Home > Consumer Reviews > Pioneer VSX-1016TXV-K 7.1 Channel Audio/Video Receiver

Great sound quality. I bought this in early 2007. I have it setup with some JBL speakers for a 7.1 surround sound and the sound quality is really good. After using it for a while it still fools me sometimes. If the door bell rings in a movie I still find myself turning to check my front door.

8-17-07 PURCHASED THIS RECIEVER AND IF PIONEER DIDNT ENABLE THE HDMI AUDIO, THERE WAS A REASON! AS IVE READ OTHER BRANDS INCOUNTERED HMDI BUZZING AND NOISE ON X-BOX ECT: AND OTHER DEVICES, SO HOOKING UP 1 MORE CABLE WAS A SOUND ISSUE AND THE HDMI PASSTHRU WORKS FINE ANYWAY! IVE BEEN USING GLASS SONICWAVE FIBRE OTICAL CABLES ON SET TOP BOX,PS3 AND QUALITY SOUND REPRODUCTION W/ZERO AUDIBLE DISTORTION AT HIGH POWER IS ALL ANYONE CAN ASK,ADD EQ USER SETABLE AND AUTO SETUP MIC,13 CUSTOM SOUND FIELDS,AND ALONG WITH THE DTS,ES DOLBY DIGITAL AND SO ON AND 7 CH STEREO MODE WHICH I LIKE FOR CD&XM-FM AND CPU ALSO ALL THE INPUTS-OUTPUTS BI-AMPING WHICH I DID FOR THE INFINITY BETA 20S AT THE REAR,DISTANCE PROBLEM! SUBWOOFER OUTPUT HAS STRENTH EVEN WITH SPKRS SET TOO LG. IM USING A SPLITTER FOR A 7.2 SETUP,ONLY THE CENTER SPKR IS SET TOO SMALL! ONE WELL DESIGNED AND CONSTRUCTED UNIT,I NEVER WENT FULL POWER!! 9DB LEFT TO GO AND I COULDNT BELIVE THIS UNIT WOULD BE THAT LOUD,NO SUBS DURING TESTING OF COURSE,STUFF WAS MOVING ON TABLES,NO DISCERNABLE POPING,CRACKING,HUM,NO BAD CONNECTIONS SHOWED UP,HOLDING ONE EAR I CUT IT DOWN AND STARED AT IT,WOOOSH WAS MY HONEST RESPONSE!LATER I LEARNED HOW TO ADJUST THE EQ AND TRIM BUT THE AUTO SETUP IS BETTER THAN MINE SO I ADJUSTED A LITTLE BIT UP ON THE REAR TRIM AND SLIGHT INCRESE IN HIGHS! YOU CANT GO WRONG ON THIS UNIT! ALL THE SETTINGS WERE USER FINE,DENON SEEMS RATHER INVOLVED IVE READ OR DOWN RIGHT FUSTRATING! BETTER TO SET THIS RECIEVER ON TOP OPEN SHELF IF YOUR LIKE ME! IVE BEEN ABLE TO ADD,CHANGE CABLES ANTENNE EASILY BUT ITS UP TO YOU! IVE FOUND DIGITAL EQUIPMENT IN SOME CASES WORKS FINE IF YOUR IN THE RIGHT MODE FOR ADJUSTING FEATURES, THAT IS IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHICH FEATURES ENABLE YOUR SETTINGS AND REPLACES DEFAULTS! GET A CORDED BASE PHONE WITH AS MANY LABLED BUTTONS AS U CAN FIND,NO KIDDING!CANT BELIVE THE 1016 MODEL IS AVAILIBLE! ESTIMATED MY PIONEER RUN TIME AT ABOUT 25,000 HOURS@2-22-09 ,MY INFINTY BETA50S FR.AND 20S REAR,AND BIC HT-63 SIDE DO MATCH UP WELL, ALSO TIMBRE IS MATCHED SOMEHOW BY THE MCACC SETUP AS BEST ANY EQ CAN!IVE REALLY EVJOYED THIS UNITS MANY SOUND FIELDS AND A BIG ROOM HELPED ME PLACE THE SPKRS AT 13FT DISTANCE FROM ME AND FRONT SPKRS! A 10" VELODYNE SUB IS NICELY MUSICAL BUT THE JBL 10" SUB GETS REALLY LOW AND SHAKES STUFF ALL OVER THE HOUSE,OF COURSE THE REMOTE ADJUST THE SUBS TOO BUT, NOT SEPERATELY,TUNING SUBS TAKES TIME,IVE TAMED THE JBL! COMPONETS LIKE THE 1016VSX ARE THE REASON COMPONETS HAVE ALLWAYS BEEN BETTER SYSTEMS THAN A DVD-TV COMBO OR CD-TAPE AMP UNIT OR BOSE UNITS YOU CANT ADD ANYTHING BUT A BOSE COMPATIBLE WHIZZ BOX TO IT! PIONEER REALLY DESERVES SOME ACCOLADES ALL AROUND!! NOW IF THERE PLASMAS WERNT SO EXSPENCIVE I WOULDNT HAVE A PANASONIC, BUT HEY YOU CANT HAVE EVERYTHING RIGHT! BUT GET ONE OF THESE 1016 AND YOUR SET FOR A EXPERENCE OF ENORMOUS SATISFACTION IM SURE!IF YOU WANT FREE INTERNET RADIO THRU THE 1016,I JUST USED A STEREO 1/8"ADAPTOR TO RCA CABLES INTO ANY STEREO INPUTS LIKE CD L&R ON BACK OF UNIT!IT WILL OUTPUT 7CH STEREO OR SEVERAL SURROUND MODES ALSO!! SOUNDS AWESOME EVEN 64K STATIONS! USE THE HEADPHONE OUTPUT FROM THE COMPUTER IS ALL YOU DO! ANYWAY THE 1016 HMDI ISSUE ASIDE A DIGITAL AUDIO COAX MAY BE THE OVERALL BEST WAY OVER THEM ALL AS I PAID $130.00 FOR GLASS,THE OPTICAL POLYMER TYPE WORKED FINE BUT THEY DISCOLOR OVER A LONG TIME AND MAYNOT BE AS GOOD BUT THERE CHEAP! NEVER LOST A SETTING OR ANY PROBLEM W/REMOTE OR THE 1016 ITSELF THAT SAYS ALOT! IF THE 1018 UNIT IS AFFORDABLE YOU MIGHT CONSIDER IT THE STRONGER SMARTER COUSIN OF THE 1016! BUT ITS HERITAGE IS THIS MARVELOUS 1016 AND IM GLAD I HAVE ONE,I DIDNT EXPECT ANYTHING THIS GOOD WHEN I BOUGHT IT,I HAD A JVC 5.1 UNIT THAT COULD WARM MUFFINS LIKE A TOASTER BUT THIS 1016 RUNS LUKE WARM ONLY!! PLEASE DO READ THE INSTRUTIONS ON THIS AND TAKE YOUR TIME ,OUT OF PHASE SPKR CONNECTIONS ARE IMPOSSIBLE ON THE UNIT IF YOU USE THE PHASE CORRECTION BUTTON! FIXES ITSELF! THATS COOL!!

