Excellent Start for a Home Theatre

Author's Rating:

Pros: Clean sound, conservative power rating, front panel inputs, extra power outlet

Cons: lacks second "tape" loop, smallish remote

The Bottom Line: 
If functionality is more important than bells and whistles this is your unit!

Author's Review
I've always loved Onkyo's corporate philosophy, to produce high quality products without unnecessary frills and sell them at a reasonable price. This unit follows that very closely.

All of the normal "receiver" items are here -- AM/FM tuner with 30 presets, Front and Rear main speaker outputs, CD and tape inputs, and a nicely designed digital display. Home theatre features include a very powerful DSP for cinema effects (hall, theatre, club, etc.) Dolby Digital, DTS, and Pro-Logic II. For those that have not experienced it, Pro-Logic II is a great way to add new live to non 5.1 sources by simulating full 5.1 surround for any source. It is very effective.

The amplifier is conservatively rated at 65x5 at 8 ohms and 85x5 at 6 ohms. THD is a competitive 0.08% at rated output (and you'll be hard pressed to hear anything below 1-2% at any volume level). I use an amplified FM antenna but I did try hooking up just a wire to the antenna inputs and it was surprisingly sensitive so if FM is your thing this unit will not disappoint.

The command center of a surround entertainment system is where this unit really shines though. The Cinema effects are not overdone like they are on lots of lower cost receivers where club mode sounds like an old reverb at full blast! Delay times are very well chosen and a tad conservative, I fully endorse that philosophy. Aside from the realism added by the Cinema settings you can also run your audio sources through Pro-Logic II so you can hear them again for the first time. Presence and dynamics are better via PLII, try it with a familiar CD and decide if it's for you. With movies it's a no-brainer. I tried my VHS copy of Tora, Tora, Tora! and it was almost like a new soundtrack.

Digital Dolby and DTS are well done, flexibility with the speaker setup is excellent and control is not overly difficult. Be aware that this unit does not power a sub, it's pre-out only so your sub must be powered. Due to the conservative ratings on the built-in amp I think it would be wise to make sure your sub has at least 120 watts if your main speakers have any size at all to them. A courtesy outlet on the back panel is a very welcome bonus for this price range, too many receivers have eliminated this very convenient feature.

The front panel is solid aluminum and very neat. A minimalist design so if you like lots of flashing lights and a panel that resembles a 747 control panel you'll be disappointed. I prefer a simple, functional layout and this is what I got. Source selection buttons are grouped along the bottom of the unit, display and DSP controls are to the immediate right of the display and the tuner/display controls are spread out just underneath the display. A large volume knob on the right completes the oft used controls. In the lower right are an S-VHS and composite input controls for the 3rd video source.

The drawbacks to this unit are minor. The remote is a tad small and there is little variation in the button shapes so you'll have to memorize location instead. I would've liked a second record output but that's minor in this price range. Sound is typical Onkyo, clean and accurate. Flexibility is excellent for a modestly priced unit and the features included (and not included) were very carefully chosen. An all-around winner!

And a good thing gets better!! After setup and initial tweaking I took an in-depth trip through the manual and found a very unusual feature for a lower end unit. You can actually measure the distance from each speaker to your viewing position and set a time-delay in the receiver so that the sound reaches you at exactly the right time all-around. While a few milliseconds of time displacement might seem minor it's the difference between a very clear and precise soundstage (and precisely placed surround effects) and a blurred or smeared sound that detracts from the realism. Kudos to Onkyo, once again they added the right things and left the right things out to give you the most for your dollar!