LX81 v RX-V1900

[admin_exported]

Afternoon all. After doing some thorough research I had decided upon the Pioneer LX81 to replace my old Denon amp. I was looking forward to WHF group test this issue and was pleased to see it come out the winner.

In the summary however, it said that the Yamaha RX-V1900 ran the Pioneer very close and I was wondering, is the Pioneer worth the extra money? I am planning to purchase a blu-ray player very soon too, so will that affect the decision making process? Cheers.

 

[Anonymous]

I am trying to decide between the Pioneer and the Yamaha RX-V3900, which was the one in the group test this month, and I though I would pick the Pioneer.

However I have read some bad things about the Pioneer having problems with the HDMI conections especialy with SKY HD, as Sky don't transmit 5.1 through the HDMI you have to have sound through an optical and picture through the HDMI which the Pioneer does not deal with well. It also doesn't upscale any HDMI inputs to 1080p (only analogue signals) while the Yamaha does.

I'm going to demo both on Saturday so I'll see then.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response. I seem to have missed any mention of the problems with Sky HD connected with the Pioneer. It's quite a concern as the HDMI and opitical two cable system is what I employ at the moment. Not too concerned wit the lack of upscaling HDMI to 1080p as I've got a Pioneer PDP-436XDE which only goes up to 720p

I'd be very interested to hear what you thought of both amps after hearing them. I may have to try and get a demo of them myself. Cheers.

 

[Andy Madden]

Hi Dougie G,

i assume you mean the RX-V3900 and not the '1900? Both are great machines and each has its merits. We did test the Pioneer with Sky HD and it had no problems with our Sky HD box, including switching the audio input to optical.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, how are we? I'm new to this forum (from Philadelphia US), and need some help. I've been trying to listen to both Yamaha 3900 and Pioneer Elite sc-05/07 (I'm guessing that the models are different overseas for Pioneer). I cannot seem to find a place that is able to do a side by side comparison. All my research has led me here, and seems like this is only place that seems to be pretty unbiased in the reviews. The speakers I have are Klipsch Icon wf-35's. They seem to be relatively bright (listen to music and movies 50/50). From what I head the Pioneer Elite receivers tend me brignt also, and Yamaha will bring that down .Any opinion is appreciated. Thanks, and sorry for the long message...

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, sorry for the not so good English. From what I heard Pioneer Elite receiver tend to be bright as well.

 

[Anonymous]

Andy, I'm not sure. If you read the Test Result on p99 it mentions the RX-V1900. Is this a typo and should it read RX-V3900?

Good news re-Sky HD and the Pioneer though.

Thanks.

 

[Andy Madden]

You're right Dougie G. It is a typo, and it should say RX-V3900 - many apologies, and rest assured the member of staff who missed it will be made to work through to the new year!

 

[Anonymous]

Andy Madden:
Hi Dougie G,

i assume you mean the RX-V3900 and not the '1900? Both are great machines and each has its merits. We did test the Pioneer with Sky HD and it had no problems with our Sky HD box, including switching the audio input to optical.

I heard that it does work with the optical input but you have to turn off the HDMI control for all the HDMI inputs (not just the Sky input) and this means you lose a fair number of features such as the OSD. Does that sound about right to what you guys found? Also do you know if the Pioneer can transmit simultaneously through both the HDMI outputs and upscale HDMI inputs up to 1080p as these are things I have read it can not do and would be something I would like?

Thanks for the info.

 

[Anonymous]

Andy Madden:You're right Dougie G. It is a typo, and it should say RX-V3900 - many apologies, and rest assured the member of staff who missed it will be made to work through to the new year!

Hi Andy. Boy you're a hard taskmaster! Surely, what with it being the festive season I should be in line for a prize for spotting the gaff? How about one of those Pioneer BDP-51 you just reviewed?

On to the amp, after a long discussion with the nice guys at Home Cinema Centre I plumped for the RX-V3900. Got the last one for £1100, no bad! Now it's a Blu-ray player. Am I right in saying that the lack of DTS-HD Master Audio deconding on the Pioneer 51/71 does not matter now that I have this amp?

Thanks.

 

[TheHomeCinemaCentre]

Hi Dougie, thanks for your comments. You are correct about the BD51, it will work just fine with the Yamaha with an HDMI cable between the two.

Nick

 

[Anonymous]

Dougie G:

On to the amp, after a long discussion with the nice guys at Home Cinema Centre I plumped for the RX-V3900. Got the last one for £1100, no bad! Now it's a Blu-ray player. Am I right in saying that the lack of DTS-HD Master Audio deconding on the Pioneer 51/71 does not matter now that I have this amp?

Thanks.

After a busy Saturday of looking at the Yamaha and the Pioneer I went for the Yamaha as well in the end.

It just had a couple more useful features over the Pioneer and seemed a bit more user friendly, as well as being £300-400 cheaper. I choice the Denon 2500BT Blu Ray transport to go with it over the Pioneer LX 71, which I also looked at, as I thought the picture was considerably better and with the Yamaha amp there is no ned for the player to decode any sound at all so why pay for the HD sound decoding twice.

 

[Anonymous]

giga:
I am trying to decide between the Pioneer and the Yamaha RX-V3900, which was the one in the group test this month, and I though I would pick the Pioneer.

However I have read some bad things about the Pioneer having problems with the HDMI conections especialy with SKY HD, as Sky don't transmit 5.1 through the HDMI you have to have sound through an optical and picture through the HDMI which the Pioneer does not deal with well. It also doesn't upscale any HDMI inputs to 1080p (only analogue signals) while the Yamaha does.

I'm going to demo both on Saturday so I'll see then.

I think it may have been my thread you got this from.
I'm glad to say that the problem was sorted regarding the HDMI/optical issue, just some confusion in the wording in the manual.
It deals with it fine once it is set up properly.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi giga. Good choice of amp

How are you getting on with your 2500BT? I'm considering getting one and I hope you're not having some of the problems I've read about in this forum. Quick question, does the 2500BT have multi-region DVD playback capability? Cheers.