Home > Consumer Reviews > Pioneer VSX-1018AH 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver

I recently made the upgrade from my Pioneer VSX 1014TX-K 7.1 channel Receiver to this Pioneer VSX-1018AH-K. To be honest I was wondering if I would really hear a difference with DTS-HD 7.1 sound. I put in Oldboy on Blu-ray and let me tell you what a difference. The highs sounded so crisp and clean. The lows are incredible as well. Set up was extremely easy with the included microphone. You simply place the mic at your "sweet spot" and it will configure your speakers automatically.

It has 3 hdmi inputs that you can rename making it incredibly easy to operate. Tons of surround sound options to choose from. You can even play tracks off your flash drive. I agree the on screen menu looks like something off the commodore 64 but it works.

I recommend this to anyone wanting to expand into the high definition sound.

UPDATE DECEMBER 10TH 2008

Well I have had the receiver since August and I have 0 complaints. Everything is working perfectly. I have 7.1 sound here at the house all JBL except for the Acoustech 12" sub. Some of the movies I have watched with the DTS-HD soundtrack sound so real. The highs are so much brighter and clearer and the bass is dead on accurate.
I have a 4 gb flash drive full of songs I load up and let this thing play all day.
The temperature is hot but nothing to be worried about.

Anyways, if you have been thinking about buying this guy I highly recommend to do so.

I have purchased many Pioneer A/V Receives over the years, this is my 8th. I bought it for largely one crucial reason, HD! Although I have purchased many receivers, this one makes the biggest leap in technology because of HDMI up conversion and the HD audio formats. I also needed to connect 4 HDMI devices with only two connections on the HDTV, instead of buying a router I went ahead and put the money toward this critical upgrade.

I have been waiting patiently for years while Receivers finally caught up with ALL the new generation of High-Def video and audio formats, and Pioneer finally brings it to an affordable Receiver! Essentially, if you bought a receiver when Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS came out back in the early days of DVD, there has been no critical need to replace it until now.

Previously, most Receivers with HDMI were only pass-through and did not process or convert the HDMI signal. That means no sound and no up converting via HDMI. Even if you did connect digital audio sources, the Receivers could not handle the next generation audio formats. If you have a Blue Ray or HD-DVD player, you will need this receiver to take advantage of the sound formats, such as True HD, DTS-HD Master Audio, and all the other variations. You will also eliminate many audio cables if you are using HDMI devices since this will stream all audio and video content over a single HDMI cable.

It was easy to install and setup with an OSD menu to configure settings and assignments. This is a device that requires you to read the manual thoroughly in order to fully utilize all the features (which is part of the fun).

It goes without saying that the sound is brilliant, with some of the most accurate and precise processing I have ever heard from a receiver. Normally, I prefer an unprocessed signal since most processors are dreadful, but this is not the case here. Regardless, I generally leave the sound set to "Direct", which eliminates all processing for digital content so I can hear the sound as it was intended.

While this is not my first Pioneer receiver to feature MCACC, it works better than ever with a much more sophisticated automatic configuration program. I ran the MCACC setup a few days after I had connected, configured, and studied all the settings. I was shocked by how much it improved the sound. Even with my previous receiver, I had to configure speaker levels manually since I could not get the sound quality I wanted through the automatic setup.

It does handle iPod/iPhone on the front panel, allowing you to select your music onscreen. However, I have found this does not work as seamlessly as I would like and the OSD is quite rudimentary. An Apple TV has removed the need to use this feature anyway.

I should also point out that the picture of the rear panel shows 3 Optical TOS Inputs, when in fact there are only 2. The remote is hideous, but I use a Logitech Harmony One so this is not a major concern.

Anybody considering the player should also make sure that it would fit in their cabinet since this one is larger than the lower models from Pioneer, Harmon Kardon, Yamaha, etc. I also wish that the Receiver had S-Video connectors since I do have analog components (like an S-VHS VCR) that product better picture quality over S-Video.

Overall, since this receiver adopts all the next generation video and audio standards, this is a worthwhile investment since it will probably be the last one you will need to buy for years to come.

After reading so many reviews of all brands and models of receivers I ended up with this one as my very first receiver purchase. This thing is pretty much future proof with all kinds of newer technologies. You got your 1080p HDMI repeater which means you ALSO get audio from your HDMI cables, to your iPOD/MP3 connection. The settings and adjustments go from Automatic for rookies to Advance for experts. Im using the Polk audio RM10 5.1 speakers with subwoofer and they all sound loud and clean. Right now I'm really enjoying it with my PS3/Blu-Ray player. This Pioneer really brings out the best of games, music, movies, and TV. I hope this helped!!

Pros: 3 HDMI 1.3 inputs, and 3 Component inputs for up to 6 separate HD sources.

Cons: No S video inputs, no switched AC outlet, no trigger output, no conversion of HDMI to component or composite video.

Other Thoughts: I like the fact that you can hook up to 8 separate video sources to this receiver: 3 HDMI, 3 Component, and 2 composite video. This is more flexibility than most receivers offer.

A couple of S-Video inputs would have been nice for legacy devices, and either a switched AC receptacle or a trigger output to turn on an outboard subwoofer amp would be nice also.

The remote has separate codes for every input, which is *very* handy if you are using a programmable remote, (and I would strongly recommend anyone to get a good programmable remote like the Harmony 880).

There is no on screen display (even volume) other than when in setup mode, and that is pretty minimal. Auto speaker calibration seemed to work very well.

Plenty of power to drive almost any speakers.

Video conversion works well and converts every format to every other except it will not convert HDMI, but I'm not sure any receivers do that due to copy protection restrictions. In other words your component inputs get converted to HDMI and composite video, and your composite video sources (single yellow RCA video jack) get converted to component and HDMI.

I have owned this for about 3 months and have had no problems. Everything just works and works well. No HDMI compatibility issues. You can pay a lot more for a receiver, but the 1018 is the best I've found when it comes to bang-for-the-buck.

I will probably get a second one, or maybe the 1019 when it comes out, for my other system.

Pro:
1. Great sound processing
2. Very detailed surround calibration, multiple presets can be stored in memory
3. HDMI repeater
4. iPod compatibility (I have 6 gen.)
Contra:
1. Cumbersome menu, feature access from the remote is not too obvious
2. Menu on a TV looks awkward: white on grey, low resolution ...

I would definitely recommend this receiver as a nice 1080p solution.