Onkyo TX-NR905

[ParkerAudio]

Purchasing a $1000-2000 receiver, street price, and can't find many reviews on the TX-NR905. Anyone have any issues with this receiver. I have read a lot about the Onkyo 875, and the heat issues it has, but have found very little on it's bigger brother.
I am leaning towards the Onkyo due to the Reon chip, and all the other bells and whistles. Any other suggestions welcome.

 

[Seth=L]

What will your sources and display be? You may not need the Reon scaler given you have certain components that may already to a good job with that stuff.

 

[ParkerAudio]

I have a PS3 and a HD-A2, along with an XBOX. I also have a motorola HD cable box, that put out to my 62 inch Mitsu 1080i display.
The cable box looks kinda crappy, considering the dispaly reports that it is 1080i.

 

[newguy1]

One other question is how much power do you want? Are you planning on running 7.1, or 5.1 surrounds.

 

[ParkerAudio]

I have 7.1, sub, large def techs in the front , b&w for the rest

 

[fmw]

I can tell you that there is more than a chip to a processor. As an example, you can read my Pioneer VSX-92 receiver review in the review forum. That receiver has the same scaler chip as the receiver it replaced. However, the difference in performance is pretty close to being phenomenal. The old receiver made my upscaled DirecTV SD programming look like it was a painted with a paint by number scheme rather than being photographic. The new receiver improves the look of the SD programming to an amazing degree. The difference is not subtle at all. The old receiver did pretty well scaling DVD's but it fell down badly with highly compressed satellite SD programming. Same chip, completely different processor and different result.

Choose whatever you like but don't worry so much about the chip used in the scaler. It might be implemented poorly in one unit and well in another - just like any other chip. The manufacturer's specs won't tell you how good or bad the processor is in general.

 

[ParkerAudio]

I hadn't thought about the processor, thought the chip was in charge for the most part. Thanks.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I have not heard anything about the Onkyo 905 either, but since the Onkyo 875 is a great receiver, the 905 is most likely a great receiver.

If you have the budget, I would go for the 905. You don't need. You just want someone to back you up, right?

 

[ParkerAudio]

Yeah, that is pretty much the way it is, you don't really need it, however if you buy the 805 or 875 will you always wonder what you missed out on.

 

[alexsound]

Purchasing a $1000-2000 receiver, street price, and can't find many reviews on the TX-NR905. Anyone have any issues with this receiver. I have read a lot about the Onkyo 875, and the heat issues it has, but have found very little on it's bigger brother.
I am leaning towards the Onkyo due to the Reon chip, and all the other bells and whistles. Any other suggestions welcome.

The 875 also has the Reon chip in it. It was reviewed by Sound and Vision magazine. As for the heat issue, as long as it's well ventilated, it shouldn't be a problem. It you go to Onkyo's website, you'll see there aren't too many operational differences between the 875 and 905, but the differences may matter to you than most, like the 905 has built in HD radio, and USB streaming capability.

 

[ParkerAudio]

My worse fear when buying a new receiver is that it will only be a marginal improvement over the Denon 3805 that I have.
They all sound great in the showroom.

 

[Janik]

Onkyo 905

After over a 2 month backorder, my 905 was delivered 2 weeks ago. There was some 905 promotion going on and only $250 difference between the 875 and the 905 so the decision was a no-brainer.

I'm almost 50 years old, and was into audio for a long time. Truthfully, the 905 audio does not sound any better than the Arcam Alpha 9 stereo receiver it was replacing, in fact, pure stereo may not match up to the Arcam.
However, after almost a year of reading reviews and going to showrooms for demos, I've now gone the HDTV & surround sound route. I settled on KEF surround speakers, but I tell you, it was difficult trying to mate the sound of the new surrounds to my floor Royd Abbot speakers. (didn't want to get rid of perfectly good speakers!)

I just felt that the 905 gave me better bang for the buck. It all boils down to the features you desire most in a good system, then do some homework. I chose the 905 because I want my AVR to be the hub of all inputs, and I thought the HD video does look a little better than the Denon or Yamaha counterparts. It seemed less grainy, with less jaggedness around the edge. Make sure you compare units without colouration added in from the tonal controls. Keep the controls flat.
I've always liked NAD, but I find their video side is weak, and have some concerns on their reliability, even some NAD dealers I spoke to expressed concern that NAD is going through a bit of reorganization now. Perhaps to refind themselves?

