I have a Pioneer too - the 1016k. Even though it is a mass market receiver, I quite like it. I basically use mine as a surround processor, and off-load all the amplification to my NAD amps.
Before I got better amplification and processing, I did not think it would make much of a difference, especially when people who were reviewing my speakers said they didn't change much with a better front-end.
HA!! LIES! It made the mains much better and then the surrounds where they said were transparent to the amplifier being used improved a LOT! The people that say it doesn't make a difference are on something.
On paper it may look fine, but there are a lot of things happening when it's powering a speaker that we don't measure.
Yeah, seriously. I will try looking into some stuff.
