Onkyo 705, 805 or other???

[ronoz56]

Hi guys! I've been doing some research regarding a new AV receiver in order to get TrueHD and DTS-Master Audio since I currently own a Yammy RX-V750which does not accept HDMI. I also have a Panasonic BD-35K which I know could be connected via the multi-channel inputs on the Yamaha but only for 2channel audio and I have 5.1 channel surround. So......I've been looking at possible AVR upgrades and have come up with the Onkyo 705 and 805 but they are hard to find at a reasonable price. I also considered the Yamaha 663for the money but think that this may be a down grade, audio wise, compared to what I have. Looking for any suggestions since you guys are the best here at Audioholics?

 

[lsiberian]

Hi guys! I've been doing some research regarding a new AV receiver in order to get TrueHD and DTS-Master Audio since I currently own a Yammy RX-V750which does not accept HDMI. I also have a Panasonic BD-35K which I know could be connected via the multi-channel inputs on the Yamaha but only for 2channel audio and I have 5.1 channel surround. So......I've been looking at possible AVR upgrades and have come up with the Onkyo 705 and 805 but they are hard to find at a reasonable price. I also considered the Yamaha 663for the money but think that this may be a down grade, audio wise, compared to what I have. Looking for any suggestions since you guys are the best here at Audioholics?

For beta 50s I think you will want an 805 or better(receiver option. At the very least a 705. Those are towers with a high power requirement IMO.

If you can get a 705. I suggest pairing it with a 2 channel amp for the 50s. That would give you plenty of headroom for those beasts.

 

[lsiberian]

Hi guys! I've been doing some research regarding a new AV receiver in order to get TrueHD and DTS-Master Audio since I currently own a Yammy RX-V750which does not accept HDMI. I also have a Panasonic BD-35K which I know could be connected via the multi-channel inputs on the Yamaha but only for 2channel audio and I have 5.1 channel surround. So......I've been looking at possible AVR upgrades and have come up with the Onkyo 705 and 805 but they are hard to find at a reasonable price. I also considered the Yamaha 663for the money but think that this may be a down grade, audio wise, compared to what I have. Looking for any suggestions since you guys are the best here at Audioholics?

If you need to go 7.1 my pair of beta 20s is currently at a sick price. on ebay.

 

[ronoz56]

If you need to go 7.1 my pair of beta 20s is currently at a sick price. on ebay.

Unfortunately, I don't have a dedicated HT room and just don't have room for two more speakers behind my couch. Thanks anyway and thanks for the advice on the AVR!

 

[griffinconst]

I don't know the 705 but I have an 805 and love it. I bought it refirb. from Onkyo.com. It is a beast with a great amp section and tons of features. It also has a 4 ohm setting and should be able to power most speakers no problem. You read about them running hot. It does run quite warm but I've had it on for hours on end and no problems. I do have a open rack though. Just give it room to breath and you can't do better for the price.
I'm interested in Beta 50's. Could you pm me with a review?
Good luck on your reciever hunt. Let us know what you bought.

 

[lsiberian]

Unfortunately, I don't have a dedicated HT room and just don't have room for two more speakers behind my couch. Thanks anyway and thanks for the advice on the AVR!

personally I suggest a 3 channel amp for the front speakers you have paired with a 705 or something comparable.

I just sold my 360 I'm so sad to see it go, but I'm building my own speakers. It's the best speaker I've ever owned. So pretty with the grills off too.

I think I should write a poem to my speakers.

 

[lsiberian]

I don't know the 705 but I have an 805 and love it. I bought it refirb. from Onkyo.com. It is a beast with a great amp section and tons of features. It also has a 4 ohm setting and should be able to power most speakers no problem. You read about them running hot. It does run quite warm but I've had it on for hours on end and no problems. I do have a open rack though. Just give it room to breath and you can't do better for the price.
I'm interested in Beta 50's. Could you pm me with a review?
Good luck on your reciever hunt. Let us know what you bought.

