buy onkyo av reciever or avoid the company like a plague given the issues on some models.

[ibl0010]

If your interested in buying an onkyo receiver say the 626 but have never used onkyo receiver before and given the problems reported on some onkyo receivers my question is that is it far better to try the cheap onkyo 414 as a trial and to familiarise one self with onkyo sound quality or takd the plunge and just splash out on a 626 or higher. My thinking is that the 414 is cheap enough so if I dont like it or have issue with it I wont be losing a lot of money on it plus having sold my yamaha 671 recently I have no av receiver [Link removed by MODS].

Also my research into 2EQ and multi EQ seem to suggest that it far better to have multi Eq. Can some one confirm if am right that its far better to have a receiver with multi Eq than 2Eq.
Also does multi Eq add to the sound quality

 

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

I've had two Onkyo A/V receivers, and no issues what so ever. I can only recommend buying them.

Just another view.

 

[ibl0010]

thanks for your reply. what speaker are have you / or currently pairing with your onkyo receiver.

 

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

Jamo A102 HSC5 (coming up to six years old) do a great job. If I was buying now, I'd probably go the Cambridge Minx set-up.

 

[professorhat]

My Onkyo 905 is almost 5 years old - no issues. You'll find many people have Onkyo amps on the forum that are fine. The fact that there are a number of comments around the internet concerning issues is a testament to their popularity, rather than any general issues with Onkyo amps. The more of something you sell, the higher visibility there is of faulty ones i.e. Brand A and Brand B have an average ratio of 1 in a 1,000 faulty products. Brand A only sells 1,000 units, so only one is faulty and therefore not much coverage is made of this. Brand B sells 1,000,000 units, so there are 1,000 faulty units, which therefore gets a much higher level of coverage, even though the ratios of working to faulty units is the same.

A basic example just to demonstrate what I mean.

 

[professorhat]

my question is that is it far better to try the cheap onkyo 414 as a trial and to familiarise one self with onkyo sound quality or takd the plunge and just splash out on a 626 or higher. My thinking is that the 414 is cheap enough so if I dont like it or have issue with it I wont be losing a lot of money

This logic is flawed. These are two different models, with likely two different sounds. Just because you like the 414, this doesn't mean you'll like the 626 (or vice versa). Audition all the AV receivers you are interested in and purchase the one you like from a reputable dealer that you have a good relationship with. That way, if you do have issues, you know you'll be looked after.

This goes with any brand of AV receiver.

 

[hammill]

I have had an 875 for just over five years. Problem free so far.

 

[Paul.]

I have had an 875 for just over five years. Problem free so far.

My Onkyo 905 is almost 5 years old - no issues.

Likewise for my 805. 2008 was a good vintage

 

[ibl0010]

my question is that is it far better to try the cheap onkyo 414 as a trial and to familiarise one self with onkyo sound quality or takd the plunge and just splash out on a 626 or higher. My thinking is that the 414 is cheap enough so if I dont like it or have issue with it I wont be losing a lot of money

This logic is flawed. These are two different models, with likely two different sounds. Just because you like the 414, this doesn't mean you'll like the 626 (or vice versa). Audition all the AV receivers you are interested in and purchase the one you like from a reputable dealer that you have a good relationship with. That way, if you do have issues, you know you'll be looked after.

This goes with any brand of AV receiver.

good point there.

 

[ibl0010]

Onkyo av receiver are know to be bright sounding and so not good to pair bright sounding speaker to onkyo av receiver. To any of you guys, what speaker would you recommend to go with onkyo av receiver.

 

[FunkyMonkey]

I have had an 875 for just over five years. Problem free so far.

My Onkyo 905 is almost 5 years old - no issues.

Likewise for my 805. 2008 was a good vintage

Correction: these amps came out in 2007.

 

[hammill]

I have had an 875 for just over five years. Problem free so far.

My Onkyo 905 is almost 5 years old - no issues.

