Long story short, I really love my 54TX. Solid build, great features. Wish it had DVI or HDMI switching, but the only HDMI device I have is a DVD player, and I don't have any plans for anything else at this time that would be HDMI, so it still works great for me. MCACC is pretty nice. I used it for my initial config, and it sounded great. I borrowed a Rat Shack SPL meter and found that in my room, the Pioneer MCACC was very close to getting it right. Close enough that I didn't notice an improvement with the SPL meter, but at least now I know that it should be right on (at least until I finish the rest of my basement and get carpet down), and then I know that the MCACC will be pretty darn good.
People around this board like Denon, Outlaw, Yamaha, etc, and there are very few people that are running Pioneer, but a lot of that is due to the lower end Pioneer stuff not being "good enough" for what they want, and it really wasn't until recently that Pioneer Elite gear was priced where an average guy like me could afford it. There was quite a pricing gap in their product line-up. I have owned various Pioneer gear in the past, as well as a JVC receiver, Sony receiver, and an Onkyo receiver. They all did well for me, and the only differences in performance was due to the age of the technology (Pioneer was my first receiver, and it was cheap, but for the price had the features I wanted, and never failed me, the others came and went over the years, with newer features, more watts per channel, etc, but none shined greatly over the other because they were all in the "under $250 class".) Alan from Axiom told me once that pretty much any receiver in the $500+ range that is from a major manufacturer should be of great quality and not to be stuck on a name.