The 50s are great speakers for a large room. They have very wide response with great highs and lows. They are also very heavy, bulky and well crafted. You might want a Dolly to move them. Before I went DIY I planned to get a pair. But finding them is tough. And Finding them in good condition is even harder. I think 50s with a 360 makes a sick front sound stage that rivals many other speakers. Paired with a single ES250 for the rears and Beta 10s on the sides it makes a great setup. FYI there is a beta forum with posts from the designer himself on the avsforums website.

Some would prefer the 40s over the 50s. Especially if you have very good subs. Smaller and better upper range bass IMO.

 

[griffinconst]

personally I suggest a 3 channel amp for the front speakers you have paired with a 705 or something comparable.

I just sold my 360 I'm so sad to see it go, but I'm building my own speakers. It's the best speaker I've ever owned. So pretty with the grills off too.

I think I should write a poem to my speakers.

Hey Isi...be sure to post that poem for all of us to (cough) enjoy.

 

[griffinconst]

There is a 805 on ebay, 2 days left on the auction.
There is also one at audiogon.
Good luck

 

[lsiberian]

Hey Isi...be sure to post that poem for all of us to (cough) enjoy.

Such tragic things shouldn't be shared.

 

[bandphan]

I don't know the 705 but I have an 805 and love it. I bought it refirb. from Onkyo.com. It is a beast with a great amp section and tons of features. It also has a 4 ohm setting and should be able to power most speakers no problem.
.

Id advise not using the 4 ohm settings on these avrs. It has been discussed many times, but the skinny is you are robbing power from your amp.

 

[griffinconst]

Id advise not using the 4 ohm settings on these avrs. It has been discussed many times, but the skinny is you are robbing power from your amp.

I've heard that but don't know anything about it. Won't my amp struggle with a 4ohm load when set to the 8ohm setting? My owners manual says to set to 4ohm setting if running speakers less than 6 ohms.
Where can we read up on that?

 

[ronoz56]

I'm considering the Yamaha 663 since there are some great prices on it right now. Should I go with this and just add an additional amp to power my front 3 speakers or......just go with a more powerful AVR? Any suggestions on amps?

 

[bandphan]

I've heard that but don't know anything about it. Won't my amp struggle with a 4ohm load when set to the 8ohm setting? My owners manual says to set to 4ohm setting if running speakers less than 6 ohms.
Where can we read up on that?

The 4 ohm setting is like a limitator and will cause the the amp to clip much sooner. Im on the crackberry so if you search this forum for 4 Ohm setting

 

[jostenmeat]

Yes, there's an Audioholic article about the 4 ohm setting, and they advise against it. I had one member here basically call me an idiot after offering the idea of 4 ohm setting when heat is a real issue, and volumes are modest.

But, as with most things in audio, not everyone agrees. I still pick people's brains on redundant topics, if I think they will shed new light for me... and even the 4 ohm setting issue does not seem to have a consensus vote.

Anyhoo, according to Secrets, the 805 puts just slightly less power to a 4 ohm speaker at 4 ohm setting, than to a 8 ohm speaker at 8 ohm setting. That would be 173 watts vs 151 watts.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_14_3/onkyo-tx-sr805-receiver-9-2006-part-5.html

some quoted text:

One can see at a glance the performance of the amplifiers in their default setting is remarkably good for a $1,099 comprehensively featured receiver. The behavior is commensurate with good amplifier design in that, transiently at least, it will dump a lot of current as evidenced by the 270W into 4 ohms. Not quite "doubling down" as the saying goes, but none actually do so (cleaver spec'ing just makes it seem like some can).

Switching to the 4 ohm setting, we see exactly what we expect: reduced output as compared to the default setting, regardless of actual load. While at first glance a dramatic shift from the default, these numbers must bear interpretation. Having only 87 watts output seems not so good, but the >4ohm setting should only be used with low impedance speakers where for the lion's share of the spectrum the Onkyo will be in that 151 watt territory, which is only about 5% less than the 173 watts into 8 ohm load of the >6 ohm setting.

It would have been useful to test five or seven channels simultaneously since looking at two channels on a multi-channel amplifier can really only show us the voltage limitation (but unfortunately we didn’t have enough resistors at hand to do so). Onkyo advises us though that their topology is such that current is pretty much the same between the two settings. Even so, under certain circumstances with the 4 ohm setting, it may technically, though counter intuitively, work better in that while it may clip earlier, it will recover quicker (since it takes longer to restore a drained reserve than to simply recover from a limited voltage induced clip).

