Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Good review of the- Onkyo TX-SR805

For those of you looking into buying a new receiver this Onkyo looks pretty darn good.
Onkyo

I KNOW! I have ordered it early July... still backorder (latest promise is... this week... or next week). One of the disadvantages of being Canadian: receivers seem to dislike crossing the border... and their price suddendly increase by 50%! Can't wait to put my hand on this baby though (especially that they seem to have made special efforts to get rid of any 4ohms problems they may have had in the past).

Less than $1000, eh? That means when I'm ready to buy it in two years, it will be around $500.

Got it this PM! HEAVY: 51 pounds. Pretty impressive overall (too tired to give many details). Audessy autosetup is a JOKE (it did not even get the distance right, not even close!). Luckily, it is a charm to setup manually with onsceen menus and stuff.

So far so good... At least, it's HERE....

What do you mean too tired? It's only 8:30 over there. When I first got my Axioms, I was up all night. Finissez travailler.

I actually went for a walk and a beer (I worked 12 hours today... which means I get to decide to come home early tomorrow!).

Neigboors are there (and I am a nice neighboor) so I did not do any "power" test (tomorrow).

I was missing PLII on my old Yamaha receiver, which always annoyed me. I LOVE it! I can't say I will always listen in that mode, but for sure it is nice to have the option. Very good algo. Receiver also has Neo:6 and Neural-Thx 5.1. Did not explore too much yet to see which one I like best (so far it is PLII).

Love some little details like assigning names to inputs so that, instead of spelling "CD" it now says "SoundBridge". Too bad it does not change the label on the remote... which is quite good. It already knows a lot of equipment and it can learn missing keys. DVD + Cable + TV + Soundbridge keys (the ones I use) are ALL mapped, either auto or manually. THAT is cool. Never happened to me before. There is ALWAYS a key key (sic) missing.

Audio switching is a bit slow. Did not measure, but it is many seconds. Video I don't mind too much (I understand the complexity), but audio is a bit annoying. Especially since the receiver can have multiple inputs for the same device that are then accessed with a remote control key (useful for DVD/DVD-A players requiring both digital and analog inputs). So to have the thing shut off for at least 2-3 seconds (again, I did not measure so it could still be a perception thing) is not particularly pleasant. But, then again, once the fiddling stops, it may not prove to be a practical inconvenient.

So far, not yet "impressed" per se (did not put it enough to the test yet), but I am quite pleased.

OK. Going back to do some listening... and then bed time!

Eric, enjoy. Yes, I always use DPLII for any music source and it significantly improves the realism. On Audyssey, if the distances weren't even close, the microphone positions may not have been correct, or some other point of procedure wasn't done, because all of these auto-calibration systems now do a pretty good job with that. When you have more time, try the whole procedure again.

That was my intention, especially since it is not intrusive (will not override my own settings until I say so). My fridge was running at the time, so it could have been fooled by that humming noise (but it was too late to stop it since I only had 10-15 minutes to try it!)

I messed around with Audyssey quite a lot during the short time I had my 805, and without fail it was correct on speaker distance except for my sub, which it would always claim was 30+ feet away. If you do some reading on the Audyssey thread over at AVS, this is common and IIRC Audyssey claims to be by design. Speaker size detection was inaccurate at best. The major issue I had when enabling Audyssey EQ settings was a near non-existent LFE experience. I never could get it to dial in correctly, so I ultimately ended up disabling Audyssey.

How many mic positions did you use for calibration? I always used all eight, however the first pass is the only one where distance/crossover are detected.

Hi Efalardeau,

I routinely urge Axiom buyers of the 4-ohm M80s to avoid any Onkyo AV receivers because of past history of Onkyos overheating or shutting down when connected to M80s (or going into current limiting with great reductions of output power).

I'm curious about your statement: " Can't wait to put my hand on this baby though (especially that they seem to have made special efforts to get rid of any 4ohms problems they may have had in the past)."

Where did you read or hear that Onkyo had re-engineered the power amp sections of their receivers so they'd be more stable with 4-ohm loads?

I think Haylo had to return his Onkyo AV receiver because of problems driving 4 ohms.

Anyway, once you get the chance, it would be interesting to get some feedback on your new Onkyo and whether it will drive the M80s really clean and loud without overheating or any audible distortion.

Regards,

Hi Alan.

Unfortunately, I changed PC recently and did not transfer "My Favorites" which contained an article about something new they are doing with the 805/875 (only for the main channels) to better support 4ohms. Since I have read that 3-4 months ago, I don't even recall how I came accross it, but I am pretty sure it was coming (the article or a link to the article) from an answer from Onkyo itself. I checked quickly and did not find anything on their USA site (could have been the Asia one).

I do not necessarily disagree with not recommending the Onkyo for people with M80 who needs (can afford) one piece of equipment to do everything. I picked this receiver because it was more powerful than what I currently need, while having the right feature set as pre/pro for my future needs. I was thinking (when I move or the time comes in a year or two) going "separates", maybe even with the little 8-channel devil now offered by Axiom. So whatever problems there could be, it is highly unlikely I will hit them (I might have had with a 65W Onkyo receiver though).

As for testing, I just played a cello suite by Bach, Roussel's 3rd symphony and the scherzo from Beethoven's 9th at higher volume (+6 db on the receiver). It was WAY louder than what I like, but it was quite bearable and did not feel strained at all. After 40 minutes (most of it just with the M80s at +9db to "make it worse"), the receiver was not even warm. I know this is highly inconclusive, but it seems that for my current "current" needs, I should not experience any problems.

Again, the most important thing is to understand your needs, your budget and your plans for the future. As an example, M60s would have been quite sufficient for now for me, but I don't want to change speakers again in 1-2 years when I move to a neighboor-less environment! So I went with M80 (and boy am I happy). When I need the power, I will get the power. But, again, each situation is different. To make it worse, knowing that a problem may exist has a tendency to make it happen!

If I have a sudden revelation about that article (I remember that there was a picture of the inside of the receiver) I will post it.

Time to go back to some music now!

Actually, may be you should recommend people to buy a second pair of M80s and wire them in series!

I only used 3. Sitting in the middle of the couch and then lying down from the left and another one from the right. I'll retry this weekend.

From what I gathered from Alan, you have returned your 805 or am I confusing you with someone else? If that is true, with what did/plan you to replace it?

I remember where I picked up the thread. It was in an article (or series of articles) about THX-ultra2 certification and what engineering challenges had to be met by some companies. Still don't remember the link, but I am pretty sure it was from that angle that I found that (I DID have reservations at some point knowing I would probably go with the M80s).

Eric, I certainly like your music selections for the testing and it would appear to be pretty conclusive for your own use. If you had no problem at listening levels higher than you ordinarily use, it isn't likely that you will in the future.

As far as the articles that you've mentioned, I've read similar items in Audioholics and elsewhere describing how the THX Ultra2 certification includes, among many other items, a requirement for driving a 3.2 ohm load to reference listening levels.

I had to re-do a bit of research from a friend about to buy a 805 and looking also at M80.

This is one of the three articles that had reassured me (see Part V) with me M80.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_14_3/onkyo-tx-sr805-receiver-9-2006-part-1.html