A friendly, networked remote control for your Pioneer, Onkyo, or Denon AV receiver, designed for iPhone. Setup, day-to-day controls, advanced features, themes, Siri Shortcuts, and troubleshooting — everything you need to get the most out of the app.
Magic AV Remote is a native iOS app that controls supported Pioneer, Onkyo, and Denon AV receivers over your local network. Instead of hunting for the physical remote, you keep the app a tap away on your iPhone — with volume, input switching, listening modes, EQ, tone, zone control, sleep timer, player transport, and more.
The app handles three families of receivers:
| Family | Default TCP port | Typical receivers |
|---|---|---|
| eISCP (Modern) | 60128 | Modern Pioneer and Onkyo models |
| Telnet (Legacy) | 8102 | Pre-2017 Pioneer Elite models |
| Denon (Telnet) | 23 | Denon network receivers; Marantz is the same protocol family and likely compatible, though untested |
Magic AV Remote hides the differences behind a single UI. A few advanced features only exist on certain models or protocols, and the guide says so where it matters. Telnet (Legacy) and Denon receivers both accept only one control connection at a time — see §2.5.
If your receiver isn't named above but is part of the same Pioneer, Onkyo, or Denon lineage, it's worth a try — many siblings of these models accept the same commands. Worst case, the app simply won't connect.
Unlike the Mac app, Magic AV Remote for iOS has no multi-window support, no keyboard shortcuts (there's no keyboard), and no direct HomeKit integration — automate it instead via Siri Shortcuts and Personal Automations.
Magic AV Remote is an independent, third-party app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Pioneer Corporation, Onkyo Corporation, Denon, Dolby Laboratories, or any audio-format or receiver manufacturer. Product and brand names are referenced only to indicate compatibility.
Before the app can do anything useful you need to tell it about your receiver. There are two ways: let the app find it for you, or enter the details by hand.
The very first time you open Magic AV Remote with no saved receivers, the app automatically opens the same Settings sheet you'll use later for receiver management — there's no separate onboarding screen.
The Settings sheet has a built-in scanner that finds compatible receivers on your Wi-Fi without you needing to know IP addresses.
The first time you scan, iOS will prompt you to allow Magic AV Remote to find devices on your local network. Tap Allow, then tap Scan Network again to actually run the scan.
Each discovered receiver appears with its model, host, port, and protocol. Tap Add to save it.
Legacy and Denon receivers are less reliably found by discovery than eISCP ones. The app still tries a direct port check for them, but if a scan doesn't turn up your receiver, manual entry is the sure thing.
You can always add a receiver by hand.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Name | Anything you like ("Living Room", "Theater"). Optional; falls back to the IP if blank. |
| Host / IP Address | The receiver's IPv4 address (preferred) or hostname. |
| Port | Filled in automatically based on protocol; change only if your receiver uses a non-default port. |
| Protocol | Pick eISCP (Onkyo/Pioneer), Pioneer Telnet, or Denon (Network). |
Tap a receiver's row in Settings to edit its name, host, port, protocol, or input configuration. Swipe left on a row to delete it.
The status dot in the toolbar (top-right) shows the live connection state:
| State | Color (default theme) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Connected | Green | The connection is open and commands are flowing. |
| Idle | Yellow | No connection is currently held — normal and expected for single-slot receivers between commands. Tap any control and it reconnects in under a second. See the on-demand note below. |
| Unreachable | Red | The app tried to connect and the receiver didn't answer. |
| Disconnected | Grey | No receiver is connected — nothing has been attempted yet, or you disconnected manually. |
| In Use | — (shows a "no entry" icon and "IN USE" label instead of a dot) | Another client is holding the receiver's single control slot. Close it, or see below. |
The toolbar button next to the dot reads Connect, Disconnect, or Try Again depending on the current state, letting you force a reconnect by hand.
To be respectful of receivers that only allow one control client at a time, Magic AV Remote doesn't hold a connection open continuously — for single-slot protocols (Legacy Pioneer and Denon) it disconnects automatically after about two minutes of inactivity, and reconnects the instant you tap a control. Backgrounding the app releases the connection immediately so another client (or the app when you return) can take the slot; bringing the app back to the foreground reconnects automatically. eISCP receivers, which typically tolerate more than one client, stay connected.
This is why the status dot often reads Idle even when everything is working correctly — it's not an error.
Once you're connected, the main screen gives you everything you need for day-to-day listening.