Empirically speaking, no matter how you chose to interpret it, there is plenty of power. For virtually the entire in-use review period, I used M&K MPS2510 front satellite speakers (high passed at 80 Hz as per THX) which have a decidedly difficult 3.5 ohm nominal load. The 805 was set to the appropriate 4 ohm setting, and in my actual use at least did not exhibit any audible distress, even though I thought it might on certain material and playback level combinations I was messing with.

 

[bandphan]

Impedance Selector Switches
This so called feature, used by some manufacturers, is designed to prevent overheating of the receiver or damage to its output transistors because of excessive current flow. The manufacturer accomplishes this in one of 2 ways: 1) Stepping down rail voltage supplied to the power amp or 2) feeding half the signal strength to a voltage divider of power resistors. Both of these methods severely limit dynamics and current capability of the power amp. This results in an audible decrease in bass capability and dynamics transient sound because the 4 ohm setting effectively increases the receiver's output impedance. Unfortunately many manufacturers put these features on their products to ease customer concerns with driving low impedance loads and for safety reasons when getting UL approvals. Note: In order to meet UL requirements, a receiver cannot be rated down to 4 ohms without having this switch onboard. Receivers without this switch are usually rated down to 6 ohms. In most cases, well designed receivers can easily handle 4 ohm loads safely and efficiently. It is highly recommend to keep the impedance switch set to 8 ohms regardless of your speakers impedance and make sure your receiver has plenty of ventilation.

this was it

 

[ronoz56]

I finally decided to go with a Denon 2808ci open box from onecall. I wanted a good receiver with Audyssey and just couldn't pull the trigger on the Onkyo's considering some of the heat and front display problems that I've read about them even though I know that there are many people who are very happy with theirs. Since I really don't need more that 2 HDMI inputs, am not concerned too much about video processing and wanted a reliable, great sounding receiver that plays audio via HDMI, this is the one I chose. Hopefully I will be happy with it's performance considering that it received some great reviews. My weeks of tormenting research is finally done and I feel good about that. Thanks for all of the help!

 

[lsiberian]

I finally decided to go with a Denon 2808ci open box from onecall. I wanted a good receiver with Audyssey and just couldn't pull the trigger on the Onkyo's considering some of the heat and front display problems that I've read about them even though I know that there are many people who are very happy with theirs. Since I really don't need more that 2 HDMI inputs, am not concerned too much about video processing and wanted a reliable, great sounding receiver that plays audio via HDMI, this is the one I chose. Hopefully I will be happy with it's performance considering that it received some great reviews. My weeks of tormenting research is finally done and I feel good about that. Thanks for all of the help!

Enjoy.

FYI if you ever need more inputs. Monoprice.com makes some very nice switches.

 

[ronoz56]

Can anyone tell me how to connect the Denon wirelessly to the internet for firmware updates or if this is even possible? I do not have internet capability in the room that the receiver will be in however, I do have a Linksys WRT54G wireless router in another room upstairs used for my PC and Xbox360. Is there a certain network adapter that I can just plug into the back of the Denon and maybe also connect my Directv HD box to in order to receive a wireless connection for both using my Linksys upstairs?

 

[Lordoftherings]

Hi guys! I've been doing some research regarding a new AV receiver in order to get TrueHD and DTS-Master Audio since I currently own a Yammy RX-V750which does not accept HDMI. I also have a Panasonic BD-35K which I know could be connected via the multi-channel inputs on the Yamaha but only for 2channel audio and I have 5.1 channel surround. So......I've been looking at possible AVR upgrades and have come up with the Onkyo 705 and 805 but they are hard to find at a reasonable price. I also considered the Yamaha 663for the money but think that this may be a down grade, audio wise, compared to what I have. Looking for any suggestions since you guys are the best here at Audioholics?

Hi,

You can get an Onkyo TX-SR805 refurb for less than $500.
But make sure that you buy from a reputable place with a good policy for returns (just to make sure that you won't get into problems).
Also an extended warranty is a good measure of safety.
The 805 is THEE RECEIVER, period!

Cheers,

LOTR