Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners HK 635 / Onkyo TXNR801

Anyone here have any advice on this units. I plan on using on the Epic 60/500.

Robert, both are available at similar prices in the $600-$700 area and have similar power(and also similar to your 815). The lower power rating of the 635 is due to being rated with all channels driven; if the more realistic two channel number was used, as the 801 does, there wouldn't be any significant difference in driving M60s. So, as usual, the question is what features are important to you. The 635 is a newer model and has DPLIIx(if you eventually go 7.1), while the 801 has DPLII. The 635 has the room equalization system developed by Dr. Toole's group at Harman, which you might find useful. It also has the ability to set different crossover frequencies for different groups of speakers. These are the features that in my view would make the 635 preferable.

I was hoping you'd chime in so I could save myself some typing and just say I concur. The H/K gives you a greater feature set for the money. Go that route.

Hi,

I have a pair of M60s as fronts and am actually getting a 635 delivered hopefully by the end of the week. I'll be glad to share my thoughts after I try it out. If you're looking for good prices on it, there were two on-line companies selling it for about $620 w/ shipping included. Harman also has an ebay store (harmanaudio) that sells them refurbed, but latley they've been going around $610-$620 + $35 shipping, so it's actually cheaper for a new one.

You can't go wrong with either HK or Onkyo.

I have the 635 powering my epic 60 set-up. The bass management features sold me in addition to the Logic 7 processing. The best thing to do is find the receiver that has the features you need. H/K, Onkyo, and Denon are all good places to start.

I have the HK 630 and find it to an awesome receiver. I really like the fact that I can set different crossovers for different speakers. I don't know much about the Onkyo, but if you ever upgraded to the M80's, the HK 635 will drive them just fine without the help of a seperate amp.

I really like my 635 as well, I was somewhat overwhelmed with the manual and setup procedures whenever I first purchased the unit but after a while it really became easy to navigate and change the settings. As stated, it does drives the 4 ohm 80s with no problems.

Well I got my 635 delivered today

The good:

-Sounds amazing! The bass is so much sharper, and the soundstage is better (bigger and clearer). Loved it for music in stero, and HT in 5.1.
-At the same levels, it's about 5-7db louder than my Yamaha receiver rated at 30 watts more per channel. I have a 4000 sq/ft room and music is almost too loud at -35db.
-Configuration options for everything.
-Auto Eq. All I had to change was the center and surround xover from 120 to 100hz. Speaker volume levels were perfect.
-Looks sexy.

The bads:

-HK quality control. My Logic7 processor is broken on my 635, so I have to exchange it for another brand new one. I've always had good luck with HK customer service, so I don't mind this too much. And in my opinion, HK stuff usually comes broken, or works without any problems for a long time.
-Receiver menu doesn't show out component video, which doesn't make any sense considering it upconverts. Luckily you don't really need it after you configure everything.
-The manual can be pretty vague at times, but most of the options are petty intuitive.

So that's my rundown. I love it, it's just too bad I gotta wait a week for a new one to arrive.

I'm still mulling it over. The 635 sounds like it has quite a few bugs in it. I'm not sure if problems have been taken care of yet. I might look at a Denon unit. At least my speakers ship out Monday