Build quality, quality of sound

Agree with others, for price, should have
banana plugs for speaker leads.

Bought the 8511 because I was looking for
a good quality stereo receiver, and also
because I am not interested in home theater. So far, I have been very pleased
with the performance of the 8511. Unit has
nice, solid bass, and highs are not harsh
at all, very well balanced sound overall. Unlike
other reviewers, I have not encountered the
scratchy volume problem with my unit. As
mentioned above, I previously owned a Pioneer SX-255 receiver, and in comparison
of this unit and that one, there is no comparison. The Onkyo was more than twice the price, but you get what you pay for, and the 8511 is worth the extra $$$.
FWIW, the unit is used with the following:
Tehnics SL-PD8 5 CD changer
Philips CDR880 CD recorder
JBL Sudio Series S26 Speakers

Similar Products Used:

Onko TX-8211, Pioneer SX-255

Good value for the money, good sound quality, good loudness circuit.

Tape monitor-slight degrade in sound. Having problems with protection circuit coming on, tape monitor and tone controls.

I bought the unit to replace an aging and broken denon reciever. Checked internet sights and found good reviews for the unit, so i called a local stereo shop to ask them about it. I compared it to the nak re-10 reciever (their opinion only). For the price and the lack of a phono stage in the nak I bought the onkyo. The sound of the reciever is pretty decent for the price (good value) and plenty of power. The only complaints I hve is that the protection circuit has come on several times, all it was I had one of the speaker leads pushed in to far. The tape monitor pushed in causes a small degrade in sound quality. The speaker connections could have been better (binding posts). Tone controls have little affect after turned past the 12:00 setting. All said it is a good value for the money.

Similar Products Used:

Denon dra 835r reciever. Used with boston 400 speakers and a nad 512 cd, sony mini disc, nak 3 cassette deck,and an old bang and olusfen rx2 turntable.

Natural, uncolored and detailed sound.Built quality is very good for the price.

The loudspeakers spring clips are cheap. Banana plugs would be much better.

I was looking for a Stereo Receiver/Amplifier for home. My options were the Yamaha AX-596, the Marantz PM-7000 and the Onkyo TX-8511.I read everything, compared, including the reviews, and decided for the Onkyo. What good choice I did! Open, spacious, neutral sound. This receiver fits perfectly with my JBL S310 speakers. I can say that the TX 8511 it´s better than many expensive "High End" receivers at a fraction of their cost.But you must be careful with the cables. The speaker and interconnect cables can make the TX-8511 bring you to paradise or to hell. But if you test and spend some more bucks in good quality cables you will have the a nice surprise and will spend several hours in paradise. Like Me :)
From classical music to rock, everything sounds nice and clear with the TX-8511.
I recomend this receiver to everyone that like music...
(Yes, because there are many people that like equipment, not music!)

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, Sony and Technics receivers.

clean, uncolored, crisp sound

no surround sound, remove does not operate "Selective Tone Control" setting

After auditioning several receivers at home, hoping I could get a decent surround sound for around the same price as the TX-8511, I realized that I couldn't. The TX-8511 has a simply outstanding sound. Some receivers put you in the sound booth at the recording studio. The TX-8511 puts the band in your room. The receiver sounded great even with some cheap speaker cable (18 AWG, I think). When I replaced that cable with Monster Cable, the sound improved beyond that. The highs, in particular, further rounded out.

The sound on this receiver is increadibly clean. You can play this system louder than you can with most systems and still not annoy people (unless your children are trying to do homework or watch their favorite tv program), probably because of the lack of distortion.

This receiver (and my JBL N38 speakers) has made me hear things in pieces that I never new were there. REM's Reveal, and XTC Appple Venus (vols 1 & 2), and Radiohead's Amnesiac never sounded so good, classical (1812) sounds solid, Who's Next sparkles, Micheal Jackson's Thriller threatens to bite you, and Blink-182's TOYPAJI will have you searching the house for left over party favors.

Some of my coworkers think that by not purchasing a surround sound receiver, I'm missing out on the future. My wife, refuses to allow for any drop off in sound quality compared to the TX-8511 just for the added benefit of owning a receiver with surround sound capability. She's absolutely right.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer SX780 (my old receiver), Yamaha HTR 5440 (auditioned), Kenwood VR 507 (auditioned), HK AV110 (auditioned), Onkyo TXDS494

dynamic in bass and the high in frequecy is excellent

none

I still owned an older onkyo model TX-870, been through repaired shop couple times but I will not ever trade it for any thing else, I thought the day of 2 channels stereo is over until the new TX-8511 came out, the sound is pretty much the same, just the styling is different,this models are the Mercedes of stereo receivers for the upper class of better listening citizens . Onkyo should give it a little better power such as 125 watts/channels.

