Pioneer SC-LX82 review

Enter Pioneer's new SC-LX82. A radical upgrade with major updates, additional power, more features and extra pixie-dust – the LX82 certainly is not.

It was only earlier this year when I fell in love with Pioneer's ICEpower-fuelled SC-LX81. It was great-sounding, packed with features, relatively affordable and looked like a piece of modern art on the equipment rack. Unsurprisingly, it scooped the top amplifier gong at the 2009 HCC Best Buy awards.

But good R&D never sleeps – which is more than can be said for many of the Awards attendees the day after the event. In fact, the only obvious thing to change from the outside is the number on the badge and the addition of a front-mounted HDMI input.

Around the back the differences are only marginally more noticeable: one of the LX81's two AV in/out loops for a video recorder has been replaced in favour of Zone 2 and Zone 3 AV outputs; and gone is the phono-stage altogether.

WELL CONNECTED: The LX82 can cater for up to two further zones, by composite video or component, and analogue stereo outs or the surround back speaker terminals

I would say the latter was a sign of the times – had the vinyl market not been growing steadily for the last two years. But let's not decry the solid foundation upon which the SC-LX82 is built. This is a THX Ultra2 Plus specified amplifier with all the usual THX post-processing refinements.

It boasts sonic tuning in the UK by AIR Studios and has Pioneer's PQLS system for reclocking the multichannel audio signal over HDMI to reduce jitter with suitable (i.e. certain Pioneer) Blu-ray players.

The SC-LX82 also comes fitted with Pioneer's rather lush and accurate MCACC Room EQ system. Not only does this function handle all your setup and basic EQ functions, it incorporates a clever trickery to fine tune your room's standing waves, phase anomalies and reverb – the results of which are neatly displayed onscreen or exported to the MCACC software on your PC if you wish.

The MCACC system takes up a fair chunk of the gigantic manual and much of the best bits of Pioneer's GUI. Time may have made me over-familiar with this particular GUI, and I now find it quite reserved in comparison to some of the prettier interfaces. It's also slightly frustrating that not all features are accessed from a single main menu in-road.

For example, MCACC and system set-up is accessed through the main menu, but the audio parameters, video controls and internet radio menus are all accessed with different keys on the remote. I'm sure once you have used the LX82 for a while it won't be an issue – but it seems to be unnecessarily complex in this respect.

Ice to see you

In case the growing cornucopia of cracking Blu-ray releases has kept you from following all that is moving and shaking in home cinema, Pioneer took a bold step in introducing iCepower modules into the elite, performance-driven end of the av market last year.

HIDDEN LEGENDS: Most of the Pioneer's legends, including the THX Ultra2 Plus badge, are on the top of the unit. Boo!

These are digital Class-D amplifier modules developed by Bang & Olufsen, which have been widely adopted for AV amps and subwoofers due to their high power output, low current draw and incredibly linear output. Some implementations have been dire and some have been outstanding – Pioneer's offerings falling firmly into the latter category.