[The News Bot]

Reviewed by David Mackenzie
...if you want a disc player built to exacting audiophile standards or want to take advantage of the advanced system integration opportunities it brings, the LX91 won’t disappoint you in the slightest, and depending on your point of view, the amount of high quality components under the hood - and the engineering experience that’s brought them all together - may well seal the deal on their own.
Read the full review...

[alcabs]

Ultimate analog outs machine? I DON'T THINK SO!

I've seen the LX91 User Manual and the analog out setup options (sub crossover, speaker distances, etc) are seriously flawed or just plain missing so how can people with older amps benefit? Only Denon with the 3800 has so far got this right.
Shame on you Pioneer - what a waste of those high quality DACS. A Serious lack of joined-up thinking on their part.

[kingfats]

Great review cheers just so i can check i'm doing it right,when i tested my 91 on the 2:2 PAL Cadence test it failed,this was the racing car where you look for moire in the grandstand or was yours a different test....2.2 one with the couple of guys in the cafe? the player did very well on that one.
Cheers.

[Phil Hinton]

Originally Posted by alcabs

Ultimate analog outs machine? I DON'T THINK SO!

I've seen the LX91 User Manual and the analog out setup options (sub crossover, speaker distances, etc) are seriously flawed or just plain missing so how can people with older amps benefit? Only Denon with the 3800 has so far got this right.
Shame on you Pioneer - what a waste of those high quality DACS. A Serious lack of joined-up thinking on their part.

I have just spoken to the product manager for Pioneer who (as stated) has confirmed that firmware for DTS-MA and bass management is due very soon to complete the analogue package. Have you actually auditioned the player in the type of environment you want to use it in?

KF, I will ask David to reply as soon as he can, he is busy working to a deadline on some film encodes for a studio at the moment so time is tight.

[kingfats]

Cheers Phil bass management included in the update s well? that's very good news for analogue users.
The updates seem to be coming as promised which is great.

[reaper12]

great review, it looks like a really good piece of kit.

[usman24]

sd scaling quality not mentioned in review? blu-ray reference quality playback? Am I missing something? Was this player compared directly to any other BD player?

[Phil Hinton]

Originally Posted by usman24

sd scaling quality not mentioned in review? blu-ray reference quality playback? Am I missing something? Was this player compared directly to any other BD player?

Did you read the review? as its a yes to every one of those questions.

[mikelj]

Having run the HQV PAL & NTSC test discs on my 507, the summary of the SD performance in the review suggests to me that the de-interlacing is on par with that in Pioneer's plasmas. Is this an accurate supposition?

[kingfats]

Originally Posted by mikelj

Having run the HQV PAL & NTSC test discs on my 507, the summary of the SD performance in the review suggests to me that the de-interlacing is on par with that in Pioneer's plasmas. Is this an accurate supposition?

I found the LX91's deinterlacing better than the Pioneer KRP with the test disc results and most importanlty with actual movies..

[Nic Rhodes]

Is the big firmware update still on for may?

[David Mackenzie]

Originally Posted by kingfats

Great review cheers just so i can check i'm doing it right,when i tested my 91 on the 2:2 PAL Cadence test it failed,this was the racing car where you look for moire in the grandstand or was yours a different test....2.2 one with the couple of guys in the cafe? the player did very well on that one.
Cheers.

Kingfats, what disc are you using to test this? My own copy of the PAL version of the HQV Benchmark doesn't have the racecar clip. But, every single piece of PAL Film content I played was detected correctly by the player.

Alcabs: I'll give this another test.

[kingfats]

Originally Posted by David Mackenzie

Kingfats, what disc are you using to test this? My own copy of the PAL version of the HQV Benchmark doesn't have the racecar clip. But, every single piece of PAL Film content I played was detected correctly by the player.

Alcabs: I'll give this another test.

Hi David.
It's the Anchor bay VRS test disc.No worries though i agree the player does have excellent DVD playback.

[kempez]

Fantastic review as usual and the unit looks to be absolutely top-notch

I wouldn't mind having a clickable link to a bigger picture in your reviews, I assume you've shot the machine with a decent camera and to really see the quality a nice high MP shot would be great

[IWC Dopplel]

Sorry guys, but for me the review was a dissapointment ...............

I know everything about functionality, load times, how shiny the case is etc, etc..... But I have no clue about how the analogue out sounded, how the BR or DVD compared to other players and why I might or not spend £1,800......