The wide Power button toggles the current zone on and off. Its label updates ("Main Zone Power", "Zone 2 Power", "Zone 3 Power") to reflect which zone you're controlling.
The minus / plus buttons step volume by half a dB. Tap once for a single step, or press and hold for continuous adjustment — the first repeat fires after about 0.4 seconds and then every 0.15 seconds. Both timings are adjustable in Settings.
The volume readout shows decibels (or, on some Denon receivers, the receiver's native 0–98 absolute scale, matching what its own display shows).
The Mute button toggles mute for the current zone; its icon and color flip when muted.
Tap the Input row to drop a menu of all visible inputs — showing your custom names when set, otherwise the receiver's own name. Pick one and the receiver switches immediately. Hidden inputs (configured per-receiver in Settings) don't appear.
The three tabs across the top select which zone you're controlling. A small filled dot on a tab shows that zone is powered on, so you can see what's active without leaving the current tab. Tap a tab to switch to it.
Zone 2 and Zone 3 require corresponding hardware on the receiver. Not every model includes a second or third zone. If your receiver doesn't have Zone 3 hardware, the tab still appears but the commands have no effect.
The red KILL ALL button at the bottom of the screen has two behaviors:
Tap the ADVANCED section header to expand it (it only appears once you're connected and the zone is powered on). Like the main screen, we only show controls your receiver is expected to support — but detection isn't perfect, so an occasional control may have no effect on your particular model.
A grid of labeled boxes shows which speaker channels are active in the current playback. Tap a box to open a level sheet with a −12…+12 dB trim slider for that channel — a quick way to nudge balance or surround mix.
If the receiver supports speaker-A/B switching, toggle buttons let you route output to speaker set A, B, or both. Denon receivers with front-height/wide speakers expose this independently for stereo (2CH) and multi-channel (MCH) sources.
Where supported, up/down steppers adjust bass and treble, plus a tone-controls on/off toggle when the receiver exposes one. Available on the main zone and Zone 2 only.
When connected to a receiver that exposes a graphic equalizer, a multi-band EQ appears with drag-to-adjust sliders. Changes are temporary and only last until the receiver is powered off — a hardware/firmware limitation.
The graphic equalizer only exists on the main zone — no receiver has EQ hardware on Zone 2 or 3. It's also protocol-limited: Legacy Pioneer and Denon receivers don't expose EQ over their network protocol at all; only modern eISCP receivers do.
Step the sleep timer up or down in 5-minute increments. While active, the app polls the receiver every few seconds so the countdown stays roughly in sync with what it knows. The sleep timer is a whole-receiver setting, not tied to a specific zone.
Receivers with 12V trigger outputs (used to wake amplifiers, projectors, or motorized screens) show 12V A and 12V B toggles.
Receivers with multiple HDMI outputs show an output-select control. A display-info toggle and dimmer indicator appear where supported.
Depending on your receiver's protocol, additional single-tap cycle controls may appear:
Each is a single-button cycle: tap to advance one step through that feature's valid states. Buttons for features your receiver doesn't have are hidden automatically.
When the current zone is powered on and the selected input supports player transport (Internet Radio, Spotify, AirPlay, USB-DAC, Media Server, etc.), a Now Playing panel appears automatically between the main controls and the Advanced section.
What it shows differs by receiver family:
album_art.cgi endpoint when available.Album art depends on the receiver. The app only displays what the receiver itself makes available over the network — if artwork isn't showing on the receiver's own on-screen display, there's nothing for the app to fetch either. This is a receiver/firmware limitation, not an app bug.
Magic AV Remote for iOS ships with eight built-in presets.
| Preset | Vibe |
|---|---|
| Onyx | Deep black surfaces with electric cyan/blue accents (the default). |
| Pearl | Pale blue-tinted whites; light counterpart to Onyx with the same cyan family. |
| Ember | Pure-black surfaces, smoky slate mid-tones, vivid ember-red accents. |
| Ruby | Warm light surfaces with burgundy and red accents. |
| Amber | Warm dark surfaces with golden amber accents. |
| Citrine | Bright warm light with yellow/gold accents. |
| Spectrolite | Deep-space black surfaces with a cosmic-spectrum palette — green as the dominant accent, cool violet-to-cyan across the zone tabs, warm red/orange reserved for highlights. |
| Opal | Light counterpart to Spectrolite — a pearly, faintly iridescent white base carrying the same spectral accent family. |
Themes are stored per receiver, not globally — a receiver in the bedroom can wear Pearl while the living-room receiver wears Onyx, and switching receivers flips the theme automatically.