It produces great sound and has some really great set-up features. The range of possible inputs is only missing VGA inputs. The only problem is that it's difficult to get it to realize which inputs it's seeing; but if you keep at it, the results are absolutely worthwhile. That is, if, for example, you have difficulty programming a VCR, don't even think about buying this box.

Well worth the time it took to get this receiver setup. I wouldn't call it PnP as you do have to do some thinking to get it to work with what you want to plug in to it. I've had it about 8 month now and do enjoy it. The hardest thing is remembering what you got (CD DVD Cable box exc.) plugged into which button. Then the remote is a maze of buttons to remember what they are doing.

Overall, this is a great receiver. But it has been very frustrating dealing with the limitations of the connections, primarily that HDMI is for pass-through of video signal ONLY.

Don't get your hopes up about having just one HDMI cable to connect your various devices to/from this machine...You still need to make separate connections for audio; the HDMI connections on this unit are for video signal pass-through only. This means not only extra cables and possibly a significant drop in audio transfer quality, but also can cause your cable connections to fill up rapidly. There are 2 HDMI in ports, 1 HDMI out port, 3 digital optical in ports and 1 digital optical out. To connect 2 DVD players (say one regular and one HD), a VCR, a CD player, a plasma/LCD and a projector can overwhelm your options for connections if they are all designed for digital transfer of audio and video. I had to buy an external HDMI switcher to accommodate outbound HDMI links to plasma and projector.

Speaker setup is also less than ideal and I needed to purchase a separate switch box to allow me to control my separate speaker zones. The additional wiring was not difficult but this unit should make it easier to switch between speaker settings on-the-fly.

Overall, the sound is fantastic and there ARE many in and out ports available. Certainly a great value. I do not know of anything better in this price range. I just wish Pioneer engineers had thought it through a little more before releasing this item, allowing for more digital connections.