Is ONKYO producing JUNK these days?

[M Code]

Over the last 6 years, we have sold/installed >120 Onkyo/Integra AVRs with zero failures. Their AVRs do run hotter than competition due to their output stage biasing as to minimize notch distortion. The (2) biggest areas of possible failure are:
1. Free-air clearance
We always had at least 4-5" for the L/R sides and top cover
2. HDMI Cables
Monster produced many HDMI cables that had out-of-spec connectors, and when forced into the rear panel jacks put damaging pressure on the PCB/connections

Just my $0.02...

 

[LAB3]

I am glad for the Onkyo customers you installed them for. In 2007/2008 my NEW not a refurb TX-SR 805 140X7 had the display go out (weak resistors) should have been a recall, many had this issue. Then the HDMI board failure and after warranty expired a loud click a puff of black smoke and the amp section fried. After it being gone for weeks at a time (two times for repair) and I had to pay freight to send it to them to be repaired and dealing with their customer service which was terrible back then. I went to another Yamaha my RX-V1900 7.1 130X7 HD 2009 is still working GREAT. And my 2004 Yamaha RX-V 2400 120 x7.1 but not HDMI is still working jamming in the bedroom system.

It and all my AVR, amps have had a fan in back and 6" of top vent area and I never stacked on them. On AudioKarma forum there is 100's of upset Onkyo customers have posted up ....then in 2011or so IIRC Onkyo issues a warranty update they would fix the older AVR issues free. Too late for me I sold my 805 for parts for 50 bucks...sigh. When it worked those amps were awesome ( a bit more power then my Yamaha) Glad they owned up to having Q.C. issues on many of their AVR when they moved the factory from japan they had BIG time failures.

 

[sterling shoote]

My adult son purchased an Onkyo receiver. It burned out shortly after installation. He returned it. The replacement, burned out too, shortly after installation. Both units were professionally installed. Both units were seen by the retailer as being defective. My son got his money back. His experience made me think when I need to replace my electronics, I will not be considering any made by Onkyo. For what it's worth, Yamaha seems to be highly regarded these days. BTW, I expect at some point a paid Onkyo PR guy will contribute to this thread, possibly undercover, posing himself as just a guy down the street. I'd expect him to mock the contributors having had bad experiences with the concept, suggesting the buyers were too stupid to properly use the equipment. Watch out.

 

[lovinthehd]

When did your son do this and what model(s)? I bought an Onkyo RC370 back in 2011 that was fine up to a couple months ago then the known hdmi/network board problem finally cropped up but their warranty service was quick and painless, and now it's as good as new if not better (now runs a bit cooler). I haven't heard much of Onkyo issues since they addressed the hdmi/network issues they had a while back and they did a good job of warranty extension from what I've read. My reason for scratching them off the list was more about their implementation of AccuEQ instead of Audyssey....now with the merging with Pioneer am waiting to see if that partnership might yield a Dirac driven product which might be interesting indeed.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Onkyo isn't the company it once was, although it's probably better, ownership-wise, than most. The founding family still owns about 26%.

They recently purchased Pioneer.

More troubling is the next largest shareholder, Gibson Brands (the guitar people) whose debt is Junk Bond status. Being desperate for profit doesn't generally promote any extra steps or component quality in manufacturing, which once was in Japan, but no more. Gibson has been on a buying spree in consumer electronics, and the result has not always been pretty. So that's a Red Flag.

Having said that, it could be worse. A lot of brands have been purchased by sharks that profit by raping the assets and driving the brand into the dirt.

Your other options would be Denon-Marantz (same company), or one of the Harmon companies.

You need to be careful today, and look at everything not on a Brand-By-Brand basis only, but also on a model-by-model basis. When you are trying to be everything to everyone ... territory once owned by SONY almost alone ... you make a wide range of products, from cheap junk to quality components. The problem is figuring out which is which.

That is not particularly new ... audio companies even back into the "Golden Era" of the 1970's would have differing lines of differing build quality under the same brand name. I remember the time when audiophiles would make a distinction between the "Made in Japan" and "Made in California" Marantz separates (and the Japanese gear was considered about as good as Chinese made goods are today).

