Denon, Pioneer Elite, or Onkyo?

[Jim L]

I just received my Pioneer ELITE VSX-92TXH yesterday.

It took me a while to hook up everything and run the calibration and to program the inputs and remote settings.

It is very nice looking and sounding. The sound quality is every bit as good and powerful as my old Denon was. Maybe a little more laid back and definitely not harsh, but a smooth neutral quality, which is what I definitely want.

The MCACC settings that the auto-calibrate chose are more conservative than I like, but a good starting point. So I had to tweak it a bit. Also, for some reason it considers all my speakers (fronts, CC, SR, SL, and SB) as LARGE. The bass was way too weak so I over-rode that and set them to SMALL. My sub can fill in the low end very nicely.

I listened to most of my SACDs again and it is nice to have that feature again, but this time through the PS3 and the HDMI cord.

I like the onscreen display and the front panel and the remote. Now I just have to program some macros.

Originally I was thinking of selling my old Denon AVR-3805 on eBay, but I just got the idea of using the pre-outs of the Pioneer and bi-amping my mains and center channel with it. I've heard it is awesome for music, but I don't know.