An excellent choice for budget home theater
Written: Mar 05 '03
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Pros: Great sound and features for the money
Cons: Small buttons on remote, only two digital inputs
The Bottom Line: This is a great choice for budget-minded consumers looking to get into Dolby Digital.
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| epitone's Full Review: Pioneer VSX-D411 5.1 Channels Receiver |
In January 2003, I decided that my Dolby Pro-Logic receiver wasn't cutting it anymore, and it was time for an upgrade to Dolby Digital. As is typical with me, I wanted good and I wanted cheap. In this case, "good" meant a well-respected brand name receiver with at least 100 watts per channel, DTS, and Pro-Logic II; and "cheap" meant inexpensive enough to pick up a powered subwoofer at the same time without tipping the total bill over $300. Thanks to the Pioneer VSX-D411, I fulfilled both criteria and I've been very happy with the results.
First and foremost, the VSX-D411 sounds great even with my budget speaker set-up (Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble IV) and subwoofer (Yamaha YST-SW105). The increased directionality and more powerful bass of digital surround are handled very well by this receiver, and it's been a real thrill to revisit some of my DVDs. DTS decoding is also provided, which is nice to have now that more and more discs are being released with audio in that format. (If you're not familiar with it, DTS is a surround scheme that uses lower compression rates than Dolby Digital and, as a result, typically sounds better--often much better.) To minimize complication, the receiver can (if you choose) automatically detect different sound formats; thus, if you're playing a DVD and decide to switch to the DTS track in the middle of a scene, the receiver will immediately switch over to DTS decoding. On the down side, there is only one optical and one coaxial digital input, so if you have a vast number of digital components (HDTV, DVD recorder, home MP3 player, etc.) you should probably look elsewhere. By default, the optical input is assigned to TV/Satellite and the coaxial input to DVD/LD, but you can switch them via the remote.
The receiver also works very well with other source material, including music CDs, non-5.1-encoded movies, and television shows. Key in this regard is the inclusion of Dolby Pro-Logic II, a new scheme for getting better sound out of two-channel sources. Pro-Logic II can take a stereo signal and create "simulated" 5.1 sound from it; using this feature, stereo music takes on increased spatiality, and sound from TV shows and older movies becomes clearer and more directional.
Pioneer includes an excellent selection of audio options on the VSX-D411 to tailor sound to your specific speakers and room size, as well as your listening preferences. To begin with, you can navigate through a series of menus to indicate the size of each of your speakers (unless they're really huge, you should probably choose "small"), the distance each speaker is from the listening position, and the crossover frequency of your subwoofer. Following that, you can choose to manually increase or decrease the sound level from each speaker, including the subwoofer. Also present are two options for listening at low volumes. The first is Dynamic Range Control, which "compresses" sound from digital sources to make a wider range of sounds audible at quieter levels. The second is Midnight mode, which does more or less the same thing for analog sources.
The remote is perfectly functional but disappointing in its layout. The buttons are tiny and uniformly shaped, which can make using the remote in the dark somewhat of a hassle. On the plus side, you can use it to control a Pioneer DVD player; most of the major functions are present, including the "audio" and "subtitle" buttons and the standard four-way cursor control, but if you want to jump to a specific time you'll have to resort to your standard DVD remote.
Lastly, the VSX-D411 also includes an AM/FM digital tuner with 30 presets and the option to give each preset a four-character name.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 160
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Epinions.com ID:
epitone
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Member: Nick
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 1 member
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