Onkyo, Marantz, or Yamaha

[3db]

I would choose Yamaha over the the others based on their rock solid reliability, and best in industry customer service. Onkyo's customer services is horrid at best.

 

[cerwinmad]

Hmmm i have an onkyo tx sr 503 and i have THRASHED the thing, temps upto 80degrees celcius at times (over new years running 10 hours strait) running cerwin vega towers erc, and its still going strong six years on, sad to hear they have possibly lost that reliability. Would still only buy onkyo.

 

[Soccerkid830]

FWIW, I have owned two Onkyo receivers. The first "real" receiver I owned was the Onkyo HT-R160 which was very similar to the 607 I believe. I think I got this back in 2010?? I then upgraded to an 809 sometime last summer. Obviously I haven't owned either of these receivers for very long, but both still work well.

I gave the HT-R160 to my mom for her cottage where it is very humid all the time, with no AC. She only runs two speakers off it, one inside the cottage, and one outside the cottage. No need for "good" sound there, just something playing in the background for me while I split wood outside and she paints inside. Either way, it does still get hot... very hot... time to time and it's sitting on the top of a curio cabinet thing with nothing above it whatsoever. Although it does take several hours to get to that hot, and being 95-100 degrees everyday with no AC doesn't help the situation I'm sure.

The 809 still runs everything I have to throw at it. I don't have an external amp of any kind, but I also don't listen at very loud levels whatsoever. It's more/less background music running at 60-70 dB with peaks, if you want to call them peaks, up around 75-80 dB tops.

Both receivers have never been driven hard, but both are still cranking out juice just fine. I have had to call Onkyo's customer support once for the 809. During a firmware update, I lost power for a few minutes. After power came back on, the receiver would turn on, but not play any sound through any speakers. I called customer support and the only "help" I managed to get was someone telling me to make sure the power cable is plugged into the wall correctly, knowing that it turns on but isn't powering/recognizing any speakers no matter what I tried. They gave me an address to ship the receiver to to have it fixed, me paying shipping both ways of course which isn't cheap being that my college is in the middle of BFE. I played with it some more myself, and managed to pull up the firmware update and let that go through all the way and everything seemed to work after that.

Either way, I got that Denon as a backup should anything ever happen to my baby, I mean Onkyo.

 

[TLCW]

Onkyo, Marantz, Yamaha

I had Onkyo 606 back in 2008 after browsing many threads in AV forums.
I made the choice because it was the only one with HDMI and 1080p upscaling ( + many AV decoders ) at then and of the lowest price. Even some comments had said it was hot and very hot to hands. Somehow I believed I would have eyes / hands to watch out for that. Sometimes, my teen kids didn't switch it off at nights and then for days ( though no signals ) and it was quite hot to hands then when I found out. The result is I have had it for 5 years and it is still strong and solid. It have never sent to dealer -though I have heard Onkyo customer services is much better in Hong Kong than that in US. It is kept in my AV shelf with 2" above and 1" at 2 sides for vent. only. (I also have tube amps on top the shelf too and they have been under 3-hours baking for 30 years twice a week there too - and still sound beautifully).

I have seen many threads in AV forums everywhere, my impressions are:
when you want power for sensational movies, go for Onkyo; you want to play concert video , go for Yamaha; Your concern is high for 2.0 music and less for AV, stay with Marantz. Well, at the same price range, the differences may not be that huge. ( this apply to Sony, Pioneer too).

I have separate 2.0 audio system(s) alongside my HT. I also have options to redirect LF & RF to my 2.0 when playing classical music concert AV. The AV features are multiplying rapidly, AV receivers will be outdated in 2 or 3 years...We have to reserve budget for unavoidable upgrades for AV entertainment...

 

[sterling shoote]

This has been a very entertaining thread, somewhat stereotypical of comments made on forums where the fans come out to support their brands. I wonder what the real story is? That's to say, it would be interesting to know what percent of new product from the manufacturers listed needed warranty service at the time of initial product usage.

 

[LAB3]

The new Yamaha units don't have the orange display .... there, now you have heard something bad about Yamaha ... well, unless you like white.

Steve

P.S. If you are not in a rush to buy, keep an eye out for deals on last years Yamaha models.

DITTO several years ago after my Onkyo HD AVR TX-SR805 fried parts a 3rd time( warranty expired) I purchased a last years model Yamaha RX-V1900 HD AVR(the A-2000 was new then) for 1/2 of retail price at Best Buy(last one they had NIB) and purchased the Extended Service Policy that I have not had to use. My 2003 Yamaha (no HDMI or HD audio) is still working great in the bedroom system. YMMV

 

[3db]

This has been a very entertaining thread, somewhat stereotypical of comments made on forums where the fans come out to support their brands. I wonder what the real story is? That's to say, it would be interesting to know what percent of new product from the manufacturers listed needed warranty service at the time of initial product usage.

You are welcome to take a stroll through Audioholics and any other forum you care to visit and you will soon seen that more people complain about premature failures with their Onkyos than any other brand including Sony.

 

[Max17]

Disagree with opinions on Onkyo. I have owned all three, Onlyo, Marantz and Yamaha.

In case you are after sound quality and have limited budget I would suggest Onkyo. Yamaha is wonderful in terms of being loaded with features even in cheaper models and convenience of use. However, although was happy with Yamaha overall, could never get full satisfaction with sound. Same time, my oldest receiver Onkyo, which does not have 4k video processing and stuff, sounds very decent on budget Onkyo speaker set. The Marantz that I have is the top model of the brand, connected to b&w speakers. I think, in general, all three is good, Yamaha has very good price/quality balance, Onkyo is less user friendly, but sound quality is very good. So far, i could not hear huge difference between cheaper Onkyo and most expensive Marantz. I am sure that if I test it against each other I will hear the difference, but what I am trying to imply is that Onkyo is also very good. If I have to chose a receiver again I will definitely take a close look to Onkyo. I will probably not consider Yamaha, just because of the fear of not getting best out of a sound.

 

[KEW]

Disagree with opinions on Onkyo. I have owned all three, Onlyo, Marantz and Yamaha.

In case you are after sound quality and have limited budget I would suggest Onkyo. Yamaha is wonderful in terms of being loaded with features even in cheaper models and convenience of use. However, although was happy with Yamaha overall, could never get full satisfaction with sound. Same time, my oldest receiver Onkyo, which does not have 4k video processing and stuff, sounds very decent on budget Onkyo speaker set. The Marantz that I have is the top model of the brand, connected to b&w speakers. I think, in general, all three is good, Yamaha has very good price/quality balance, Onkyo is less user friendly, but sound quality is very good. So far, i could not hear huge difference between cheaper Onkyo and most expensive Marantz. I am sure that if I test it against each other I will hear the difference, but what I am trying to imply is that Onkyo is also very good. If I have to chose a receiver again I will definitely take a close look to Onkyo. I will probably not consider Yamaha, just because of the fear of not getting best out of a sound.

That is pretty interesting! What speakers did you listen to on the Yamaha?

Generally, we would suspect that if you compared the Marantz on B&W speakers vs Onkyo on Onkyo speakers, that the differences you heard were more due to the speakers, room, or positions in the room (if in the same room) than the receiver. Unless, of course, the receiver was defective.