Is ONKYO producing JUNK these days?

[jotham]

My Onkyo 805 is fine (w/fan and fingers crossed)

One more vote for a successful Onkyo experience. I had read in numerous reviews and forums here that the Onkyo 805 ran particularly hot. I don't give it a ton of breathing room but I did install a 120mm computer fan on top of it within weeks of acquiring it. It's been a workhorse for me with no grief and a few house moves under it's belt. It's also pretty obvious that it really needs that fan and I sincerely believe that should have been part of it's design.

That said, I still have a Yamaha RV-X 992 that only has dolby digital and 80 watts per channel but they seem to be real watts. That thing is a tank. I abuse it (a/v wise) and it keeps coming back for more. If Yamaha ever went with Audessey, I would be most pleased.

My stereo HK is also very nice and I love it's simplicity. My purchasing paradigm nowadays would be something like this, $300-600 I would pick Onkyo, above $600, I would start seriously looking at separates. Probably an Emotiva amp and some A/V receiver as the pre-amp (maybe a low wattage yamaha with desired features).

One receiver brand I have to stay away from is Sony. Their low end receivers have poor circuit protection so a speaker wiring mistake fries them immediately. I can't recommend them to budget conscious people because of that.

 

[LAB3]

One more vote for a successful Onkyo experience. I had read in numerous reviews and forums here that the Onkyo 805 ran particularly hot. I don't give it a ton of breathing room but I did install a 120mm computer fan on top of it within weeks of acquiring it. It's been a workhorse for me with no grief and a few house moves under it's belt. It's also pretty obvious that it really needs that fan and I sincerely believe that should have been part of it's design.

That said, I still have a Yamaha RV-X 992 that only has dolby digital and 80 watts per channel but they seem to be real watts. That thing is a tank. I abuse it (a/v wise) and it keeps coming back for more. If Yamaha ever went with Audessey, I would be most pleased.

My stereo HK is also very nice and I love it's simplicity. My purchasing paradigm nowadays would be something like this, $300-600 I would pick Onkyo, above $600, I would start seriously looking at separates. Probably an Emotiva amp and some A/V receiver as the pre-amp (maybe a low wattage yamaha with desired features).

One receiver brand I have to stay away from is Sony. Their low end receivers have poor circuit protection so a speaker wiring mistake fries them immediately. I can't recommend them to budget conscious people because of that.

A well thought out post that I agree with. My only question is about Yamaha YPAO as I had a 805 for 3 years and my old ears can't hear a difference between my Yamaha RX-V1900 AVR and tweaking the YPAO with a Db meter from doing the same with my 805 Audessey.

 

[PearlcorderS701]

One more vote for a successful Onkyo experience. I had read in numerous reviews and forums here that the Onkyo 805 ran particularly hot. I don't give it a ton of breathing room but I did install a 120mm computer fan on top of it within weeks of acquiring it. It's been a workhorse for me with no grief and a few house moves under it's belt. It's also pretty obvious that it really needs that fan and I sincerely believe that should have been part of it's design.

That said, I still have a Yamaha RV-X 992 that only has dolby digital and 80 watts per channel but they seem to be real watts. That thing is a tank. I abuse it (a/v wise) and it keeps coming back for more. If Yamaha ever went with Audessey, I would be most pleased.

My stereo HK is also very nice and I love it's simplicity. My purchasing paradigm nowadays would be something like this, $300-600 I would pick Onkyo, above $600, I would start seriously looking at separates. Probably an Emotiva amp and some A/V receiver as the pre-amp (maybe a low wattage yamaha with desired features).

One receiver brand I have to stay away from is Sony. Their low end receivers have poor circuit protection so a speaker wiring mistake fries them immediately. I can't recommend them to budget conscious people because of that.

I completely agree with the last statement regarding Sony receivers -- stay FAR away from these things, unless you're considering an ES model, and even then I'd be weary...

That said -- I have been a hardcore Onkyo fan for years. Never bought anything but this brand for AVRs. Since the day I have owned them, not ONCE has ANY model gone out on me for overheating, etc. I have a TX-SR600 that was from my very first surround system, and which made a cross country move and ended up having a massive dent in the side of the chassis. Even sitting in 120 degree-plus heat in a garage for well over a year (conditions that killed other components of mine), this receiver STILL plays fine and like brand new in a gym system I put together, just for a workout room.

