Pioneer VSX-LX50 - Manual

5 En 08 The System Setup menu Making receiver settings from the System Setup menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Automatic MCACC (Expert) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Surround back speaker setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3...

Before you start 01 6 En Chapter 1: Before you start 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 symmetrical placement of power amplification units, this re...

Before you start 01 7 En • Easy-to-use LCD remote control The remote control gives you not only complete control over every function of this receiver, but also over the main functions for other components in your home theater system. Using a system of preset codes, you can program the remote to oper...

5 minute guide 02 8 En Chapter 2: 5 minute guide Introduction to home theater Home theater refers to the use of multiple audio tracks to create a surround sound effect, making you feel like you’re in the middle of the action or concert. The surround sound you get from a home theater system depends n...

5 minute guide 02 9 En 1 Switch on the receiver and your TV. 2 Connect the microphone to the MCACC SETUP MIC jack on the front panel. Place the microphone so that it’s about ear level at your normal listening position (use a tripod if possible). Make sure there are no obstacles between the speakers ...

5 minute guide 02 10 En Problems when using the Auto MCACC Setup If the room environment is not optimal for the Auto MCACC Setup (too much background noise, echo off the walls, obstacles blocking the speakers from the microphone) the final settings may be incorrect. Check for household appliances (a...

Connecting your equipment 03 11 En Chapter 3: Connecting your equipment This receiver provides you with many connection possibilities, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. This page explains the kinds of components you can connect to make up your home theater system. Rear panel Caution • Before maki...

Connecting your equipment 03 13 En Connecting your TV and DVD player The diagram shows a basic setup of this receiver together with a TV and DVD player, with S-video or composite video connections. Different TVs and DVD players may offer alternative connections. See also Using the component video ja...

Connecting your equipment 03 14 En 1 Connect the audio/video outputs on the set-top box to the TV/SAT AUDIO and VIDEO inputs. Connect using a stereo RCA/phono jack cable and a video or S-video cable. 2 Connect an optical-type 1 digital audio output from your set-top box to the OPTICAL 2 (TV/SAT) inp...

Connecting your equipment 03 15 En 1 Connect the component video outputs of your source to a set of ASSIGNABLE COMPONENT VIDEO inputs. Connect using a three-way component video cable. • Since they are assignable, it doesn’t matter which component video inputs you use for which source. After connecti...

Connecting your equipment 03 16 En About the WMA9 Pro decoder This unit has an on-board Windows Media TM Audio 9 Professional 1 (WMA9 Pro) decoder, so it is possible to playback WMA9 Pro-encoded audio using a coaxial or optical digital connection when connected to a WMA9 Pro-compatible player. Howev...

Connecting your equipment 03 17 En Installing your speaker system To take full advantage of the receiver’s surround sound capabilities connect front, center, surround and surround back speakers, as well as a subwoofer. Although this is ideal, other configurations with fewer speakers—no subwoofer or ...

Connecting your equipment 03 18 En Bare wire connections Make sure that the speaker cable you’re going to use is properly prepared with about 10 mm of insulator stripped from each wire, and the exposed wire strands twisted together ( fig. A ). To connect a terminal, unscrew the terminal a few turns ...

Connecting your equipment 03 19 En The diagrams below show suggested surround and surround back speaker orientation. The first diagram ( fig. A ) shows orientation with one surround back speaker (or none) connected. The second ( fig. B ) shows orientation with two surround back speakers connected. •...

Connecting your equipment 03 20 En Connecting external antennas To improve FM reception connect an external FM antenna to the FM UNBAL 75 Ω terminal. To improve AM reception, connect a 5 m to 6 m length of vinyl-coated wire to the AM LOOP terminals without disconnecting the supplied AM loop antenna....

Controls and displays 04 21 En Chapter 4: Controls and displays Front panel 1 MULTI JOG dial Use the MULTI JOG dial to select various settings and menu options. 2  STANDBY/ON Switches the receiver between on and standby. Power indicator lights when the receiver is on. 3 EON MODE Use to search for p...

Controls and displays 04 22 En 14 PHONES jack Use to connect headphones. When the headphones are connected, there is no sound output from the speakers. 15 Input source buttons Press to select an input source. 16 VIDEO/GAME INPUT See Connecting a component to the front panel inputs on page 16. 17 USB...

Controls and displays 04 23 En Display 1 SIGNAL indicators Light to indicate the currently selected input signal. AUTO lights when the receiver is set to select the input signal automatically (page 29). 2 Program format indicators These change according to which channels are active in digital source...

