Pioneer Elite SC-71 (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I'm somewhat surprised to read some of the other reviews of this receiver, and even more surprised at the prices it sells for. In my opinion, the Pioneer SC-71 is one of the best values in the Home Theater market. And, while it's apparently true that Pioneer won't honor the warranty on Internet purchases of their receivers, I couldn't pass up on the savings. I wanted to purchase from Best Bye, but as they refused to price-match the SC-71, the difference in prices was too great to ignore.Anyway -- if you think you should be able to plug in your receiver, connect the wires and components, adjust the bass and treble, and be done with it -- you're probably looking at the wrong receiver. Some of the critics of this receiver are critical of the complicated setup, and it's true, this receiver takes some time to understand, master, and optimize the settings. If you aren't willing to put some time and effort into it, you're right -- this receiver probably isn't for you. However, I can promise that if you put a little time into it, maybe even download the user manual before the unit arrives and read through most of it, you will be rewarded with a great receiver that will likely last you a very long time. This receiver is capable of performing everything I want my receiver to do -- and then some!Late last year, I installed a Panasonic plasma ST60 in another room, and after several trials settled on a DVDO Air3 wireless transmitter to get the signal to this TV. My previous receiver would supply the signal, but only if I kept the receiver performing the same function in the other room. For example: to watch Tivo on the "remote" TV, I had to watch Tivo on the transmitting TV. Not any more. Now, I can listen to music on one, and watch Tivo on the other. As far as I'm concerned, that's worth the price of the upgrade alone!Setting up your equipment sounds complicated, but it's not as bad as it sounds. The MCACC system is very similar to Audyssey used on other brands. If you don't like the results, you can tweak or override on manual settings. Again, not something you will probably know to do instinctively, but if you read the manual, you will figure it all out.The only negative I have about Pioneer receivers is the need to purchase separately a Wifi and bluetooth adapter. I wish these were included in the box. If I had paid full price, I'd be more bothered by it, but since the price on Amazon was so low, I could purchase the adapters and insurance for less than the unit costs in the brick and mortar stores. Pandora and Spotify are now native on the receiver (with latest firmware upgrade), but with the Wifi adapter and bluetooth, you can stream essentially anything to this device and expect it to sound great. This is a big receiver, with big power. If you're willing to invest a little time learning how it works, you'll be happy with this receiver.I highly recommend the SC-71 receiver.

After setting up the unit and running it's automatic calibration it really sounded pretty good for movies and video games!Music was a bit different, though. Stereo sounded fine, but the "EXT STEREO, which should send a stereo signal to all speakers equally seemed to emphasize the center and fronts and left the surrounds and rears almost silent. Turning off MCACC made the volumes closer, but still the rear speakers were very quiet, and I was never able to get them where I wanted them, even using a separate profile that mode. It was very disappointing, as I had used similar modes on other receivers from Yamaha and Onkyo and they did exactly what I expected and wanted with just a push of a button. The mode also was not selectable if the source was sending a stereo signal over HDMI in a format identified as multichannel. For example, my computer was set to 7.1 channel output and I wanted to play some music (stereo), but I could not choose "EXT STEREO" because the receiver saw a 7.1 channel format. This had worked fine with an Onkyo receiver I had previously used.Overall, I felt my use resulted in too much switching between settings (having to change the calibration profile every time I changed listening modes). 6 calibration profiles made that a lot easier, but it was still annoying.HDMI switching was fine, though I could not find a way to access HDMI #6-8 directly. They could not be assigned to another input, and the remote only had a button to cycle through HDMI 4-8. An android app to control the receiver proved to be a much better remote control. The App may be the best part of this receiver, and if you have a compatible model, I would recommend you try it.Video conversion was something I never used because I only used 1080p sources on a 1080p television. I would have eventually used some older sources, but the receiver failed before I could try them. The options for video conversion were very limited, however.The power off/HDMI pass through worked fine.Then on day 30 the display read "AMP ERR" and the unit could not be turned on again. Pioneer customer service helped me reset the receiver by telling me to hold "Zone 2 on/off + Tune down" with all of the speakers disconnected, and then reconnecting the speakers one at a time to find which speaker was causing the problem. The receiver powered up normally without speakers and with all 7 speakers for another week, but then the error occurred again. I then got the error with no speakers connected, indicating it was a problem with the unit.Pioneer then refused to provide any further service because I had purchased an "Elite" receiver through an online retailer. (Fun fact: there are no authorized online retailers for Pioneer Elite products!)So anyone considering this receiver for its strength in movies and video games, be aware that there is no included warranty and that the square trade warranty is a really good idea.