The new Dolby Atmos AVRs should be the centerpiece of your home cinema system
If you're looking to upgrade your home cinema setup, Pioneer's two new AVRs should fit the bill nicely. Both the VSX-835 and VSX-535 support Dolby Atmos, HDMI 2.1, Bluetooth and 4K/120, making them a boon or gamers. They both play nice with 8K content too – not that useful now, admittedly, but it means they're future-proofed.
They both support Dolby Surround sound, and are compatible
with the HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision and BT.2020 formats of HDR.
The VSX-835 is the more premium of the two, supporting
either 7.2 or 5.2.2 arrangements (the VSX-535 supports 3.2 or 3.2.2 setups). It
has IMAX Enhanced Certification, and supports DTS Virtual:X and 4:4:4 colour
space as well as its previously mentioned skills.
Pioneer's IMAX Enhanced Mode is optimised to meet strict
performance standards concerning colour, brightness, contrast and audio
fidelity, and aims to deliver content exactly as the director intended.
With both Dolby Atmos and its DTS:X rival, the VSX-835 is
better equipped for immersive sound. DTS:X automatically adapts the audio to
the existing channels and speaker setups, so you don't need to follow a
specific layout. And if you don't have upwards-firing or rear speakers, DTS
Virtual:X will create the effect virtually (though it's never quite as good as
the real thing). Atmos does this too – with Dolby Atmos Height Virtualiser – so
you should get enveloping audio whatever your media formats or speaker
arrangement.
Both receivers use Pioneer's auto-tuning tech to calibrate
to your room. A custom microphone compensates for differences in speaker size,
level and distance, and equalises the response. They restore details lost from
compressed audio formats like MP3 and AAC, too, and both have 4x HDMI 2.1 in
and 1x HDMI eARC. All terminals are HDCP 2.2 compliant.
Both are available now – the VSX-835 for $499 (around £390 / AU$755) and the VSX-535 for $379 (around £300 / AU$574). UK and Australian pricing is still TBC.
