Replacement for 10 year old Pioneer VSX2011

Olliefreddie1

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Been looking at a few recently (Arcam 360, Pioneer 56, Denon X4000 etc).
All sounded good but to me not the improvement I was expecting on my amp which lets be honest is a dinosaur in AV terms.

My speakers are B&W MT30. Use is approx 70 film / 30 music.

Appreciate connectivity, picture scaling but ultimately sound has to be the measure.
 
Hi

Providing the older amplifier is still working all okay then there is no reason to believe a newer one will sound better. Amplifiers don't need to do that much, it is an old technology now and not much can be done to improve on previous models in terms of the sound quality. Recently we have Class D amps driven by the need to be "greener" while having more power, which is possibly the biggest change in amplifier technology for quite some time in AV receivers, but again they are not said to sound better, perhaps different to some with very critical ears.

Of course you may get support for newer audio formats lacking in an older AV receiver to provide some improvement in sound quality, plus more sophisticated auto calibration options to tune the receiver better to your room. Newer amps may have more channels or higher wattage, but if you already have all the channels you need and enough wattage then buying more are not going to make a difference.

I'd say carry on enjoying your 10 year old amp.

Regards

Phil
 
Yes I think I will stick with it for now. Has been a fantastic product - bullet proof reliability and fantastic performance. But was expecting big differences 10 years on.
 
Had the same conversation today in 7oaks. I have a Denon 3805 add was looking to upgrade to the Pioneer 56 or 57 but in the end decided to just keep what I've got as although Hdmi would be great I still love the sound I get.
 
Still a great sounding amp..its a much talked about subject (older amps only only to extract core via optical or coax over full uncompressed).. dts lossy core @ 1.5mb sounds great ..if your happy and it aint broken why change ??
 
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The sound of my amp improved with blurays - even though compressed sound the higher bit rate of blurays gave quite an improvement.

Still hugely surprised at the little improvement in GBP 1,000 amps over 10 years - is my 2011 that good?
 
I upgraded my 2011 last year, mostly because I need HDMI to cut down on the cables. I love it so much though that I just moved it into the bedroom ;)

Replaced it with a Pioneer SC-LX85. Initially I had buyers remorse but now that I've got it setup just the way I want I'm very happy.
 
Kuni D - thanks for this post.
From what you say was there not a vast improvement then?
I think the amplification part of the 2011 is excellent - I remember a review way back when comparing it very favourably with its GBP 3 grand sister product.

Music is probably where I most want to get an upgrade - maybe the speakers being changed would be my best bet - change CM1's and CMC across the front. But love the look of the M1's on the wall - so discrete - really don't want a lounge looking like a dem room in a shop.
 
This is something that I often consider, i'm still using an Yamaha dap A3090 which still sounds great, although it lacks any form of dts processing or hdmi through put.

I'd love to change the amp for something with hdmi passthrough as I don't have the facility to run more devices to the TV.I'm also an M1 user because room size doesn't permit floor standers
 
A mate of mine had one, and it sounded so much better than any of the midrange 'high res' units he replaced it with. I suggest you would need an equivalent 'air studios' unit to get a similar sound.
 

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