Can any former or current Pioneer Elite members comment on their satisfaction with the Elite receivers? I have been looking at the new batch that has just come out - iLink, HDMI 1.1, Burr Brown DACs, etc all for about $1500. It looks to have more features than the new Yamaha RX-V4600, but at a lower price. Does this sound too good to be true?

I have a 45TX and love it.

My Pros
-MCACC. I know many prefer the SPL meter method, but this works for me and my lazy self.
-LOTS of inputs. I use about 11 inputs now.
-Set up for multichannel, so I can listen to the 3 multichannel discs I have...
-2nd zone. I like that I can have different sources playing in different rooms.

My Cons
-No DVI inputs
-I wish it had more component inputs.
-No iLink, would've been nice to have.

I do have my eye on that Outlaw 1070 and bummer, I missed the raffle deadline.

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.

Royce, I don't have any personal info to add, but you may not have seen that the 74TXVi will be reviewed in the October Sound&Vision and that the lab results are up online . Also, besides the Audioholics review on the 4600, Secrets has a rather thorough test, showing similar excellence(despite a couple of apparently obligatory "massmarket" comments by the reviewer). Both of these would appear to have more than enough power for almost any real-world use in the home, so as usual, decide on the basis of which features are more important to you, and price, of course.

Thanks for the link, John. I had not seen that before. I have a HK525 now and I like it very much, but I really want the iLink functionality so I can say good-bye to the six analogue DVD-A/SACD connections. I might wait to see what HK comes out with, but I do not think they can beat the $1500 price tag.

You can read this:
PIO2012 is PIO Elite45TX and I'm really happy with it

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=HT&Number=43125&page=&view=&sb=&o=