The AV receiver is not one with its dimensions of 435 x 168 x 362.5 mm to little of its kind, and is almost 10 kg no lightweight. At the processing of the device there is not really anything to complain about, but the front is unfortunately entirely of plastic and the metal of the housing would have a little thicker and thus can fail stable. What I do not like the removable panel on the front USB and -Audioanschluß that you hold in your hand print on the right side just loose. That would have the manufacturer can solve elegant means of a sliding cover. The necessary functions can be set via push buttons on the front panel. Next, the receiver has two large knobs - the left is used to select the input and the right to adjust the volume. Both controllers are made of simple plastic and leave in operation a law eierigen impression. Otherwise, only the on / off switch and the jack is for connecting a headset on the front. To operate the headphones, the VSX-922 offers a special headphone surround mode that creates a quite ordinary surround sound.
The VSX-922 has an acoustic calibration system, called MCACC (Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration System), which analyzes the sound environment by means of an attached microphone and a series of test tones and adjusts for optimum sound reproduction. This speaker size, seat pitch, acoustics and volume flow with a in the result. This system works amazingly well and represents the distance of the speakers virtually centimeter. The subsequent measurement result can be subsequently modified by the user. I operate the receiver in the 5.1-channel mode at four piece KEF iQ30 speakers, a center speaker MAGNAT and an active subwoofer with 25cm bass speakers. After the calibration the high places were too pronounced and the subwoofer slightly to set quiet for my taste, which was very easy to fix by manual intervention in the equalizer settings.
Sonically leaves the Pioneer VSX-922-K a very good impression. With its amplifier output of 150 watts per channel (lt. Tests in several magazines there are 5-channel operation almost 85 Watts RMS power into 4 ohms) is the receiver quite punchy on works. For the operation of power hungry tower speaker to the front channels can be in 5-channel mode bridges (Bi-Amp). The midrange and treble is very balanced, only the highs come over sometimes a bit hard. This is fortunately felt in the movie playback only slightly -. So for example, you will feel at film titles such as TERMINATOR SALVATION middle of the action and in the crash of the helicopter at the beginning of the film patter the fragments only as a decrease. Explosions come just in the operation of a subwoofer with proper pressure, with voices are always worked out clear and clean from the soundscape.
The video processing of the VSX-922 is at a good level, but could upscaling of different resolutions, as well as switching between the inputs take a little less time. If that is too long will be advised to switch the video input to "pass" and to the choice of each player device scaling. This works even when the receiver is in standby mode. The user interface of the device with respect to resolution and menu structure improvement. Most parameters of the video equalizer also can not find, unfortunately as menu items in the user interface again, but can only buttons on the remote to adjust. While this is good in the hand, but is unfortunately totally overloaded and therefore quite confusing. Illuminated, she is also not. Pioneer has unfortunately put a complete manual with the board, but only a Quick Start Guide, which does not even contain a schematic representation of the back panel. That would be a real help when setting up and connecting the device. After all, you will find the detailed instructions on the enclosed CD-ROM, only have crept numerous spelling errors in the manual, which should not occur in a brand unit of this caliber.
Conclusion: The Pioneer VSX-922-K AV receiver represents a successful control center for the home theater and boasts with excellent audio and a decent video section on. Smaller weaknesses like the cheap plastic front and the somewhat sluggish switching between resolutions and inputs can certainly get over when considering the overall package.
