vsx-21txh just purchased!

Very nice! Congrats on the new toy.

I do ,
The Elite receivers make surprisingly good preamps. I think your in for a treat. The Rotel rsp1068 has a slight advantage on 2 channel analog reproduction but if you go full digital , I prefer the Pioneer.

I used my SC-07 as a preamp when I still owned my Dynaudio speakers. I thought it sounded better then the Rotel for movies and damn close for music. Sometimes I actually liked it better for music. The Ipod connection your going to love if you have an Ipod(not many people don't these days) if you do , start recording all your music in Apple Losseless , you'll be suprised how damn good it sounds using those kick **** Wolfson DAC's on board of the ELite. Even the entry level 21 has killer sound quality.

I have compared the last 5 years Pioneer Elite receivers to everything on the market. Side by side sound quality wise they can not be beat at their price class. Pioneer is amazing here. I'm so impressed with their sound quality I can live with there very few short comings. In the custom world there is a few features I wish they had but when you listen to anything you forget all about that.

Once you get it all dialed in , I'd like to read a review. Good luck selling the Rotel , it's a great unit. I loved it when I owned it.

I had the Pioneer VSX-21. I returned it to Best Buy about 2 weeks ago. I bought it to replace an older Pioneer Elite VSX-81TXV which didn't decode lossless audio. HT comprises about 75% of my listening. After running MCACC on the 21 I realized I liked the sound of the older unit a lot better.

Maybe the MCACC just needed to be tweaked more. But as I began doing that I realized the remote would not power on the unit about 75% of the time. Turns out this is a known issue( check the AVS user thread)..not sure if Pioneer is working on a fix. I wound up returning the unit.

I am now waiting for the EMOTIVA UMC-1 to arrive on Monday. The UMC has a number of issues ATM (supposedly I am getting an updated one). If I decide to return I'm not sure what I will do. I may revisit the VSX-21 again.

YMMV

mantis wrote: »

I have been Installing Pioneer ELite receivers for over 11 years. Never once did I come across a factory remote not working a receiver. Not once not never. Which model are you referring to?

I have Installed both the 21 and the 81 many many times and again never ran into this.

It was the VSX-21TXH. If you check the VSX-21 user thread on the AVS forum you'll see a lot of people are reporting this power on issue. It doesn't happen all the time...It seems the longer the receiver sits powered down the more likely it is that the remote will not power up the receiver. The power button on the receiver itself always works. For some people its no big deal.

YMMV

Concerning the remote power on issue, the remote control doesn't matter. The issue is in the receiver and seems to affect enough units that pio has acknowledged the problem. I know of one person locally who returned their 21 because of it. I own the 23 and do not have the power on issue.

The 23 is used as a pre/pro in my rig and found it to be a better performer compared to the yamaha it replaced.

I replaced my trusty 54tx with the 21txh late last year to gain HDMI functionality. I have never used the internal amps so cannot comment there. I have not had a single issue with the 21txh, just like the 54tx before it. I use a harmony one but still occasionally use the supplied remote as I dial in the harmony and no issue with either.

Sound wise to me it is very close to the 54tx but the 21txh is better at bass management with the standing wave control. CD playback is where I see the biggest difference. This is due to my last CD player being an old, very bright, Yamaha without a digital output. Now I use my blue ray player to send a digital signal to the Pioneer and the sound is much less fatiguing. Overall I am very happy with this unit. If I did not have external amplification though I would move up to the digital amp version.

You got a good deal on it, if it's from an authorized dealer. I paid almost 600.00 from my local Best Buy