AV Receiver Reviews

My only real disappointment was the Onkyo's inability to play back multichannel SACD soundtracks using an HDMI connection to a universal DVD player—in this case the Pioneer Elite DV-79AVi. I wasn't actually expecting this feature, but when the manual said that the receiver offers DSD decoding capability (DSD is the coding used for SACD recording and encoding) it, I got excited. But the Onkyo simply said "No Signal" when offered up a direct DSD, SACD feed from the Pioneer player.

But the Onkyo did decode the increasingly rare 96kHz/24-bit, two-channel audio music DVDs. Many of these recordings were released before SACD and DVD-Audio became—ahem—"big." I have a selection of such recordings from Chesky, and they sounded so good on the Onkyo that I began to wonder if the high-end audio world missed a great opportunity by never fully supporting this particular bandwagon.

But CDs sounded great on the Onkyo as well. Apart from naturally bright recordings, its highs were lucid and clear, and its midrange free of coloration. Its bass was often astounding. Yes, that bass was coming from a powered subwoofer, but I still heard deep bass on some familiar recordings that I've never been aware of before on that same sub—so deep, in fact, that I suspect it went unnoticed in the recording studio.

The Onkyo also nailed a tightly focused two-channel soundstage in both width and depth.

Feel free to knock yourself out experimenting with the Onkyo's many surround simulation modes—those modes designed to turn a two-channel recording into a full-fledged multichannel experience. I didn't spend much time with them, but that doesn't mean that you won't. For my money, such modes are neither dealmakers nor deal breakers.

The Audyssey
We've commented on Audyssey room compensation system before, so if you want additional details go here and here). While the Audyssey can't solve all room and speaker problems, it can compensate for these nonlinearities more effectively than thousands of dollars in exotic equalizers could do just a few short years ago.

Up to this point in the review all of my listening was done straight. That is, no equalization of any sort. To test the effect of the Audyssey system, I set it up using six different microphone positions (the maximum possible in the Onkyo is eight), two each in the three primary listening seats.

The result was truly awful. I didn't get further than two-channel listening, in which the auto setup function completely messed up the soundstage, balance, and openness of the sound.

It turned out that the problem was not the Audyssey room/speaker compensation per se, but rather the selections it made for speaker crossovers, distances, and levels. When I reset the crossovers as I had set them before (80Hz in all channels), and tweaked the levels manually from the main listening seat, the result was vastly better.

But not necessarily better than the result with the Eq set to Off. The most noticeable changes with the Audyssey switched on were a tightening of the bass and a subtle rolloff in the highs. Whether you like these changes will be a personal matter. The high frequency tapering did help reduce the receiver's slight brightness on bright-sounding material, but also reduced the sense of air and ambience higher up in the treble.

My recommendation is to first set up the receiver up manually (the opposite of the recommendation in the owner's manual). A manual setup is far faster anyway, particularly if you are at all familiar with setting up an AV receiver. After you've determined the best manual setup for your system, without equalization, live with it for a few weeks. Then, after writing down all of your settings, try the auto procedure. If you like the result, fine. If not, put your manual settings back in and experiment with the Eq on (Audyssey) and Off. Soon you should have a good idea of whether or not the Audyssey's compensation is working for you.

I wish that Onkyo had included a flat equalization setting in addition to the single active Audyssey setting (called, oddly, Audyssey) with its high frequency contouring. The latter is a deliberate design choice based on solid psychoacoustic research, but it might not be preferred by some listeners. Denon does offer a flat Audyssey setting on its receivers.

Conclusions
The Onkyo's only real design oddity is the way its video switching alters an input signal's white and black levels. It's annoying, but has no lasting negative effects once you readjust the settings on your display.

Beyond that, this is an impressive surround sound receiver, with enough features to keep you occupied when you're not actually enjoying its excellent overall audio and video performance. Highly recommended.

Highs
Clean, dynamic sound with excellent bass
Good video processing and transparent video switching
Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio

Lows
Audio is slow to lock on after video link is established
Video circuits alter black and white levels
Automated Audyssey setup required some manual tweaking for acceptable results