Long time no post....

Anyone have any experiences with the Onkyo NR3008 receiver? I'm thinking of getting one. I've read enough reviews & discussion to conclude that it seems to be a "great" receiver for a decent price. But I'm always interested in the Axiom-owners' perspective. Yay? Nay?

My current setup is powered by an Emotiva LPA-1 amp fed by a Pioneer Elite VSX-43TX receiver. I may or may not keep the LPA-1 in the system, depending on the amplification section of whatever new receiver I purchase.

The 43TX is about 8 years old. No HDMI, no room correction, no HD audio processing, no network connection, no OSD GUI. It's dead simple, but it works. I know, I'm living in the dark ages. I think I'm ready for something with a few more bells and whistles. An OSD would be nice. I've played this upgrade game every year for the past 2/3 years, but have yet to find a receiver that really impresses me. Last year I demoed an Onkyo 876 and a Pioneer Elite SC-05. Both were pretty good, but neither earned a place in my HT. I know Denon is pretty highly recommended, here and everywhere. I like the look of the 3311, but it lacks Audyssey's new XT32, which I'd like to have. I have been unimpressed with Audyssey in the past, but I've heard XT32 is 'better'. The 4311 has XT32, but it's a little too expensive for my budget. The new Marantz SR7005 looks sweet too, but again, like the 3311, it lacks XT32.

I had tentatively planned on getting a UMC-1, but after reading through a few hundred (thousand?) discussions about it over the past 3+ years, I'm pretty much burned out on it and Emotiva in general. And it's missing a whole boatload of features, compared to mainstream receivers of sililar (or less...) price. No hard feelings, I just think I want to stick with a mainstream manufacturer.

So, the NR3008. Anyone have one? Like? Dislike? Thanks!

I don't know about the 3008 but I have been really pleased with the 707 I have.

Talk to grunt about the sound as he has the 3007. From what I can tell by various owner reviews it is every bit as good as the 4311.

Peter,

My 3008 arrives tomorrow! Can't wait to check it out. I just sold my Pioneer VSX-9040TXH (which I loved) but the new audyssey XT32 made me upgrade. I've read nothing but good things about the 3008/5008. I shied away from the Denon 4311 due to all the bugs that so far have not been worked out. Onkyo has release 3 firmware updates since release and everyone who owns one loves it.

Hometheater did a review of the 5008 here and they gave it 5/5 stars. For what it's worth, they were drooling all over it. The reviewer even states it beat out an ATI 1505 power amp that retails for $1700.00 Hard to believe, but hey, whatever...

I was going to get the 5008 for the upgraded power transformers, but I will probably go with an outboard amp later on anyway. I doubt you could actually "hear" any difference between the 2 anyway. The only other difference I see is 1 more USB port and 32bit DAC instead of 24bit for the 3008. Again, I don't think they will any audible difference between 32/24 bit. For the difference in price I would rather put the extra funds towards an amp or Wide surround speakers, or something...

BTW, I can't believe the 3008 weights over 50lbs!

As soon as I get my 3008 up and running, I'll post a mini review.


Dana

Thanks everyone.

Dduval, I will be eagerly awaiting your impression of it. Especially since our setups are somewhat similar; M80's, VP150, Samsung HDTV, PS3. And your previous AVR was a Pioneer.

I subscribe to Home Theater magazine and that review of the 5008 caught my attention. They nearly ran out of positive adjectives to describe it, that's for sure. And I have the same impression about the 3008. The upgraded DAC is the only thing relevant to me in the 5008 over the 3008, and it's not quite worth the price premium to me.

I'm pretty close to just biting the bullet and ordering it. At least, that's what my wife continues to insist I do.

I ordered mine from 6thave. Newegg will have for a little less, but only on weekends. However right now on amazon, I can you that price is just "very slightly" more that what I paid. It's a great deal at that price! But I can assure you it won't stay there for long, and I'm talking hours...

I think if you mention that you are a member of AVSforum, 6thAve will give you additional discounting, at least they did on my Denon.

Oh I know.

It's in my Amazon cart at today's lower price (for the moment... I know it can/will change). I learned this morning that NewEgg had it this weekend for a little less. Trying to decide to bite now or wait a little longer.... Ahh, the eternal internet price-watcher dilemma...


