Pioneer VSX-5000 (1987)

A receiver so loaded with buttons that the reviewer needed the manual and an hour of his life to figure it out.

Overview

The VSX-5000 arrived with a price tag of $620 and an identity crisis: it is an AM/FM stereo receiver, a wireless remote control system, an audio/video program selector, a surround-sound processor, and a video enhancer, all in one chassis. Pioneer's own advertising called it a "Revolutionary Audio/Video Receiver," and the pitch was that it made every component you already owned work better together. The box itself is modest — 16 5/8 inches wide, 4⅞ inches tall, 15 inches deep, and 22 pounds, 1 ounce — but the feature list is anything but.

The front panel is where the argument starts. There are no rotary controls at all; every setting is displayed in an elaborate fluorescent display that takes up fully half of the panel's upper section. Audio (June 1987, p.144) admitted it took more than an hour to figure out how to operate all the pushbuttons, and the reviewer confessed to consulting the owner's manual "quite often" — something he suspected most eager users treat as a last resort. He also noted, with some humor, that anyone who likes pinball machines and video games that light up in all sorts of colors would love the display area. He wasn't entirely joking: the display is what unscrambles an otherwise unfathomable collection of pushbuttons spread across the front.

The amplifier section is genuinely capable when it isn't being asked to do surround duty. In stereo mode into 8-ohm loads, Pioneer rates the VSX-5000 at 100 watts per channel from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, with THD of 0.005%. Audio (June 1987, p.141) discussed the VCR noise filter, dynamic expander circuit, and simulated-stereo circuit. Flipped to "Stereo," the receiver delivered the full claimed 100 watts, with mid-frequency THD exactly matching the 0.005% spec. At the frequency extremes distortion crept up: 0.006% at 20 Hz and 0.16% at 20 kHz. Into 4-ohm loads, which Pioneer does not rate, the same reviewer pushed both channels to 150 watts before clipping, with 0.009% THD at mid-frequencies — and concluded the limit was current limiting rather than voltage limiting. Dynamic headroom measured 1.58 dB into 8 ohms and 1.94 dB into 4 ohms. Damping factor came in at 40 for 8-ohm loads against Pioneer's claimed 55, a discrepancy the reviewer attributed to test-frequency differences (Pioneer referencing 1 kHz, the EIA standard calling for 50 Hz).

Surround mode is the whole point of the thing, and it works by reassigning the amplifier. Selecting surround drops the main channels to roughly 70 watts per channel and engages a secondary amplifier of about 15 watts per channel to feed the rear pair — enough to drive the four speakers a Dolby Surround setup requires. Three modes are offered: "Dolby Surround" for videotapes and videodiscs encoded with the Dolby technique, "Studio" for concerts (adding only ambience via the rear speakers), and "Stadium," which Pioneer recommended for watching live sporting events. HiFi-Stereo (December 1986, p.17) described the receiver as simulating studio and stadium acoustic effects in addition to decoding Dolby Surround soundtracks, and noted the two-channel rating of 100 watts per channel alongside the surround-mode figures of 70 watts to the main channels and 10 watts to the rear.

The video side is where the VSX-5000 earns its "A/V" badge. Video facilities let you select the audio and video signals of any one of three video sources — say, two VCRs plus a videodisc player — and dub audio and/or video to as many as two VCRs from a single source. The switching also permits independent selection of audio and video, so simulcasts can be enjoyed and recorded. The "Video Enhancer" is, in effect, a treble boost for the picture: it sharpens and focuses the video image and is useful when copying tapes, minimizing the loss of detail that comes from rolling off high video frequencies. A split-screen function lets you compare enhanced and original images side by side, so you can find the balance between added detail and the video noise that high-frequency boost inevitably brings along. High Fidelity (November 1986, p.6) highlighted the split-screen enhancer and video noise filter as the tools for getting maximum sharpness out of VCRs, LaserVision players, monitors, or projection TVs. The video section itself is specified for 5 Hz to 6 MHz response (+0, −3.0 dB), 55 dB S/N, and 55 dB crosstalk at 3.58 MHz.

