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The Short Form
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| $2,200 / PIONEERELECTRONICS.COM / 705-742-5325 |
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Snapshot
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| A pricey but feature-filled receiver with lots of pluses, beginning with its unique and powerful amplification |
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Plus
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| • Impressive multichannel wattage • Powerful (if complex) auto setup and calibration • Capable DLNA media client with FLAC support • Handsome onscreen graphics |
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Minus
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| • No HDMI video processing |
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Key Features
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• 7 x 140 watts (2 channels driven) ICEpower Class D amplification • THX Ultra2 Pure certified • (4) HDMI 1.3 inputs, 2 outputs • Upconverts analog video to 1080p on HDMI • Decodes Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, and DSD (SACD) • PQLS for reduced digital-audio jitter via HDMI • Proprietary MCACC auto-setup/equalization/room-correction plus phase correction with supplied microphone • DLNA-compatible Media Gallery media player for audio and photo files from server, Mac/PC, and USB media • THX Loudness Plus level correction • Graphical onscreen display • XM/Sirius satellite-radio-ready • Assignable front biamp or powered-zone 2/3 amp channels • (2) IR in, (1) IR out (2) 12-v triggers, RS-232 serial port • 16 1⁄2 x 7 7⁄8 x 18 1⁄8 in, 41 lb
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SETUP
Setting up the SC-07 was easy as long I stuck to the basics: Plug in the supplied calibration microphone and select the auto-MCACC option from the main menu. After a couple minutes of circulating noise bursts, the resulting channel levels and distances were accurate, and the selected crossover setting of 80 Hz was reasonable. The SC-07 doesn’t permit different crossover frequencies for the center or surround channels, and while its 50-, 80-, 100-, 150-, and 200-Hz crossover options aren’t as extensive as some, they’re perfectly adequate.
MCACC basics also invoke Standing Wave correction, a parametric three-band equalizer that automatically compensates for the three most significant low-frequency room-acoustic effects, and EQ Adjust, which performs basic speaker/room correction through higher frequencies. Standing Wave dialed in cuts at the two frequencies I know to be troublesome in my room, resulting in tighter, clearer bass at the main listening seat. (This sort of correction only optimizes one room position for one or two listeners.) EQ Adjust’s 9-band graphic equalizer set itself for a puzzlingly jaggy curve that didn’t agree with my ears’ notion of how my room and system — which I know to be uncolored — should sound. (Because of this, I left the MCACC corrections defeated for the listening part of my evaluation.) Each of these EQs can be tweaked using onscreen menus, and they can also be defeated on the fly using the SC-07’s Audio Parameters function.
At a whole other level is Advanced MCACC with EQ Professional, which opens a world of options and adjustments on the Pioneer for automated tests and corrections. It includes such technical — and to most readers likely abstruse — matters as data-collection time-windowing and phase compensation, and it can also interface with a Windows PC for even more detailed operations.
With the SC-07, Pioneer moves to a new generation of more graphically sophisticated onscreen displays that are clear, attractive, and reasonably quick to pop up and navigate. Its Faroudja DCDi video processing performs deinterlacing and scaling of incoming analog video signals (including 720p and 1080i) up to 1080p, with output onto HDMI. But signals coming into the receiver by way of HDMI pass through without any processing.
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MUSIC & MOVIE PERFORMANCE
There’s a gazillion features, functions, and modes in this thing (I counted them all), and since I only have space to cover a handful, I’ll just hit on my favorites.
Let’s start with the amplifiers, which sounded terrific on both movies and music. The SC-07’s performance was discernibly better — freer, more dynamic, and more texturally focused — than many other receivers and even some separate power amps. If credit here is due to Pioneer’s use of ICEpower amp topology as the basis for the SC-07’s Direct Energy HD Amplifiers, then count me a fan. (ICEpower was developed by Danish engineers working in conjunction with B&O.)
Whatever the name, the Pioneer’s Class D power section proved its mettle on demanding multichannel recordings like a new Telarc SACD of the Cincinnati Pops performing music by American composer Howard Hanson. The final movement of the Symphony No. 2 is almost overwhelmingly colorful, and its dense, powerful brass-and-winds harmonies can really test the clarity and articulation of an audio component. The Pioneer passed with honors.
Reproducing the full, noisy palette of the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End soundtrack was child’s play for the SC-07. It easily reached big-cinema reference levels without a hint of harshness or excess “bite” on crashing waves and cannon shots. Dynamic “squishing” wasn’t a problem on the many impacts and explosions, while the very clean sonics of Hans Zimmer’s music remained unspoiled — even through the drawn-out mayhem of the climactic vortex sequence.
Next feature: THX Loudness Plus. Invoked on the setup menu, this option enhances the THX listening modes with a “smart” compensation (depending on volume setting) to make surround effects, tonal balance, and dialogue listened to at lower volumes sound more like they do at reference level. It ain’t perfect, but if you do a lot of your home theater listening at settings well below reference (and almost everyone does), it’s a pearl.
Lastly, while it might be a little nerdy, one of my most exciting discoveries was that the SC-07’s Home Media Gallery feature is compatible with FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) as well as the more common MP3, WMA, and AAC/MP4. Because FLAC is sonically transparent, is digital-rights-management free, and cuts file sizes in half, I’m using it to archive my music collection.
