# Pioneer VSX-1122-K + SP-PK52FS



## VarHyid

Hello Everyone!

First off, just to clarify my level of knowledge (or rather lack thereof, for that matter) - I'm before the purchase of my first ever REAL home theater system so I think you can get the picture 

Here are my 2 big problems. Actually, it's one HUGE problem and one not so huge, but still important. I'll start with the smaller problem.

*1. Is the Pioneer VSX-1122-K the best option for my needs (and budget)?*

What I *DO* care about is:
- 6 Ohm speaker support
- a minimum of 2 optical inputs (that's a must for some reasons)
- at least one coaxial S/PDIF input (not crucial, though)
- preferably 7.1 support (7.2 would be an extra, but 5.1 is a no-go; even if I would use a 5.1 sound system, I want the extra room for improvement)
- 3D ready (not really crucial, but if I'd need to pay $10-$20 extra, I would)
- Price of around $600 (I'd leave some room for flexibility, but let's say $800 would be the maximum... of course, if the best receiver in the world in this range would cost $815, I would pay, but $500-$600 would really be nice).

Of course, I won't even mention the ability to handle Dolby TrueHD etc. as I don't believe that there's any receiver out there in the $500+ range that would not support the most common formats.

What I *DO NOT* care about is:
- support of any device which name starts with a lowercase "i" (I remember when about 10 years ago, I've been just looking at receivers and everywhere I could find lots of useful info about its specs, but today, now that I'm actually ready to buy one and have started my research a couple of weeks ago, I've ended up watching product presentation videos where in 5 minutes, they're talking about how many iPhones, iPads, iPods or iPots you can use with a receiver and then between 4:56 and 4:59, I can see one screen with the really relevant stuff... moo baby moo? So to make it clear - iStuff compatibility is completely irrelevant to me)
- size of the receiver

I can't think of anything else, so let's say - anything not listed in the "I care" section, I do not care about.

So here's the big question - is the *Pioneer VSX-1122-K* the best I could get or maybe there are other receivers (doesn't have to be Pioneer) that would meet my expectations listed above and, for example, trade all the Apple-related gimmicks for better quality of the device?

I must say that the first receiver I "fell in love with" was the *Sony STR-DN1030*, but unfortunately, it says "8Ω - 12Ω" (I'm gonna need 6Ω most likely; why "most likely" - later) on the back and 240W... now, as I've said - I'm quite new to this and they claim that it has an output of 7 x 100W... but takes 240W. Sounds to me a bit like a perpetuum mobile - you can harvest almost 3 times more power from it than it takes? In Pioneer case it says 550W so I can imagine that if I drive a 7-speaker system with 30-40W it won't struggle a bit.

So that's my "small" problem. Now - the HUGE problem:

*2. How can I buy the Pioneer SP-PK52FS speaker system... in Europe?*

A great incentive to buy a receiver right now was my discovery of these speakers. I must admit I didn't hear them personally, but I just found very positive reviews about them (in fact, I couldn't find one negative), some say they sound so good that they could be compared with some $2,000 systems... and a 5.1 set of those Andrew Jones' designed speakers (that is - a pair of floor-standing fronts + 1 center + a pair of bookshelf backs + a sub-woofer cost... about $600 

It sounds too good to be true, but again - I could not find one bad word about them, only claims that at this price, it's the best sounding system you can get.

OK then, let's buy it, right? Well... I can't  I'm in Europe and I've just tried to go to Amazon's check-out which only confirmed my worries - "5 out of 5 of your items can't be shipped to your location". I've contacted European Pioneer and the US Pioneer. In the EU they don't know if or when they might be for sale, neither the US do and the US Pioneer will not ship it to me even if I would agree to cover all shipping costs 

So this is more a logistic question - is anyone here from Europe and have faced such issue? Is there some US store which wouldn't mind shipping to the EU? Or maybe someone knows some good forwarding... companies, you know - ones that give you a US address to ship to and then forward the package to any international address? If so - are they really so good and secure that you would be ready to buy a (sizable) speaker set through them?

What I worry about right now is that if I would wait, let's say, a year to see if they maybe will be available in Europe and they won't and for some reason Pioneer may not sell them anymore, I'd miss out on them. Now they're still relatively new in the US and I can imagine that more stores may still have them in stock.

There's one more issue - I can't get the sub-woofer anyway because it can't handle the European 220V (it's 110V only).

Of course, if anyone happens to know a set of really good speakers with the sound quality of the SP-PK52FS and the similar price ($200 for 2 floor standing speakers, $200 for 4 bookshelf speakers and $100 for a center speaker) - I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance for any help.


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## Jungle Jack

Hello,
The 1122 is a solid AVR, but I do think if power is of the highest priority that something like the Onkyo TX-NR709 or 809 would provide you with a good bit more power and offers Audyssey's fantastic MultEQ XT, stellar Video Processing, THX Post Processing and much more. 

As the 709 and 809 have been replaced, you should be able to find close to your budget. While the 809 replacement the 818 is outstanding, the 709 replacement is a major downgrade as it moves all the way down to Audyssey's lowest level EQ (2EQ) while amazingly costing $100 more.

I would also consider the Denon AVR-3312 or 3311 and Marantz SR6005/6006. The current 3313 and 5007/6007 will be much more expensive.

