My impressions of the Pioneer VSX-D912K (1 Viewer)

[Harold Wazzu]

Hey, just found this forum a week ago and it looks like THE place to be.

Anyways, I just bought a Pioneer VSX-D912K from 6ave and would like to leave my impressions.

First of all here was my criteria for selecting a receiver:
- Budget was $300
- Must be at least 6.1
- Must be easy to set up and use

I am easily a novice home theater user, this is my first receiver ever, so I didn't care about digital inputs, pre-outs whatever.

I was deliberating between this and the Denon 1803 and even though I heard alot of good reviews about the Denon, I went for the Pioneer.

So here is my very low-end setup:
19in RCA TV
Toshiba SD-1800 DVD Player ($45 on clearance at Walmart)
4 Sony speakers (2 bookshelf, 2 surrounds) from a very nice stereo I found by the dumpster
Pioneer receiver

First off, 6ave is a great company to order from. I ordered it Sunday night, they shipped it I think Monday and it took a week to get to me via UPS ground (East coast -> West coast). I was happy about the transaction from start to finish.

Next I got the receiver and wow it felt heavy. I think it was 29 pounds but it felt heavy to me. I got it out of the box and into the entertainment center, got the batteries in the remote and fired her up just to make sure she wasn't DOA. Fired right up.

I went out and bought some solderless banana plugs from Radioshack and that made hooking up the speakers alot easier. I also had to get a digital coax cable to go between my dvd player and receiver.

I got everything hooked up and did the MCACC and that went smooth. I popped in Star Wars Ep I and watched the Pod Race and wow!!! With no sub the bass was still awesome. The thing just sounds great. I popped in Behind Enemy Lines and just was just as impressive. I am happy with the receiver for what I paid for it. I don't plan to get a new speaker package for awhile and will be getting a projector too but on a college kids budget you can't expect too much.

Here are some Pros and Cons:

Pros:

- I find the look of the receiver to be excellent IMO
- 6.1 with the possibility of 7.1 (back surround spread across both speakers)
- remote is easy to use
- Abundance of connections, HD component switching for when I got into HD
- LCD is bright and easy to read
- Plenty of power for me

Cons:

- The manual could be more in depth
- NO OSD
- What is the purpose of the blue led behind the volume knob?


This is definitely a entry level receiver/budget receiver for someone like me who just wants to get into HT but doesn't want to spend a fortune doing so. Also, if you aren't very techie then give this receiver a look as well.

 

[DavidLM]

Did you use the automatic speaker set up feature?

 

[Harold Wazzu]

That's what MCACC is and ues I did

 

[Geoff L]

Throw some seprate power amps on the preouts and be prepared to be amazed again!

Your entry level receiver as you put it will sound better than you thought possible. It's great to have this option whether you decide to use it or not.

Also if you are pesently not running a powered sub, your missing the major foudation that makes action, drama and si-fi movies become a whole new experience.

Can't beat the receiver for what you get and it's ability to grow as you see fit.. The MCAAC is something more and more CO's should follow with. Some offer parametric control to boot all done automaticly.
The newest highend Yammis are slicker than shi*. More advanced than the pioneers line of MCAAC's in both the 912 and high up leve of MCAAC in the Elite line.

Glad your happy, as many other feel the same about the 912 that are getting into the world of HT. The blue lite is just a nice back lighting touch for the volume control that dose really nothing special as I understand it, but dose add a little class to the real metal face.
Or as Pioneer calls it, the cool blue light....lol

Cheers
Geoff