We also thought the blue halo-lit power button was a nice touch.īy the look of things, we initially thought that the VSX-70 had a drop-down panel on its lower front apron, but that turned out not to be the case. It’s certainly more visually pleasing than some Pioneer receivers of yesteryear, what with its large, twin source and volume knobs flanking the central display.

We dig in to see how much performance this baby Elite has on tap.įirst, the good: We’ve got to give props to Pioneer for making the VXS-70’s front panel look less “busy” than some other receivers we’ve seen. And while it doesn’t include Pioneer’s D3 amplification nor any other cutting edge tech, its feature set and Elite branding promise quite a bit of performance under the hood. With a suggested MSRP of $749 and a street price just under $600, the VSX-70 is the second-to-lowest priced Elite receiver we’ve seen yet. This leads us to the subject of this review, Pioneer’s Elite-labeled VSX-70 receiver. Long gone is anything resembling a stratospherically-priced or gargantuan sized receiver, and the Elite line as a whole has steadily come down in both design ambition and price over the years: the current top of the line model has a comparatively reasonable suggested retail price of $2550. With its cutting edge, Bang and Olufsen-sourced ICE-powered amplifiers, over 70 (!) pound weight and ginormous build, the SC-09TX was a force to be reckoned with.īut a few years time and a downturn in the economy apparently affected Pioneer, too. One needs only Google the company’s $7000, SC-09TX from a few years ago to see how this receiver made quite the splash. Pioneer has a history of marrying high performance with cutting edge tech in its Elite line, often with price tags to match the name.

Single, global crossover frequency a drag Not the last word in sonic detail or transparency Harmonically threadbare mids and treble can lead to listener fatigue

Top-class multi-room expansion capabilities “The Pioneer Elite VSX-70 has more than a few good things going for it, but at the end of the day we think it’s performance quality that counts, and the VSX-70 left us wanting for more in this regard.”

Homescapes mod apk stars