Pioneer/VSX-44
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- Operating Instructions (PDF)
Links
- store listings:
- BestBuy (clearance; reviews)
- Crutchfield (discontinued; information, reviews, photos)
- HiFi Heaven (no longer available; detailed description)
- Walmart (out of stock)
Woozle Notes
2021-10-10
Preliminary assessment, before trying to plug in an HDMI monitor to access the graphical menus:
Despite having an inexpensive way to allow almost unlimited control over signal routing (i.e. monitor/menus), it actually does less than my just-above-low-end amp from the 1990s (or indeed, any such amp from the 1970s-1990s). The modern, digital features you get are also tightly restricted in what they can do.
Just to start with:
- 1. If you plug in the headphones, it turns off the speakers -- and, if the manual is correct, there is no way to play through both.
- 2. There is no line output. None. So I can't route the signal through my other amp, so I can listen on those speakers (or headphones).
- 3. The internet radio stations it allows you to connect to are on a list which is maintained by a service they control. As far as I can tell, there's no way add your own, no way to listen to a standard stream feed. Commercial services only -- and only the commercial services they choose.
this just seems so very representational of how bigcorps have come to see hardware as a tool to promote their services, and less as a tool for the enduser's benefit.
The list of Internet radio stations on this receiver is created,
edited, and managed by the vTuner database service
exclusively for use with this receiver.
On the plus side, it does appear to be able to play a wide variety of audio formats, with a wide variety of sampling parameters, with gapless sequencing (as long as the sampling parameters match, which makes sense)... if I can figure out how to get it to play files (this probably requires connecting a monitor).