The tuner is a serious piece of work on paper. FM usable sensitivity is 10.8 dBf in mono, with 50-dB quieting at 15.3 dBf mono and 37.1 dBf stereo. Signal-to-noise runs 80 dB mono and 75 dB stereo, alternate-channel selectivity is 65 dB, capture ratio 1.0 dB, and stereo separation 50 dB at 1 kHz (35 dB across 30 Hz to 15 kHz). AM suppression is 55 dB and spurious-response rejection 70 dB. The AM section is specified at 300 µV/m usable sensitivity with the supplied loop antenna, 20 dB selectivity, and 50 dB S/N. There's a thoughtful tuner feature, too: up to four letters can be associated with each of up to 20 stored AM or FM frequencies — station call letters, or a personal four-letter tag like "Jazz" or "News." An extra antenna input accepts FM programming from a cable TV system, which lets the receiver pull stereo TV sound from cable companies still transmitting it via FM multiplex, plus any FM stations reaching the cable system by satellite.

Around the back, the panel is as crammed as the front. Input and output jacks, speaker terminals, antenna inputs (300-ohm, 75-ohm, AM, and a spare CATV coaxial connector), and convenience receptacles — two switched, one unswitched — are all present. There's an impedance-selector switch set according to speaker impedance and whether extra surround speakers are in use. Preamplifier-out/amplifier-input jacks, normally joined by removable jumpers, are provided for both the main and surround amplifiers. Also on the rear panel: a center-channel (L+R) output, a surround-sound on/off switch, a surround-sound balance control, a de-emphasis switch that also sets channel spacing for U.S. or overseas standards, and jacks for remote-control interconnection to other Pioneer components. The supplied wireless remote duplicates many front-panel functions and can control any other Pioneer component bearing the "SR" mark — TV monitor or receiver, VCR, videodisc player, tape deck, turntable, or CD player — with an "A/V" switch selecting whether the multifunction keys govern audio or video functions. Pioneer's advertising made the same point plainly: the VSX-5000's remote controls all Pioneer SR components.

A "Select" button cycles through flat response, loudness compensation, and three user-stored tone settings held in memory. Phono input sensitivity is 2.5 mV with 140 mV overload, and A-weighted S/N is 77 dB phono and 79 dB high level referenced to 1 watt, or 83 dB and 98 dB referenced to rated output. Channel separation is 65 dB at 1 kHz across all inputs. There's also a VCR noise filter (50 Hz and 5 kHz, −6 dB per octave) for older VCRs without Hi-Fi AFM recording, a dynamic expander circuit, and a simulated-stereo circuit for mono sources. Power consumption is 380 watts (470 VA) on 120 V, 60 Hz.

Collectors chasing one today should know what they're getting into. This is a 1987 receiver built around a dense pushbutton interface and a display that does a lot of the work of telling you what mode you're in — lose the remote, and some functions get considerably less convenient, since the remote is a full system controller rather than a volume-and-power afterthought. The rear-panel surround/stereo switch is the single most common source of "it only makes 70 watts" confusion, as the Audio reviewer's own experience demonstrates. The surround amplifier's modest 15-watt rear-channel rating means expectations for the back speakers should be calibrated accordingly. And the feature density that made it impressive in 1987 makes it a harder restore than a simple stereo receiver — more switches, more jacks, more to go wrong. What it offers in return is one of the more complete early A/V switching hubs of its moment, with a genuinely strong stereo amplifier hiding underneath the surround circuitry.

eBay Listings

As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.

Related Models

• Pioneer SR-202W (1971–1977)
• Pioneer QX-949A
• Pioneer SA-50
• Pioneer SA-8800II
• Pioneer SX-1050 (1978)
• Marantz 2226 (1974-1976)
• Marantz 2226B (1979-1980)
• Marantz 2235 (1974-1977)
• Marantz 2238B (1978-1980)
• Marantz 2250B (1978-1980)