There’s also Precision Quartz Lock System (PQLS), which reclocks HDMI digital audio, including CD data, from a compatible Pioneer Blu-ray Disc player to reduce jitter. I tried PQLS using the company’s BDP-05FD (reviewed on page 94), and while I’m usually skeptical about such things, I have to confess I heard a difference — with the caveat that since there’s no way to enable or disable PQLS without a disruptive trip to the setup menu, I couldn’t do a direct
A/B comparison. Nonetheless, I judged that carefully recorded stereo music sounded subtly better with PQLS on, with cleaner edges to transients such as hi-hat cymbal strikes; smoother, more organic-sounding reverb tails on natural hall-sound echoes; and blacker background silences.
ERGONOMICS
Pioneer minted a new preprogrammed/learning remote for this new receiver line. It’s handsome and usable, but the buttons, type, and spacing are all too small, and its backlighting only illuminates the central keys, leaving you to squint your way through input-select, transport, and listening-mode commands — the ones you’re most likely to need in the dark.
BOTTOM LINE
I give the SC-07 two big thumbs up — okay, one and a half. Its video processing isn’t all-encompassing (but of very solid quality), and it has ease-of-use issues (but what A/V receiver doesn’t?). Far more important, it delivers gobs of clean, dynamic power and great sound on music and movies, and offers a whole slew of additional goodies, many of them potentially useful. The SC-07’s price is substantial, but its rewards are substantial as well.
TEST BENCH
DOLBY DIGITAL PERFORMANCE
All data were obtained from various test DVDs using 16-bit dithered test signals, which set limits on measured distortion and noise performance. Reference input level is –20 dBFS, and reference output is 1 watt into 8 ohms. Volume setting for reference level was -9. All level trims at zero, except for subwoofer-related tests, all speakers were set to “large,” subwoofer on. All are worst-case figures where applicable.
Output at clipping (1 kHz into 8/4 ohms)
1 channel driven: 208/312 W (23.2/24.9 dBW)
5 channels driven (8 ohms): 138 W (21.4 dBW)
Distortion at 1 watt (THD+N, 1 kHz)
8/4 ohms: 0.05/0.05%*
Noise level (A-wtd): –75.2 dB*
Excess noise (with sine tone)
16-bit (EN16): 0.5 dB*
Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz +0, –0.3 dB
MULTICHANNEL PERFORMANCE, ANALOG INPUT
Reference input and output level is 200 mV; volume setting for reference output level was -4.
Distortion (THD+N, 1 kHz, 8 ohms): 0.08%*
Noise level (A-wtd.): –87.6*
Frequency response: <10 Hz to 160 kHz +0, –3 dB
STEREO PERFORMANCE, DIGITAL INPUT
Reference level is –20 dBFS; all level trims at zero. Volume setting for reference level was -5.
Output at clipping (1 kHz, 8/4 ohms, both channels driven): 154/262 W (21.9/24.2 dBW)
Distortion at reference level: 0.03%*
Linearity error (at –90 dBFS): 0.15 dB
Noise level (A-wtd): –75.6 dB*
with 96-kHz/24-bit signals: –85.4 dB*
Excess noise (with/without sine tone)
16-bit (EN16): 0.3/0.7 dB*
quasi-20-bit (EN20): 7.3/5.7 dB*
Noise modulation: 0.6 dB
Frequency response: <10 Hz to 20 kHz +0, –0.3 dB
with 96-kHz/24-bit signals: <10 Hz to 44.5 kHz +0.1, -0.6 dB
*Noise and distortion tests required insertion of a “brickwall” low-pass filter to suppress very high-frequency ultrasonics that were present on all speaker outputs. (Almost certainly artifacts of Class D switching frequency, these were not seen on line-level output traces.). This may have affected results to a very slight degree.
BASS-MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE
Measured results obtained with Dolby Digital test signals.
Subwoofer-output frequency response (crossover set to 80 Hz): 24 dB/octave (approx.) above –6-dB rolloff point of 80 Hz
High-pass-filter frequency response (crossover set to 80 Hz): 12 dB/octave below –3-dB rolloff point of 80 Hz
Maximum unclipped subwoofer output (trim at 0): 7.3v
Subwoofer distortion (from 6-channel, 30 Hz, 0 dBFS signal; subwoofer trim set to 0): 0.03%*
Crossover consistency: bass crossover frequency and slope were consistent for all sources and formats
Signal-format consistency: consistent for all applicable formats
Speaker size selection: all channels can be set to “small”
Speaker-distance compensation: available for all main channels.
The SC-07’s power output was impressive on just about every test—especially from a receiver that weighs only 50 lb, and never got more than modestly hot. As more channels were driven, maximum power fell off comparatively linearly—much more so than is usually the case with conventional, regulated Class A/B designs. (Class D uses available power supply current much more efficiently, but it’s not nuclear fission: the supply is still finite). Other test were generally excellent throughout. What I took to be artifacts from the amplifiers’ switching frequencies (at a guess, several hundred kilohertz), were visible on scope traces of all speaker outputs. While these made taking certain measurements a bit challenging, they are sonically not significant, being many times higher than the highest frequency of interest.
— D.K.