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Top positive review

The best value receiver on the market

Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2018

TLDR: The Pioneer LX501, now that it has been cut from $1,000 to $520 at time of writing, is THE best value receiver in the industry, beating out the STR-DN1080 (no 4 ohm support, lower-end components). The nearest comparable receiver is the Yamaha RX-V685, and based off of pure specs, this LX501 demolishes it with much higher output power at similar THD. Keep in mind, however, this receiver needs a future update for Dolby Vision, has only three HDCP 2.2 inputs, so only those support 4K. But overall, this receiver is fantastic, rivaling even Sony's legendary ES series.

For a new home theater upgrade, I purchased the pair of Pioneer Elite bookshelf speakers, the Elite center, and a BIC Acoustech PL-200 II, paired with this Elite LX-501 receiver. I plan on upgrading to 5.1.2 or 7.1.2 in the future with some lower end in-wall speakers (check out theseBIC America HT8W 8-Inch 3-Way Acoustech Series In-Wall Speakers, 1 Pair). Overall, I highly recommend my setup to anyone building a new home theater. Once configured, the audio output is fantastic, giving the low rumbling bass to shake the house, fantastic mids with dedicated drivers, and very clean highs. If you want a great value audio system to demolish a similar setup (like the Sonos 5.1 setup, I've listened to it, it's terrible for movies and only decent for music) for the price of just $1600 including receiver. Or, for a completely Atmos-ready surround sound setup, buy the in-wall rear speakers mentioned above, and get 5.1.2 for $1720 or 7.1.2 for $1840. I will link my other reviews soon at the bottom of this review.

A receiver is possibly the most important part of your audio setup. Even if you have the best speakers money can buy, your $200 Costco 2-channel isn't going to cut it. Sure, you can get decent audio, but no futureproofing, no high quality, low volume, etc. The Pioneer Elite series has some of the best receivers on the market. After some research, the LX501 was one of the cheapest quality receivers capable of 4 ohms (so it could drive my Elite speaker set), Atmos, and 4K HDR. It works EXACTLY as expected, nothing to fiddle with, straightforward setup. It has high quality components (the heavier, the better for receivers) and has many useful, hidden features (for example, when it's in standby, it can pass-through HDMI so you don't wake up the neighbors with your audio and just use the built in speakers for your TV or projector.) The remote isn't great, which sucks. AirPlay and Chromecast only support audio, which sucks. However, being able to ask Google to play nice music on the Home Theater, even when the receiver is in standby, is super convenient. Not to mention the plethora of inputs, good UI and, best of all, fantastic sound!

Love this receiver, buy it for a great experience!

Review links:
To be added

21 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Danimal

Nothing "Elite" About It, a true disappointment.

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2017

I've long owned pioneer receivers. Every ten years or so I upgrade to a newer model. My last model was a VSX-84TXSi and I still have it in my rec room. For 2005 it was rock solid and delivered, and still does. A few months ago I decided to buy a newer model for my main entertainment center and as my main audiophile stereo. This model advertised it was "iPod and iPhone ready."
The first thing I noticed is that this model is lightweight and feels insubstantial. The wood end pieces from the VSX-84TXSi days are gone and this newer model sports a cheap, lightweight, metal case without wood trim. However the real problems lay with what is inside the unit. First of all (and you don't find this out until you have actually read the instructions) "iPod and iPhone ready" means that you may stream the contents of your iPhone via bluetooth only. As and audiophile, I was eager to connect my iPhone to the usb port of this unit and and use it as an outboard DAC for Apple lossless files, like one used to be able to do with older elite models. Bluetooth is poor for audio transmission and this model won't accept a wired connection from an iPhone or iPod. I should have returned the unit at this point, but instead decided to connect my iPod classic using a Pro-Ject Dock Box S for transport and keep the receiver.
After installation I noticed that when one is watching cable television the receiver emits a loud "click" when the audio source switches formats from surround to stereo. Given that many commercials are in stereo and many televisions shows are in surround, an evening of watching television sounds like listening to a metronome with the receiver clicking away numerous times during every commercial break. My old VSX-84TXsi switches between audio formats silently.
This unit also only has one USB port on the the front of the device so if one wished to connect a USB hard drive to it to store and play digital audio files, there's no way to connect the drive to the back of the unit.
So, no wired connections and can't use the receiver for as a D/A converter for high-quality losses playback from iPhone or iPod, loud clicking noises emitted from the receiver during audio format transitions (which are frequent during commercial breaks), only one USB port on the front of the unit, and lightweight, cheap build. For $1,000there is nothing "elite" about they this unit and I regret purchasing it. I'm hoping they restore support for wired iPhone and iPod playback and eliminate the loud clicks emitted during audio format changes with a future firmware update, but feel this is doubtful. This will be the last Pioneer product I will purchase as their quality has declined a long, long, way over the years.

