At Air Studios in London TechRadar was given an exclusive glimpse of what to expect from Pioneer's upcoming luxury range of AV receivers – the SC-LX82 and SC-LX72.
Although pricing details are non-existent at the moment, the new AVRs are due for release in September and come with a rather handy new feature – connectivity to an iPod of iPhone.
The demo we were given showed how easy it was to connect up an iPod to the receiver range, through a Pioneer-created cable. Quite why you would want to watch video this way on a big screen TV is beyond us, but it's obvious that this is a quick way to get access to your whole music collection and pipe it through the AVRs to your audio setup.
Passion for audio
Audio is very much the order of the day with Pioneer at the moment. Speaking today at the company's press conference, a spokesperson for Pioneer told TechRadar: "We are refocusing the business to our original heritage of audio.
"Our passion for audio already exists – it is in our company's DNA. We are not changing, but focusing on regaining our core."
This comes after Pioneer left the plasma market back in February, despite numerous awards and accolades it had received from its TV arm.
Audio streaming
Air studios was a fitting place to hear the SC-LX82 and SC-LX72 receivers – home to the recent James Bond soundtracks – as the AVRs were actually tested in the studios.
Other snippets of info include that the AVRs will have Advanced MCACC room calibration, video upscaling to 1080p, use PQLS to stop jitter and will have dual HDMI.
They will also have Ethernet streaming capabilities, although Pioneer has confirmed to us that this will be limited to audio only.
While prices have not been confirmed, expect to pay around £2,000 when they are released sometime in September.