My 605 -- notorious for running too hot and shutting down aside from a plethora of other problems -- has NEVER given me one problem since the day I owned it. It's running primary duty in my HT since that time, and it has never shut down nor has the HDMI connections or on screen display exhibited any hiccups. It's true that you need to give components like receivers and amps room to breathe; my TX-8555 stereo receiver has never given me any problems either, and it's going strong for a year now.

I also must disagree with the setiments of the "600 series" Onkyos being ridiculously low-rent and "cheap/budget;" I agree with the OP (I think it was) who said $400 isn't "cheap" to him, as it wouldn't be for me, either. I understand the other side of the coin -- that based on what goes into these things, it's "cheap," but I don't subscribe to the fact that these receivers are uber-budget. To me, I have always -- regardless of what magazines call them -- considered receivers priced like the 600 series "midrange" as many can just barely afford the $500/$600 asking price many times.

Just my two cents. But I will remain an Onkyo loyalist (but would consider Denon) and hopefully one day will be able to step up to the higher end models.

 

[PearlcorderS701]

Not in the market for a Onyko receiver but I would consider something like this? http://www.onkyo.ca/model.cfm?m=A-9555&class=Amplifier&p=s

Any advice or input would be appreicated...

Yeah, I REALLY wanted this amp when I was putting together a two channel system, but simply could not get up the dough at the time. Went with a TX-8555 stereo receiver and it has been running like a brick shithouse for a year now. Sounds like a good inegrated, plus tuner...

The A-9555 looks like a killer, as has been stated, piece of audio gear and has the performance to back it up, from what I read; if I had the money to do it over again, I'd go with the 9555 and add an Onkyo tuner (although from what I understand, the 9555 kind of "runs out of steam" when pushing it to its limits -- the 8555 seems like a powerhouse of an amp/receiver thus far, even running it hard).

 

[FedUpWithJunk]

Stay away from Onkyo! I have a Tx-NR906 that has also been a pain from day one. The tuner section never functioned properly and completely died after 6 months. I sent it back for Warranty (to New York) and per them it was damaged in shipment and could not be repaired. The damage per USPS was not done in transit. After the threat of a lawsuit they agreed to repair the unit. Shipping by them to another center for repair resulted in even much more extensive damage. After another 6 months the amp was finally returned to me as "repaired". The AM tuner section never worked properly and was essentially useless. I was told that repair parts are no longer available by one parts supplier! This is nuts! They are still selling this A/V Amp as a new item as of 7/5/2011 but repair parts are not available? A call to Onkyo and they say the parts are available but not to the consumer. This looks like a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. No one will repair these things and parts are not available for customer repair. STAY AWAY FROM ONKYO! I wish I had as I now have a worthless $2000 paper weight that I have gotten less than 1 year total of partially usable service from. Onkyo Customer Service is nonexistent. Parts availability is nonexistent and Customer Support is nonexistent. There are only 2 or three centers in the entire continental USA that will even service Onkyo and it will cost you a minimum of $150 just to ship it back and forth for repair. Repair or Service Manuals are not available and apparently only one person in the entire country can get even a few parts for anything made by Onkyo. I can buy a Honda or Toyota car, go to the back of the Owner’s Manual and order an entire set of Shop Repair Manuals. I can go to the dealer and buy repair parts. These are exactly the same manuals and parts the Dealer uses to service and repair their cars. That Onkyo won't support their customers in a similar fashion is an insult to their customer base. To those of you that think this is a great piece of equipment, just wait until you need to have it serviced. Then you will discover what a real pos Onkyo really is. My advice; dump every piece of Onkyo junk you have on Ebay, get what you can for it and don’t look back. I hope that someone can figure out a way to file a class action antitrust lawsuit against them similar to the one filed against car manufactures a few years ago that tried to screw owners on Warranty issues.

