Pioneer VSX-S520 Slim Home Audio and Video Receiver - Black

I've been using this receiver with an Optima UHD51ALV projector for the last couple months and it hasn't disappointed yet. I chose this receiver specifically because of it's small Class D size. I have it situated inside a cubby hole within my credenza and it can get too hot in there for some receivers.Setup was very easy, the setup wizard worked fine and I find it easy navigating within Settings to fine tune the 5.1 setup I'm using, post auto setup.I'm using it in a room that's 15 x 15. And I feel anything up to 25 x 25 should be fine. 12 ft ceiling.If your room is bigger than 25 x 25 AND you want to shake the walls with bass, I'd go with something a little more powerful.I've turned the volume up to 100% and while it's loud, I don't think it will handle the load if you're in a room that's 30 x 30 or bigger or hosting a party with a lot of people drinking.It passes hdmi 2.2 fine. I have a 2160 60khz image. Make sure to buy a 4+4+4 cable for hdr support.Lastly.....all these people complaining about the wireless services not working are lying, perhaps posing as customers who work for competing companies or are too naive to understand what a firmware update is.If you want to pull this thing out of the box, plug it in, and expect to see services like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon music, ect. working BEFORE you actually install the software that supports them, you simply do not understand how things work and shouldn't be posting online reviews.For the record: Spotify, Pandora, Amazon music, and mass USB storage all work perfectly, without issue once you complete the firmware updates to support those items.Just go to settings, misc, firmware. Have a eithernet cable plugged in and follow the instructions on your TV or projector. I personally had 4 updates and it took about an hour to finish them all. You can also do this wirelessly if you connect to your router. Oh! Important: when firmware updates complete, push On/Off button on your receiver (power cycle) the receiver to finish the installation. Then, do the next firmware update until they are all finished. DO NOT power cycle the receiver with the On/Off button after a firmware update using the remote.Lastly, Chromecast built in also works but don't expect to stream YouTube videos to your tv. You can only pass audio. I don't have a YouTube music acct so I'm not sure if that works. I don't use the Chromecast feature because I usually play off mass storage or stream direct from my phone, using the Pioneer mobile App, from Spotify or Pandora or Amazon music.I have a Nas but haven't bothered to try it.If you're looking for slim, quiet, cool running, hdmi 2.2 pass thru, lots of streaming possibilities, in a smaller space, receiver then don't hesitate. Buy it.

Most of the features seem to work reasonably, however, the HDMI Standby Pass Through (which passes source audio and video through to the TV Receiver when the Pioneer AV receiver is in Standby) does not work. I have a streaming box connected to the Pioneer AV receiver STRM BOX input 3 and a Samsung TV connected to HDMI Out. When the Pioneer AV receiver is ON all works normally, when it turns "Off" (goes into standby) the video from the Streambox is passed through to the TV but the AUDIO IS NOT. I suspect this is a FIRMWARE / Software problem as if I set the STRM BOX Audio source to Audio 2 rather than HDMI - STRANGELY in that case, when the Pioneer AV receiver is in Standby then BOTH Audio and Video from the Stream Box are passed through. I have contacted Pioneer regarding this and so far have no response. Thanks to Amazon, I have till Mid Jan 2020 to return the unit and that is what will happen if Pioneer doesn't resolve the problem. I really do want this unit to work - it is an ideal minimalist compact AV Receiver which is feature rich and has low power consumption... But it has to work as intended. Fingers Crossed - I will update this review when things change or the unit gets returned.Update Dec 30 2019 - Unit being returned to Amazon - THANKS To AMAZON - I had a long discussion which included on-phone interactive testing - disconnecting all power - doing factory reset - done with one of the upper tiers of Pioneer support. At the end of the discussion the Pioneer rep suggested returning to Amazon indicating defective product. Thanks to the Amazon return policy and several hours on line with Pioneer - I am well within the return period. The unfortunate part is that while both Pioneer and myself agree the unit is not functioning as it should - it seems impossible to know if another unit will have the same defects or not. When first turned on the unit updated its firmware to the latest version - and there is no way to go backwards to the as delivered version (I don't even know if that would help any). I really wanted this unit to work - the symptoms sure seemed to be a software (firmware) error to me... but sadly Pioneer never gave me a clear indication the same tests we did worked successfully for them. I had asked for such indications by Email but never got anything. So if Pioneer ever gets this fixed - they should publicize it well. Otherwise one could incur endless frustration exchanging units. I don't engage in frivolous returns or exchanges so I would have to have assurances that something was fixed before I would consider this unit again.

This is the way to go if you are looking for a slim reciever since this is basically the only one out there! Been using for several weeks and it runs great. I took a bit of a gamble getting this since the only reviews I could fine were here on Amazon due to it being so new and the only two were mixed reviews. I had pretty high standards for this since I have a nice Denon reciever for my main system. All expectations were easily met. Sound is great as are the bonus features such as the networks capabilities. Also quite nice that this includes hdmi 4k 60hz support. Only complaint about the system is that channel volume can't be set per source type like on my denon reciever. I like to listen to music in a 4.1 type set up so for stereo sources I prefer to have the center channel with low volume or off just for extended stereo but now with an actual surround sound source. My denon would allow for setting these separately but this one only has the global setting. If pioneer added this or a extended stereo 4.1 mode this reciever would be perfect