into an 8-ohm load was –91.98 decibels left to right and –97.12 dB right to left. The signal-to-noise ratio with an 8-ohm load from 10 hertz to 24 kHz with “A” weighting was –105.28 dBrA.

From the Dolby Digital input to the loudspeaker output, the left channel measures –0.21 dB at 20 Hz and –0.46 dB at 20 kHz. The center channel measures –0.16 dB at 20 Hz and –0.34 dB at 20 kHz, and the left surround channel measures –0.15 dB at 20 Hz and –0.34 dB at 20 kHz. From the Dolby Digital input to the line-level output, the LFE channel is –0.03 dB at 20 Hz when referenced to the level at 40 Hz and reaches the upper 3-dB down point at 117 Hz and the upper 6-dB down point at 120 Hz.—MJP

Video Test Bench
The Pioneer performed satisfactorily on our video processing tests. It was just a bit slow to lock onto the cadence in the analog 2:2 HD test. It failed to properly deinterlace 2:2 SD in both analog and digital (a failure it shares with many AVRs). Its chroma resolution could have been better, and on the analog scaling test, it showed significant rolloff at 6.75 megahertz.—TJN