Pioneer Elite VSX-30 and VSX-31 arrive

Pioneer today rolled out a pair of new Elite AV receivers that bring some of its more advanced features to a lower price level. All of them, including models like the VSX-30 and VSX-31 (links active soon), support iPhone and iPod control through the company's custom iControl AV mobile app. They similarly share the option of Bluetooth audio with an adapter, HDMI 1.4a for 3D support, and a new "wide" surround that produces a better sense of motion with virtual height and 9.1-channel surround options.

Certain models add different features for image quality or media features. The SC-37 has an Ethernet connection and media sharing to both pull music and photos over the local network as well as Internet radio from Sirius XM and Rhapsody.

All of the Elite receivers have Anchor Bay hardware, but the VSX-32 and all better models focus on image quality with Marvell's Qdeo video processing and HDMI jitter correction.

Pricing is incomplete at this stage but starts relatively low at $550 for the VSX-30 and scales up to $2,200 for the SC-37. Ship dates weren't mentioned.

by MacNN Staff