Customer Ratings & Reviews

For starters, this device is fairly expensive. But, you will need certain features in a device to meet the needs of a decent to high-end home theater setup. A decent, name brand 9.2 channel receiver with 100+ watts per channel will be $1500 or more. This one has all of the newest desired features including 4k video scaling, Dolby Atmos, easy setup and all of the network access needed...11 channel processing using an external amp. The only drawback is price. I finally saw it on sale at Best Buy and decided to give it a try. So, here goes the story (a good one): I bought this home theater AV receiver after having Denon products for the last 20 years. I was really concerned about changing brands, however, i was able to find a Pioneer Elite product that met all of my initial requirements and i thought it would be at least as good as the Denon was. I have some electrostatic front channel speakers that are pretty inefficient and need lots of power and i wanted to configure the loft/tv room for 7.2.2 Dolby Atmos which this device can do easily and still have lots of power for each channel. I have it working so far with all but the 2 ceiling channels installed...so 7.2 and it sounds AMAZING! Plenty of configuration options, the auto setup with microphone is pretty cool...although I still tweaked the speaker levels and EQ after it was done. I used the network enabled setup screens also. This is good for anyone who does not like the ineffective input pages most devices provide. Assignment of inputs, editing of names and most other configuration items were easily done from my laptop and saved right onto the receiver...very nice! There is also Android version of iControlAV5 that is useful. The app is cool and can be used for viewing the speaker levels, distances and many other parameters (if you care). I would suggest using the network screens for most of the setup and then the screens on the receiver are easy to use for smaller changes. The receiver is a nice looking device and it has many light blue LED lights (of course) on the front for different indicators of various statuses. There is 3 levels of dimming to turn this down or completely off, if desired. The remote that comes with the receiver is pretty much like many others lately. it does all it needs to do with many buttons that take some getting used to, but based on the great features in the receiver, the remote provides access in a very learnable fashion. Just be patient! I am happy with this purchase. Lets see if it can last as long as the Denon...20 years and still going strong!

This receiver has plenty of power for 9 channels. It has Dolby Atmos, 4K ready, and 3D pass through. 8 HDMI inputs and 3 HDMI outputs for all your components. I don't currently have Atmos speakers, but I have Polk RTi9s, CSiA6, and RTi3s for surround and it sounds great.

Bought this to replace an Onkyo nr646, wanted a receiver that would put out full Dolby Atmos & Dts x. This receiver does both with your choice on using in ceiling or atmos speakers. Easy setup and use with Pioneer's remote control app. It allows full control and adjust of receiver. I am driving Martin Logan & Bowers Wilkins speakers and could not be happier with sound.

I just purchased this Pioneer Elite SC-97 to replace an SC-05 that was 7 years old. I needed to get my AV system ready for a 4K TV and one that could not only pass through a 4K video signal but but one that was Dolby ATMOS ready and had Ultra HD Pass-Through with HDCP 2.2. This one was on a great sale and I installed it yesterday. The setup with the upgraded MCACC Pro as compared to my SC-05's MCACC setup was much easier and the speaker sound field is better. This receiver has all the technology I will need over the next 4-5 years (I hope) and was a great buy.

Pioneer makes a superb receiver especially for the new Dolby ATMOS encoding

Pioneer makes a great receiver with the new Dolby Atmos encoding. The receiver works and sound great.