Pioneer SC-LX901 Review and Specs

The description of Pioneer SC-LX901 specs on the company portal begins with the phrase that the SC-LX901 is the best AV receiver in the history of Pioneer. We will not argue with the creators of the new generation of elite models of the legendary brand until we get to know the device better with this Pioneer SC-LX901 review.

Pioneer SC-LX901 review

Features

It is a 11.2-channel receiver with Class D amplifier, Air Studios certification, 4K Ultra HD upscaling / backhaul, Dolby Atmos, DTS: X and a full set of equipment for high-resolution audio streaming. It became the first, and so far the only 11.2-channel receiver in the Pioneer catalog, whose main task is the scoring of home cinema halls adapted for the new object-oriented formats Dolby Atmos and DTS: X. Accordingly, it will most likely have to work in the acoustic configuration 7.2.4, although, of course, options with an additional zone or connecting front speakers via bi-amping are also possible.

Design and build

The overall dimensions of the device are impressive: it weighs 18.3 kg with a body depth of 44 cm, which is 6 mm more than the width of the front panel. The front panel is made of plastic, more precisely molded under pressure from a polymer of high hardness. Its “polished” texture looks great from any angle, and looking a little ahead, I’ll say that blaming the SC-LX901 developers for saving on metal is completely unreasonable.

Connectivity

Among other things, there are seven HDMI inputs, five of which meet the requirements of the HDMI 2.0a standard, that is, they are capable of working with 4K video streams at a frame frequency of up to 60 Hz with HDR support and in the BT.2020 color space, which dramatically exceeds the widespread now BT.709 format. Once you reach the vast global network, you can get to the services of Spotify, Pandora, Deezer and even Tidal, or listen to Internet radio using TuneIn.

Setup

To interact with mobile gadgets, Pioneer offers a convenient and well-designed iControlAV5 application. It not only helps to configure the system, but also visualizes all the stages of calibration up to the display of the current phase characteristics of all channels in real time.

Pros and Cons