It takes a certain kind of chutzpah to name one of your products after a Japanese god, but that’s exactly what Pioneer has done with the SC-LX90 Susano - the most powerful home cinema receiver the company has ever made.
Just as well really as the legendary Susano was the mighty god of the wind and sea, a god who was known to wreak vengeance on those who offended him, as well as to use his powers for good.
Not that Pioneer need worry.
Susano super-power
The SC-LX90 Susano is an absolute beast on paper and in the flesh, delivering up to 140W of power output into 10 different channels simultaneously.
That’s 1.4KW of cheek-flapping super-power aimed straight at your face.
Key to the Susano’s prowess is four years of painstaking development with the team from ICEpower - the in-house amplification experts at Bang & Olufsen.
The result is a set of studio-quality ICEpower amplifiers especially developed for the Susano, which are "characterised by quick response, matching the highly advanced registration capabilities of modern music studio environments," according to the PR blurb.
Pioneer is also keen to stress the SC-LX90's audiophile credibility, thanks to the company's long relationship with Air Studios, the recording studio established by one-time Beatles producer George Martin.
Pioneer's product manager Jim Catcheside says one of the reasons the Susano took so long to develop was because of the extensive tuning it underwent at Air to ensure it turned in a great audio performance.
High-def ready
Naturally, the Pioneer SC-LX90 Susano comes with all the other goodies you’d expect from a home cinema receiver including separated power supplies and discrete enclosures for the pre-amp and power amplification components.
it goes without saying that Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD surround sound decoders are included, as is support for WMA and the Apple iPod (the latter via a dedicated connector).
The SC-LX90 Susano also carries THX Ultra2 Plus badge, denoting that it meets the exacting standards for home audio performance set by cinema sound experts THX.
On the video front, goodies include 1080p video upscaling and HDMI Deep Colour, support for the xvYCC extended colour gamut and eight HDMI 1.3 ports (six inputs, two outputs).
The Pioneer SC-LX90 Susano home cinema receiver is expected to go on sale in August for around £5,000.
