New Onkyo Receivers - Axiom Message Boards

Axiom Home Page

Hi, its me again.

I am taking serious consideration of purchasing Onkyo's new line up of A/V receivers. The two specific models I was looking at is the TX-SR805 and TX-SR605 (which is half the price of the other one).

The only main difference between the two is that the 605 has 90x watt per channel while the 805 has 130x watt per channel.

I was wondering , is it worth the price difference to get the 805 over the 605?

Is 90 watts per channel enough for my needs? I won't be playing music and movies extremely loud.

Thanks.

I'll let others answer the amplification question. I think the big thing that would make me consider the 805 over the 605 is the extra HDMI input (3 versus 2). I'm actually going for a unit with 4 inputs. 2 wouldn't be enough for me. I use the PS3 for SACD/Blu-ray playback, the Toshiba HD-A1 for HD DVDs, and I also have an Oppo for DVD-Audio. When I get a new Xbox 360, it will have HDMI, too. So there go all of my HDMI inputs. If you can't foresee needing more than 2 inputs, then yeah, the 605 would probably be enough.

Paul,

Welcome back from your vacation. For your space, you don't need 130W...90W is more than adequate (Wid, I have my flame suit on...let me have it

).

BTW, let me know if you still want to come over and check out my system. How's the EP500 issue coming along?

Hi all, long time lurker here. I've been interested in Axioms for some time and will most likely purchase a full package in the near future. I picked up an 805 yesterday and have been thoroughly impressed thus far. I was previously running a 9 year old Onkyo TX-DS777, and the difference in SQ is amazing. I always thought my speakers (Infinity RS5 x 4, CC2 Center, Velo CT-150 sub) were pretty so-so, but the 805 has breathed new life into them. Dolby TrueHD really shines and the panoply of surround modes is great for the price. My only concern, and many others on the AVS forums say the same thing, is that the unit puts out a lot of heat. I only have about 3" ventilation above the unit, but it's in an open rack. I'm going to set some fans up but haven't yet decided on the particulars.

As far as the 805 is concerned, I'd personally be kicking myself limiting things to 2x HDMI in. I almost went for the 875 for its 4x in, but if worse comes to worse I'll look at switching solutions.

Hey, welcome. It's nice to hear from someone who actually has one of the receivers in question. All of the new Onkyo units look pretty cool. I'm sure the other companies that follow will have some drool-worthy offerings of their own.

Quote:

As far as the 805 is concerned, I'd personally be kicking myself limiting things to 2x HDMI in.

Doesn't the 805 have 3 HDMI in and 1 out?

The features page at Onkyosua shows: HDMI I/O 3 / 1

Jack, I think that he was indicating that he's happy that he got the 805 with three rather than the 605 with two.

Ah. My misunderstanding. Thank you, John.

You guys got it figured out. I meant to say "As far as the 605 is concerned", and yes, the 805 does have 3x HDMI in.

An observation I just made -- For those who are, like me, sensitive to A/V Sync, audio can be delayed from 0ms to 200ms in 5ms increments. I'm sitting here watching HBO HD and toggling between 25ms and 30ms because what I really want to use is about 27ms. I wish the resolution were at 1ms, but at this price point I can't be extremely picky I suppose.

What you need to do is watch only programming with lots of bare skin so you're not concentrating on what they're saying.

Men's swimming fan?

Quote:

... I'm sitting here watching HBO HD and toggling between 25ms and 30ms because what I really want to use is about 27ms. I wish the resolution were at 1ms, but at this price point I can't be extremely picky I suppose.

I just picked up a 605 for my dad and have not had a chance to play with it except to connect his surround speakers to the front L/R outputs to see if it was working.
Anyway, can you play with the speaker distance settings, in addition to the A/V sync, to trick it? Of course this would mess with surround timing and may take some tweaking to get a balance.

Scott

Quote:

Paul,

Welcome back from your vacation. For your space, you don't need 130W...90W is more than adequate (Wid, I have my flame suit on...let me have it ).

BTW, let me know if you still want to come over and check out my system. How's the EP500 issue coming along?

actually, im still am out of town. Should be coming back soon in a couple of days or so.

In regards to the receiver, I wll be hooking up more than 2 HDMI sources (includes HD-DVD or Blu Ray, Oppo 981, HD satellite receiver, and/or possible a video game console.

I am now leaning towards the 805 now. I'm in USA right now, and I can get the 805 for around $980 (want the black version).

