I’ve never been a big Onkyo fan, but their new line has me reconsidering my opinion. On paper, they are very hard to compete with. If they had a different label on them, with all else being equal, such as Rotel or Nad, I think you would see a price tag at least double what they are now.
I am looking for a new receiver, or pre/pro and amp, and the 905 is on my short list. I also looked at both the 3808 and 4308, and considering the price difference between the two Denons and feature differences, I do not understand the very large discrepancy in price between the two. For that reason, I dropped the 4308 off my list.
The Onkyo line does have some strange video problems, but they have a firmware release that may address those issues. (color space alteration and lip sync)
Reports are that these units run hot and it is assumed that they do not have adequate heat sync, but I’m not ready to accept that as being the culprit. The pre/pro’s (885 and 9.8) are also running hot, so I am inclined to think they do not have adequate cooling for the Reon processor. I do know that the Reon requires ample cooling, as with most video processors. That is my only concern with the new Onkyo’s and Integra units (assuming the firmware update addresses the video bugs).
One thing the Denons have that I am interested in, is a new GUI that overlays onto any video stream. The lack of THX cert of any kind at this price point has me wondering just what profit margin Denon targeted with these units….. I’m not a THX fan boy, but nowadays it seams silly to me to not get this cert and expect consumers to pay over a grand for a receiver without it.