Likewise for my 805. 2008 was a good vintage

Correction: these amps came out in 2007.

But all three of us bought them in 2008, so that is their vintage.

 

[stavvy]

also had an onkyo receiver for about 3 years now with no problem. It was part of a package so a basic model (HTR380) but I've been using it to drive B&W 685 fronts and HTM62 centre (so quite demanding speakers in terms of power requirement) and its been fine. I dare say a more powerful amp would make them even better.

You just need to be sensible, onkyo amps do get hot but I have a fan in the back of my av unit drawing out the hot air and its been absolutely fine. This wouldn't even be necessary if you have plenty of room around the receiver to dissipate the heat.

 

[ibl0010]

also had an onkyo receiver for about 3 years now with no problem. It was part of a package so a basic model (HTR380) but I've been using it to drive B&W 685 fronts and HTM62 centre (so quite demanding speakers in terms of power requirement) and its been fine. I dare say a more powerful amp would make them even better. You just need to be sensible, onkyo amps do get hot but I have a fan in the back of my av unit drawing out the hot air and its been absolutely fine. This wouldn't even be necessary if you have plenty of room around the receiver to dissipate the heat.

Good job you mention the hottness as I was planning to put the onkyo receiver i buy in a closed cabinet so i cooling fan is needed.

 

[Paul.]

I have had an 875 for just over five years. Problem free so far.

My Onkyo 905 is almost 5 years old - no issues.

Likewise for my 805. 2008 was a good vintage

Correction: these amps came out in 2007.

Sure, it came the end of 2007, but no one pays full whack for AV amps buying before christmas do they?

 

[ibl0010]

People who have had endless problems with their onkyo receiver must be the unlucky ones. As well as never used or not familiar with onkyo receiver sound quality for music and film before, the thing that was making me think twice was due to the problems some people have reported with some model (especially the 515 and 616) i have even read on this forum where one or two people reported that their 616 caught fire after a loud bang noise.

 

[Paul.]

Onkyo av receiver are know to be bright sounding and so not good to pair bright sounding speaker to onkyo av receiver. To any of you guys, what speaker would you recommend to go with onkyo av receiver.

Depends what you want to achieve. I have Monitor Audio BR5, and with film its sounds wonderfully detailed but I wouldn't say bright (with film). It can be quite bright with music however. My friend has a Yamaha which sounds wonderful with music by comparison, but sounds far too warm and woolly with film. I don't think a bit of brightness is a problem with film in the same way it can be with music.

Im sure someone will be along to tell us that it's not bright, its just a 'forward presentation'

 

[ibl0010]

Onkyo av receiver are know to be bright sounding and so not good to pair bright sounding speaker to onkyo av receiver. To any of you guys, what speaker would you recommend to go with onkyo av receiver.

Depends what you want to achieve. I have Monitor Audio BR5, and with film its sounds wonderfully detailed but I wouldn't say bright (with film). It can be quite bright with music however. My friend has a Yamaha which sounds wonderful with music by comparison, but sounds far too warm and woolly with film. I don't think a bit of brightness is a problem with film in the same way it can be with music.

Im sure someone will be along to tell us that it's not bright, its just a 'forward presentation'

Sorry for my igorance but am relatively new to the world of home cinema so can i ask in what are bright av receiver and bright speaker good for movies in terms of sound quality whereas for music bright receiver and bright speaker are not good for music as you said.

Also, how about if one have a bright reciever paired with bright speaker satallite 5.1 system for movie only and then buy a book self warm sounding speaker to pair with the same bright amp for music only. would this be a good way to get best of both world.

 

[Paul.]

Brightness just refers to tone, the opposite of warm. Many seek a neutral hifi system, that does not colour the original sound in any way. My setup (arguably called bright) is very detailed in the highs when playing movies, it sounds very precise but not necessarily very musical. My old Marantz PM7200 stereo receiver was quite warm sounding, so it was very smooth with music, but no where near as detailed with movies.