Of course once they moved all production to Japan it became a non-issue, and fans had to work harder, just like today, to figure out the wheat from the chaff. But maybe you get the idea.

It's just that today, it's not a few who do it, it's everyone.

Some people tend to forget, but China didn't allow the manufacturing and export of audio gear before 2005. So, at least the factories are new.

 

[sterling shoote]

When did your son do this and what model(s)? I bought an Onkyo RC370 back in 2011 that was fine up to a couple months ago then the known hdmi/network board problem finally cropped up but their warranty service was quick and painless, and now it's as good as new if not better (now runs a bit cooler). I haven't heard much of Onkyo issues since they addressed the hdmi/network issues they had a while back and they did a good job of warranty extension from what I've read. My reason for scratching them off the list was more about their implementation of AccuEQ instead of Audyssey....now with the merging with Pioneer am waiting to see if that partnership might yield a Dirac driven product which might be interesting indeed.

I do not know the model; but, the fiasco occurred in 2013 as I recall.

 

[allargon]

I wouldn't put Yamaha on a pedestal. I returned a TX NR626 and bought a Yamaha Aventage 7 series. After a year or so it started producing audio hiccups at random.

All brands have problems.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

 

[LAB3]

That is so true........but do you see threads in several different forums with pages of up set Yamaha owners? Same with Denon etc there are others that have not had so many Q.C. issues in the past. I have a SVS sub that eats amps about every three years and some of not had a amp issue with theirs...go figure. My neighbor just had to replace a Yamaha AVR RX-V 2065 HD 7.1 .........but it was 9 years old. I do agree any brand came have one fail right out the box. I was just posting the great service life my two yamaha AVR have lasted so far.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

When did your son do this and what model(s)? I bought an Onkyo RC370 back in 2011 that was fine up to a couple months ago then the known hdmi/network board problem finally cropped up but their warranty service was quick and painless, and now it's as good as new if not better (now runs a bit cooler). I haven't heard much of Onkyo issues since they addressed the hdmi/network issues they had a while back and they did a good job of warranty extension from what I've read. My reason for scratching them off the list was more about their implementation of AccuEQ instead of Audyssey....now with the merging with Pioneer am waiting to see if that partnership might yield a Dirac driven product which might be interesting indeed.

I have a txnr808 that was hit with the hdmi bug. They turned it around in no time, and it's been a great receiver aside from that. I've also heard very little since they started fixing bad units, and the reason I stopped recommending them was because of accueq. Im wondering if we don't see some mcacc based RC system, although early on they were reported to not be sharing brain trust. I think it would be good to share, but NOT just rebrand one or the other. I'm also dreaming about Dirac live in an up to date AVR.

As far as pages of angry Onkyo owners. I think some of that has to do with more Onkyo's out in the wild. They were the bang for your buck brand for a long long time. I'm in the early stages of negotiations with my wife about an atmos installation and not sure what I'll do for an AVR.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Just a clarification on my previous post, where I said one of your choices were Harmon International.
About a year ago, Harmon was bought by Samsung.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Just a clarification on my previous post, where I said one of your choices were Harmon International.
About a year ago, Harmon was bought by Samsung.

I think they made that purchase to rape and pillage somebody else's work. It's no secret they want to be viewed as a big name in audio. I just think that's a cheap(no pun lol) way to do it.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

I think they made that purchase to rape and pillage somebody else's work. It's no secret they want to be viewed as a big name in audio. I just think that's a cheap(no pun lol) way to do it.

Well, when it comes to corporate buyouts, there are seldom any reasons other than "pillaging" someone else's work. If it's good for consumers it is a situation where the smaller firm's tech is used to improve the larger's; if it's bad for consumers it's a situation where the buyout is to kill a competitor, and one that is probably better at whatever it is they are doing than the new owner. Then there's the situation where the smaller company's assets are pillaged to realize a simple cash profit, leaving a shell of it's former glory to fend for itself, usually severely crippled in the end.

Samsung might be most interested in Harmon's car technology, which pretty much rules OEM automotive sound systems. You have to look long and hard to find an OEM audio system that isn't developed by one or the other of Harmon's brands.

