Summary: I searched high and low for a receiver for my garage. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, because I have been broken into before. Alas, fate would smile upon me. :) I saw an ad for a Kenwood power amp in the paper and when I got to the guys house he also had a Sony CD and the Onkyo receiver model # tx-8511. The receiver had a bad right channel cd input and bad right channel phono input on the back panel but other than that, everything worked. Since it is for my garage, it is no big deal. I just plug my cd into the tape input and voila! Hi-fi for the garage. From a sound perspective the bass is thin and muddy and the midrange is a bit muffled, but not bad. The speaker terminals are a joke and the tone controls don't seem to help the sound much either. Build quality is decent, with a nice big heat sink. For a garage application, however, I really can't complain. Considering the price I paid, I really, really, can't complain. If I get really motivated maybe I will find the problem with the cd and phono inputs and fix them. Or maybe not. For any of you out there that are looking for decent low priced audio equipment I strongly recommend private parties, garage sales, and thrift stores. You would be amazed at what you can find. You have to be patient, however. If you are like me and start collecting audio components in different states of repair, and you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty, you will be rewarded. I have vintage speakers (Altecs, Infinity, Klipsch), amps (Hafler, Nikko, Adcom), turntables (B&O, Pioneer, Marantz) and a whole slew of CD players, cassette decks and a pair of beautiful Pioneer reel to reels. And now a lovely Onkyo 8511 for the garage!
Strengths: Value. Decent build quality. Simple control panel.
Weaknesses: Speaker posts. Tuner is jsut so-so. Audio soundstage. Bass response. Very generic design. (Why is it that modern audio/video components are all black with a digital readout??? What ever happened to style????)
Similar Products Used: Listed above.
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Summary: When someone goes out there spent thousand of dollars for a high end reciever, but they didn't really realized a cheap onky tx 8511 put out the same sound quality as other expensive gears. I was making the same mistake, I spent roughly a thousand dollars on Denon reciever, when compared with the Onkyo..I couldn't tell the different. Sound quality are the same at all volume level, the only difference is one cost too much, and the other cost only a little.
Strengths: High sound quality for the budget.
Weaknesses: I wish Onkyo installed a subwoofer output for this reciever, it would make our lives so much easier don't have to run speakers wires through subwoofer and lost some of it sound quality.
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Summary: A few of the more expensive systems in today’s market produce a “listening fatigue” even at low audio levels. I would never tell my friends that, because they would probably be overly sensitive about it. Just because a system is expensive, doesn’t mean that all frequencies are presented evenly or in their proper perspective.
My first impression of the Onkyo TX-8511 was rather grim and I wanted my money back; it produced a tinny sound and the bass reproduction was rolled off, even with the bass at full level. The problem wasn’t room acoustics; a similar transparency was produced using a high quality pair of Koss headphones. The Onkyo TX-8511 needs an active equalizer, which is at least seven band and good quality. I initially used a less expensive five band EQ and it didn’t make very much difference. I found a middle grade Pioneer EQ and it made all the difference, the transparency and dynamics are phenomenal. The TX-8511 is designed with more emphasis on the Amp than the Pre-Amp. I am guessing that an Onkyo EQ would be better suited.
My system consists of the TX-8511, two Advent Legacy II speakers circa.1990 (which were designed with a bass-midrange driver and a passive crossover only to the tweeter) the Pioneer EQ, XITEL Hi-Fi PC USB link, Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Professional Audio Codec for encoding and decoding MP3s, and a Phillips DVD 724 video player. Nothing high-end really, but a very enjoyable listening experience.
Strengths: Impedance of 4 or 8 ohm, heat sink disperses heat evenly, preamp overload protection, selective tone control (doesn't necessarily boost bass) to hear more musical detail at lower volume levels.
After adding an equalizer:
(5 / 5 ) BASS REACH (ability to go down to the low frequency extremes)
(5 / 5) BASS TIGHTNESS (tuneful, accurate bass not bloated or muddy)
(5 / 5) DYNAMICS (ability to play loudly and cleanly)
(5 / 5) SMOOTH RESPONSE (even frequency response so that all frequencies are presented evenly, it their proper perspective)
(5 / 5) TRANSPARENCY (ability to hear into the music. Separation of instruments, removal of "veils" from obscuring musical detail. Naturalness)
Weaknesses: weak AM / FM tuner, poorly designed FM antenna connectors.
Similar Products Used: Mid range 1970's and 80's Marantz, Yamaha, and Harmon Kardon.
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Summary: onkyo build quality
features seperate bass treble and balance control. a and b speaker selection with impedance of 4 or 8 ohm. very quiet and efficient
Strengths: rock solid construction
clean crisp power really makes your speakers open up.
Weaknesses: doesnt have a subwoofer out.
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Summary: i had an rca sta 3900 bought at radio shack for 100.00 that was great until a lightning strike killed it. found out that model is no longer available so i went shopping. bought a sony strde 197 that was a joke. no monitor loop so i couldn't hook up my e.q. went out and bought this unit. even running
it through my e.q. the bass response is very weak compared to my rca,unless you crank it up. i like having a full sound at volume levels where you can still have a conversation in the same room. i have noticed unless you pay upwards of 500.00 or more you can't get a full sound at low levels from most of these so-called high end receivers.
Strengths: good sound at high volume levels.
Weaknesses: NO bass response at all for the price and power output. weak tuner. cheesy speaker connectors. selective tone control doesn't work as well as a loudness control.
Similar Products Used: rca sta 3900. sony strde 197
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4.49 of 5
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