THX Select, DTS and Dolby Digital, ^ Channel input, Pre outs

Flimsly Top

I must say that I am impress with the Pioneer Elite. I had returned a Denon 2800 because the Pioneer Elite has a better look, sound and s-video switching.

I am glad I went Pioneer.

Similar Products Used:

Denon, Onkyo

power, value, aesthetics, feature full, sound quality, enormous amount of inputs, remote, balanced quality for both audio and video purposes.

none noted for the price I paid. This is worth far more than $395.

Technically speaking I am not a true audiophile but I do have a discerning ear for good quality sound. I enjoy my music and videos. I cannot say how pleased I am with this purchase. The sound is full and clear, I hear no hiss. I think I put together a nice system with this receiver, the highly rated philips magnavox 825at DVD/cd player, panasonic hifi vcr, proscan television (five years old when the picture quality was excellent and they have since been unable to duplicate), polk rt10 main speakers(no regrets whatsoever with any Polk purchase), polk cs175 center and r10 rears. I am very pleased and spent time listening to a $20,000 pair of speakers at Harveys and God knows how much the amplifier cost and I can honestly say that my set up satisfies me to no end. You can spend an unlimited amount of money for bragging rights and to feel a part if an exclusive club but with a receiver such as this you can build an awesome system and invest the difference. I used this site to solidify my purchase decision and I thank all of you for your knowledge.

Similar Products Used:

Technics, JVC

slick looks, very good programmable remote, build quality

quite big, poor output signal on LFE out

Overall this receiver is a very good performer. Matched with my Klipsch KSB 2.1 fronts, KSB 1.1 surrounds, SC-1 center and KSW-12 sub this performs pretty well as a home theater setup. This receiver provides enough power and handles my sensitive speakers really well. When watching movies I can only stand -15 db on vol and that setting they still provide clean articulated sound. The soundstage of the 24TX is a bit narrow so speaker placement is critical. The DD/DTS/THX decoding is top notch and provides enveloping sound - Avia test results gave smooth transitions between speakers with no holes in between. Again i would like to note the problem I encountered with the weak sub-out of the receiver. That's why i was forced to use speaker inputs for the sub and set sub to "NO".

The sound quality on stereo mode is warm and accurate. Listening to audio CDs would normally be at -32db and provides smooth "live" sound.

The remote is really good. Manually programming specific button functions on your other devices is really easy. Then from there it will be your best buddy.

A really great buy at $650 dollars.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 555 ES / JVC 558

Sharp appearance

Too many to list!

After reading numerous rave reviews I decided to Audition this reciever. My first impressions were relatively postive. Sharp looks, nice displays, lots of features. All very nice if looks are more important than quality!

I purchased my 24tx over a denon 3300, and a marantz 7000, and a sony 777ES. Out of the box everything was fine. Once all of my equipment was connected, and I started to listen to this through some very pricey B$W speakers I was instantly appalled by the amazingly poor sound quality of this unit. 90 watts of power on an "Elite" reciever sounded about as good as 80 watts on a low end technics. I think that this reciever is about as good as pioneers regular line of recievers, which isn't saying much!

To make what could be a very long story short. A friend of mine recently purchased a Sony 777ES and he allowed me to use it with my system to do a little side by side comparison. I was blown away by the superior sound of the 777. Without a doubt there is no comparison between the pioneer Elite and the Sony 777. The 777 also has bass management features that I think would be very beneficial. True there is no THX, but this means nothing to me because all THX is, is a logo for George Lucas to make more money


Good luck with you Elites. I now have a real reciever.

Eugene

Similar Products Used:

Sony ES, Denon, Marantz, and Harmon Kardon

Great remote; incredibly smooth sound; price!

Physically, it's way too big.

My first real hi-fi receiver. I replaced my JVC-1028VBK with the 24TX. The difference in overall sound quality is almost laughable. Where the 1028, all 130 WPC (yeah, right) of it, attempted to beat me to death via brute force, the 24TX tends to envelop me with its smothness. What an amazing difference! Don't take my word for it. All you need do is take a listen to this receiver side-by-side with any other of your choosing.

Similar Products Used:

JVC-1028VBK; numerous other upper mid-fi and entry level hi-fi receivers.

Pre-Outs, Remote, Build quality, sound,

None at all

This was my first purchase in which I was able to spend more than I wanted to get a quality receiver. When push came to shove, the Pioneer had more features then the next competitor.