I personally like movies to be a little on the bright side, and music to be a little on the warm side. I would not mix speakers tonally though, so If you do go for mixing bookshelves and satellites, buying from the same manufacture tends to give a similar tone. The tone of your surround speakers needs to be similar otherwise they wont blend together, sounds wont move around between speakers very well.

 

[ibl0010]

Brightness just refers to tone, the opposite of warm. Many seek a neutral hifi system, that does not colour the original sound in any way. My setup (arguably called bright) is very detailed in the highs when playing movies, it sounds very precise but not necessarily very musical. My old Marantz PM7200 stereo receiver was quite warm sounding, so it was very smooth with music, but no where near as detailed with movies.

I personally like movies to be a little on the bright side, and music to be a little on the warm side. I would not mix speakers tonally though, so If you do go for mixing bookshelves and satellites, buying from the same manufacture tends to give a similar tone. The tone of your surround speakers needs to be similar otherwise they wont blend together, sounds wont move around between speakers very well.

No I wasnt talking about mixing speaker brand. What I meant on the bright and warm side is how about if one for example a bright receiver with warm book shelf speak to cater for music only and then a 5.1 bright satellite speaker system pair with a bright amp to for movie only. So essentially what you have is one bright receiver but connecting a warm sounding speaker to it and listening to music and connecting a bright sounding speaker when watching films. Alternatively maybe a neutral sounding 5.1 speaker for both movie and music.

 

[Big Chris]

I have had an 875 for just over five years. Problem free so far.

My Onkyo 905 is almost 5 years old - no issues.

Likewise for my 805. 2008 was a good vintage

Correction: these amps came out in 2007.

Sure, it came the end of 2007, but no one pays full whack for AV amps buying before christmas do they?

Err......... No....... :shifty: (I did, December 2007) :O

Of course, selling our flat a month earlier for 3 times what we paid for it may have had something to do with it....

 

[FunkyMonkey]

I got my Onkyo 805 in late May 2007 from my local Sevenoaks. I needed it to accompany my 2007 vintage PS3. The only amp available at the time, that I could afford that gave me all the hd sound format decoding I needed. The bonus is that it does dsd to analogue direct conversion. Bargain at 800 nicker

 

[jonathanRD]

I have an Onkyo TX NR609 purchased in Feb 2012. Apart from an early issue connecting to the net (which turned out to be my modem), I've had no problems at all. Connected to MA BX2 5.1 (except for a BK sub) - they sound great with movies - voices are usually very clear unless the film has been poorly recorded (for voices). Listen to a lot of internet radio music which is also fine - not as good as my hi-fi - but it's quite acceptable and I've never found it tiring.

 

[Retne]

I had a NR609, until about 30 minutes ago when I called Richer Sounds to see how the repair was going and was told it needed to be replaced...

(yes, yes, pedants, I've clearly not had it for a while if I'm calling Richer Sounds to ask about a repair)

I was, up until then, very happy with it.

I now have a choice to make - do I just go with the (free) 626 as a replacement, or get the Sony 1040 (basically due to the Awards and as I don't have time to look into this too much). I'll post elsewhere about that, but any thought are appreciated (and I've not checked how much the Sony will cost me compared to the free replacement)

Cheers

R

 

[Tricky-Ricky]

I must be one of the unfortunate ones, as after just on two years my Onkyo TX-NR 609 has died with the classic HDMI board problems, and if you think these failures are limited think again, i am also a member of the AV forums and there are lots of receiver failures posted there, and if you care to go onto the Onkyo EU face-book page you will see literally hundred's of problems.

I personally really like the sound and functions of the Onkyo AV receivers, but in the light of the amount of problems i have see i am very unlikely to buy another, my current receiver is with RS as i took out a 5 year warranty, and boy am i glad i did, admittedly Onkyo offered a free repair, but i still would have had to pay £20-30 odd for carriage, i have yet to hear back whether its repairable or not, but like i said i will be considering another make if it comes to replacing it, as my confidence is now shaken.