gadgtfreek Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 I know we have some Pio fans here so I need some input. Buddy is wanting to grab an SC-87 for the 82II's and 62II he bought from me. My thought was X5200 from Denon, but he really likes Pioneer and was looking to me, but I do not know anything about them. I have seen bench tests and the D3 amps hold their power from 2 to 5 channels driven better than most of the rest. They are supposed to run cool, have 32bit DAC's and MCACC Pro. I also understand Pro does dual subs, but I have no clue about it either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 AVR's are like hand tools. A million ways to use a set, and some do things better than others....even by the same brand. Their strength comes from how well matched they are to the requirements of the system, as a whole. That all starts by asking the questions, "What am I trying to do here?" and "Okay, now how am I going to get there?" I now own a Pioneer not because I'm a fan-boy per say, but because Pioneer was the one company that finally put all the features I knew I needed/ wanted under one roof. I really liked the Panasonic it replaced, but I was wringing that out for all it had to offer. Gear limited, not cool. I can tell you exactly why I've got an SC-87, but if our priorities are not in agreement from the start, it won't matter much....there won't be any apparent value. I can also tell you/him about the pro's and con's about the unit, but only as it applies to my system. Outside of that, there's probably not a whole lot of meaning there either. Many others have said that historically the Pioneer brand has had a tendency to cater to the power user, to which I would agree, having watched the AVR market for years. They often bear features that many owners simply never use or could find use for, save for the the select few owners that couldn't live without them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 I dont here a question OP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 (edited) The D3 amp and the older ICE amps are great. Plenty of power, great dynamic range and MCACC get the sound stage to just sound nice and balanced. The SC 87 would be a very solid choice. Edited June 21, 2015 by derrickdj1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gadgtfreek Posted June 21, 2015 Author Share Posted June 21, 2015 Yeah, it seems like a fine AVR. I did some more reading and the amps seem to hold up well when pushed and people are happy with MCACC Pro. He ordered one today from best buy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 He ordered one today from best buy. The journey begins. BTY - What I meant by when I said "wringing it out" and "power users", I'm wasn't referring to watts. In my case, I ran out of processing power. Feature-intensive DSP and good filtering techniques require a big CPU and a clean board to plumb it all together...much more so than the average 5.1 AVR from a decade ago. Today, it's not just about the amp but also the computer inside that ties it all together. Equally important stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 (edited) No one is sure what the next gen elites will bring after the sale of the company, but certainly this gen of d3 elites are a very good price to performance ratio. I have been nothing but happy with my 85 even though I only run 3.1 in HT mode. Edited June 22, 2015 by Schu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gadgtfreek Posted June 22, 2015 Author Share Posted June 22, 2015 (edited) No one is sure what the next gen elites will bring after the sale of the company, but certainly this gen of d3 elites are a very good price to performance ratio. I have been nothing but happy with my 85 even though I only run 3.1 in HT mode. I saw that, but I have to think these were already R&D'd so that should not change. The next model's may be but the article I read said they would remain separate and the teams would stay in place. I wonder if MCACC would replace accueq on Onkyos? Edited June 22, 2015 by gadgtfreek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javelin Posted June 24, 2015 Share Posted June 24, 2015 I know we have some Pio fans here so I need some input. Buddy is wanting to grab an SC-87 for the 82II's and 62II he bought from me. My thought was X5200 from Denon, but he really likes Pioneer and was looking to me, but I do not know anything about them. I have seen bench tests and the D3 amps hold their power from 2 to 5 channels driven better than most of the rest. They are supposed to run cool, have 32bit DAC's and MCACC Pro. I also understand Pro does dual subs, but I have no clue about it either. I have the SC-81. The SC-81 has more than enough power to drive all my 11 speakers(includes front heights and dual sub). I used the MCACC to calibrate all speakers and it works very well. I think it's a relatively cleaner and cooler-running processor even after watching three blu-ray movies one-after-the other - the exhaust openings are warm...not hot. Non-D3 amps run much hotter - I also have an Elite VS-92TXH and it runs hot... One of the feature I love about this new model is the ability to control it using my iPad. Once the MCACC calibration is completed, I can use the iControlAV5 software to emphasize volume only to the subs and center - can't get enough lows... ; ) The iAV5 can do much more. Since your friend listen to Klipsch speakers, he probably won't need all that power from SC-87 unless he's got more speakers to run or wider/bigger room to fill. The SC-81 has more than enough power to deaf anyone seating 10-ft away from the center/main speakers, imo. : ) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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