I was seriously looking at the Onkyo and the Harman Kardon AVR500. After listening to both extensively, I decided to go with the Pioneer and I have yet to regret that choice.

The unit screams style, and the build quality is what I would expect from the Elite line of receivers. The unit weights 32 pounds.

The remote control has learned all my other remotes. Now I have one remote for all my needs.

The sound quality is what I would expect from units costing at least 3 times as more. It has a warmth to the sound that is music to my ears.

I truly recommend that you give this receiver a chance. You will realize as I did that that when it comes down to it, all that matters is the sound, and Pioneer has been able to achieve that level of excellence.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Sony, Technics, Onkyo

AC3, DTS, THX certified. Great sound. Not incredibly expensive.

Remote could use some work.

A nice A/V receiver. I was looking at the pioneer-608, jvc-888, sony-835. I couldn't find them in any stores with nice listening rooms. Read some great reviews on 24TX product and hunted it down. It's a step up from the above listed models in quality and price. Paid $615 (including shipping) from AVI Electronics.

The box itself seems/feels more substantial than the cheaper receiver. The sound (music) is nice and clean. It has a number of nice DSP modes for surround effects on stereo music. For theater it has DTS and dolby digital (ac3). It is THX certified - which basically means that it has a DSP mode that you can apply over pro-logic or dolby digital that matches some THX specification.

The remote is multi-function. I've successfully programmed all of my components onto it. It uses predefined code tables for various components which can be overridden (key-by-key) by learning from another remote. A few stupid things about the remote: play is RED, stop is GREEN, record is BLUE. Also, the buttons which would be used for "jog" on a VCR are at the bottom of the remote while FF, RW, Play, are at the top of the remote.

It has switched power outlets on the rear (conspicuously lacking in the pioneer 608 model). It has bunches of inputs/outputs. Digital inputs are assignable per component.

When you first set it up, there's about a 30 minute process for setting all of the surround parms. This is done using on-screen (TV) displays and stepping through various setup options.

It's missing a separate tone control for the rear and center channel speakers.

Apart from a few annoyances on the remote, I recommend this as an excellent receiver for the price.

Clean amps, excellent digital processing, ergonomics, price, remote, feature set, build

soundstage, especially in stereo (see below), slight hiss, backlight on remote could stay on a bit longer

After I had the hum problem with the Onkyo TXDS777(B) (see my review on that board), I had to try another receiver. I really didn't want to give up the THX Select certification of the Onkyo, so that narrowed my choice to this Pioneer. The exchange was handled perfectly by Joe (ext. 708) at Sound City in NJ.

After living with the Pioneer for a few weeks, I have decided to keep it. I have no hum problem at all (and I didn't change anything besides the receiver, so I know the problem was with the Onkyo after all). In my listening room with my speakers, the Pioneer has plenty of power to cleanly fill my room with sound. Compared to the Onkyo, this unit sounds completely different - in some ways better, in some ways not. It is clean and offers more detail, especially in the higher frequencies, than the Onkyo, but it does not sound bright, IMO. The low end, through my powered sub, is ample and clean.

My only dissappointment is with the Pioneer's lack of ability to create a smooth soundstage. My room does not lend itself to optimum speaker placement, but the imaging I got with both Onkyo units (with the same speakers) was far superior. For some reason, vocals that should be center-stage are focused in between the center point and the right front speaker. My workaround is to use the center channel to anchor vocalists by using the Jazz DSP mode and dropping the effect level down 30 db. This is not required on all recordings, though. Also, it's easy to locate the speakers with your eyes shut - the sound is obviously originating at the speakers. The Onkyo helped the speakers become less obvious.

For movies, this unit is awesome. Excellent DPL, DD and DTS (I just watched Dances With Wolves - DTS - highly recommended). No problems getting the right digital mode to work as others here have complained. The THX setting works well on bright soundtracks (Blair Witch, for example). The DSP modes are suprisingly useful. If you lessen the effects somewhat, the sound can remain natural, yet add some subtle reflections to give a sense of space. Just for kicks, I tried a theater mode out on a DPL VHS tape. I didn't care for the effect, but it really sounded like the local Multiplex - lots of reverb.

