Looking to try to pick up a decent 7.1 or 7.2 receiver with all of the Black Friday deals going on. I stumbled across this one. I am also looking for something with Audyssey MultEQ XT, and this has it. I need 4 Ohm capability, its there too.

Reviews seem really good.
Cost is about $500-$600 depending on if I buy from B&H (which has the lower price, but none in stock) or Amazon.

I know that it comes down to personal preference, and maybe this isn't a stellar deal, but it seems pretty darn good and at a price that my wife will still freak out over, but better than a $900 receiver.

I've been a big fan of Pioneer Elite for years, but thought that I would look at Onkyo and Denon for the next go around.

That's the receiver I got last summer. Here's the link to my thread about it.

I like it. The Audyssey has made a noticeable improvement in my HT sound overall.

Caveat: I am using it as a prepro via the analog preouts to my Outlaw Audio 7125 amp, so I cannot vouch for the power supply/output, though I have no doubt it'd be fine to power my M80 system.

Hey Nick I don't have any opinion on that specific receiver, but my mom has had an older generation 5.1 Onkyo for years and it has worked flawlessly stuffed in a poorly ventilated wall cabinet. Granted it's not pushed very hard as she is in a condo and does not crank it up, but years of no troubles speaks well in my books.

However for selfish reasons I want you to buy the Onkyo so I can get a first hand account of difference between Pio Elite and the Onkyo.
I also like and own the Pio Elite, but am aware of some of it's limitations. I am curious how the 2 would compare so I can be better educated for my future upgrades. Let us know what you decide.

Cheers,

I was also toying with the Denon AVR-2112CI. It is 7.1 instead of 7.2 (yes, I plan on having a 2nd sub, so control over each via Audyssey would be helpful), and 90 watts instead of 100, but that isn't a big deal.

Decisions....

you need Mult XT 32 man...

The ones mentioned above are both MultEQ XT ... Not sure that the XT32 is worth it.

I believe that the XT32 will handle 2 subs better than the XT (something about the XT "pinging" both subs separately, but then the XT32 also "pings" them together) ,but I want to pay a few hundred, not thousand, for a receiver...

yep, also I am limited to 8 measurements, with 32 you can take more around the seating area, resulting with even better bass response in the room, better resolution as well. But what your looking at isn't shabby, works for me.

included in my receiver is Audyssey multEQ; calibration through 6 measurements maximum.

result? the best sound i ever had.

Considering when I was first looking at Audyssey vs MCACC a few years back, the best you could get was MultEQ, the XT is a lot nicer.
MultEQ XT32 - MultEQ XT - MultEQ - 2EQ
Filter Res : Satellites - 512x - 16x - 2x - 0x
Filter Res : Subwoofer - 512x - 128x - 128x - N/A
Number of Measurements Pos - 8 - 8 - 6 - 3
Low Freq Correction - Yes - Yes - Yes - N/A
X-Over, Polarity, Delays, Levels - Yes - Yes - Yes - Yes

So definitely more filter resolution as you go up, and I can take a measurement from each of the 8 seat locations.

Considering my MCACC was just a little better than the 2EQ, this will be a big jump.

When looking at older equipment, try to find out if Audyssey settings can be applied to HD codecs (bitstream) Marantz 8002 and below could apply Audyssey, but not if you were using bitstream. The units lacked the horsepower to process it.

??? The 370 is a current model that just started shipping a few months ago...

Nick, I'm not sure it is "the 8 locations"; I think it is 8 points around the main location. It is still supposedly "a lot better" than the previous iterations, but it's still EQ'ing for one area, with many data points. It is not EQ'ing for the whole room.

I seem to be in the minority around here, but I found that the MultiEQ XT made a meaningful and positive difference in my room. I'm using an older Onkyo 805. It has been stellar.

There is a comprehensive Audyssey procedure at AVS that I appreciated and followed.

Remember to check ShopOnkyo and A4L for refurbs.

Edit: Hey, how about a TX-NR709 for $499?

Yea, I had spotted the 370 new at B&H for $499 as well. I called, and they said that there was a 2 week wait minimum, but should ship within 3 weeks. So I started looking elsewhere and the by the time I got back to B&H, they were closed. Now, magically, their price is $549. $50 increase in about an hour.