19 people found this helpful

0 total ratings, 85 with reviews

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From the United States

skrish

The best value receiver on the market

Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2018

Verified Purchase

TLDR: The Pioneer LX501, now that it has been cut from $1,000 to $520 at time of writing, is THE best value receiver in the industry, beating out the STR-DN1080 (no 4 ohm support, lower-end components). The nearest comparable receiver is the Yamaha RX-V685, and based off of pure specs, this LX501 demolishes it with much higher output power at similar THD. Keep in mind, however, this receiver needs a future update for Dolby Vision, has only three HDCP 2.2 inputs, so only those support 4K. But overall, this receiver is fantastic, rivaling even Sony's legendary ES series.

For a new home theater upgrade, I purchased the pair of Pioneer Elite bookshelf speakers, the Elite center, and a BIC Acoustech PL-200 II, paired with this Elite LX-501 receiver. I plan on upgrading to 5.1.2 or 7.1.2 in the future with some lower end in-wall speakers (check out these BIC America HT8W 8-Inch 3-Way Acoustech Series In-Wall Speakers, 1 Pair ). Overall, I highly recommend my setup to anyone building a new home theater. Once configured, the audio output is fantastic, giving the low rumbling bass to shake the house, fantastic mids with dedicated drivers, and very clean highs. If you want a great value audio system to demolish a similar setup (like the Sonos 5.1 setup, I've listened to it, it's terrible for movies and only decent for music) for the price of just $1600 including receiver. Or, for a completely Atmos-ready surround sound setup, buy the in-wall rear speakers mentioned above, and get 5.1.2 for $1720 or 7.1.2 for $1840. I will link my other reviews soon at the bottom of this review.

A receiver is possibly the most important part of your audio setup. Even if you have the best speakers money can buy, your $200 Costco 2-channel isn't going to cut it. Sure, you can get decent audio, but no futureproofing, no high quality, low volume, etc. The Pioneer Elite series has some of the best receivers on the market. After some research, the LX501 was one of the cheapest quality receivers capable of 4 ohms (so it could drive my Elite speaker set), Atmos, and 4K HDR. It works EXACTLY as expected, nothing to fiddle with, straightforward setup. It has high quality components (the heavier, the better for receivers) and has many useful, hidden features (for example, when it's in standby, it can pass-through HDMI so you don't wake up the neighbors with your audio and just use the built in speakers for your TV or projector.) The remote isn't great, which sucks. AirPlay and Chromecast only support audio, which sucks. However, being able to ask Google to play nice music on the Home Theater, even when the receiver is in standby, is super convenient. Not to mention the plethora of inputs, good UI and, best of all, fantastic sound!

Love this receiver, buy it for a great experience!

Review links:
To be added

21 people found this helpful

Helpful

Djtatami

Awesome entry-level "Elite" Receiver...can't beat it at this price point for the features!

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

Purchased the Pioneer SC-LX701 to act as the center of my home AV setup. The SC-LX801, SC-LX901 both have more power so I was concerned I was missing out on something, but they are $100's more. At normal listening volumes, the SC-LX701 works fine for my needs. I was more interested in a basic 5.1 setup and additional zones for audio. I would recommend at current price points ($1300) as it just gives you a lot of options if you want the full setup, or are looking to expand over time. For me personally, the AV has a great balance for high-quality TV watching / occasional video games...but also supports the music enthusiast who wants occasional dedicated listening setup. Everything routes through the box now and with the ARC integration to newer HDTV's, I really don't see a need for any new hardware any time soon. One item I was looking for was SONOS support (you still need to a SONOS connect)..which Pionener added it in a recent firmware release. Now the AV can become part of the Sonos ecosystem and the full house can rock. A few highlights stand out for me...(1) The built-in networking features for music are pretty cool..especially when running through the AV they show the album covers on TV (2) At this price point, the multi-zone is awesome... and the Pioneer supports up to 3. Kids can watch a show, but you can route separate audio stream (radio, Spotify, to a 2nd/3rd zone) for background listening. There are some limitations with routing digital signals to Zones 2/Zone 3, but for most practical purposes, it works fine. (3) It's not quite a studio monitor, but sounds are detailed and crisp, I found that particularly for vocal/jazz music it's amazing. Rock/House sounds a little over-processed (maybe they just need to retain some natural distortion), but it's perfectly listenable...and the sound stage is quite clear. (4) Flexibility...it's great how you can reassign outputs so you can support lot's of different setups.. there are options galore...lots of HDMI, double sub outputs,..also the ARC works well with HDTV (although there is a little bit of delay in switching inputs)....overall, could not be more pleased at this price point. Great job Pioneer Elite!