Plenty of in/outs, great, lighted remote that's easy to program. Good FM section. No crosstalk whatsoever. Some hiss at high gain settings, but it's no worse than the Onkyo. It feels as solid as the Onkyo, which is saying a lot. It does run a bit warmer than I'd like, but it doesn't get hot, just warm. I also have it set for 6 ohm speakers (as per speaker owner's manual). Unlike the Onkyo, I assume that this setting is limiting the amp to the rated 8 ohm output of 90 w.p.c. Again, it's plenty powerful for me, but those of you with more demanding speakers or bigger rooms should move up to the VSX-27TX, which is rated into 6 ohms, and has no adjustments for speaker resistance. Also, using a powered sub helps. One particularly welcome, and apparently rare feature, is the Pioneer's ability to adjust all 5.1 channels on the fly, with or without the on screen menu. Also, Bass management is useful - I have no trouble running my mains full-range AND getting plenty of output from the sub. To those of you who have trouble in this area, try the "Plus" setting on the setup menu - it seems to allow you to run full-range mains WITH the sub.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this receiver and the engineering that went into it. Considering it can be had for under $700, I think it deserves a 5 star rating for value, and a 4 star rating overall. It also looks great, IMHO.

BTW, I plan to replace speakers next, but I want speakers that image like crazy - any suggestions? I'm hoping speakers that image better than what I now have will help the Pioneer create a better soundstage.

SYSTEM:

Pioneer Elite VSX-24TX
Front Mains: Pre-historic JBL Radiance 133 towers (circa 1980 - 10" 3-way, plus passive 10" - sound ok, but hope to replace with timber-matched system)
Center: Polk CS100
Surrounds: Small Altec Lansing Bookshelf (5.25" 2-way)
Sub: Def Tech PF15 (1995) - awesome
Toshiba DVD - 2109 - awesome
JVC 3600U S-VHS VCR - a bargain
Toshiba Hi-Fi VCR (circa 1989) - won't die
GE HiFi VCR (dedicated to time shifting)
Teac cheap-o CD player - not as bad as you'd think
Onkyo TA-2600 Cassette Deck - 10 yrs old - built to last
Kenwood Graphic/Paramentric EQ (don't worry - I only use it smooth out over-bright CDs!)
Monster Standard 16 AWG speaker wire
Monster Subwoofer cable
Sima SCC S-video color corrector
Toshiba 4:3 55" RPTV (circa 1994)

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo TX-DS 777(B), Onkyo 515 Pro (DPL)

Clarity of sound, sound separation, ease of use

None so far.

I just purchased this product a couple of days ago and I'm definitely blown away by it. My old home theater rig was composed of a Technics 720 reciever, a Technics DD/DTS 500 series outboard decoder, Carver Cinema 5.1 series speakers and subwoofer and also an Audiosource subwoofer. With the Pioneer VSX-24TX my speakers never sounded so good. Now, when I listen to dvd's it sounds as if I'm in the picture enveloped by sound where before with the Technics it sounded more like I was eavesdropping on the picture. Even though the VSX-24TX gives up 10W of power to my old Technics sytstem it doesn't seem like it. In fact, it seems like the reverse is true.
The clarity of the VSX-24TX is defintely levels above my old Technics. DVD's that I've seen five times over seem like totally new movies with the VSX-24TX. I've also noticed considerable video clarity since I ran my dvd player( also a Pioneer) through the VSX-24TX.
The best part of it is that I only payed $800 dollars for it and it's the best $800 I've spent in a long time.
To conclude, if you want a great A/V reciever for under $1000 dollars you definitely can't go wrong with the VSX-24TX.

Similar Products Used:

Technics 720 receiver and Technics DD/DTS decoder

Clarity, definition, remote, THX

Size - too deep

I bought this receiver to replace my 508, which wasnt cutting. This baby can really rock the house, no matter if is with music or with movies, it´s 10 times better than the 508. The dsp was mostlly annoying, I usually listen to music in stereo and to movies in the standard or thx setting.
I was looking for a receiver in the range of 550-650. I consider the denon 2801, but with the realeability issues brought by the reviews of the 2800 model in this site, this one was quicklly dismissed. I also consider the yamaha 995, which was 630,00 but I hated the remote, and the unit sound too bright for my taste. Other was the new pioneer model, elite 33, this one was for 630,00 also, but it had less power and a cheaper AD converter. So the choice was obvious, although I believe it will soon be discontinued, for 599,00 its the best bang for the buck.

Similar Products Used:

pioneer 508, yamaha 995