It doesn't seem to bother people much, but Samsung is competing with bona fide free market companies, when they were built with massive South Korean government subsidies. It's a huge conglomerate, with interests in everything from steel to shipbuilding to heavy equipment to electronics. Built to resemble Mitsubishi of Japan.

 

[lovinthehd]

You're driving me crazy it's Harman not Harmon (the o was in Kardon unless you're a fan of Mark's or something) The auto biz share Harman has was indeed the major reason for the attractiveness....home audio paled by comparison. This article's title kinda tells the tale https://www.macrumors.com/2016/11/14/samsung-buying-harman-8-billion/

Auto biz also why Pioneeer sold home electronics to Onkyo and retained car biz.

 

[ThunderClap]

How do the newer Onkyos sound ? They look like Pioneers to be honest.
Not sure if the Pioneer Elite brand is still what it once was?


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[JRT3]

My experience with my nearly ten year old Onkyo SR-505 7.1 AVR, in my large & daily-used HT (It's the only way to watch TV here!) and two - four year old C-7030's and TX-8020 stereo receiver has been great with some spotty remote functions on the much-used AVR's remote as the only complaint. It certainly has lasted longer than it's predecessors, two Yamaha's.

 

[Tankman]

My TX-NR656 is doing great!

 

[3db]

I have a Yamaha RX-V1800, a RX-V1500, and a Yamaha KX800U cassette deck and not one of them showing signs of aging unlike me . The 1500 and the cassette deck were bought used btw. Of all brands, I put more faith in Yamaha QC than any other brand.

 

[yepimonfire]

I don't think Onkyo is producing junk as far as the reliability and performance goes, I do see them taking shortcuts that really turn me off of the brand, like dropping Audyssey multieq and failing to enable things like cross mixing of dolby surround with DTS and vice versa.

 

[Tankman]

@ Thunderclap,

I have owned in the past several Onkyo units the only one I had problems with was my NR818, HDMI board went out sent it in they repaired it for free. I was using it as a pre-pro running Emotiva amp's XPA-2 alone with the XPA-5 driving Polk LSi's the whole line. My oldest Son has a Yamaha 1050 outstanding unit, he has my EMO amps and my LSi's I moved into a small apartment so sold all my gear to him well just about gave it all to him, his wife and him built a new home soo, but anyways I can say this the TX-NR656 I have is driving Polk signature series 60 L/R mains, without a doubt to me and I am just being subjective here, it is a huge Improvement over my NR818 in sound quality. Having had a Parasound 2100 pre-amp in my set-up with the NR818 was the main reason I added it was I found the NR818 was a lil "Tinny" sounding. Sorry for the long post. But to me what Onkyo has done by adding, the PLL, alone with VLSC, and adding the AKM chip is a huge Improvement. It took me a few weeks to decide which unit I was going to get and yes Yamaha was at the top of my list, but from a price point when the price drop to under 4 bills on the NR656 I went with it. Should I have gotten one with pre-amp outs? again I live in a small apartment for now. It is setup in a 5.1 for now To date the NR656 is up and running with out a hitch, or with any bugs or hiccups. But who knows, I just hope the "Force" is strong with this unit. My NAD pre-pro back in 2012 had HDMI board issues, 3 g's that unit set me back for. Just a note, this Forum is one of the better one's to come and hang out in, what I have found is the Old Timers in here won't recommend a add on amp if you really don't need one. I for one never "bash" someone's gear to me it's not what this hobby is about. I have had gear from many out there, from Carver, Sony ES, NAD, EMO, Yamaha and so on. I can say this, to me, with all the new audio formats for surround, DTS:X, Atmos and so on, is why I love this hobby so much it's always changing. Coming from tube gear all the way back in the 70's from one of my first set-ups till now, yeah loving it!. Again sorry for the long post.

 

[CoryW]

Understanding this is an old topic, I own the last King if the Pioneer heavyweights, the VSX-59TXI. It has a sound that would be very difficult to top without a very substantial cash outlay. But, I just acquired a Mint Onkyo TX-NR905. Initial impressions are very positive. It does run a bit warm, but two 4” fans designed for cooling electronics did the trick. It almost broke my arm carrying it to my car. It has gobs of power.