 

[LAB3]

Stay away from Onkyo! I have a Tx-NR906 that has also been a pain from day one. The tuner section never functioned properly and completely died after 6 months. I sent it back for Warranty (to New York) and per them it was damaged in shipment and could not be repaired. The damage per USPS was not done in transit. After the threat of a lawsuit they agreed to repair the unit. Shipping by them to another center for repair resulted in even much more extensive damage. After another 6 months the amp was finally returned to me as "repaired". The AM tuner section never worked properly and was essentially useless. I was told that repair parts are no longer available by one parts supplier! This is nuts! They are still selling this A/V Amp as a new item as of 7/5/2011 but repair parts are not available? A call to Onkyo and they say the parts are available but not to the consumer. This looks like a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. No one will repair these things and parts are not available for customer repair. STAY AWAY FROM ONKYO! I wish I had as I now have a worthless $2000 paper weight that I have gotten less than 1 year total of partially usable service from. Onkyo Customer Service is nonexistent. Parts availability is nonexistent and Customer Support is nonexistent. There are only 2 or three centers in the entire continental USA that will even service Onkyo and it will cost you a minimum of $150 just to ship it back and forth for repair. Repair or Service Manuals are not available and apparently only one person in the entire country can get even a few parts for anything made by Onkyo. I can buy a Honda or Toyota car, go to the back of the Owner’s Manual and order an entire set of Shop Repair Manuals. I can go to the dealer and buy repair parts. These are exactly the same manuals and parts the Dealer uses to service and repair their cars. That Onkyo won't support their customers in a similar fashion is an insult to their customer base. To those of you that think this is a great piece of equipment, just wait until you need to have it serviced. Then you will discover what a real pos Onkyo really is. My advice; dump every piece of Onkyo junk you have on Ebay, get what you can for it and don’t look back. I hope that someone can figure out a way to file a class action antitrust lawsuit against them similar to the one filed against car manufactures a few years ago that tried to screw owners on Warranty issues.

WOW this is worse then my $1,100.00 Onkyo TX-SR805 HD AVR BRICK Yamaha has a better Customer Service and so far my 2003 RX-V2400 Yamaha AVR 7.1 (non HD or HDMI)still works like new as does my last year model RX-V1900 HD 7.1 AVR when my Onkyo workded it was great but after 3 failures
in 3 years I am finished with Onkyo. And I Always had a fan and 6" open venting space above all my AVR/amps same with my R2R I have a fan behind them. I read the Onkyo moved the factory......

I have read posts where ALL brands will have problems but I must admit Onkyo has more problems and their Customer Service is Very Poor. I had the pleasure of getting the run around trying to have my 805 repaired when it was still in warranty. This model had front display problems in the early models and Onkyo stuck their head in the sand and did not recall them.
Then after 18 months the HDMI issues came up, repaired at my expense as warranty ran out a week before. They kept it for warranty for 7 weeks on the display issue and I had to pay for freight. There is a thread that is 3 years old on the 805 problems that is so long it would take all day to read, so many different 805 owners as upset as you are. Might I suggest a new Yamaha AVR there are others too but there are more Yamaha Repair Centers..... Glad I have not had to use one.

 

[PearlcorderS701]

Stay away from Onkyo! I have a Tx-NR906 that has also been a pain from day one. The tuner section never functioned properly and completely died after 6 months. I sent it back for Warranty (to New York) and per them it was damaged in shipment and could not be repaired. The damage per USPS was not done in transit. After the threat of a lawsuit they agreed to repair the unit. Shipping by them to another center for repair resulted in even much more extensive damage. After another 6 months the amp was finally returned to me as "repaired". The AM tuner section never worked properly and was essentially useless. I was told that repair parts are no longer available by one parts supplier! This is nuts! They are still selling this A/V Amp as a new item as of 7/5/2011 but repair parts are not available? A call to Onkyo and they say the parts are available but not to the consumer. This looks like a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. No one will repair these things and parts are not available for customer repair. STAY AWAY FROM ONKYO! I wish I had as I now have a worthless $2000 paper weight that I have gotten less than 1 year total of partially usable service from. Onkyo Customer Service is nonexistent. Parts availability is nonexistent and Customer Support is nonexistent. There are only 2 or three centers in the entire continental USA that will even service Onkyo and it will cost you a minimum of $150 just to ship it back and forth for repair. Repair or Service Manuals are not available and apparently only one person in the entire country can get even a few parts for anything made by Onkyo. I can buy a Honda or Toyota car, go to the back of the Owner’s Manual and order an entire set of Shop Repair Manuals. I can go to the dealer and buy repair parts. These are exactly the same manuals and parts the Dealer uses to service and repair their cars. That Onkyo won't support their customers in a similar fashion is an insult to their customer base. To those of you that think this is a great piece of equipment, just wait until you need to have it serviced. Then you will discover what a real pos Onkyo really is. My advice; dump every piece of Onkyo junk you have on Ebay, get what you can for it and don’t look back. I hope that someone can figure out a way to file a class action antitrust lawsuit against them similar to the one filed against car manufactures a few years ago that tried to screw owners on Warranty issues.

