Have any of you been thinking about Onkyo's midline receivers? This is a last generation model, but compares very favorably to this generations offering, the 603x. It is rated at what i consider to be an optimistic 85watts/ch into 7 channels. It definitely will provide more than ample power for speakers with a sensitivity no lower than 88db/watt.
So far i've have had a total of three speaker systems hooked up to the ONkyo. The first pair were Technics vintage towers rated at 93db/watt sensitivity with max power handling of 200 watts. These speakers were made to be your typical loud inaccurate bloated midbass party speaker. The Onkyo had no trouble powering these, or the Infinity primus 150's, the second pair of speakers I used.
This model features autoEQ with microphone. I recommend you bypass this feature all together. After repeated attempts at getting my bass settings right it always managed to turn off the LFE channel and set my mains (primus 150's at the time) to large. However, the onboard Test tones did come in very handy for calibration purposes.
The OSD make it very easy to surf through menus. You can assign digital inputs for the appropriate video channel on the fly. It even remembers what setting you choose for each input.
The Remote is VERY user friendly...Honestly if/when i do upgrade in the future I would love to bring this remote with me
As far as providing a crisp signal, the Onkyo delivers until you start to push it hard with power hungry speakers. My advice is to consider this receiver only if you're planning to drive 6/8ohm speakers with nothing lower than an 88db/watt sensitivity or else you'll have not enough dynamic headroom for those scenes in your favorite horror/action movies that are supposed to make ya jump out of your seat
As far as satisfaction, this receiver gets an 8/10. Very reliable, flexible unit with average aesthetics and good placement of sound effects for movies but not so musical sounding (to my ears).
04-27-06, 12:13 AM
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