shoe

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I owned the Tx 8511 for about four years and then the upgrade bug bit. I tried some "audiophile" integrated amps but the Onkyo came out the winner as far as overal good musical sound. I especially liked the Power boost button as it really added alot more bass. Untill I finally found a great integrated amp. I hung on to the Onkyo. It took nearly 4X the cost of the Onkyo to find better overall sound.
Never had any problems with the unit whatsoever.

I don't know what some of the other reviews mean by thin sounding or lack of bass, I don't agree. This is a fine reliable unit that just can't be beat for the money.

tlgibbs

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $25.00 from Private party

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.

Price Paid:  $250.00 from crutchfield.com

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.

benpa

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.60 of 5, 10.00 votes

Price Paid:  $299.00 from Crutchfield

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.

adibigs87

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.25 of 5, 8.00 votes

Price Paid:  $279.00 from crutchfield

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.