Is ONKYO producing JUNK these days?

[Whit Blauvelt]

Totally unfair comparison here, but just replaced a TX-NR828 that's served faithfully since getting that new when they moved to the 838. Was only using it for the pre/pro into Emotiva BasX amps, and it was a clean sound, but a bit recessed. In my pattern of buying things as they're at the end of their model life, the replacement is a Yahama CX-A5100. And it sounds about four times as good. Far more present; far more detail in sounds. This is into Emotiva T1 mains, and small Klipsch surrounds, before and after the swap. The only real issue with the Onkyo was a few times in the first years it needed to be reset to defaults and re-programmed because it had lost the output stage -- this back when I was still using its amps. But this Yahama is the first time I've had hi-fi to the level I had become accustomed to back in the 70s running Sansui gear. Maybe it's because Yahama is still a substantial, traditional company, and not the toy of vulture capitalists? Or maybe if I'd gone to the top of the Onkyo/Integra line I'd have an equivalent impression. Haven't heard that to say.

 

[OldSchool Days]

Don't get me wrong and don't abuse me. Myself - I own an Onkyo. SR606 and 2 of my neighbors and few of my close friends all own Onkyo.
All (altogether 5) A/V receivers have been bought during the span of 3 years, starting end-of-2009 till now.
All have OUTSTANDING sound quality and host of features which for the price associated are difficult to match with competitors. All are built aesthetically very pleasing and looks solid.
Here's my issue. ALL of them (expect the last one, bought just 1 month back) started to fail. Here's the issues, all primarily centric to the digital input/output capabilities of the receiver - be it HDMI, optical, Co-Ax, OSD into TV via HDMI, upconversion, etc., etc.
All of them get very hot indeed.
I started my own research into this company. What I found is an astonishing amount of Better Business Bureau complaints in NJ, where the company is registered or has the authorized service center. Next, I searched the Internet and found MULTITUDE of forums which details out so many woeful situations consumers are facing and some has even ventured to give fix solutions like replace XX capacitor with YY, etc., etc.
Finally, I also found Onkyo's good name and brand is historical. They have been producing quality audio equipment for decades and thus it's carrying forward the high brand image. However, history is one thing - present tense is something else. Personally, I feel Onkyo has gone downhill in the last 4 to 5 years so much so that I know of 2 well known NY retailers (very big, very well known) who are thinking of pulling out of Onkyo A/V receivers considering the complaints they have to address via their extended warranty programs; which although outsourced the warranty companies are heavily complaining. As a last straw I met with almost the head honcho of the authorized service center here in NJ over a golf session and he was candid enough to admit the level of callousness he's seeing with repairs done by Onkyo factory. As an example he states of cases where a AV receiver is being opened for repair the 1st time and inside the HDMI daughter board doesn't even reflect the true design for that model or has *strange* capacitors soldered haphazardly all over, etc. etc. They have started to get about 3 Onkyo bulletins a day for problem fixes.

Any thoughts?

Hello guys,
If Onkyo is very very high end they are fine, lower models forget about it, they will give you hedaches, in early 70,s and 80,s used to be very good Receivers/Amps.