Ninja edit: Randy, thanks for the FYI on the 6th ave discount. I had forgotten about the AVS-member discount. Will have to keep that in mind....

Just click the button!

Dana

Peter, if I was getting a receiver in the over $1000 price range these days, XT32 would be necessary. As you mention, the 3008 is the one available at the best price(i.e., here for $1293 shipped).

Re the 5008, the amplifier differences don't appear to be anything that would be of audible significance, and certainly there isn't any real "upgrade" available in the DACs which are already more than required for the program materials and human ears.

Translation: John says "Just click da button!"

Yep,

That's exactly why I sold my amps and bought the 3008! It's all John's fault...

Dana

It's $950 off MSRP today at Newegg. So very tempting...

Dduval, now that you've had a few days with the 3008, what do you think of it?

Peter,

Just seen your post. Well, first thing that happen before I even got my 3008 was my EP500 went out. Axiom is sending me a new amp, should be here Tuesday. However, I did get my sub to work. I finally got it to turn on with the 12 volt trigger, it the only way I can get it to come on. Seems to work fine with the trigger. Very weird, but at least I got to test out my new 3008!

Anyway, here's my first impressions of the TX-NR3008. Keep in mind this is my first experience with Audyssey ever. Plus all comparisons will be from my pioneer & Khartago mono block amplifiers, which both have been sold.

The very first thing I did was hook everything up and did the firmware upgrade via USB stick. The upgrade went flawlessly, took about 10 minutes. Shut it down and fired it back up.



Then before even listening to anything I followed AVS guide to audyssey to walk me thru the MultiXT 32 calibration. Calibrated all 8 positions. Others said this was time consuming, but mine only took about 15 minutes at the most. Again, went flawlessly.

I had already received Iron Man II and The Last Air Bender from Netflix, both Blu-ray. But decided to listen to a few songs that I've heard a million times for reference and comparison.

First song up was Molly Hatchets Dreams I'll never see via Flac. Which by the way, the network capabilities of the 3008 to stream straight lossless Flac from my pc are incredible. It's so freaking nice NOT to have to power on my PS3 to play my flac files. All folders and song titles show up right on my big screen. Use the remote to browse, they ya go, works killer. Loving this feature for sure!

"Dreams I'll never see" I've heard so many times over the last 30 years, release date was 1978! I was just 16 when I first heard this song!

Once the song finally kicked in, I had a huge smile on my face. I won't sit here and tell you it was like night and day. In fact the mid highs & highs pretty much sounded the same. But it was the mid bass and low bass that floored me. I immediately knew MulitXT 32 was at work here. The bass guitar runs were so fast and tight and defined, it was like hearing a newer version of the song.

So I thought "whoa, I have to try something else" So I fired up another song that I knew would confirm for me "if" Multi32XT was doing it's magic or I was just over reacting just because I had a new toy, yes, been there, done that

The particular song was "Slit Skirts" by Pete Townsend. The reason this song is such a reference song for me is the Bass guitar is this song is all over the place. Being a former guitar player myself, the bass in this song goes to very low octaves to very high octaves. My old system did not handle this song very well, as the lower octaves went "boomy and loose" and the higher octave Bass notes lost all impact, very uneven...

I'm not for sure, but I am just assuming that audyssey has somehow eq'd and corrected my room response, time domain delays, nulls, etc. Because I could hear every bass note clearly, evenly and smoooooooth... Gone was the boomy bass notes and back were the higher bass notes. So far, I'm diggin this avr severely.

Again, not much difference in the higher end Hz, but definitely a difference in the lower/lower mid end. Listened to a few more songs over the next 30 minutes or so. I have developed a broad range (almost crazy) of music taste over the years. I tested out Asia, Boston, Aerosmith, Brooks and Dunn, Elvis, Stone sour, Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeth, Sick Puppies, Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum, Stevi Ray, Van Halen, UFO, Thin Lizzy and yes...get ready, Michael Jackson

Every song was the same, tighter, smoother, more even, solid and defined Bass. I should also mention here the only thing I changed from the Audyssey setup was the XO. It had set my XO for my mains to 40hz. I set it back to 80hz where I preferred it. Everything else I left untouched.