As for Speakers, the Pioneers are going to be all but impossible to beat if you live in Europe. They do indeed sound amazing for the money. Andrew Jones is one of the most gifted Speaker Designers out there.
Cheers,
JJ


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## VarHyid

Thank for your reply. Unfortunately, your suggested receivers are above the price limit that I would spend  My initial goal was to find something between $400 and $500. Spending $600 for the Pioneer would be fine and as I've said - going even to $800 would be justified if it would be MUCH better, but the ones you've mentioned are priced at $1,000+ 



Jungle Jack said:


> The 1122 is a solid AVR, but I do think if power is of the highest priority that something like the Onkyo TX-NR709 or 809 would provide you with a good bit more power and offers Audyssey's fantastic MultEQ XT, stellar Video Processing, THX Post Processing and much more. (...)


I didn't say that power is the highest priority. I was just surprised by Sony's math that they talk about driving 7 channels, each 100 W with a device that consumes 240W. Again, I'm not an expert, but this sounds ... very optimistic  



Jungle Jack said:


> As for Speakers, the Pioneers are going to be all but impossible to beat if you live in Europe. They do indeed sound amazing for the money. Andrew Jones is one of the most gifted Speaker Designers out there.
> Cheers,
> JJ


I actually may have some good news for... myself. I think I've found a US online store that would ship them to me 

One more thing - now, this will be a VERY stupid question, but then... as I've said - I'm quite new. The speakers themselves are passive and driven by the receiver's amplifier. So just to be sure - they don't care whether the voltage the receiver gets is 110V or 220V? I can't buy the sub-woofer from the US as it's active and, according to Pioneer, 110V-only, but won't the passive speakers have any issue with the fact that the receiver (which of course, I'll buy in Europe) runs on 220-240V (would they be identical if they would introduce them to the EU market)? I think this shouldn't be a problem for them, but please confirm.


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## chashint

The speakers do not care what the AVR 's input line voltage is.
There is nothing wrong with the Pioneer.
I think the speakers you intend to get are fine at the street price but to say they are on par with much more expensive speakers is optimistic at best.
Did you ever see the higher price speakers identified? If yes when you read the user reviews for them did the owners claim they were also on par with $4k speakers?
Not knocking the speakers you want.... just saying you are not ever going to see a speaker review that says for $2k theses are good but you could save yourself $1500 and get the Pioneer set instead.


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## VarHyid

chashint said:


> The speakers do not care what the AVR 's input line voltage is.
> There is nothing wrong with the Pioneer.
> I think the speakers you intend to get are fine at the street price but to say they are on par with much more expensive speakers is optimistic at best.
> Did you ever see the higher price speakers identified? If yes when you read the user reviews for them did the owners claim they were also on par with $4k speakers?
> Not knocking the speakers you want.... just saying you are not ever going to see a speaker review that says for $2k theses are good but you could save yourself $1500 and get the Pioneer set instead.


Of course I've never see anyone saying that they're as good as $4k speakers and I'm well aware that they're room for improvement, but will I get anything better for that price ($600)?

I've found a review on CNet [which I couldn't link to due to spam protection, but if you Google Cnet prioneer sp-pk52fs, you'll find it] where they say:

"_The SP-PK52FS performed extremely well, sounding like a much more expensive system. We had to remind ourselves again and again of the Pioneer's very affordable price tag. It sounded fully competitive, and in some ways better than our reference Aperion Audio Intimus 4T Hybrid SD that costs more than twice as much. On the whole the Aperion's tonal balance was richer and warmer, the Pioneer's leaner, but more detailed. Then again, when we just listened to dialogue from the two center channel speakers, the considerably larger Pioneer SP-C22 center was more naturally balanced, and less "boxy" than the Aperion 4C center speaker._"

Of course you can never fully trust any reviews and you're right, I've never read any other users' review that would say that they're better than $4k systems. But then, my current options are the following:
1. Keep my pair of speakers from an old Philips mini Hi-Fi system (which are Philips FB 768 PH from the FW768P system) and buy a pair of some relatively good speakers for the back and have a quadrophonic setup or...
2. Go with Andres Jones for a full 7.1 system (a pair of floorstanding speakers, the center, 4 bookshelves and probably a bit later the sub if it arrives in Europe).

Based on what I've read about Jones' set so far and on how I hate how the tweeter in my Philips speakers really annoyingly tries to get through the woofer and the fact that I would have a quad setup on a 7.2 receiver (what a waste!)... I think that - again - for this money, I can't get anything better... or can I?

As for the sub-woofer - as I've already mentioned (in every post  ), I'm not an expert, but would it really be bad if I would go for a completely different sub-woofer not from the same set? I know that it's good to match speakers of the same "origin" especially when it comes to the mid-/high-range, but would I even hear the difference if I'd had some other sub-woofer that would "serve" a similar range than Jones' sub (which is AFAIR 38 Hz - 150 Hz)?

-----------UPDATE----------

I think my whole post as well as the plans to buy this system may be pointless  It turned out that the shipping costs would be around $1,500 which is just ridiculous so unless there really is a reliable parcel forwarding service that would ship for a reasonable price (I would pay $200 for shipping if it would be possible), I won't be buying anything. I can only hope that these speakers will be available in Europe otherwise I just can't understand any company that makes a great product ... and then only sells it in one single country.


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