I personally don't care about the set up functionality I want to know what it delivers after I have plugged it in............

[David Mackenzie]

It's a good point, but actually providing objective information on how something sounds is much more difficult than discussing how something looks. Sound can be so much more subjective than video.

We could, for example, produce mountains of sentences about how the perceived quality was better, but that would be quite pointless if all of these turned out to be placebos or effects caused by things other than the player. The best we can do under those conditions is to say that, in our experience, it sounded fantastic.

As for the rest of your questions, I can clarify that now for you. In terms of video, this player adds Pioneer's own video processing to the mix which, depending on what you want and the qualtiy of the original content, could be an advantage. DVD image quality, as suggested, was excellent, as you'd expect on such an expensive player.

Thanks for the feedback

[IWC Dopplel]

David,

Thanks, I do understand your point on subjectivity. I have spent years discussing HiFi with friends and you do end up looking at the sonic qualities and for music reproduction the musicality of a system as well (which is arguably the most subjective).

We all know when a product sounds a little lean, hard, rich, weighty, more/less details and resolution and so on. Perhaps on or two players the sound could be compared.

I for one would be delighted to hear an opinion comparing the sound on one or two film tracks for say a BD55 and the LX91. Accepting that it is subjective

[mikelj]

Originally Posted by kingfats

Great review cheers just so i can check i'm doing it right,when i tested my 91 on the 2:2 PAL Cadence test it failed,this was the racing car where you look for moire in the grandstand or was yours a different test....2.2 one with the couple of guys in the cafe? the player did very well on that one.
Cheers.

Isn't the racing car/grandstand a common 3-2 cadence test clip? It's on the VRS disc and the HQV NTSC disc (and probably a few more).

[kingfats]

Originally Posted by mikelj

Isn't the racing car/grandstand a common 3-2 cadence test clip? It's on the VRS disc and the HQV NTSC disc (and probably a few more).

Hi Mike.
Inncludes 2-2 cadence test as well that one's not on the PAL HQV version the more common one i believe is the "cafe" scene with newspaper/cups etc which the 91 does pass.
All the best.

[Owen824]

Nice review. The machine looks a beast! Unfortuantely for me i t does not handle sacd or dvd-a which i have a lot of and enjoy listening to so it looks like i will have to way for the big denon if it ever comes out.

[mikelj]

Originally Posted by kingfats

Hi Mike.
Inncludes 2-2 cadence test as well that one's not on the PAL HQV version the more common one i believe is the "cafe" scene with newspaper/cups etc which the 91 does pass.
All the best.

Yeh, sorry what I meant to say was that I've only ever seen that clip as a 3-2 cadence test.

[kingfats]

Originally Posted by mikelj

Yeh, sorry what I meant to say was that I've only ever seen that clip as a 3-2 cadence test.

There's a 2-2 variant of the grandstand test as well.

[sullivan2829]

Hey,
Great review.
I've managed to track a few down at Sevenoaks Manchester. It took a while..........

[lucasisking]

Fairly irrelevant review, since it says nothing that will persuade anyone to upgrade from the very machine the reviewer seems to despise so much- the PS3. I'm beginning to tire of the endless slagging off of the PS3 as a bluray player by AV snobs. If it's so terrible, why does it get no less than 9 mentions in the review? (9 more than any other blu ray player!). It's superior to Sony's games console? So it bloody well ought to be- considering it costs six times as much and doesn't even manage a quicker load time.

I think its fair to say that machines like the LX91 owe their existence to the 'hideous' PS3. It's still a bench setter for the format, and many would say is an attractive piece of hardware in its own right. And the LX91 (as far as I'm aware) doesn't play high definition games.

So congratulations to Pioneer for building on the PS3's success. But how about we drop the snobbish disdain for a console that has brought the bluray format to the public, won the format war, united the (previously seperate) realms of gamers and cinephiles- and paved the way for machines like this one?

And the reviewer still didn't say whether the bluray play back was six times better than the PS3- which is the first question I would ask when considering such a ridiculous upgrade.

[David Mackenzie]

LucasIsKing:
Sorry, but you've got me wrong. If you refer to the review, my mention of the Playstation 3 being 'hideous' is in reference to its appearance.