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jason L.

Loud and crystal clear sound!

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2024

Verified Purchase

I bought this receiver for my 12” Cerwin Vega’s. It is amazingly loud and the music is crystal clear with no distortion. I had given up on newer receivers and thought my only option was to get equipment that was 30 years old or older.

Helpful

mkwok

Good product, good seller

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2018

Verified Purchase

MACC auto doesn't sound as good as Yamaha. After some manual adjustment, it sounds much better, as good or better than Yamaha depending on your listening. I don't care much with the preset scenes in Yamaha. This unit offers 4 custom settings with elaborate control for each settings. Not to mention excellent video quality. I didn't like the menu layout at first but I managed to get used to it. I received the product as expected from the seller unlike my previous purchase from a different seller of which I returned. Overall, great product at the $500 range but make sure you buy from a reliable seller like Walts TV.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

C. Dove

Excellent Sound Quality

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is an amazing amplifier. I bought this to replace an old Pioneer amp that I have had for many years. I was upgrading my entertainment cabinet and had to dismantle all my stereo components. I starting thinking about replacing my old Pioneer just because I have had it so long. Turns out I bought it in 1986 - 32 years old and still working other than the remote control. I didn't want to get rid of it because I still use it for my old vinyl record albums and needed an amp with a phono hookup. After doing a little research of what was available with phone jacks, I found this one. It is an excellent upgrade along with having phone connections too. I can connect my blu ray player, the TV, CD changer and even my old VHS player. The sound is excellent. It even connects blue tooth for music from my phone. And other plus that I didn't know it did... while I was on my desktop PC putting a play list together to create some new music to play on the CD changer, I saw a tab at the top of the media player playlist that I was working on. I clicked on it, and a drop down said 'Play to... then 'Cast to Device'. I click on it, and the drop down showed the Pioneer Elite SC-LX501. I thought, how does it know I have this? So I clicked on it and another window dropped down and populated the new window with the songs in my newly created playlist. I thought how cool is this? Then I thought, I need to go in the other room where the Pioneer is located and figure out what function I need to select to play the list... but to my surprise, the Pioneer came on my itself, and started playing the list... with great sound. So I use my laptop in the living room to send music to it when I want to listen. Also, the sound from movies from DVD is unbelievable. The first movie we watched had a scene with a shotgun being fired - my friends and I all jump about 3 feet off our seats. No regrets on this purchase. A very good buy. I would recommend it.

23 people found this helpful

Helpful

Danimal

Nothing "Elite" About It, a true disappointment.

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

Theo Espinosa

Horrible Sound

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

I'm having sound issues with this receiver. I purchased this 10/2018 for my new Man Cave and was confident Pioneer was the brand. I have another Pioneer receiver model VSX-1019AH, which sounds amazing. However, when I received this model, SC-LX501 Elite, I was having issues right off the bat. The mid-range and bass was severely lacking. So what do you do? Well, if your dumb like me, you run out and purchase another $1K+ in bigger speakers then find out you still have the same problem.

Problem:
The receiver is lacking mid-range and bass. I've turned, double bass on, cranked the volume up on my sub, turned down the center, etc., and nothing seems to work. While streaming or listening to TV, I'm able to hear voices, but they sound thin and echo, as if you're in a tunnel. I'm also not getting any background dynamic sounds. This is a pure 180 from my other less expensive Pioneer VSX-1019AH. No matter the source, TIVO, Roku, Apple, etc., it always sounds like I'm in a theater. However, this new unit sounds like an inexpensive soundbar. I've contacted Amazon and they suggest I work with the seller on this issue. Perhaps I received a defective unit. I'll update my review as this issue evolves. I'm really hoping I just received a defective unit and this is an easy fix.

12/13/2018 Update
Before sending this back, I contacted Pioneer just to be sure I wasn't doing anything wrong. They did verify I have this set up properly. Now for the issue. When running TIVO, Apple TV, and Roku, the receiver is restricting the sound coming from these devices. The sub barley engages and my right and left tower speakers are barley playing and don't fill in the mid-range sounds. However, "if" I play from a DVD or BlueRay, the sound is exceptional. Let me be clear, this is not typical. I have an older Pioneer that makes shows like Survivor, The Voice, Game of Thrones, sound like you're in a movie theater. Therefore, I have to believe this receiver isn't capable of taking the "streaming audio signals", and making them sound like Pioneer's older receivers currently do. Perhaps Pioneer's higher end receivers still do this, but this unit is pale in comparison the my 10 year old Pioneer receiver.

