Pioneer's high-contrast Kuro Plasma TVs, have been grabbing all the technology headlines of late, but while the PDP division has been discovering new shades of black, the less-celebrated audio team has developed a thumping new line-up of AV receivers.

The VSX-LX60 slots in toward the top of the range, packing in all of this generation's key HD features, but hovering below the crucial £1,000 price barrier. Like the rest of the new line-up, it's had a radical makeover, too, with a fashionable gloss black finish - designed to match the Kuro TV range - replacing the silver that is now sooo last year! But the real changes here aren't cosmetic, they're much more significant than that.

I know what you're thinking, with every new product cycle we are promised dazzling 'next-gen' features that we'd be crazy to pass up, but this year does mark something of a paradigm shift in home cinema as we make the transition to high-definition.

With HD media beginning to show signs of commercial life, a whole new level of functionality is required; and that receiver you bought a couple of years ago might not be able to hack it any more. Can it switch a 1080p signal or decode a Dolby True HD soundtrack?

If the answer is no, then sooner or later you're possibly going to need a 'Full HD friendly' model, like this one.

Third time's a charm

The most fundamental differences arrive with the third-generation HDMI connectivity. Version 1.3, implemented for the first time here, can channel a Full HD 1080p signal and all of the latest lossless audio formats from Dolby and DTS.

They can even accept a multi-channel DSD stream from a Super Audio CD player. Earlier HDMI incarnations would stop at 1080i and simply refuse uncompressed audio. And there's something else that last year's models couldn't manage - the VSX-LX60 has the ability to upscale any video source (analogue included) and output it as 1080p via HDMI.

So the LX60 is bang up-to-date in terms of new age techno-trickery, but how does it compare with the rest of the AV competition? Like most Pioneer amps, it's remarkably powerful, with seven discrete analogue amplifiers producing upwards of 175W apiece, and it meets the criteria for THX Select 2 certification. On the test bench, the LX60 is a powerhouse.

Overall muscle drops to around 100W (into 8O) with five channels driven - which is more than enough to earn the THX Select badge - but in two channel mode it is a beast. The fidelity firewall figure (a measure of usable power before distortion) is particularly good at 165W.

The LX60 also incorporates a few sound-enhancing features such as 'phase control', which compensates for mismatched speakers in the system and 'sound retriever', which restores some of the quality of compressed formats like MP3s from your iPod by intelligently 'rebuilding' the signal.

Terminal velocity

I suspect the new plastic fascia will divide opinion. The high-gloss is certainly in tune with the current trend for consumer electronics, but last year's brushed silver looked classy, while the plastic looks, well, a bit plasticky. Perhaps Pioneer should factor this into its next round of design meetings? This is a sturdy beast though, standing nearly 19cm tall and weighing in at 17kg.

This all leaves plenty of space for connections around the back, which looks like a BT switchboard. The HDMI inputs and output are the most noteworthy additions, but frustratingly, there are only three of these, which doesn't seem very generous.

I'd trade all of the composite video inputs for one more HDMI socket. And while I'm on the subject, why not have two HDMI outputs instead of one? That would be instantly useful for anyone with both TV and projector in their home cinema setup.

Included in the box are a universal remote control and a microphone. The remote looks baffling, with cramped buttons, many of which fulfil more than one function, but then this is quite a sophisticated piece of kit.

The onscreen menu is very utilitarian - though Pioneer has showed fast-track improvements in this area, in order to come up with a more friendly OSD - and it will take you a while to set up all of the inputs to suit your system. But then, I guess that's half the fun of owning a behemoth like this.

The onscreen menu is where you can assign inputs and set speaker levels, and this is where the supplied microphone comes into play too.

Plug it in and place it in the prime listening position and the MCACC (Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration System) will take over and optimise the speaker levels and delay for you.