The 709 is the same as the 370 only it has 2 HDMI outs, and a few other (non-important to me) extras. The price is really good though at A4L. Seems like a lot of people get refurb stuff from them, so it seems pretty good. Oddly enough, the 709 is cheaper ($556) for a new unit on Amazon than the 370 ($590)...

Nick, the 370, with Audyssey MultEq XT would be an excellent choice. The factory refurb 370(which should be at least as reliable as a brand new unit)has been available from A4L for about $430, but is temporarily sold out. It should be back in stock pretty soon, but the best buy at this time would appear to be the 709 which Tom linked.

the only thing i could correct here is that XT32 has 32 measurement positions.

That sounds like a lot of work...

When did Onkyo change their numbering scheme? Under the old scheme, 370 would have been pretty low in the lineup!

I am an Onkyo newbie, but it seems like they have parallel product lines. One numbering scheme for one line, and a different one for the other.

The 370 is just a slightly stripped down version of the 709, but are considered to be at the same "level" within their respective product lines.

I have heard also that the newer receivers are much faster when switching from mic/mic locations. On my Denon it takes about 1-2 minutes before between each mic move, then you have to calculate.

Alright, so I just ordered an Onkyo TX-NR709 from OneCall.

B&H upped their price on the 370, and the refurb from A4L was $499. Got this for $6 more than B&H was offering for their out-of-stock 370, and for essentially the same price as the refurb 370 once I factored in the $50 gift card from OneCall that I will turn around and use on a new blu-ray player.

All other things considered, I would have been probably been very happy with the Onkyo HT-RC370, but since I could get a new 709 for less than a new 370 (in-stock anyway), and for about the same price as the refurb 370, it was a no-brainer.

Thanks for any insights and tips guys!

Time to update my sig line.

Yeah! I am awaiting the review and comparison.

Of course, I will not have a theater to really test it out in for a while yet. I will definitely use the receiver to test out my 2nd pair of QS8s and my new VP180 that have been sitting in their boxes since the day they arrived.

that is one good receiver Nick, am anxious to hear your input.

I will look forward to the next chapter in your story, Nick.

I'll bet you do a much better job with your review than JP did with his.

Hey, I'm not cast as one of the helpful ones. I auditioned for "comic relief".

The only reviews I do around here are in all of your invisible charts (scribble, scribble).

And, as Bob would remind you, apparently all of the prescriptions I write here are invisible, too ....

Your patients must get laughed at by the pharmacist.

"What is this? Someone just wrote *scribble scribble* on a piece of paper and signed his name on the bottom. . . ."


"The doc said it would help me."


"Your doctor, Nick Riviera?"

Nice.

Effen right, ya cheap bas tart tease.

Well played, Sean.

Receiver came today. Very nice, even though I only had about 90 minutes to mess around with it today. Now I need to find a decent blu-ray player at OneCall to use my $50 gift card on.

I just got a new toy today myself



Was $199 free shipping from Newegg. I'm going to use it for my upstairs/secondary HT. I't prob overkill for it but I couldn't find many AVRs that had OSD over HDMI in the lower price ranges.

Nice!

That's awesome, Ben. I'm very interested to hear from you (and Nick and others) how the network music streaming works on those models.

Ben, that is a great deal, enjoy.

You will be waiting a while before I will have a good feel for how I like the receiver vs. my previous Pioneer Elite. Now that I am home from my trip and the previous US holiday (Thanksgiving) is over, I am making progress in the basement again, but it is going to get tough to get to drywall before Christmas. I was hoping to be there by now, but dang, a lot has come up over the past few months and a few hours a few evenings a week makes for slow progress.

So far I like this thing. I've been playing around with the Android app that controls the AVR as well as makes it easy to use DLNA or content from other Internet sites (like Pandora). The functionality is really good. I wouldn't call it super polished (GUI is pretty lame) but I've had no issues using it yet. I'm pretty excited about it as I've been using this sweet Android app to control my Media Center PC for a while now, so now I can also control my AVR from my phone and tablet.

Since we moved into this house about 2 years ago I've just had a 3.1 setup (no surrounds) using my old trusty HK. I believe the rated power output of my HK is similar to this Onyko but the HK weights at least 3 times as much, heh. The HK is a prettier unit too IMO but that wasn't a concern for me when I bought the Onkyo as it's going to be running my upstairs HT from my basement equipment cabinet I'm building.