 

[Thunder18]

The 875 also has the Reon chip in it. It was reviewed by Sound and Vision magazine. As for the heat issue, as long as it's well ventilated, it shouldn't be a problem. It you go to Onkyo's website, you'll see there aren't too many operational differences between the 875 and 905, but the differences may matter to you than most, like the 905 has built in HD radio, and USB streaming capability.

You also get 2 HDMI outputs, ethernet connectivity and that beefy toroidal power supply to drive that 7.1 speaker system. I don't know how efficient your speakers are, but the power reserves that should be available from 905 should be way more than adequate.

 

[Janik]

905 heat issues

Don't worry about the heat on the 905, it has a good amplifier and generally, the better quality the amp, the warmer it runs.
But you need to give it plenty of air.

 

[mango]

Purchasing a $1000-2000 receiver, street price, and can't find many reviews on the TX-NR905. Anyone have any issues with this receiver. I have read a lot about the Onkyo 875, and the heat issues it has, but have found very little on it's bigger brother.
I am leaning towards the Onkyo due to the Reon chip, and all the other bells and whistles. Any other suggestions welcome.

I can't find reviews on this receiver either. I can't even find one for sale anywhere, except online dealers. I have been comparing this one with the Denon 4308CI and the Marantz SR8002 (at least on paper, anyway). I was leaning toward the Onkyo because I've read the Toroidal transformers (also in the Marantz) are better at driving 4 Ohm speakers and I plan to get some Vienna Acoustics. I also want to icorporate my PC into my system, so the ethernet capability is important. Plus, I like to occasionally listen to the radio, but don't want satellite, so the HD radio is a bell worth having. I don't know why all receivers don't just come standard with HD radio. Is it difficult to implement? The heat issue concerns me, especially since it will be driving the VAs. So, where were you going to purchase the Onkyo?

 

[fmw]

Don't worry about the heat on the 905, it has a good amplifier and generally, the better quality the amp, the warmer it runs.
But you need to give it plenty of air.

Heat generated from an amplifier doesn't relate amplifier "quality." It relates to amplifier efficiency. In other words it relates to the design of the amplifier. It is possible and common to design amplifiers of different qualities with different efficiencies.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

My worse fear when buying a new receiver is that it will only be a marginal improvement over the Denon 3805 that I have.
They all sound great in the showroom.

I don't think there will be any improvements at all over your Denon 3805 in terms of overall sound quality.

You'll just get more up-to-date features like HDMI 1.3, DTS-MA, & TrueHD.
However, with the 5.1 analog inputs, you could also get DTS-MA & TrueHD if your HD player has internal decoding for them.

 

[Davemcc]

Two things I'd like to add to the discussion. The 905 has a torroidal power supply. It is different from the other Onkyo units, including the 875. I don't think it's fair to speculate about heat on this unit based on the experience of the lower units. That is something that should be found out about this unit, either from reviews or experience.

The 905 also includes mosquito noise reduction and block artifact reduction in its video processing. This is useful when watching broadcast sources, especially for SD programming on a big screen. It is also an expensive solution to source independently. It seems to me that this would indicate a superior implementation of the Reon chip in the 905.

 

[ParkerAudio]

Janik, like you I have found some of the high end units not living up to today's demands for video, particularly as you have stated the NAD units. Sound wise, did you compare the 905 to the 875? Also do you know if they still have that deal going anywhere? $250 more is a great deal.
How does the ethernet connection work for you?

I was planning on buying the unit from Amazon, I can't find anyone in my area that has this unit on display. I am going to Indy this weekend and will be checking there.

AcuDefTechGuy, so no difference in sound, even with the HD sound?

Thanks for all the replies, I usually just read the posts and figure things out from there, but like many of you have mentioned there is very little information on this unit.

 

[Janik]

ParkerAudio, No I never did a comparison between the Onkyo 875 and the 905. I simply assumed that the 905 should have at least as good sound & video as the 905.. when I think back on this, perhaps I should have, but when you reach my age, you sometimes don't overturn every little stone...

Sorry, I have not played around with the internet connection yet, but I'm really turning into a fan of the audssey auto calibration system.. however, it does not appear to be idiot proof. I've done 4 calibrations with slightly different positionings and was surprised at how different the 7.1 end result was. It took a while for me to be satisfied, but overall I am very happy with the 905 so far. There is so much versatility to the adjustments available.

Back in October 2007, Abt Electronics; www.abtelectronics.com, (am I allowed to put links up??) was having some special where the 875 was $1250 and the 905 was $1498 with free shipping. A deal that could not be passed up. I had to jump through some hoops to get the unit into Canada, but that's another story..