Controls and displays 04 24 En Remote control The remote has been conveniently color-coded according to component control using the following system (press the corresponding input source button to access): • Green – Receiver controls (see below) • Red – DVD controls (page 66) • Blue – Tuner controls...

Listening to your system 05 26 En Chapter 5: Listening to your system Important • The listening modes and many features described in this section may not be available depending on the current source, settings and status of the receiver. See Listening modes with different input signal formats on page...

Listening to your system 05 27 En • 2 Pro Logic IIx MOVIE – See above (only available when you’re using two surround back speakers) • 2 Pro Logic IIx MUSIC – See above • Dolby Digital EX – Creates surround back channel sound for 5.1 channel sources and provides pure decoding for 6.1 channel sources ...

Listening to your system 05 28 En • PhonesSurround – When listening through headphones, you can still get the effect of overall surround. Tip • When an Advanced Surround listening mode is selected, the effect level can be adjusted using the EFFECT parameter in Setting the AV options on page 58. List...

Listening to your system 05 29 En Selecting MCACC presets • Default setting: MEMORY 1 If you have calibrated your system for different listening positions 1 , you can switch between settings to suit the kind of source you’re listening to and where you’re sitting (for example, watching movies from a ...

Listening to your system 05 30 En Using the Virtual Surround Back mode When you’re not using surround back speakers, selecting this mode allows you to hear a virtual surround back channel through your surround speakers. You can choose to listen to sources with no surround back channel information, o...

Listening to your system 05 31 En Using Midnight and Loudness The Midnight listening feature allows you to hear effective surround sound of movies at low volume levels. The effect automatically adjusts according to the volume at which you’re listening. The Loudness listening feature can be used to g...

USB playback 06 32 En Chapter 6: USB playback Using the USB interface It is possible to listen to two-channel audio 1 using the USB interface on the front of this receiver. Connect a USB mass storage device 2 as shown below. 1 Switch on the receiver and your TV. 2 Press USB ( SHIFT +DVD) to switch t...

USB playback 06 33 En 1 Press RETURN to display the folder/file list for the USB device connected. 2 Press / to select the file you want to play back, and then press ENTER to confirm your selection. • Press RETURN to switch to the upper hierarchy of the current folder or file. • To switch to the p...

Using the tuner 07 34 En Chapter 7: Using the tuner Listening to the radio The following steps show you how to tune in to FM and AM radio broadcasts using the automatic (search) and manual (step) tuning functions. If you already know the frequency of the station you want, see Tuning directly to a st...

Using the tuner 07 35 En Naming station presets For easier identification, you can name your station presets. 1 Choose the station preset you want to name. See Listening to station presets below for how to do this. 2 Press T.EDIT (TUNER EDIT). The display shows STATION NAME , then a blinking cursor ...

Using the tuner 07 36 En 4 Press ENTER to search for the program type. The system starts searching through the station presets for a match. When it finds one, the search stops and the station plays for five seconds. 5 If you want to keep listening to the station, press ENTER within the five seconds....

The System Setup menu 08 37 En Chapter 8: The System Setup menu Making receiver settings from the System Setup menu The following section shows you how to make detailed settings to specify how you’re using the receiver (for example, if you want to set up two speaker systems in separate rooms), and a...

The System Setup menu 08 39 En • Do not adjust the volume during the test tones. This may result in incorrect speaker settings. • With error messages (such as Ambient Noise or Microphone Check ) select RETRY after checking for ambient noise (see Problems when using the Auto MCACC Setup on page 10) a...

The System Setup menu 08 40 En 1 Select ‘Surr Back System’ from the System Setup menu. See Making receiver settings from the System Setup menu above if you’re not already at this screen. 2 Select the surround back speaker setting. • Normal (SB) – Select for normal home theater use with surround back...

The System Setup menu 08 41 En 1 Select ‘Fine Ch Level’ from the Manual MCACC setup menu. The volume increases to the 0 dB reference level. 2 Adjust the level of the left channel. This will be the reference speaker level, so you may want to keep the level around 0 dB so that you’ll have plenty of ro...

The System Setup menu 08 42 En Standing Wave • Default setting: ON Acoustic standing waves occur when, under certain conditions, sound waves from your speaker system resonate mutually with sound waves reflected off the walls in your listening area. This can have a negative effect on the overall soun...

The System Setup menu 08 43 En Professional Acoustic Calibration EQ This setup minimizes the unwanted effects of room reverberation by allowing you to calibrate your system based on the direct sound coming from the speakers. It can also provide you with a graphical output of the frequency response o...