I don't understand -- what did you do, just join this site with that unique user name to merely post your anti-Onkyo rant in this thread?

Mods: I smell...SPAM.

 

[LAB3]

^^^^^^

Or he too got the Onkyo run around like I did when my TX-SR805 was in warranty(display).....and just weeks after warranty it failed Again different HDMI issues they kept it for almost 8 weeks for warranty work.... my warranty should have been extended I paid to repair second different problem and a few months later it started to smoke (black) and a crack then it turned itself off never to work again. ONkyo Customer Service was Very Poor to deal with little girls that did not know how to tech a paper weight. This is for real, regerested Onko unit with some many emails and phone calls, I had to pay for freight only to have fail again. Look at 805 thread on several different forums one is hundreds of pages of upset 805 owners.

This is not the first post I have read where parts for warranty work were NOT to be had but yet they were still selling new units.
I did think that his unit being damaged two times was odd.

 

[3db]

I don't understand -- what did you do, just join this site with that unique user name to merely post your anti-Onkyo rant in this thread?

Mods: I smell...SPAM.

Be careful of accusing people of spamming. It reads to me that his claims are legit. Onkyo has a big following on this site but I've read far too many times where poor customer support has failed the consumers of Onkyo porducts. There is no question in my mind that they will begin losing customers if this trend continues. This person is NOT the only one disatisfied with his Onkyo.

 

[FedUpWithJunk]

I don't understand -- what did you do, just join this site with that unique user name to merely post your anti-Onkyo rant in this thread?

Mods: I smell...SPAM.

You smell spam? What you smell is a customer that is fed up with the royal screwing I have been given by Onkyo! I posted this as a warning to others that think Onyko is so great based only upon the out of box performance or a fluff piece review by a trade magazine. Great sound, yes. Great performance for the price, yes. I bought this A/V Amp a couple of years ago largely as a result of the very favorable review it was given in Home Theatre Magazine. Had I known then what I know now about Onkyo Customer Service (or lack thereof) I would have never bought it. Before buying I had only read that they tended to run hot. I immediately found this to be true so before running the amp in this condition I designed and built a monitored, filtered, multiple fan system for forcing cooling air through the bottom and out the top of the amp. This significantly reduced the operational temper of the amplifier. If you look at all the complaints and failures of the HDMI board, excessive heat is almost certainly the cause of these failures. Anyone that knows anything about electronics design knows that if you design a system for reliability and longevity you should not push components beyond 70% of their rated absolute maximums. This includes both temperature and voltage ratings. Temperature ratings are especially important with solid state components and electrolytic capacitors. That I was willing to live with these out of the box design shortcomings says that I was not easily dissuaded from Onyko. The final straw was the 6 month + fight with their Warranty Center and ridiculously poor Customer Service. Based on your comments you have either never had to deal with Onkyo or are a shill for them. Either way I posted this as a warning to others that are thinking about Onkyo. If you get a good one out of the box and never have to deal with Onyko after the sale, great. If you have any type of Warranty issue or otherwise need service or parts; good luck! You are going to need it. In the past I have owned Sansui, Kenwood, Pioneer, Sony, Yamaha and many others. I have designed and serviced electronic equipment for 0ver 40 years. I have never had an experience with any of them anything like the nightmare with Onkyo. From other numerous posts on other sites it appears my experience is not unique. It also appears that they treat their high end Integra customers even worse.