Unlike the Mac app, iOS has no custom theme editor. A preset is the receiver's theme — pick one of the eight above and that's it. If you want per-slot color customization, that's a Mac-only feature today.
Two ways to get there:
Tap any preset's swatch to apply it immediately — the sheet dismisses and the whole app re-themes on the spot.
Reach Settings from the gear icon or the receiver-name menu in the toolbar. It contains:
Opening a saved receiver's edit sheet also gives you Configure Inputs… — rename or hide any input, with a destructive Reset All Input Customizations button to wipe your local overrides — and, when editing an existing receiver, a Delete Receiver button.
Some receivers can store renamed inputs on the receiver itself (visible to other remotes and the front panel); others can't, in which case Magic AV Remote keeps the rename locally only. A note in the input-config screen tells you which applies to your receiver.
If you're troubleshooting with us over email, triple-tap the receiver name in the navigation bar to unlock a Share Log… item in the ☰ menu for that session — handy for attaching to a support email.
Magic AV Remote exposes a set of actions to the iOS Shortcuts app, so you can trigger them by voice with Siri, from a Personal Automation, or chained into a larger Shortcut.
| Action | Parameters | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Set Power | Receiver · Action (On / Off / Toggle) · Zone (Main / Zone 2 / Zone 3) | Power the chosen zone on, off, or toggle it. |
| Set Volume | Receiver · Volume (dB, default −25) · Zone | Set the absolute volume in decibels. |
| Adjust Volume | Receiver · Direction (Up / Down) · Steps (1–40) · Zone | Step volume up or down by N half-dB ticks. |
| Set Mute | Receiver · Action (On / Off / Toggle) · Zone | Mute, unmute, or toggle the chosen zone. |
| Select Input | Receiver · Input · Zone (default Main) | Switch to a specific input. The picker shows your renamed inputs. |
| Player Transport | Receiver · Action (Play / Pause / Stop / Next / Previous) | Send a transport command to the current network source. |
Each Shortcut runs in the background — it doesn't need to open the app.
If a Shortcut needs to pick from your renamed inputs, open the receiver once in the main app first so the app has seen them.
Open Settings, double-check the IP and protocol. The number-one cause of failures is "Connection refused" / "In Use" because another remote app or a stale session is holding the receiver's single allowed control slot — close other clients, or unplug the receiver from the wall for at least 30 seconds and plug it back in. See §2.7.
This is normal, by design — see §2.6. The app connects on demand rather than holding a connection open continuously, out of respect for receivers that only allow one client at a time.
Yes. The app releases its connection when backgrounded and reconnects automatically the next time you tap a control after returning on the same network.
Yes. The app is LAN-only — it talks directly to your receiver over your local Wi-Fi network. There is no cloud service.
The graphic equalizer only exists on the main zone — no receiver has EQ hardware on Zone 2/3. Additionally, on Legacy Pioneer and Denon receivers, even the main-zone EQ isn't available over the network protocol — only modern eISCP receivers expose it.
Zone 3 is a hardware feature — not every model includes a third zone. If yours doesn't, the tab still appears but has no effect.
Legacy receivers' network module can occasionally get stuck believing a client is still connected. A normal power-cycle often won't clear it; the fix is a full power drain — unplug from the wall for about a minute, then plug back in.
Make sure Network Control (or Network Standby) is enabled in the receiver's network setup menu, and that no other client is holding its single control slot.
Probably, if it's a Pioneer or Onkyo with eISCP or Telnet (Legacy) support, or a Denon receiver with Telnet control. Add it manually with the right port (60128, 8102, or 23) and see whether commands flow.
No. All traffic is between your iPhone and your receiver on your local network. The app makes no outbound internet connections and has no analytics. See our privacy policy.
The app only displays artwork the receiver itself serves over the network — see §5. This depends on receiver firmware and source, and Legacy Pioneer receivers don't serve it at all.
Not directly — the receivers themselves don't speak HomeKit. Wrap the app's Siri Shortcuts actions into a Personal Automation in the Home app instead, which gets you the same outcome.
iOS 17 or later, on any supported iPhone model.
Not yet — iPhone-only for now. An iPad-optimized layout is on the roadmap.
Yes — Magic AV Remote for macOS is a separate, full-featured native Mac app built on the same engine, with additional desktop features like multi-window support, hardware media-key control, and a custom theme editor.