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Hot? $599 for Onkyo's newest THX A/V Receiver

S

SoulSnatcher

Junior Member
Onkyo TX-SR701 for $599

I found this new Onkyo TX-SR701 and J and R with free shipping no tax (except NY) for $599.

This is Onkyo's THX rated A/V receiver that came out on August 1st.

List is $799.

[EDIT] Youhave to put it in your cart to see the $599 price...
rolleye.gif


Onkyo site for the TX-SR701
 
Originally posted by: virtualgames0
100 watts per channel is a bit weak for this price no?
Click to expand...

Onkyo's well known to underrate their receivers. They usually use more reliable numbers than Sony's, Pioneer's, etc...

Typically their receivers are rated around 65 watts and do very well, so I'm sure their 100 watts would be more than sufficient. And I believe they have to be able to reach certain decibel levels in order to receive THX certification.

Now if only I had the $600. A very good deal IMHO.
 
I dont know if its just me, but the sound from onkyo receivers is very "dead" and "flat", it has no kick to it, not very viberant compared to harmon kardon, denon, or even yamaha
 
onkyo makes mediocre units with lots of bells and whistles, kinda like sprucing up a yugo. for my money yamaha is the only brand to buy. reason: it can handle 4 ohm speakers, which says a lot about its current loading abilities. aside from that, the units usually sound better. forget their high-end units though; they are too pricey for what you get.

also keep in mind just what thx means. the objective was to establish minimunm standards for speaker location/matching and load characteristics. likewise for other components. note that this usually translates into sufficient dynamic headroom (read, the thing can replay the sound of a jackhammer to a whisper and back again, without a hint of crackle).

that said, i've heard plenty of thx stuff that sounds, well, not very good. some are muddy. some are tinny. the underlying sonic characteristics thx really doesn't address. unless of course i have it all wrong. which is possible. (but unlikely)

yamaha speakers and kef or b&w speakers are what i used to match up. hard to beat for the money. and i've listened to tons. hope this helps.
 
Originally posted by: virtualgames0
100 watts per channel is a bit weak for this price no?
Click to expand...

100 quality watts is a whole lot different than the 100 watts you get from a $300 Home theater in a box. for most people 50 watts a channel would be more than enough
 
Originally posted by: OneCheapBastard
Originally posted by: virtualgames0
100 watts per channel is a bit weak for this price no?
Click to expand...

Onkyo's well known to underrate their receivers. They usually use more reliable numbers than Sony's, Pioneer's, etc...

Typically their receivers are rated around 65 watts and do very well, so I'm sure their 100 watts would be more than sufficient. And I believe they have to be able to reach certain decibel levels in order to receive THX certification.

Now if only I had the $600. A very good deal IMHO.
Click to expand...

Actually - Onkyo is known to overate their receivers just like a majority of the mass hifi manufacturers. Harmon Kardon is the only mass hifi consumer brand that underates their receivers. When you compare a HK receiver rated at 65W, it usually blows away the competition that rates theirs at 100W. Manufacturers can easily get their rating up by quoting 100W at less channels or using media that will give tests a few Watts of boost. If this is really a concern to you, you might want to check out reviews at soundandvision or stereophile or something of the like. And be sure to audition the receivers or speakers!!! Sound is so subjective that you don't really want to dive into something that costs this much w/o even having a chance to hear the sound that it pumps.
 
Originally posted by: RadioActiveMan666
Originally posted by: virtualgames0
100 watts per channel is a bit weak for this price no?
Click to expand...

100 quality watts is a whole lot different than the 100 watts you get from a $300 Home theater in a box. for most people 50 watts a channel would be more than enough
Click to expand...

nahh actually a lot of floorstanders require more than 100watts to get good sound.
 
I don't know were all of you guys are getting your info on the Onkyo stuff but I would much rather have my Onkyo over the Yamaha or the HK. I have all and kept the Onkyo. It is well known that the the above brands pwr ratings are very conservative compared to the Sony and pioneer stuff (well maybe not the Elite). Sound is not about the wattage but about the current the amplifiers they use can handle. The top of the line modles like the HK, Onkyo, and Yamaha all use similar amp chips that can handle way more current than the average reciever. The Sony for instance (I had the STR-DE835) was rated at 110 X 5 well that is using less than 10-15 amps current max. The Good ones listed above all do around 30amps continuous.

The post about the Onkyo sounding "Dead' and "Flat" either listened to one at CC that was not set up correctly or did not read the manual. When I was making my choice on which 3 recievers to test I listened to the top end Onkyo and the next model down (at CC) and the cheaper one sounded better. But I asked the guy for the manual and one of the settings for that particular video channel was set to low. Pumped it up to the same setting and that sold me. CC let me test three recievers at home (1 at a time) and I went for the Onkyo.
 
Originally posted by: virtualgames0
Originally posted by: RadioActiveMan666
Originally posted by: virtualgames0
100 watts per channel is a bit weak for this price no?
Click to expand...

100 quality watts is a whole lot different than the 100 watts you get from a $300 Home theater in a box. for most people 50 watts a channel would be more than enough
Click to expand...

nahh actually a lot of floorstanders require more than 100watts to get good sound.
Click to expand...

It all depends on how the speakers are rated. Most are rated at MAX pwr not minimum. However several of the top end speakers will give a range.

 
Originally posted by: Marauder-
Originally posted by: OneCheapBastard
Originally posted by: virtualgames0
100 watts per channel is a bit weak for this price no?
Click to expand...

Onkyo's well known to underrate their receivers. They usually use more reliable numbers than Sony's, Pioneer's, etc...