Similar Products Used:

ONKYO A-10

100 watts of power;
Great sound;
Ability to control receiver and other Onkyo stereo components with remote control

Volume control generates noise when volume is adjusted;
Labels on front panel are too small;
Labels on font panel are difficult to read in dim light

When my 30 year old McIntosh amp/preamp and Pioneer tuner ceased to function, I decided to replace them with an Onkyo TX-8511 receiver.

Features that my McIntosh had that I miss in my Onkyo are:
1. Ability to reverse the output to the speakers
2. Ability to direct right and left speaker output to right speaker
3. Ability to direct right and left speaker output to left speaker
4. Ability to convert stereo to mono
5. Easy to read front panel controls

Features that my Onkyo has that my McIntosh did not have are:
1. Remote control
2. Pre-set radio station
3. Two sets of speaker hookup
4. Timer that turns system off after specified time
5. Ability to control receiver and other Onkyo stereo components with remote control

I loved the Onkyo TX-8511 Receiver so much that I also purchased an Onkyo TA-RW544 Stereo Cassette Tape Deck and an Onkyo DX-C380 Compact Disc Changer to take advantage of the remote control feature. I use my Onkyo system to listen to a variety of good music.
Classical (especially Paganini)
Rock (especially hard rock such as Metallica)
Country (especially Hank Williams Jr.)
Jazz (especially John Coltrane)

For those of you who like Jazz, please check out my on-line Jazz radio station at:

http://www.live365.com/stations/188094

The name of my station is "INSTRUMENTAL JAZZ" by narsuitus. My station features music from artists such as John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, Roland Kirk, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Clifford Brown, Dave Brubeck, Yusef Lateef, Joe Daley, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Paul Desmond, Albert Ayler, Stan Getz, Jackie McLean, George Russell, and many others.

Thanks,
narsuitus@hotmail.com

Similar Products Used:

McIntosh amp/preamp with Pioneer tuner

Overall Sound, looks

AM Reception, spring-clip speaker connections

First of all, I believe Mr. Akin might have a defective unit, or has something close to the receiver - causing the hiss. My 8511 has absolutely no hiss at any volume. And to Danny from Chicago: You're comparing apples to oranges. For $500, I would hope the Yamaha sounds better. My Marantz SR-6200 sounds better than the 8511, but then again I paid almost $600 for it.

For people who are looking for a great stereo receiver at a reasonable price, look no further than the 8511. It will fill any size room with 100 watts of pure heaven.

My non Home Theater setup is as follows:
Receiver - Onkyo TX-8511
CD Player - Onkyo DX-C380
Speakers - JBL S38's

Similar Products Used:

JVC and Sony receivers

Well built, powerful

Noticable hiss even at low volumes, no banana plugs

Powerful dynamic sound. I use them with Polk RT55.

I don't care about the remote or looks, but the only thing that disturbs me is the constant hiss. Try listening it at night with low volume and you'll notice that disturbing hiss sound. Or try plugging an earphone, then you'll immediately notice that hiss. You can't use eaphones with this thing.

Good buy other than that...

Tape Monitor for adding an Equalizer

1. Selective Tone Control boosted everything.Not just Bass & Treble like a normal loudness button.
2. Sound was ok,but this receiver definitly needed an EQ to fix the sound.
3. Remote is very basic
4. Can't operate Selective Tone Control from remote

I had this receiver for a few days.The few things above turned me off from it. One thing I though was kinda strange,is that the sound was actually better without the Selective Tone Control on.And when it was on,the Bass& Treble adjustments had no affect when you turned them past the 12'oclock position.I had an EQ hooked up,but with the EQ on, the volume actually dropped compaired to the EQ being bypassed.I went to listen to a Yamaha RX-777, it was like night and day.For the $200 more, the yamaha is awesome.No distortion,variable loudness,pre-out jacks,even radio stations sound like CD quality.I took back this Onkyo in favor of a more higher end receiver.I guess when I went to listen to the Yamaha,there was no question about it,the Onkyo had to go.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer VSX-D509s
Various Sony models

Nice clean and ample power. High current circuitry stands out among the rest of the other commercial receivers at this price.

Scratchy sound on the volume control.

An excellent value for those who want to spend less than $300 for a clean, solid, high current 100 watt per channel stereo receiver. Onkyo apparently has trickled down it's high current design down to its entry-level models such as this one, thus, making it a great buy. I drive a couple of Cerwin Vega's LS-12's when I'm in the mood for heavier music and there have been no problems whatsoever with the Onkyo's capabilities. It can play very loud and it has excellent imaging and a nice warm neutral sound. The loudness control is also well designed. I also own a pair of B&W dm303's when I'm in the mood for jazz or classical. Both sets of speakers sound well with the Onkyo. Expect a normal break-in period for the sound to warm up. It's no high end audiophile grade amp, but still, it outperforms any of the cheap low current receivers in the commercial market competing at this price or perhaps higher. Definitely recommendable.