George Biallas

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Great receiver for home theater. Well satisfied with sound and features.
A few limitations in the features that I didn't expect.

The best recommendation is that once I programed around the limitations of the macro buttons, my wife uses just this receiver's remote for all functions and is totally happy with the simplification the macros provide her. This is the way to win the gals over to a complex system.

Strengths:
1. It has enough power for my family room 7.1 speakers
2. Automatic Set-up is amazing in its abilities. It detects the distance to speakers. It sets the loudness of each frequency band. Great equalization.
3. Learining remote with 3 macros is the only way to get my wife to accept home theater 's complexity so she can do all with one remote and only have to push 3 buttons for each path. ie TV, HighDefinition Tuner or TIVO with DVD.
4. With about a $100 or so upgrade from the common tier of receivers without the above fieaures, this is the receiver to consider.

Weaknesses:
1.The second source claim is limited to non digital signals. Thus, I can't play a DVD and CDs and send their signal over to my other sterio receiver that pipes whole house sound. I was looking for that feature. No mention of this lack of feature in the adverts befoe buying.

2. Remote macros have two deficiencies that made programming frustrating before I realized they were limitations.
2.1. There is no "delay" in the command string. Once pressed, the macro just streems through. To complete a proper start sequence, TV has to turn on first. But it starts up too slowly and misses the commands streemed to it. So, turning on the TV can't become part of the commands in the macro string.
2.2 The macro leaves the remote in the "Mode" (TV, HI DEF, DVD) that was last pressed before you pressed the macro button. It does'nt leave you in the last "Mode " the Macro ended in.

With these limitations, a potentially one button Macro command turns into a three button sequence. First you press the "Mode" button you want to end up in. Second you turn on the TV using the TV "ON" button and wait for a count of 10. Third, you press the MACRO button. It still saves you a bunch of complex button pushess.

rockran

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Harvey Norman NZ

Summary:
My last amp was a HK and while I was satisfied with it, it never quite had the highs I like listening to. This receiver rocks... and I use it mostly for music.. my music taste range from Dire Straits to Police to Pink Floyd. The amp performed beautifully right out of the box. The setup is quite easy and very intuitive.
This amp doesn't run HOT like some have said. My cabinet is open from behind so maybe that makes a difference.. but compared to the HK this is not hot at all.

Strengths:
Has just about the right feature set for its price range.
Nice clean sound and easy setup

Weaknesses:
Pre-outs for fronts. Would have been useful if I ever get a big enough room

Similar Products Used:
HK, Technics

gary935

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $329.00 from Accessories4less.com

Summary:
Even though this was a refurbish product, it had no cosmetic imperfections, as a matter of fact it looks brand new. All items came with the receiver as nothing was missing.

I brought this to replace a Pioneer Elite 24TX that died.Needless to say I thought I was taking a step backwards but this unit sound just as good if not better then the Pioneer Elite it is replacing. The Pioneer Elite had 90 watts per 5 channels while this Onkyo has 90 watts (Real watts) per seven channels. I have been able to reproduce an obscene amount of sound with this Onkyo unit.

I'm usually not a person to read the manual but I do advise so when using equipment with components output. You have to go into the onscreen display to assign each video source. Imagine my fustration when I was unable to get a picture and thought right away that I was given a faulty unit.

Once I settled down and read the section on connecting equipment, viola picture and sound.

I've had this unit going on to three weeks and while it may be to early to give a really good review, I am very happy with the performance and video quality this unit puts out.

I was not happy to see the lack of pre-outs, but with that said in the 6 years I had the Pioneer Elite I never used the pre-outs as well so nothing gain or loss.

The picture quality is better then the Pioneer Elite, but in all fairness the Pioneer Elite only had s-video inputs not components. Still I was amaze to see no degradation with the picture quality.

All in all I think you will be happy with this receiver. Top Onkyo quality. I was so impressed I also brought their 6 disc DVD player and I am impress with that as well.

Strengths:
On screen display-Silver color-Upconversion to components-Sound quality-build quality

Weaknesses:
Remote control-no pre-outs but it does have 90 real world watts per channel

ozauz

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $370.00 from 5ave.com

Summary:
I have had many audiophile components in the past and let me tell you that I am floored by this receiver’s performance in stereo out of the box. I have a small room so I don’t need a lot of amps, even if this amp runs at half of the watts its suppose too run I will have plenty of juice. I only had to plug in my center channel and left right speakers, ran the pain free setup that lasted 3 minutes, and WOW! Miles Davis's trumpet was in my room. There is no way a component this inexpensive should sound this good! I can’t wait for burn in to mellow the sounds even further. Having been impressed by stereo, I put “Pirates of the Carabien” in the DVD and set up the scene where the pirates attack the city at the start of the movie. Everything was well placed and explosions carried a crisp detailed boom followed by a pleasing debris shower. Subsonic detail was impressive and created a wide field of sound and this is without a subwoofer. I was very impressed by the amps ability to drive my three front speakers to deliver such low base. Next I wanted to check out performance with my HD cable. I found a documentary in HD about military helicopters; the receiver did a wonderful job reproducing the thump-thump-thump of the blades and missile fire realistically tracked from right to left. Having enjoyed myself with multi-channel, I had to return to stereo did it really sound that good? Put the amp back into stereo mode popped in Thievery Corporation’s “Richest Man In Babylon” and I was amazed by this box’s ability to reproduce detail, I could make out individual sample loops on each song. Bongos were hollow and echoed in ways that should be out of this receiver’s ability. Vocals were easily located on the sound stage and I could make out sound effects, like chorus, added to the singer’s voice. I wanted to push the Onkyo to its detail limit so I got Deangelo’s CD Voodoo and put on “How does it feel”, first thing I noticed was the absence of sound during moments of silence, this machine is trying hard not to color the music. Next, the base cuts the silence like a machete and Deangelo’s rich falsetto spread over me like smooth peanut butter! I love this machine! If you are looking for a Swiss army knife of audio, that wont break the bank, this is the ticket. Highly recommended.

Strengths:
Sound detail, base management, connect ability, video up sampling to component, control for ipod, at this PRICE!!!!!!!

Weaknesses:
Build quality, the back of the unit flexes like a piece of cardboard, Remote is functional but not "COOL".

Similar Products Used:
Stereo: Jolida Vacuum Tube Amp, MIT speaker cables, Epos monitors.
Multi Channel: Sony 444ES, MIT speaker cables, Mirage monitors.

netsman

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $394.00 from 6ave.com

Summary:
i can't believe there aren't more reviews for this receiver, after my sub died i decided to upgrade my system althogether so the first thing in my shopping list was a receiver that was considerably better than my old one.
so i researched online , went to stores, at first i was thinking of buying an htib again then i saw this receiver at circuit city and i said to myself man i whish i could get this receiver instead of the one with the htib, but it was pretty expensive at circuit city , but then i found it so cheap i couldn't resist.
i was looking for power,looks,connectivity,features. other receivers had one or two of these qualities but only the tx603 had it all.
i have the tv,ps2 ,xbox plugged to it and still have room for more.
i like all the features specially intellivolume.
i have this baby powering fluance speakers and an athena sub.(don't copy my setup)

Strengths:
great sound
lots of inputs
useful features
good looks
nice sound presets

Weaknesses:
some of the features are useless unless you want to use them like ipod connectivity and xm radio, but then again those extra besides the real useful ones that we all need.

Similar Products Used:
sony htib receiver