A HUGE DIFFERENCE (Pioneer Elite VSX-49TXi Receiver Volume Settings)

[picky]

About a month ago, I had answered another forum member's post asking for recommendations on certain receivers for his new HT room. One of those receivers he was curious about was the Pioneer Elite VSX-49TXi, which is what I have owned for the last year. At the time I made the post, my HT, which is now nearly complete, was under construction and I had advised the fellow member that he may wish to consider a receiver with more power per channel to fill his much larger room than mine with sound. I was greatly mistaken!

At the time of my post, there were still walls in studs against concrete cinder block basement walls, an open ceiling (to joists) and a lot of items in the room, including boxes of tools and building materials. Despite all this, we had our theater fully functional and were able to still enjoy movies and music throughout most of the construction process, while bundling things up when dust was to be an issue. In order to watch a movie at "concert level" I had to set the Pioneer to -10db (0db is reference level).

The walls are now all insulated and the studs are covered with GAF TP-4 rubber roofing membrane and drywalled and our theater seats were installed yesterday. I recalibrated the room using the Pioneer's onboard MCACC and the difference in the volume was astounding! I had no idea that everything had been absorbing so much of the sound. Now, the volume setting to achieve the same level as before must be set at or near -17db, which is a significantly lower dial graduation.

So, my appologies to those of you who may have read my post and may have used that erroneous information in your purchase considerations. I am now confident that the VSX-49TXi has sufficient resources to power the Klipsch Reference System in rooms much larger than my own. Happy Holidays to you all!

-Picky