The System Setup menu 08 44 En Note that changing the room (for example, moving furniture or paintings) will affect the calibration results. In such cases, you should recalibrate your system. Using Professional Acoustic Calibration EQ 1 Select ‘EQ Professional’ then press ENTER. 2 Select an option a...

The System Setup menu 08 45 En Data Management This system allows you to store up to six MCACC presets, allowing you to calibrate your system for different listening positions (or frequency adjustments for the same listening position). 1 This is useful for alternate settings to match the kind of sou...

The System Setup menu 08 46 En Renaming MCACC presets If you have several different MCACC presets that you’re using, you may want to rename them for easier identification. 1 Select ‘Memory Rename’ from the Data Management setup menu. 2 Select the MCACC preset you want to rename, then select an appro...

The System Setup menu 08 47 En 2 Choose the set of speakers that you want to set then select a speaker size. Use / to select the size (and number) of each of the following speakers: 1 • Front – Select LARGE if your front speakers reproduce bass frequencies effectively, or if you didn’t connect a s...

The System Setup menu 08 48 En 5 When you’re finished, press RETURN. You will return to the Manual SP Setup menu. Tip • You can change the channel levels at any time by pressing CH LEVEL then using / on the remote control. Speaker Distance For good sound depth and separation from your system, you ...

Other connections 09 49 En Chapter 9: Other connections Caution • Make sure the power is switched off before making or changing the connections. Connecting an iPod This receiver has a dedicated iPod terminal that will allow you to control playback of audio content from your iPod using the controls o...

Other connections 09 50 En 2 Use the / buttons to browse the selected category (e.g., albums). • Use / to move to previous/next levels. 3 Continue browsing until you arrive at what you want to play, then press  to start playback. 1 Navigation through categories on your iPod looks like this: Pla...

Other connections 09 51 En Connecting using HDMI If you have an HDMI or DVI (with HDCP) equipped component, you can connect it to this receiver using a commercially available HDMI cable. 1 The HDMI connection transfers uncompressed digital video, as well as almost every kind of digital audio that th...

Other connections 09 52 En HDMI, the logo and High-Definition Multimedia Interface are trademarks or registered trademarks of HDMI licensing LLC. Connecting the multichannel analog inputs For DVD Audio and SACD playback, your DVD player may have 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 channel analog outputs (depending on w...

Other connections 09 53 En • SP  B – Sound is output from the two speakers connected to speaker system B. Multichannel sources will not be heard. The same signal is output from the surround back channel pre-out terminals. • SP  AB – Sound is output from speaker system A (up to 5 channels, dependin...

Other connections 09 54 En Connecting additional amplifiers This receiver has more than enough power for any home use, but it’s possible to add additional amplifiers to every channel of your system using the pre-outs. Make the connections shown below to add amplifiers to power your speakers. • Befor...

Other connections 09 55 En • Use a 3-ringed miniplug SR+ cable to connect the CONTROL IN jack of this receiver with the CONTROL OUT jack of your plasma display. To make the most of the SR+ features, you should connect your source components (DVD player, etc.) in a slightly different way to that desc...

Other Settings 10 56 En Chapter 10: Other Settings The Input Setup menu You only need to make settings in the Input Setup menu if you didn’t hook up your digital equipment according to the default settings (see Input function default and possible settings below). In this case, you need to tell the r...

Using other functions 11 58 En Chapter 11: Using other functions Setting the AV options There are a number of additional sound and picture settings you can make using the AV Parameter menu. The defaults, if not stated, are listed in bold. Important • Note that if a setting doesn’t appear in the AV P...

Using other functions 11 60 En Reducing the level of an analog signal The input attenuator lowers the input level of an analog signal when it’s too strong. You can use this if you find the that the OVER indicator is lights often, or you can hear distortion in the sound. 1 • Press RECEIVER then press...

Using other functions 11 61 En Resetting the system Use this procedure to reset all the receiver’s settings to the factory default. Use the front panel controls to do this. 1 Switch the receiver into standby. 2 While holding down the front panel TONE button, press and hold  STANDBY/ON for about thr...

Controlling the rest of your system 12 62 En Chapter 12: Controlling the rest of your system Setting the remote to control other components Most components can be assigned to one of the input source buttons (such as DVD/LD or CD ) using the component’s manufacturer preset code stored in the remote. ...

