[Harold Dale]

​

Summary
Overall I feel this receiver can easily meet a budget viewers needs. It offers a decent array of features, great sound quality, and looks great. The user I see buying this would be mostly interested in watching movies, and maybe looking to have some basic network functions to listen to things like Pandora or use for iPod/iPad connectivity. It has plenty of HDMI inputs for any device needs a user might have. The only flaws I really found with the unit was the far too basic Android remote app, and the imaging in regards to 2 channel audio. Overall though this receiver presented an enjoyable experience and would easily fill the needs of many users that just don't have the budget for a much higher end unit. I would also recommend pairing this receiver with some speakers that have a higher sensitivity ratings. This will insure the best sound quality from the unit as speakers with lower sensitivity are likely to fall apart easier on this receiver.

MSRP on this unit is $449 but you can find it with a street price closer to the $250 range.

[url="http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/AV-Receivers/Pioneer+Receivers/VSX-1022-K"]VSX-1022 at Pioneer Website

At Amazon.com

At Newegg

Click Here for the Pioneer VSX-1022-K Full Review[/URL]

 

[Ray in Kingwood]

Thanks a lot Harold.....you just cost me 250 bux at New Egg......

 

[Harold Dale]

Well you'll be happy, it's a very decent little receiver Enjoy!

 

[ALMFamily]

Thanks for the review Harold! :T

 

[txredxj]

i had the 5.1 version and really liked it. this one has some upgrades over mine but i was really happy with it. i got it and the martin logan 5.1 speakers and it worked really well together. for under $600 anyone can have a good setup with these recievers and all the budget 5.1 speaker kits out there. i look forward to more budget component reviews to come.

 

[AudiocRaver]

Just catching up on some reading, Harold, really enjoyed your review. Very thorough. Back in the daylddude:, Pioneer was one of a few big names in audio. It is good to see them still going strong and making quality gear.

 

[asere]

Harold mentioned the MCACC calibrated the sub and it blends in nicely with the speakers. I thought with MCACC you cannot EQ the sub like you can with Audyssey.

 

[DavidK442]

Pioneer Sub EQ? My question exactly. I love my Pioneer receiver but always wondered why it didn't massage the lower frequencies.

 

[Harold Dale]

I'm not sure exactly what it does with the sub frequencies, but it seemed to match up pretty well with the output of the speakers is all I really said. It very well might not do anything with sub frequencies though? Or maybe it adjusts the other speakers to match the sub. The sound was pretty decent for how much this receiver goes for, although I wouldn't recommend running it in direct mode with MCACC off.

 

[Pfjim]

Thanks very much for the review. I just bought the 1022 for a basement viewing room and had the same experience. The MCAAC made a big difference in terms of balance and fullness of soundstage. I use this setup primarily for viewing movies and it matches well with my Polk Monitor 70's(front and surround), CSI A6, M30's(front height) and Klipsch SW450. By the way, I really prefer Dolby PLIIZ front height over the back surround 7.1 set up. Works much better for my space.

 

[Harold Dale]

Thanks for the input! I've heard similar experiences on the front height channels. Unfortunately I just didn't have time to move my rears and couldn't figure out a way to mount them as heights before I was scheduled to post the review.

 

[Owen Bartley]

Thanks for the review Harold. I normally might have glossed over this one, except for the picture of the unit. I like where Pioneer is going in the design department, and I think this is a killer looking little receiver. It's not like there's a huge breakthrough in black box design or anything, I just think it's a really well balanced, classy look. Maybe older-Marrantz-like?

I've been a fan of Pioneer historically... my first Pro-Logic receiver was a VSX-403 that I loved the out of until it was stolen. I've had at least one Pioneer head unit for the car in the past, and my latest audio pickup was a 1972 Pioneer SX-424 that I'm putting a little bit of work into.

I don't know much about their recent higher end units, or if they can really stand with Audyssey XT32-enabled competitors, but in a simple entry level unit, I'd certainly give this one a look.

 

[Harold Dale]

Yes it's one of the nicer looking budget units. I'm not sure how it would compare against an Audyssey unit? I should have a Denon and a Marantz in shortly for the budget series and they both have Audyssey XT.

 

[Owen Bartley]

I should do some reading on MCACC, I'm not sure if there are different levels, like with Audyssey, or if it uses the same implementation in everything. Since MCACC doesn't seem to manage sub EQ, it might not be a fair comparison with the more advanced Audyssey versions.

 

[jkamdar]

I have VSX-42 (which is practically the same receiver as VSX-1022) for about 4 months and so far I am happy but I just came across one problem; hopefully someone here can help me out.

When I connect USB drive to the receiver; it recognize it and shows the list of MP3 and folders but I can't select any files or folders and play it. I select iPod/USB button on my remote and then try playing or arrow button to go up/down to select files/folders but nothing seems to work. I tried changing battery but didn't help either.

Any idea? I can take it to authorized dealer but it's almost 35 miles and of course, I have to disconnect everything. So I would like to avoid it, if I can.

 

[Bigun]

I have recently got more familiar with Pioneer's technology. I was given a prior generation 7.1 unit with a malfunction in the digital circuits. I stripped out all the pcb's except for the power supply and the power amplifier.

I have a hobby interest in designing and building power amplifiers so I decided to have a play around with the power amplifiers from this receiver.

The Class AB amplifier versions of the Pioneer receivers all look to be very similar to me - I would expect that they re-use their design blocks across the model range. The main difference would be for their Class D based power amps.

I have looked at their Class AB design in detail. I have simulated it using LTSpice and I have conducted listening tests against Bryston and other amplifiers.

First off, the amplifier is poorly set up. The most objectionable and difficult to control source of distortion from a Class AB amplifier (when not clipping) is cross-over distortion. This distortion is greatly reduced by ensuring that the idle current through the output power transistors is set at a specific level. Very high end amplifiers can be made if this criteria is met and it's not difficult. The Pioneer service manual calls for the idle current to be set very low. This results in under-biass which produces the worse possible kind of gross cross-over distortion. When played loud enough you may not notice it, but othewise it's not good at all. I adjusted the idle current for each channel using the appropriate test equipment (a multi-meter) to the right value and this improved the sound.

You might suspect the original designer did not allow for adequate cooling and was forced to operate at low current but I'm not so sure.

There were other gremlins in the audio path - many cheap electrolytic capacitors for starters. Because I had removed the bulk of the pcb's these were all gone except one at the input to each amplifier channel - they should ideally be upgraded. On one of the pcb's is a loudness limiter, diodes, designed to prevent the amplifier being driven beyond a certain level. This usually results in sound quality problems but I wasn't using this pcb in my experiments.

The rest of the amp is a very nice design, using excellent quality transistors with low capacitance and low noise. The output transistors are high quality Sanken parts which are way up there. The amplifier topology is fairly classical, but well executed with a lot of thought to good grounding. A very competent design but unfortunately hobbled by other decisions made. It is an old topology and better modern designs are available.

I replaced the VAS (voltage amplifier stage) transistor with a CFP (complimentary feedback pair) which further improved the sound in clarity and bass impact - especially at louder volumes.

The power supply is OK but not great - having limited capacitance on the power rails and no-name capacitors to boot. The transformer looked under-sized to me but understandable given the budget constraints.

Anyhow, hope this might be of some interest to the technical chaps.

Gareth

 

[nazchambi]

I really love this receiver. Specially the airplay and internet radio. Winning!