As wise with Canadians, we kinda get screwed over, as A/V receivers in general are overpriced and limited in selection. The 805 is hard to find in Canada and it retails around $1,500.

Quote:

What you need to do is watch only programming with lots of bare skin so you're not concentrating on what they're saying.

Interesting, I may have to try that

Quote:

I am now leaning towards the 805 now. I'm in USA right now, and I can get the 805 for around $980 (want the black version).

The warranty isn't transferable though, I checked that last week and the warranty specifically says USA only for products purchased there. I guess saving $500 might outweigh the no warranty for most people though.

One of my criteria's for purchasing a new receiver is ease of purchase. If I can't walk into a store here in Calgary and buy one, I'm not getting it. As I plan to buy a receiver and use it for 10 years, or so, I want to be able to have it repaired easily. For that reason I won't be going with an Onkyo. I'm currently looking at the new Denon's or Yamaha's.

One other advantage of the Onkyo 805 over the 605 relates to the zone 2 capability.

Quote:

One other advantage of the Onkyo 805 over the 605 relates to the zone 2 capability.

Another reason I purchased the 805. I pre-wired for three zones when I built my home, and I plan to utilize the multi-zone capabilities of the 805 in the near future.

hey, got a couple more questions now.

First, despite voiding the warranty by taking the receiver from US to Canada, are Onkyo receivers well built? Do they really have issues (more or less) compared to other receivers? In general are receivers more prone to getting damaged than other electronics?

Second, even though the 805 has 3 HDMI inputs, the 605 has 2, and so is it possible to get a 1.3 HDMI switcher, such as 3 x 1, to be plugged into the receiver, bringing it to total of 4 HDMI inputs? How are HDMI switchers in general?

P.S and yes, i know I brought my 2 questions to 5

Also, I can get a 4 x 1 HDMI for $50 on Monoprice, and so I could save myself a lot of money by not choosing the 805. I won't be using Zone controls, and THX select is just a bonus add on, and I could help resolve the limited HDMI inputs by using a switcher. Only thing is, is 90 W per ch. sufficient enough for how loud I want the speakers (wont be playing them excessively loud, just a decent amount)?

Receivers are less prone to damage than other electronics. Just remember to give your receiver adequate space for ventilation. I don't know if Onkyo's failure rate is lower than other receivers but I would venture to say that Denon, Onkyo and Yamaha have similar reliabilities.

With regard to the power, I already told you that it would be plenty. Don't you believe me

? If not, I'll give you some facts. I have a 90W/channel Denon. I listen to music at a tad over a quarter watt/channel in my 4,000 cubic foot room. For movies, I turn it up to 4W/channel. This represents mean sound pressures of 78dB for music and 85dB for movies with plenty of headroom to spare (and yes, I do have data to prove this

).

If these power levels aren't to your liking, it might interest you to know that my (cheap) Denon starts square-waving (distorting) at about 200W/channel (that's right...it can squeeze out this much power and not shut down). If you are really interested in the background to this, you can read this. I am sure that your Onkyo would perform very similarly.

Quote:

One other advantage of the Onkyo 805 over the 605 relates to the zone 2 capability.

According to the onkyo website, the 605 has "multiroom playback" and there is a Zone 2 speaker connection on the back panel.

Scott

Quote:

First, despite voiding the warranty by taking the receiver from US to Canada,

I would be cautious about buying a new edition receiver without a warranty, due to the fact it usually takes 6 months to get the bugs worked out of the new products. The 805 has the reputation of running really hot, I'm not sure if that's the way the units run or something that will be corrected later.

Scott - thanks for the clarification. I'd have sworn that there was some multi-room deficiency on the 605. That feature is important to me, and after spending some time analyzing and comparing the two, I cam away with the impression that the 605 would not meet my needs. I can't find the right chart/page at the moment, but is it possible that the zone 2 on the 605 is not independent of the main zone?

Quote:

...is it possible that the zone 2 on the 605 is not independent of the main zone?

I don't know. It only says multiroom playback, nothing about independently of the main zone. Now I'm concerned that I didn't get my dad the feature he wanted. Independent or not, as long as he can listen to music in his office at 2AM without the 5.1 system playing in the other room at the same time, we'll both be OK.

Scott

The Zone 2 feature on the 605 is independent in that it can play a different(analog)source than that playing in the main room. Of course, if the back surround amplifier channels in the 605 are being used for power in Zone 2(rather than having a separate amplifier set up in Zone 2), back surround speakers can't simultaneously be used in the main room.

Apparently, I was mistaken. Sorry for confusing the issue.