This is getting way too long winded, so sorry. But I'll go on to movies and I'll "try" make it quick, I'm sure this won't happen I then watched just some LFE parts of Iron Man II, but now with movies, I hear a few more differences than with music.

First, my surrounds (Vintage Boston Acoustics A100 floor speakers) from the 80's had much more clarity and presence. With my pioneer, I had to actually crank up levels some for the surrounds. Not with the 3008. The levels for my surrounds were set at +5.5 on my Pioneer, But the 3008 has them set at -1.5!! Quite a shock here to say the least. Even a couple days later I haven't had to change the surround levels one bit.

The other difference, to me at least, was that it now seems like my EP500 is actually going lower and deeper for movies. As I've seen Iron Man II 3 times now. I am hearing more impact, feeling more couch & wall shaking. Again, on my Pioneer the Sub trim level I preferred has always been +2 and now the 3008 had the sub at -0.5. I did bump the sub level up to an even flat zero.

Up next was "The last Air bender" I don't know if anyone here has seen this movie, but the LFE is mind blowing! The movie itself was just OK and predictable, I would say it's good movie to sit down with Family.

But man, the freakin low end on this flick freaked me out so much I had to turn down the EP500, I thought my sub was gonna blow!

Anyway, to summarize. I am Very, Very Happy with NR3008! The more I dig into it, (believe me this has so many features it will take me awhile), the more I am finding that I am so glad I sold my amps and Pioneer and got this thing. I've really only scratched the surface of it's capabilities. Last day or so I've been playing around with Dynamic EQ which is awesome at low listening levels, dynamic volume, upconversion, all the THX modes and the zillion other modes. Fun stuff so far!

Last thing I forgot to mention was power output and heat. My 3008 is sitting in an open rack/TV stand so I haven't really noticed any heat issues. As far as output, there's plenty. I love listening to obnoxiously loud volumes and the 3008 get's me there for the most part. I will say it's not quite as clean at extremely loud volumes as my Khartagos, but as JohnK will tell you, it's more than enough for "safe listening levels". I'm gettin old anyway and I think I'll try to delay my hearing damage. Don't take me the wrong way, any normal person listening to loud volumes on the 3008 will tell you to turn the damn thing down! The 3008 will blast your ears off your head and do it cleanly. If I want to keep my hearing, I'll take my own advice and will NOT need to buy separate amps. (although then again...)

Whew! That's all folks! I can't recommend the Onkyo TX-NR3008 enough. For the money, this AVR will be tough to beat. Now I just have to hook up my "wides" and Heights" for 9.1 Bliss!

Dana

Really nice, Dana. Thanks for the honest words about the 3008. It really does look like quite a beast of a receiver.

The bang-for-the-buck ratio on the NR3008 looks incredible. Basically all the gizmos and technology one desires in a $2,000+ AVR, but at a very "attainable" price. Good stuff.

Thanks again for the review. You've pushed me that much closer to clicking the infamous "Checkout" button.

No Problem Peter, your welcome.

That newegg deal is excellent. I really don't think you can go wrong at that price point with what you get. I feel like right now, I couldn't imagine needing to upgrade AVR's for a long time. Unless the MFG's came out with some super feature that is really over the top impressive, I can be happy with this thing for awhile.

Unless of course they come out with a receiver that has a built in beer tap that works with the remote, then...I would be forced to upgrade.

Dana

Very good, Dana; enjoy(but turn the damn thing down!).

Yeah, Peter; that Newegg deal is terrific. It'll probably run around $1100 at A4L in a few weeks when they start with the factory refurbs, but that's no real reason to hesitate.

Hey Peter,

Did you ever click the checkout button on that 3008 yet?

I just connected my wides to enable audyssey DSX and WOW! Big difference. My whole room is enveloped in surround sound now.
All channel music is even better as well. Now I can't decide if I like all channel music or PLII DSX music...

Let us know if you pulled the trigger yet...

Dana

Dana I’ve been using DSX wide with my Onkyo 3007 for a year now and agree it’s great especially in the long room I’m in now. It sure does fill the gap between the mains and the surrounds.

I’ve found that the DSP mode that works best for me depends on the recording. The more ambience in the original recording the more I like PLIIx DSX wide. The less ambiance the more I like All Channel Stereo. That goes for TV shows as well as music.

