Onkyo Receivers: Good or Bad?

[Anthony Melendrez]

The reason I ask is I just bought a new Onkyo TX-NR656. I went from an old Sony and I was immediately wowed by the hi-res audio and the video looked great. Price was good and features are decent, but I wanted to hear from you fellow geek heads on what you thought about Onkyo receivers.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I personally would not buy Onkyo or recommend Onkyo to any of my family and friends because of Onkyo's terrible reputation of customer service and failure rate.

Hopefully you will have good luck with your Onkyo.

 

[j_garcia]

Would not be top of my list. Better than Sony lol. I think the issue for them has been quality, not performance. In the past, when quality wasn't an issue for them, I recommended them often.

 

[Anthony Melendrez]

Well, that is good to know. So far it has performed very well...so far. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[lovinthehd]

I've had an Onkyo performing well for 5 years, from the period they had hdmi board/network chip issues, too. I didn't like that Onkyo dropped Audyssey in favor of their weak AccuEQ. While I got that Onkyo partly due to its alleged video capabilities but find my displays do a better job so just pass that thru (no legacy sources to upscale either). I think many avrs have suffered a bit with quality issues in recent years, and Onkyo seemed to have the worst of it for a while; apparently Yamaha has had the best record in the industry these days fwiw. If you like the features it offers and sounds good just enjoy it....

 

[Anthony Melendrez]

That's the plan. Thanks.

 

[M Code]

Onkyo AVRs are now ranked #3 in reliability... Up 2 steps from 2014.. They had (2) major issues:

• Amplifiers had high idle bias current settings, so they ran hot and many users had inadequate ventilation the bias setting has been decreased by 30%.
• Problem with the HDMI connectors, certain cable brands such as Monster failed to meet the proper connector physical specs in width. When forced into the AVR's HDMI jack it put too much pressure on its solder/PCB connections

Just my $0.02...

 

[Anthony Melendrez]

I will agree that they do run hot. I'm looking into installing a rack mounted fan for circulation. I'm not one to buy Mon$ter cables anyways, so that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Jim Pezzuto]

If your going to add a fan to your system. You must have your AVR in a cabinet? I am on my second Onkyo and I'm researching for my third. Always lover the output. But there is a lot of heat. Mine is in a cabinet so I drilled more air holes in the back. I'm thinking about applying some sort of small fan to draw the heat out of the cabinet.

 

[herbu]

I just bought a new...I wanted to hear from you fellow geek heads on what you thought

Why didn't you ask before you bought?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I love my ancient Onkyo TX-SR805. Back it in the day, it was a great value - it had features and specs way beyond it's selling price point vs competition, but nowadays on top what is a clearly cost cutting measure of removing Audyssey (imo huge mistake), they don't really stand out much besides still having low prices.
I agree - they run hot and few previous generations were notorious for high rate of failures, but they supposebly got their crap together since.

tl;dr: If I were to buy new AVR today, I'd only buy Denon or Marantz (same owner for both).

p.s.s.s: Next time ask here before buying it, not to get pat on the back after the fact as Herbu mentioned

 

[afterlife2]

The reason I ask is I just bought a new Onkyo TX-NR656. I went from an old Sony and I was immediately wowed by the hi-res audio and the video looked great. Price was good and features are decent, but I wanted to hear from you fellow geek heads on what you thought about Onkyo receivers.

Just put a laptop fan on top with air circulating out and connect the USB to the Onkyo. I've had Onkyo's with no problems when I had my fan.

 

[Anthony Melendrez]

To herbu and BoredSysAdmin...I just became a member of this forum and consider myself a newbie to the hobby. Next time, I'll definitely be asking others opinions and weighing the answers.

I will say that I have been able to tweak the heck out of it and I am very satisfied with the performance. I don't have a dedicated room, just our living room space.

 

[Anthony Melendrez]

Just put a laptop fan on top with air circulating out and connect the USB to the Onkyo. I've had Onkyo's with no problems when I had my fan.

Good idea. Thanks.

 

[JDH78]

I have had one since 2011. Performance was really good. But had the HDMI issues from the bad board. I contacted Onkyo. They sent me a box with prepaid shipping. I sent it in and about 10 days later up in Alaska I had it back. No problems since. Was just stolen from us actually but that's a different issue. I actually like the movie sound it produced better than my yamaha rx 1040 (could have been more factors tho). Never had an issue with the yamaha. Even with the hdmi prob I had with the onkyo, i'm really thinking about getting another one and just buying warranties with it. They just spec out pretty well for a much lower price.

 

[mtrycrafts]

My 939 has been working great for 16+ years
Same with the 705 for 8 years. Just wish I could turn the amp off in it, need the pre section only.

 

[Ex-Newsie]

M...

Who's ranked 1 & 2...Marantz and Denon? Or is McIntosh in there?

Onkyo AVRs are now ranked #3 in reliability... Up 2 steps from 2014.. They had (2) major issues:

• Amplifiers had high idle bias current settings, so they ran hot and many users had inadequate ventilation the bias setting has been decreased by 30%.
• Problem with the HDMI connectors, certain cable brands such as Monster failed to meet the proper connector physical specs in width. When forced into the AVR's HDMI jack it put too much pressure on its solder/PCB connections

Just my $0.02...

 

[M Code]

M...

Who's ranked 1 & 2...Marantz and Denon? Or is McIntosh in there?

Yamaha #1, Marantz #2 and Denon is #4...
No McIntosh brand in the AVR category..

Just my $0.02...

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Who is doing this ranking? Based on what sources?

 

[M Code]

Who is doing this ranking? Based on what sources?

Done by NPD..

Just my $0.02...