 

[TLS Guy]

You smell spam? What you smell is a customer that is fed up with the royal screwing I have been given by Onkyo! I posted this as a warning to others that think Onyko is so great based only upon the out of box performance or a fluff piece review by a trade magazine. Great sound, yes. Great performance for the price, yes. I bought this A/V Amp a couple of years ago largely as a result of the very favorable review it was given in Home Theatre Magazine. Had I known then what I know now about Onkyo Customer Service (or lack thereof) I would have never bought it. Before buying I had only read that they tended to run hot. I immediately found this to be true so before running the amp in this condition I designed and built a monitored, filtered, multiple fan system for forcing cooling air through the bottom and out the top of the amp. This significantly reduced the operational temper of the amplifier. If you look at all the complaints and failures of the HDMI board, excessive heat is almost certainly the cause of these failures. Anyone that knows anything about electronics design knows that if you design a system for reliability and longevity you should not push components beyond 70% of their rated absolute maximums. This includes both temperature and voltage ratings. Temperature ratings are especially important with solid state components and electrolytic capacitors. That I was willing to live with these out of the box design shortcomings says that I was not easily dissuaded from Onyko. The final straw was the 6 month + fight with their Warranty Center and ridiculously poor Customer Service. Based on your comments you have either never had to deal with Onkyo or are a shill for them. Either way I posted this as a warning to others that are thinking about Onkyo. If you get a good one out of the box and never have to deal with Onyko after the sale, great. If you have any type of Warranty issue or otherwise need service or parts; good luck! You are going to need it. In the past I have owned Sansui, Kenwood, Pioneer, Sony, Yamaha and many others. I have designed and serviced electronic equipment for 0ver 40 years. I have never had an experience with any of them anything like the nightmare with Onkyo. From other numerous posts on other sites it appears my experience is not unique. It also appears that they treat their high end Integra customers even worse.

You are correct about the heat. That really stacks the odds against them.

I have not had any recent Onkyo gear through my hands, but over the years I came to regard Onkyo as Onkyblow. I don't see a reason to change my opinion.

I do not recommend them.

 

[FedUpWithJunk]

^^^^^^

I did think that his unit being damaged two times was odd.

The "shipping damage" was a claim made by the first Warranty Center. The amp was examined by a USPS inspector that said the damage was not done in transit. (No damage to the shipping box.) The back stenciled overlay panel looked like someone had taken something sharp and pried it out. I took extensive pictures of the amp from every angle, top, bottom, front, back and sides before packing and shipping. I also took pictures of it when packed. There was not a single scratch anywhere before shipment. When USPS refused the claim I had to threaten a lawsuit before they finally agreed to repair the amp. They packed it up and reshipped it across town for actual repair. The second shipping resulted in over $350 worth of damage per the second Warranty Center. I too found this very odd. I suspect that they make allot of claims for "Shipping Damage" to avoid Warranty Repair cost. I took the pictures because of the initial dealings with them over the phone. They did everything possible to give me the run around on sending the amp in for repair. To say I became suspicious before sending it in would be an understatement.

 

[PearlcorderS701]

...and yet, still, no one finds it odd that he created a user name to coincide with the theme of this Onkyo bashing thread, coming onto the site as a new user and suddenly gaining all this respect from other seasoned members just because they're in agreement with his analysis of this company's products...

Completely baffling and incredible.

At any rate, here's the last I say about this before I unsubscribe from this thread -- I know this company has lousy customer service (I've been down this road with them before just through asking questions via email) but for all the anti-Onkyo ranting that's going on here, I can give plenty of feedback about products that continue to stand the test of time from them and are still in use in my house (and friends houses) including, as I said, an old 'SR600 which had been in a garage in 120 degree-plus temperatures for well over a year and which sustained heavy shipping damage...additionally, my 'SR600 NEVER shut down on me or gave me any problems in all the time I'm running it.

I will stand by this company's build quality principles, no matter what the rants say. Flame on; I'm outta here.

 

[Cruise Missile]

What's so hard to understand about his chosen screen name?

Plenty of people choose a screen name based on the reason they join a forum. Look at the members list and you will see a bunch of names that are either negative from fresh frustrations they've experienced or even praise for a favorite brand/company.

Here's an example:

I come to this forum confused by my new Denon AVR's poorly written manual and am looking for help. When prompted to create a screen name I choose something along these lines: ConfusedbyDenon, Engrishsux, WTFDenon, learntofnwriteinenglish, etc.

I then start or find a thread about, you guessed it, Denon's horrible manuals and begin posting. As time passes maybe I decide I like the members here and stick around. That's the story for a fairly large part of the communities on the internet.

I hope this helps the Onkyo fanboy understand......

