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Pioneer’s latest Elite series A/V receiver aims to be your home’s entertainment hub

Kris Wouk
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Pioneer has been releasing home theater and audio gear at a fairly steady clip throughout 2016, and this week at CE Week, it’s taking time to show off everything it has released so far. Just because the company is showing products that it has already introduced, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t introducing a few new products as well.

On Wednesday, the company introduced its new Elite SC-LX501 7.1-channel network A/V receiver. Like other models in the Elite line of receivers, this model supports 4K Ultra HD and HDR 24-bit video with 4:4:4 color, along with all the requisite modern technologies like HDMI 2.0a, HDCP 2.2, and BT.2020. The “Super Resolution” technology developed for Pioneer’s Elite BDP-88FD Blu-ray player is included here, allowing standard HD content to be upscaled to 4K resolution, on the off chance your TV doesn’t offer built-in upscaling.

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The SC-LX501 boasts a claimed 560 watts of power across its 7.1 channels, and includes a 384 kHz / 32-bit DAC designed by AKM for crystal clear sound. Setup is simplified by the addition of Pioneer’s Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration System (MCACC), which uses an included microphone to automatically detect the sizes and positions of your speakers, and calibrate the receiver accordingly for the best possible sound.

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As is the case with most A/V receivers Pioneer releases these days, Dolby Atmos object-based surround sound support is included out of the box, with DTS:X support planned via a firmware update scheduled for this fall. High-resolution audio is also supported, with support for DSD files at 2.8MHz, 5.6 MHz, and 11.2 MHz as well as Dolby TrueHD files. High-resolution 192kHz / 24-bit FLAC, WAV, AIFF, and Apple Lossless files are supported as well.

Wireless connectivity comes in the form of dual-band Wi-Fi, and Google Cast support is included out of the box, as are Bluetooth and AirPlay. Streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn and Tidal are included, as well as Deezer for those located outside of the U.S. Internet radio support is also included.

For multiroom support, the receiver features a powered Zone 2 output and Zone 2 line out, plus a future firmware update will also add support for FireConnect wireless multiroom audio, allowing any source connected to the receiver – even a turntable – to be beamed to speakers throughout your home. Pioneer plans to release optional FireConnect-compatible Wi-Fi speakers to complement compatible receivers later this year.

The Pioneer Elite SC-LX501 is expected to ship beginning next month, and retails for $1,000. Like all other 2016 models in Pioneer’s Elite A/V series, it is protected by a three-year warranty. The SC-LX501 is being shown off at Pioneer’s booth at CE Week, along with a number of products we’ve already covered, including the VSX-1131 A/V receiver, SE-Master1 and SE-MHR5 headphones, and XDP-100R high-resolution audio player.

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Kris Wouk
Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
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