Pioneer Elite - VSX-LX505 9.2 Channel Network AV Receiver with Bluetooth - Black

Life long yamaha fan. Bought the pioneer to upgrade from Yamaha rx-A680. Could not be happier with the choice. Using it for my 5.2.2 setup. Main benefit of the pioneer is the addition of dirac live for free. YPAO was alright for room correction, but dirac blows it out of the water. The extra 45 watts per channel doesn't hurt either. Only 2 draw backs that i see is the inability to independently EQ both subs, and the analog looking orange display. Other than those 2 small complaints, couldn't be happier.

I recently purchased the Pioneer VSX-LX505, and I couldn't be more thrilled with my choice! Right out of the box, the build quality is impressive, with a sleek design that complements my home theater setup perfectly. The sound quality is nothing short of phenomenal. The immersive audio experience, especially with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, brings a whole new level of realism to my movies and music. The multi-zone feature is an added bonus, allowing me to enjoy different audio sources in various rooms. Setting up the receiver was a breeze, thanks to the intuitive interface and comprehensive setup guide. The calibration feature does an excellent job of optimizing sound based on my room's acoustics. Overall, the Pioneer VSX-LX505 is a powerhouse of a receiver that delivers on performance and versatility. This purchase has genuinely elevated my home entertainment experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone seeking an upgrade!

The Pioneer Elite VSX-LX505 is a feature-packed 9.2-channel AV receiver with excellent sound quality, Dirac Live room correction, and HDMI 2.1 for 8K video and gaming. It’s great for immersive home theater setups, but the remote control and speaker terminals could be better. Perfect for those prioritizing audio precision and future-ready connectivity.

So far so good on this. I bought an open box version to save a few bucks but everything seems in working order. This replaced an old Pioneer from 2004 that was a workhorse but just outdated. Initial setup was easy as well as tuning individual speakers more to my liking. The 4K upscaling shows as clear as a theatre picture on my Samsung and the IMAX/Dolby digital brings a whole new level of sound separation for each sound zone in my living room and provides enough power to really make my surround speakers shine. They’re a little older but still do the job well. Haven’t used the multi-room feature yet. My only issue is that the Bluetooth seems to be really spotty even if my phone is sitting right on top of the unit. At 15 feet away it just wouldn’t even connect which seems concerning. I also had some minor issue figuring out how to get audio from the optical cable (TV) to play on the receiver and had to play with the audio feedback to make it work.

TLDR: Update the firmware Use Dirac Live E-ARC with Atmos is great Use Dirac Live First things first, update the firmware on this unit, it did not work with my TV out of the box. Once that was fixed, my first impression with this unit was the bass out of my subwoofers sounded much wider and deeper than on my 11-year-old Sony STR-DN1010. So, we were off to a good start. Once all the speaker cables arrived, I proceeded to setup the 4 height channels on my ceiling. I fired up a bunch of Atmos titles on various streaming services and was impressed with hearing the sounds come from overhead. I started playing with MCACC at this point to try and fine tune the system. It did a great job of measuring the distance to my speakers from my listening position. I also did run the auto EQ setup. While it did adjust the frequency response of the speaker, it did not adjust the crossover points to the subwoofer like I had hoped. That is when I discovered that, while the Sony would allow me to set a frequency crossover point on a per speaker pair basis, this unit did not have that capability. Checking the EQ settings on the subwoofer, I was not thrilled to see that there was only 31hz and 63hz adjustments available when using an 80hz crossover point. While using a miniDSP UMIK-1 calibrated microphone and REW software, I had a hard time leveling out the frequency response of the subs to the speaker. Between the room gain and frequency tuning of my subwoofers, there was around 9db(aka twice as loud) in the 40-50hz range, and not having a granular enough EQ adjustment capability was not going to fix it. Enter Dirac Live, using their software on the computer allowed me to use the calibrated microphone. You can use it on your phone with the included microphone as well. I had three options for the sound stage, and I chose to setup the wide area option, which requested up to 17 measurement points. The software then measured all 9 speakers and the subwoofers at Once all those data points were collected it calculated the frequency corrections per speaker and crossover points. After that I sent the filter to the receiver, and WOW! What a difference. The sound stage is so much better than it was before, movies sound amazing. The bass sounds much deeper as the subwoofer's response has been flattened. The inclusion of this software on this receiver makes this a solid recommendation if you are looking to have a great home theater experience.