Typically their receivers are rated around 65 watts and do very well, so I'm sure their 100 watts would be more than sufficient. And I believe they have to be able to reach certain decibel levels in order to receive THX certification.

Now if only I had the $600. A very good deal IMHO.
Click to expand...

Actually - Onkyo is known to overate their receivers just like a majority of the mass hifi manufacturers. Harmon Kardon is the only mass hifi consumer brand that underates their receivers. When you compare a HK receiver rated at 65W, it usually blows away the competition that rates theirs at 100W. Manufacturers can easily get their rating up by quoting 100W at less channels or using media that will give tests a few Watts of boost. If this is really a concern to you, you might want to check out reviews at soundandvision or stereophile or something of the like. And be sure to audition the receivers or speakers!!! Sound is so subjective that you don't really want to dive into something that costs this much w/o even having a chance to hear the sound that it pumps.
Click to expand...

This is very true, especially with the last generation of Onkyo receivers. Good clean power supplies, just not very high output, especially with all channels driven.

Receivers real output, from Stereo Review & Sound & Vision test reports

Unfortunately, that is missing a few key ones (ie. TX-SR500 and TX-SR600 reviews, which have all channel output down in the 25-35w range). It's a pretty good compilation though.

The issue with those Onkyo's is their low amp power supplies.
 
How much difference would a non-audiophile(or newbie audiophile?) notice going from a TX-SR500/5.1 setup to this model w/ 6.1?
 
Depending on your setup, going from 5.1 to 6.1 or 7.1 tends to be a small, incremental improvement.

My personal preference is for 7.1 over 6.1. The issue with 6.1 is with 1 speaker directly behind you, sometimes, the sound coming from that speaker actually sounds like it's coming from the front. This doesn't happen with 2 rear speakers.

There's also a difference with the material encoding and the processing. Very few DVD's are encoded with 6.1, and even fewer with true 6.1 (DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete). The playing of 5.1 (or 6.1) material into 6.1 (or 7.1) output depends on your processor. I find in most cases Logic 7 is more natural and believable than the competitors (THX, Circle, etc). It really depends on the listener and the gear though.
 
OK, the THX rating varies depending on what you are talking about..
For an amp to be THX rated it has to meet alot of requirments.. It has to fall within many diffrent specs... If an amp has the THX cert then you know its going to put out clean power.. RMS varies by manufacture and at what level they measure..

A movie theater to get a THX cert has to have all equipment listed to be valid by Lucas, and then they have to have a Lucas sound engineer come out and tune the system to be a True THX theater..

(Oh and if any one ever want audio help you can pm me, I have been a chief engineer of radio station for 3 years, worked on Concert lighting and sound systems, and also ownedjust about every level of equipment, biamped studio monitor, Huge PA systems, Home Theater setups etc etc.. even RTA's
 
FWIW, I have last year's model (the 700), and I'm pretty happy with it. It replaced an Onkyo TX-DS838, which technically is a higher quality unit (that one was from their Integra line), but I really don't notice any difference in the sound (and I got a lot of new features with the newer receiver, of course). The old one was a LOT heavier, so it obviously had a much heftier power supply. The newer models don't really have problems attaining their rated power, they have problems attaining their rated power continuously in all six channels simultaneously. While it may be nice to have the overhead to be able to do it, in the real world, you never really need it. I tend to play my system pretty loud, and they've never sounded strained, and certainly never distorted. And this is driving somewhat innefficient speakers (NHT 1.1s).
 
Originally posted by: hconnor2
onkyo makes mediocre units with lots of bells and whistles, kinda like sprucing up a yugo. for my money yamaha is the only brand to buy. reason: it can handle 4 ohm speakers, which says a lot about its current loading abilities.

yamaha speakers and kef or b&w speakers are what i used to match up. hard to beat for the money. and i've listened to tons. hope this helps.
Click to expand...



rolleye.gif


You've listened to "Tons"...heheh. What do you do, go to Best Buy and sit in their audio room, then watch a movie on each sound system? Maybe you like in a rich neighborhood where all of your neighbors have a different THX rated system and you went down the block taking a survey?

Actually, I upgraded my receiver from a SONY to an Onkyo last year and was very impressed. Their receivers offre excellent separation, provide a decent bass feed to the sub(s) (mine supports 2 subs). The build quality was a lot better than SONY's...they have excellent ventilation built in, with heatsyncs to help keep things cool and vent holes in high heat locations. My only gripe is that Onkyo's equalizer interfaces tend to be awkward awkward on their products. They have a menu system you have to go through to get to bass, treble, and separation controls. Separate knobs would have been better. Their remotes are also too complicated (they have little tiny buttons on them that are hard to find. The fact that the control layout stinks doesn't help much either. I use a SONY AV2100 for my remote anyway, so it's not an issue). I'm not sure how many people are going to take issue with 4 ohm speaker support. Not very many I would say.

 
4 Ohm center channel

Well, I didn't choose them specifically because they were 4 ohm. They're just nice speakers, regardless of impedence. Not too big of a deal though, got kind of a silly amplifier.
 
100w per chan rms is about the best you can get with a receiver ... if you need/want more power than that you should be looking at separates not a receiver.
 
At http://www.onkyousa.com/ will find dynamic power ratings at 4 and 3 ohms. Most if not all receivers will do 4 ohms, but the vary in how well they can handle it. A good sign is steadily increasing power output as the impedence goes down. The absolute best amps double their power as impedence goes down. For example 100w into 8 ohms, 200w into 4 ohms, and 400w into 2 ohms. Some will even be stable at 1ohm and provide 800w at that impedence. However these kinds of products that can give full current delivery into 1 ohm usually cost thousands of dollars and are rare.
 
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