Pioneer Elite SC-09TX - Manual (Page 3)

could only suggest New York City.
But there’s more to this disc than
noise. The dialogue comes
through clean and clear, perfectly
balanced, and with no audible
coloration. Ditto for the singing.
In an interesting twist, the cast
members actually supply the
instrumental accompaniment in
addition to singing and acting.
You have to see this to believe it.
The result makes for a fine demo
disc. The Pioneer ate it all up,
including the disc’s equally
luscious video.
Staying with music-related
audio/video sources, Legends of
Jazz: Showcase (Blu-ray) brings
together a wide variety of great
performances from, well, jazz
legends. It includes instrumentals
and vocals from Al Jarreau, Lee
Ritenour, Chick Corea, Clark
Terry, Jane Monheit, Dave
Brubeck, Ramsey Lewis, and
more. The Pioneer didn’t take a
wrong step on this multichannel
Dolby TrueHD recording. It’s the
best example I’ve heard of how
high-resolution audio together
with great video on great
program material can up the ante
November 2008 www.hometheatermag.com
with conventional two-channel
audio.
And the Pioneer didn’t
disappoint on some of the most
challenging soundtracks.
Transformers has a dynamite
soundtrack, in more ways than
one. The action, of course, is
spectacular. Thanks to the Blu-ray
re-release in Dolby TrueHD, the
extended battle at the end came
through with incredible clarity.
No one would call this soundtrack
laid-back, and the effects can get a
bit bright. But it was never
irritating through the Pioneer—at
least not at any volume I can
tolerate (and no one has ever
accused me of listening to movie
sound at wimpy levels).
For me, if an amp/speaker
combination can’t do justice to
the music on a soundtrack (and
not just the purely music-video
material mentioned above), it’s a
no-go. The Pioneer never had the
slightest problem with that
challenge on any of the films I
watched. It punched through the
densest mixes like Transformers
and did justice to the prominent
and beautifully recorded score on
The Nightmare Before Christmas
(Blu-ray, Dolby TrueHD).
Together with a good lossless
soundtrack, the Pioneer will give
you a new appreciation for how
important movie music is.
The Pioneer kept me happy on
two-channel music as well. Its
highs are silky smooth, its
midrange is clear and uncolored,
and its bass is powerful. If I had
any reservations, they involved a
bit of excess warmth in the
midbass. And I can partially
blame this characteristic on my
speakers and room.
For music lovers, the Pioneer’s
two iLink connections might be
its most exciting feature. I paired
the SC-09TX with a Pioneer
DV-79AVi universal disc player
(also iLink-equipped) and played
standard CDs, SACD (two-chan-
nel and multichannel), DVD-
Audio (multichannel), and
two-channel 24/96 CDs through
this connection. The Pioneer
reproduced all of these sources
with full bass management, and
the receiver’s front-panel display
showed the disc’s resolution (for
DVD-Audio and 24/96 discs).
Pioneer also claims that the
iLink connection uses advanced
anti-jitter circuitry. Its sound was
uniformly superb, although not
all of the higher resolution audio
recordings I tried sounded better
than the best CDs. As always, the
recording engineers’ choices are
more important than the format.
MCACC Me
Pioneer’s MCACC setup and
equalization system can be as
complex or simple as you make it.
Five channels driven continuously into
8-ohm loads:
0.1% distortion at 199.4 watts
1% distortion at 267.3 watts
Seven channels driven continuously
into 8-ohm loads:
0.1% distortion at 198.6 watts
1% distortion N/A-Protection
engaged
Analog frequency response in Pure
Direct mode:
–0.05 dB at 10 Hz
–0.00 dB at 20 Hz
+0.28 dB at 20 kHz
–1.47 dB at 50 kHz
Analog frequency response
with stereo signal processing:
–1.44 dB at 10 Hz
–0.40 dB at 20 Hz
+0.12 dB at 20 kHz
–1.92 dB at 50 kHz
T
his graph shows that the
SC-09TX’s left channel, from
CD input to speaker output
with two channels driving
8-ohm loads, reaches 0.1 percent
distortion at 200.2 watts and 1 percent
distortion at 268.7 watts. Into 4 ohms,
the amplifier reaches 0.1 percent
distortion at 390.1 watts and 1 percent
distortion at 523.4 watts.
Response from the multichannel
input to the speaker output measures
–0.05 decibels at 10 hertz, –0.00 dB at
20 Hz, +0.23 dB at 20 kilohertz, and
–1.54 dB at 50 kHz. THD+N from the
CD input to the speaker output was
less than 0.006 percent at 1 kHz when
driving 2.83 volts into an 8-ohm load.
Crosstalk at 1 kHz driving 2.83 volts
into an 8-ohm load was –106.32 dB
left to right and –107.00 dB right to
left. The signal-to-noise ratio with 2.83
volts driving an 8-ohm load from 10
Hz to 24 kHz with “A” weighting was
–106.05 dBrA.
From the Dolby Digital input to the
loudspeaker output, the left channel
measures –0.01 dB at 20 Hz and
+0.17 dB at 20 kHz. The center
channel measures –0.01 dB at
20 Hz and +0.19 dB at 20 kHz,
and the left surround channel
measures –0.01 dB at 20 Hz
and +0.20 dB at 20 kHz. From
the Dolby Digital input to the
line-level output, the LFE channel
is –0.01 dB at 20 Hz when referenced
to the level at 40 Hz and reaches the
upper 3-dB down point at 118 Hz and
the upper 6-dB down point at 121
Hz.—
mJP
Visit our Website
for a detailed
explanation of our
testing regimen,
plus a list of our
reference gear.
on the
web
pioneer elite sc-09tx a/v
receiver
Ht lab
Measures
PIoneer elITe SC-09TX A/V reCeIVer
tom disliked
the remote’s dim
backlighting but
notes that many
users will use a
separate custom
remote.