 

[LAB3]

...and yet, still, no one finds it odd that he created a user name to coincide with the theme of this Onkyo bashing thread, coming onto the site as a new user and suddenly gaining all this respect from other seasoned members just because they're in agreement with his analysis of this company's products...

Completely baffling and incredible.

At any rate, here's the last I say about this before I unsubscribe from this thread -- I know this company has lousy customer service (I've been down this road with them before just through asking questions via email) but for all the anti-Onkyo ranting that's going on here, I can give plenty of feedback about products that continue to stand the test of time from them and are still in use in my house (and friends houses) including, as I said, an old 'SR600 which had been in a garage in 120 degree-plus temperatures for well over a year and which sustained heavy shipping damage...additionally, my 'SR600 NEVER shut down on me or gave me any problems in all the time I'm running it.

I will stand by this company's build quality principles, no matter what the rants say. Flame on; I'm outta here.

I understand what you mean.............But you LIKE your Onkyo as much as I and others Now Dislike Onkyo. After Onkyo moved the plant it "Seems" their Q.C. is not what it use to be. I Really Liked my 805 Strong amps (got hot) ok I had a 6" fan blowing on it and opened the rear of the shelve it sets on. Still had problems and their Customer Service was Very Poor.

I love my old 96 Corvette if a Mustang owner knocks a Vette I will take up for my "BabY" it's a money pit too. Any and all AVR will have failures just like a auto. But call Onkyo Customer Service about a warranty claim and see all the problems you will go thru I am 61 and have owned many different brands too
and so "Far" my experience with my Onkyo 805 was so bad I purchased another Yamaha. My old 2003 2400 AVR is not a HD and still works, so I went with the 805 as everyone raved about it. Some still work fine, good for them. No need to get angry because someone has had bad peroblems..................you have not.Older Onkyo (non HDMI) were Great I had one for years a stereo receicer with great anps and sold it.Went 5.1
Lucky you. I am NOT Flaiming just posting what happened to me. I had a expensive McIntosh 40 years ago fail right out of the box.

Cruise Missle I have a 2007 ZX-14 and shop full of vintage little Honda 90's nice R1 look at Graves Motorsports for go fast parts.

 

[Cruise Missile]

I know this is a de-rail of this thread. McCoy's is a favorite.

 

[LAB3]

I know this is a de-rail of this thread. McCoy's is a favorite.

McCoys have a Denon in their shop. Turbo Pkoenix Hayabusa Nice................... Muzzy has has a Marantz.

What about Hatfields???? Bet they have Onkyo, that's why they are mad.

 

[M Code]

McCoys have a Denon in their shop. Turbo Pkoenix Hayabusa Nice................... Muzzy has has a Marantz.

What about Hatfields???? Bet they have Onkyo, that's why they are mad.

I bet Uncle Billy Joe has a Samsung AVR...

Just my $0.02..

 

[bmninada]

I was the originated this thread. Time has passed and so has my experience. Few good folks here mentioned about how I got the information so fast, etc. but I feel silence is golden here.
I have repaired by my own my receiver. It was totally worthless and useless to use the NJ repair facility of Onkyo since it's truly a junk facility serviced by novices mostly. If you known someone deep inside that hell hole, you're lucky.
I believe in 2 things (a) the product need to sound good (b) it should be maintainable. Onkyo believes only in (a). Thus, as long as the receiver works, folks are happy, reviews of any magazine however reputed are based on fresh products 99% of the time with a short mention on "support issues reported by consumers". Our human brain tend to ignore it against the glowing reviews the product received. How bad can it be, in comparison to Verizon mobile support, for example ... would be the question and self consolation....
As such, I have decided as and when I need to upgrade/change I'll never, ever buy Onkyo again. From day #1 it had issues. I had to fix some, left others. Modded it to include a 12V fan. After reading thru tons of these postings, there are many who had a Denon and bought a Denon (just an example) but few who had an Onkyo and bought an Onkyo. Those who did MOST of them never really had to face Onkyo support, just wanted to upgrade.... for once you did contact, all faith in the product and the management and service center flies out of the window.

 

[3db]

I chose Yamaha over all other manufacturers because their reliability appears to be bullet proof relative to the other brands and their CS support is near the top of the industry. I don't want the hassle in dealing with a company with a poor CS rep. Life's too short to open yet another can of frustration.