Controlling the rest of your system 12 64 En 3 Press the button of the component for which you want to check the preset code, then press ENTER. The brand name and preset code appears in the display for three seconds. Renaming input source names You can customize the names that appear on the remote L...

Controlling the rest of your system 12 65 En 6 If necessary, press the input source button for the component whose command you want to input. This is only necessary if the command is for a new component (input source). 7 Select the button for the command you want to input. The following remote contr...

Controlling the rest of your system 12 66 En Controls for TVs This remote control can control components after entering the proper codes or teaching the receiver the commands (see Setting the remote to control other components on page 62 for more on this). Use the input source buttons to select the ...

Controlling the rest of your system 12 67 En Operating other Pioneer components with this unit’s sensor Many Pioneer components have SR CONTROL jacks which can be used to link components together so that you can use just the remote sensor of one component. When you use a remote control, the control ...

Additional information 13 68 En Chapter 13: Additional information Troubleshooting Incorrect operations are often mistaken for trouble and malfunctions. If you think that there is something wrong with this component, check the points below. Sometimes the trouble may lie in another component. Investi...

Additional information 13 69 En Other audio problems No sound from surround back speakers. • Check that the surround back speakers are set to LARGE or SMALL (see Speaker Setting on page 46). • Make sure surround back processing is set to SBch ON (see Using surround back channel processing on page 29...

Additional information 13 70 En Video Settings Can’t record audio. • You can only make a digital recording from a digital source, and an analog recording from an analog source.• For digital sources, make sure that what you’re recording isn’t copy protected.• Check that the OUT jacks are properly con...

Additional information 13 72 En Remote control USB interface HDMI Symptom Remedy Cannot be remote controlled. • Try replacing the batteries in the remote control (see Loading the batteries on page 7). • Be sure to operate within 7 meters and a 30º angle of the remote sensor on the front panel (see O...

Additional information 13 73 En iPod messages Note • If the unit does not operate normally due to external effects such as static electricity disconnect the power plug from the outlet and insert again to return to normal operating conditions. Noisy or distorted picture. • Sometimes a video deck may ...

Additional information 13 74 En Surround sound formats Below is a brief description of the main surround sound formats you’ll find on DVDs, satellite, cable and terrestrial broadcasts, and video cassettes. Dolby The Dolby technologies are explained below. See www.dolby.com for more detailed informat...

Additional information 13 75 En DTS The DTS technologies are explained below. See www.dtstech.com for more detailed information. DTS Digital Surround DTS Digital Surround is a 5.1-channel audio coding system from DTS Inc. now widely used for DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, 5.1 music discs, digital broadcasts,...

Additional information 13 77 En Listening modes with different input signal formats The following charts outline the listening modes available with different input signal formats, depending on the surround back channel processing and decoding method you have selected. Stereo (2 channel) signal forma...

Additional information 13 78 En Multichannel signal formats SBch Processing Input signal format Standard THX Auto Surround SBch Processing ON (7.1 channel decoding used for all sources) Dolby Digital Plus Dolby TrueHD DTS-HD DTS-HD Master Audio WMA9 Pro (44.1 kHz/48 kHz) PCM (6.1/7.1 channel) Straig...

Additional information 13 79 En SBch Processing AUTO (Automatically selects 6.1/7.1 channel decoding) Dolby Digital Plus Dolby TrueHD DTS-HD DTS-HD Master Audio WMA9 Pro PCM (6.1/7.1 channel) Straight decoding THX CINEMA Straight decoding Dolby TrueHD (176.4 kHz/192 kHz) (5.1 channel) Straight decod...

Additional information 13 80 En Stream direct with different input signal formats The following charts show what you will hear with different input signal formats, depending on the Stream Direct mode (see Using Stream Direct on page 28) you have selected. Stereo (2 channel) signal formats Multichann...

Additional information 13 81 En Specifications Amplifier section Continuous Power Output (Stereo) Front . . . . . . . . .150 W + 150 W (DIN 1 kHz, THD 1 %, 6 Ω ) 120 W + 120 W (DIN 1 kHz, THD 1 %, 8 Ω ) Continuous Power Output (Multichannel) Front . . . . . . . . .150 W + 150 W (DIN 1 kHz, THD 1 %, ...

<07D00001> <ARB7371-B> Printed in Published by Pioneer Corporation.Copyright © 2007 Pioneer Corporation.All rights reserved. PIONEER CORPORATION 4-1, Meguro 1-Chome, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8654, Japan PIONEER ELECTRONICS (USA) INC. P.O. BOX 1540, Long Beach, California 90801-1540, U.S.A. T...