Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Pioneer Elite SC-25 with Axiom Epic Grand Master

Hi Guys:

Thanks for the very valuable information you've been providing in this forum. I have learned a lot reading your answers and really appreciate the sense of comraderie that prevails around here. I have recently ordered Axiom speakers (Epic Grand Master -500; 5.1 system) (which I will be getting sometime late next week) and will order tomorrow a brand new SC-25. I would like to know if any of you have a similar speaker/receiver set up and, if so, what advice you would give me on how to run the full MCAC set up. Neither wiring or speaker positioning are issues for me, but since I have never even owned a receiver, this is all going to be new to me (although I am not tech challenged). Incidentally, I will be hooking these to a Samsung 55" LCD (7100 model), a Directv HD DVR Plus ("cable" box) and a Samsung blue-ray player. I will use HDMI cables to connect these sources. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and keep on posting.

In my unabashed attempt not to be critical of your choice of AVR, it has been noticed, however, on a number of the forums that the last two generations of Pioneers(both Elite and regular models) required firmware updates to hopefully correct HDMI "handshake"(intermittent video drop-outs) issues with "some" Blu-Ray players and HD cable/sat boxes connected to them and apparently even these updates have still not fully corrected the problem. Earlier this year my preference was for an SC07(the previous model), however, once this came to light, I bought another brand and have never had any issues.

Just to be on the safe side, I would suggest looking in to this further before making the final commitment on this unit.

I would recommend a Denon model, nothing "yet" is better than Audyssey.

Detailed setup advice aside, as I also own a Denon, my first thought would be to run the system with just a basic setup first. That is to say, calibrate the speaker levels but don't worry about the EQ setup for a bit. In this way, you can do all the tweaking on speaker placement first.

Personally, I would also want to get used to the un-EQed sound of the speaker first so that you can then better compare the results of the EQed sound.

Foremost though is so you won't have to re-run it every time you try a new sub location, speaker position or toe-in combo. When you get it as close to perfect as it can get with positioning, then try the auto-EQ setup to let it do the rest. If you make significant changes to positioning after running the auto-EQ setup, you risk changing things enough that it should really be run again.

Hi DrJ357,
I have the SC-05 (previous model to the SC-25) and am very happy with it. No specific advice on the MCAC setup beyond what has already been said. I did however disable the EQ that MCAC applied to my system. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

The only thing I can point out negative about the SC-05 (and I assume it also applies to the SC-25 unless they improved this) is that there is one fixed crossover frequency for the system. For my system (Epic Grand Master Architectural)and yours this should not pose an issue, however if you were considering an upgrade to the M60 or 80's it becomes more of a consideration point as you may want fronts crossed at 60 Hz and center and surrounds at say 80 Hz. I am not trying to say what is right or wrong, only pointing out what may or may not bother you later.

Also note that the SC-05 also does not perform any upscaling through the HDMI inputs - again check if the SC-25 does or does not and decide if that's a concern for you (for my source material this is not an issue for me).

As I said, other than that point I am very happy with the SC. It's ICE amps are quite impressive and I like it's feature set.

Keep us posted!