***Truth***
I doubt most people would notice this change. The only reason I noticed it was because I have another unit in the next room. Although we love watching movies, we mainly like streaming out favorite TV shows. Therefore, I'm going to keep this a 2 star because Pioneer is 100% capable of making a receiver that puts out superb sound for streaming as well as DVD and BlueRay audio.

12/19/2018 - I replaced this unit with an Onkyo receiver. Funny thing is the units looks identical to the Pioneer. Same remote, packaging, etc. I googled if Onkyo purchased Pioneer's receiver division, and sure enough, they did in 2014. After troubleshooting this a little more, I have to say the problem with the Pioneer not distributing decent sound using standard devices like Roku, Apple TV, Tivo, Chromecase Ultra, etc... Perhaps I had a defective unit...I just don't know. What I do know is all my problems went away when I replaced this with another receiver. My concern for anyone wanting to put an awesome system together is this...

If I didn't have another receiver in the other room, I would have had nothing to compare this to. Therefore, I would have thought it was maybe ok sound... HOWEVER, I did have a comparison, which is the reason I noticed the drastic difference in sound quality and was able to switch out the receiver for something capable of playing decent audio. Therefore, my suggestion is to BEWARE.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Classical Recording Collector

Classy Appearance. Good Sound Quality. Remote Easy to Use.

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

I've had good luck in the past with Pioneer Elite products, beginning with a LaserDisc player to earlier generation AV Receivers. This model looks classy with its door concealing many controls. It was easy to set up, though I'm only using 5 channels. Sound quality is good through some old Yamaha 890 4-way front speakers, an Elac center and ADS rear surround, though I don't have a subwoofer to challenge its power limits. The remote is easy to read and the 2 major inputs are well marked. Overall, I'm pleased with its performance, though I really tend to keep the volume at a comfortable level. It does place us in the center or rear center of the action, making movies on our 75 inch TV screen even more realistic.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

L Tomic

Needed a Class D amp capable of running 4 ohm speakers

Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2017

Verified Purchase

My first choice was the Sony STRDN1080 but was only rated for 6-16 ohm speakers. I needed something to run my 4 ohm Pioneer SP-EBS73 Atmos speakers. This one was on black friday sale so for a couple hundred more I was able to get this class D amp. All the other AVRs I found that would handle 4 ohms were much more expensive. I run 4 of the SP-EBS73 speakers, an ELAC Debut C5 center, and Polk Audio PSW10 sub in a 5.1.2 configuration. Everything was on sale and is a perfect setup for my small room. Great value for what you get. The sound is amazing but much prefer the Pure Direct mode to the calibrated MCACC. Much richer sound and better bass. I had issues getting it to recognize the ARC connection from the TV (TCL 55P607) until I ran the firmware update. The TV passes dolby and have heard it will pass Atmos from Vudu but have not verified. I have played several Atmos DVDS and sound is incredible. I do wish it would display the type of audio signal it is receiving (e.g. 5.1 vs Atmos) continuously instead of just in the beginning. Chrome cast is finally supported with a firmware update. All in all this is a great sounding receiver for the price, especially if you need something to push your 4 ohm speakers.

28 people found this helpful

Helpful

Ernie

As close to perfect in it's price range as I've seen

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2016

Verified Purchase

I was replacing an 18yo Pioneer Elite receiver so I had high expectations. So far so good! The sound is excellent, the self tuning feature works extremely well to my ears, and the HD audio processing is everything I hoped for. On the HD audio (192/24 flac), not only do my B&W's disappear and the stereo spread becomes extreme, but with just 2 speakers the the sound moves from some distance beyond the wall behind the speakers to around and behind my head. If you can't hear the difference your ears are broken! The on screen menus are good though an area where improvements could still be made. Nothing that in any way is a negative but a few areas where as a software architect I can't help but think of taking it further. If I had to find a negative it would be the auto setting (choosing stereo, surround etc) while watching TV switching over between what you're watching and commercials causes a momentary dropout and a click. It's not a big deal unless you're watching for the commercials but it is noticeable. I'm grasping there. This receiver isn't perfect, but keeping in mind the price, it's tantalizingly close. I think you'll spend a lot more just to equal the performance. My old Elite receiver in addition to lasting almost 2 decades, was also twice the price. This one is better in every way!

8 people found this helpful

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