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Pioneer VSX-329 @ Rio Sound and Vision. Only $269 + FREE SHIPPING. RRP Is $499

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Pioneer VSX-329 @ Rio Sound and Vision. Only $269 + FREE SHIPPING. RRP Is $499
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Store RepFunkyDan on 07/01/2015 - 11:26 rio.com.au (497 clicks)
Last edited 07/01/2015 - 11:27

Almost half price!!! Don't miss out!!

Budget-friendly 105W AV Receiver.

Intensify your home entertainment experience with 5.1 HD surround sound. The VSX-329 will be the centre of your audio gaming setup and home cinema system. This AV receiver ensures amazing movie-watching madness: it will even pass through ultra high resolution 4K video. To enhance your favourite movies with great sound, just select one of the high definition Dolby or DTS advanced surround modes.

The VSX-329 supports music playback and control from your iPod and iPhone via the front USB input. The Advanced Sound Retriever will even restore your compressed audio to CD quality output.

Electrical & Electronics

Related Stores

Rio Sound & Vision
Rio Sound & Vision

closed Comments

  • pistachio1 on 07/01/2015 - 11:47

    Yet again something I was interested in till I read it is for iphone/ipad and not everything

    • heal on 07/01/2015 - 11:57
      +6

      I'm not an expert on receivers but it looks to me like this is can be used normally and supports ipad/ipod via the usb port.

  • PJC on 07/01/2015 - 12:46

    Looks a bit tempting.

  • theguru1 on 07/01/2015 - 13:46
    +1

    There have been better deals on Pioneer VSX5xx series recently and they come up regularly.

  • crazyzhangjun on 07/01/2015 - 15:14

    links please

  • elektron on 07/01/2015 - 16:04
    +1

    This claim is particularly misleading:

    The VSX-329 supports music playback and control from your iPod and iPhone via the front USB input. The Advanced Sound Retriever will even restore your compressed audio to CD quality output.

    Although Pioneer not the only manufacturer to make similar claims as of late.

    Just so we're clear - enhancing MP3s and other compressed audio using clever algorithms is possible; 'restoring' it to CD-quality is not.

    • PJC on 07/01/2015 - 16:13

      Good point. You can't convert lossy to lossless.

  • elektron on 07/01/2015 - 17:03

    Just thought I'd mention that I have bought from Rio before and, while they do decent deals in-store, I have found their after sales service lacking.

    • PJC on 07/01/2015 - 17:27

      Thanks for the warning. I wonder what the Store Rep has to say about that?

      • elektron on 07/01/2015 - 18:04

        Don't get me wrong, it's no worse than what you'd get from most on-line stores (and better than some), just not up to what you'd expect from a bricks'n'mortar retailer. Although, I realise that they must be doing it quite tough these days.

        Interestingly, I actually think I dealt with a guy named Jason.

        • adam149 on 08/01/2015 - 09:55
          +2

          why don't you mention what happen, then we can work out if you are a reasonable person.

        • elektron on 08/01/2015 - 17:47
          -1

          @undertaker149:

          Long story, too much typing and I'm not on here to be validated by strangers (no offence).

        • PJC on 09/01/2015 - 13:28

          @elektron: I must admit I too was a bit curious. But I am even more curious as to why the Store Rep remains silent.

        • elektron on 09/01/2015 - 15:39

          @PJC:

          Just because you asked nicely and weren't patronising like some…

          I had a mixed experience with Rio.

          The good points:

          They gave me a very good deal of a pair of speakers to be used as side surrounds as part of my 9.1 setup. Granted, these were a run out model, but it was exactly the model I was after and I wasn't able to find them cheaper anywhere, including on-line.

          The sales service was excellent in every way (including shipping them from another store to my local one), even though I had to exchange the first pair after opening the box, as they turned out not to be brand new and had some dirt on them. They were very apologetic and checked the replacement pair before giving it to me.

          Too bad the guy who sold them to me no longer works there.

          The bad points:

          One of the speakers was blown within the warranty period and they refused to have anything to do with me, saying that this only happens when the speaker is overdriven by a mismatched amp with too much power, which is a gross oversimplification for anyone who knows anything about audio, as the amount of distortion is much more important than the number of watts, just to point out one of the issues with this assertion.

          To that point, I was driving the speakers with a hyper clean amp - the top-end Yamaha Aventage, with a harmonic distortion rating of 0.06% (Rio didn't even sell this amp as it was probably too high-end for them - I ended up getting it from Clef Hi-Fi).

          Most of the amp's substantial power was configured to drive the other speakers, which were a lot more power-hungry (and expensive) than the pair in question.

          Rio also said that I must have put way too much bass through the speakers.

          In fact, these two surrounds were set to 'small' with the crossover at 120 Hz, while it was actually a woofer that was blown, rather than a tweeter as is usually the case in this situation, so there goes that theory.

          Another interesting piece of information is that only one speaker in the pair was blown while being used in the '9.1 channel stereo' mode (i.e. both were under the same load). The other one was fine.

          All of this lead me to a conclusion that the blown woofer must have had an inherent manufacturing fault that deteriorated over time during normal use.

          However, Rio didn't even offer me an option of sending the speaker to the manufacturer for assessment / repair, but were only too happy to tell me that I needed to buy a new pair (that is two!) of current model speakers, since they couldn't replace the one that was blown, due to being a superseded model.

          Last but not least, I lost a bunch of receipts, including the one for the speakers, while moving houses, and Rio were of no help trying to get a copy of the receipt so I could try claiming on the credit card insurance, even though I gave them the exact purchase date (later found out that I didn't need the receipt, just the credit card statement).

          I will contrast this to the experience I had with Clef Hi-Fi, who sold me the amp. They really came through in the same situation when I had a suspected problem with the amp (the amp turned out to be fine). The owner was on holidays overseas and still took the time to find and email the invoice when his people got in touch with him! Not something I expected him to do and definitely not something I took for granted.

          I really hope this helps someone so that I haven't typed this for nothing.

        • PJC on 12/01/2015 - 14:23

          @elektron: I've been offline a few days. I appreciate the time you took describing your experience with Rio. I will put off upgrading a bit longer because my analogue setup still sounds very satisfying. I notice the Store Rep remains silent.

        • elektron on 12/01/2015 - 15:03

          @PJC:

          Sound quality has little to do with the analogue vs digital decision. In fact, a dedicated analogue stereo power amp will sound better than an integrated multi-channel digital receiver (this might be different when comparing a 20 year old mass market amp with a modern receiver though).

          People usually upgrade to digital because they want better connectivity and fewer cables. As the result, I can do cool things like controlling the playback of Google Music Access Access to my home theatre from from my smart watch (via Chromecast). Having said that, you should still be able to do that with an analogue receiver as long as you have a modern TV.

          If you can get a Pioneer 5-series for a similar price as this deal (they usually pop up on here every few months) I would highly recommend it. I have helped set one up (it was a VSX-523) and it's absolutely awesome for the price in terms of the sound quality and comprehensive features.

  • linoc66 on 09/01/2015 - 20:00

    No Ethernet (or wifi) for link to NAS library?? No thanks

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