I use the PS3 as my primary Blu-ray Disc player because it sends out untampered-with video (again, I state this in the review) and because that's all I want. And, as you point out, it does so quickly. Like you, I find the sneering "How can it possibly be good, it's a games console" crowd utterly contemptible. Most of the people with this attitude seem to have absolutely no knowledge of video encoding or processing whatsoever.

A machine like the LX91 is relevant for people wanting the convenience of an all in one unit with high quality analogue audio and video outputs, as well as for the other features it includes.

So congratulations to Pioneer for building on the PS3's success. But how about we drop the snobbish disdain for a console that has brought the bluray format to the public, won the format war, united the (previously seperate) realms of gamers and cinephiles- and paved the way for machines like this one?

What snobbish disdain? The PS3 is an utterly fantastic machine and is my BD player of choice. I'm not sure why you're under the impression that I don't hold it in high regard. If I held it in such disdain, then I wouldn't consistently refer to it - 9 times, as you pointed out yourself - in the review. The fact that I compare this considerably more expensive Pioneer player to the PS3 so many times is surely a hint as to how great I think the thing is.

[lucasisking]

Originally Posted by David Mackenzie

LucasIsKing:
Sorry, but you've got me wrong. If you refer to the review, my mention of the Playstation 3 being 'hideous' is in reference to its appearance.

I use the PS3 as my primary Blu-ray Disc player because it sends out untampered-with video (again, I state this in the review) and because that's all I want. And, as you point out, it does so quickly. Like you, I find the sneering "How can it possibly be good, it's a games console" crowd utterly contemptible. Most of the people with this attitude seem to have absolutely no knowledge of video encoding or processing whatsoever.

A machine like the LX91 is relevant for people wanting the convenience of an all in one unit with high quality analogue audio and video outputs, as well as for the other features it includes.


What snobbish disdain? The PS3 is an utterly fantastic machine and is my BD player of choice. I'm not sure why you're under the impression that I don't hold it in high regard. If I held it in such disdain, then I wouldn't consistently refer to it - 9 times, as you pointed out yourself - in the review. The fact that I compare this considerably more expensive Pioneer player to the PS3 so many times is surely a hint as to how great I think the thing is.

Sorry, Dave, if I got you wrong. And sorry if my post seemed overly defensive toward the PS3.

Reading the review did give me the impression of disdain, and admittedly this review was read on the back of a lot of other commentaries of bluray players that do seem to loathe the Sony console. Often these come from magazines such as Home Cinema Choice and What Hifi magazine, who do hold the PS3 in high regard- yet appear to do so very grudgingly.

I bought my PS3 (primarily as a bluray player) on the recommendation of someone on this site, having never considered it before. I've since seen a convergence of both the gaming world and the AV world, which I think is fantastic. Gamers want the latest 40" LCD tvs and sound systems, which now feature in the likes of 'Playstation monthly', while the PS3 competes with Panasonics and Pioneers in the pages of 'What Hifi'.

This is the main reason I went on a bit of 'crusade' there! Again, sorry for getting it wrong and no offence to your review piece, which was perfectly well written.

[David Mackenzie]

No worries, I think we've all done it before

I can't comment on any specific magazine in question, but I would imagine the people deriding the PS3 are the ones who buy £200 kettle leads to plug it in and proclaim differences in video resolution on the back of their purchase... some of the claims I've heard of its faults show a total misunderstanding of digital video.

[Nic Rhodes]

I think the Blu ray player forum his openly welcomed the PS3 once it became stable and became the player of choice for many of us.

[Avi]

Originally Posted by lucasisking

admittedly this review was read on the back of a lot of other commentaries of bluray players that do seem to loathe the Sony console. Often these come from magazines such as Home Cinema Choice and What Hifi magazine, who do hold the PS3 in high regard- yet appear to do so very grudgingly.

For what it's worth I find the PS3 Blu-ray film image excellent. Part of the issue with user feedback is the vast combination of products, settings, calibration, experience, subjective taste, placebo etc. I can see differences between some products but IMO most of these are down to additional post processing which in some cases cannot be defeated. Great if you like the result but not if you don't.

I have a calibrated LX91 and PS3 running Blu-ray film side by side and I don't think you could make a decision based on Blu-ray film image alone.

AVI

[kingfats]

Originally Posted by Avi

I can see differences between some products but IMO most of these are down to additional post processing which in some cases cannot be defeated. Great if you like the result but not if you don't.

Agree with that.