Features • Advanced Direct Energy design This receiver offers a new advancement in discrete design unique to Pioneer for high-power drivability, low distortion and stable imaging. Through a circuit design that minimizes the energy loss of the amplifier for each of the channels, this receiver generates equal amplifier power to all channels, eliminating the possibility of one channel dominating a particular sound field. • Easy setup using Advanced MCACC The Auto MCACC Setup provides a quick but accurate surround sound setup, which includes the advanced features of Professional Acoustic Calibration EQ. This innovative technology measures the reverb characteristics of your listening area, allowing you to customize your system calibration with the help of a graphical output that can be displayed on-screen. With the additional benefits of numerous MCACC preset memories, standing wave control and microphone measurements from a series of reference points, your home theater experience can be truly customized for optimal surround sound. • Dolby Digital and DTS decoding, including Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Pro Logic IIx, DTS 96/24, DTS-ES, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-EXPRESS and DTS-HD Master Audio Dolby Digital and DTS decoding brings theater sound right into your home with up to six channels of surround sound, including a special LFE (Low Frequency Effects) channel for deep, realistic sound effects. The built-in Dolby Pro Logic IIx and DTS Neo:6 decoders not only provide full surround sound decoding for Dolby Surround sources, but will also generate convincing surround sound for any stereo source. Also, with the addition of a surround back speaker, you can take advantage of the built-in Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES decoders for six-channel surround sound. Furthermore, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD, which are designed for the next-generation highdefinition media such as Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD, support up to 7.1 channels and 8 channels respectively. DTS-EXPRESS is a low-bitrate encoding technology supporting up to 5.1 channels, with fixed data transfer rates ranging from 24 kbps to 256 kbps (this encoding is available only when signals are delivered to this receiver as primary audio). DTS-HD Master Audio delivers audio signals to listeners without any loss of data with its high transfer rates. • Phase Control The Phase Control technology incorporated into this receiver’s design provides coherent sound reproduction through the use of phase matching for an optimal sound image at your listening position. • Sound Retriever The Sound Retriever feature employs DSP technology that helps bring CD quality sound back to WMA, MP3 and MPEG-4 AAC audio files by restoring sound pressure and smoothing jagged artifacts left over after compression. • Front Stage Surround Advance With the Front Stage Surround Advance feature, you can enjoy seamless, natural surround sound effects using only the front speakers, without deteriorating the quality of the original sound. • Auto Level Control When the source is played in Auto level control stereo mode (A.L.C.), this receiver automatically equalizes the playback sound level according to the variation in recording levels between music sources recorded in the portable audio player. • HDMI and digital video conversion This receiver is compatible with the HDMI digital video format, providing you with high-definition digital video/ audio via a single cable. High-quality sound formats such as DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD are supported while this receiver is also compatible with the DeepColor feature. You can operate this receiver in synchronization with your Pioneer component that supports the HDMI Control function by connecting your component to this receiver via HDMI. Also, the built-in digital video converter of this receiver makes both de-interlacing and up-scaling possible, and analog video signals being input are converted and output as digital video signals at the HDMI terminal. • iPod and USB Ready This receiver has the terminals for connecting an iPod unit and a USB mass storage device. The iPod terminal is ready for handling digital audio, and this receiver’s enhanced compatibility makes on-screen control of your iPod an added possibility. The USB terminal allows you to listen to two-channel audio from a USB mass storage device connected to this receiver.