Yea Grunt,

Today I actually read one of your older post about your experience with DSX. That's what got me motivated to hear the wides. (great write up btw) I'm using some older Boston Acoustics A70's (late 80's) for the wides, but they still sound great.

Hopefully, next week I can hook up my Samson studio monitors for the heights. Hate using different brand speakers, but right now I have no choice. I will have to get some M3's or M22's soooon!

Dana

I’ve tried both M22s and M2s for wide and decided on using the M2s since I couldn’t tell the difference between them in the wide role. I also found that QS speakers worked much better for me as height speakers than when I tried M22s so I went with QS8s for heights. However, most of the time I use the wide speakers since I can’t use both wide and height at the same time with the 3007.

Hi,
I recently (last week) added height speakers to my dedicated home theatre room. I'm using a pair of Axiom QS8v3 and they are fantastic. For ambient sound (unless you are in the perfect spot and even then) no direct radiating speaker can compete and deliver that level of stunning performance.

Hi Jc,

Just curious, are you also using wides in addition to heights?

Dana

Dana not to answer for JC but I find that the Wide speakers come into play more than the Height speakers do. This is also what theory dictates, that our hearing is more sensitive to sounds coming from the front sides than above. However, real world I think it’s somewhat more room/seating dependent.

I’ve done a huge amount of testing of both wide and height using specific scenes and also just watching whole programs and found the following. When they come into play both height and wide sound almost equally good with the slight edge going to height because of the extra 3-dimentionality of the sound. Probably due to my front speakers being below a very big screen and also having a vaulted ceiling to help spread out the sound from the height speakers. OTOH the wide speaker really fill in the gap between the mains and surround speakers in my present room which is longer and narrower than my last room, which didn’t have this sort of sound gap.

The reason that when in use the heights win for me is they have more of a “Wow!” factor. Like in the scene in LOTR FOTR at Balan’s Tomb in the Mines of Moria where the bucket falls down the well. The echoes coming from all directions especially overhead are so realistic its scary. Other scenes with ambient overhead sounds like wind and rain can also sound quite impressive. However, these types of scenes just don’t happen that often so the wide speakers end up coming into play much more often, literally in almost every scene.

Originally I preferred using the height speakers but that was because I was doing the testing with material they excel at. When it came down to just watching things I found that I when I switched from wide to height during general listening/viewing I quickly noticed that the wide speakers were missing. OTOH, when I switched from height to wide I really didn’t miss the height speakers because they just didn’t produce as much effects as often as the wide speakers do.

I would love to be able to run both at the same time but from the point of practicality the wide speakers in my room win hands down.

Dana,

I don't have "width" speakers: my room is not wide enough but if I could I would certainly have some. Luckily, my pair of Axiom M80v3 already creates a soundstage with boundaries which far exceeds than the actual ones of the room.

Thanks for all the great info guys!

Looks like QS8's are the way to go for heights. Probably wides too...

Geez, I need to save some coin now...
Probably be better to just drive by Axiom and throw my wallet in the building...

Dana

I haven't... 

After talking to the Emotiva people about the UMC-1, I decided to give it a try.  I waited long enough for the stupid thing, might as well give it a shot. They answered my questions and concerns well enough. I am about a week into my 30 day evaluation.  So far, I am pretty impressed with it.  No operational complaints and the sound quality is pretty amazing. Stunning, really. If it gives me any trouble I'll send it back and get the NR3008.  But so far, I'm happy. 

The NR3008 still looks exceptionaly impressive.  I just came to the conclusion that i really don't need half the bells and whistles.  I'm either uninterested or its already duplicated by some other device in my system.  So i see no need to pay for them again.  And my room isn't big enough to effectively support even a 7.1 system, let alone 9 or 11. ;-).

And prices in the NR3008 seem to fall $50 each week, so I figured I might as well try the UMC. If it fails, then I can take advantage of the post Christmas sales on the NR. ;-)

I hope it works out for you. I am looking forward to the final review after you have more time with it if you keep it.

That's awesome Peter!

Good for you. Yea, can't wait for a review of your UMC-1. Let us know what you think of emo's room correction too! Enjoy!

Dana