The "Official" Onkyo TX-NR1008 Thread

I got mine last week.

After the network was connected, I did was the firmware update.

I am only using 5.1 now (am getting the rear surrounds soon).

I have one HDMI output going to my family room LCD and the other is not being used. It will eventually go to my bedroom TV once I get the HDMI cable in place.

I have not had any network issues that have been reported in other Onkyo threads.

I used NR1007 codes for my URC MX-950 remote and only had to learn a couple of commands.

At present, my Onkyo 608 powers a 7.1 surround sound system (using wides and surrounds) quite nicely. I'm satisfied with the sound quality. My speakers are the Jamo S 413 HCS 5's.

I'm thinking of getting the 1008, taking two of my dad's extra Jamo S 413 satellite speakers and ending up with wides + heights. I'll also take his extra powered subwoofer (which is exactly identical to my own) and run 9.2 instead of 9.1. These Jamo speakers have a sensitivity of 86db and are rated 6 ohms.

Will the 1008 do this for me without requiring an external amplifier? I usually listen at rather moderate volumes, by the way, and with Audyssey Dynamic Volume set to Medium at all times, which would help to prevent excessive volume (electrical current) peaks.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Might be a dopey question, but will this beastie use all 9 ch at once?

Yes.

The Onkyo 1008 is on sale right now at Newegg for $879. That's $120 off their normal price . . . naturally, I just bought it.

from what i read, seems that the 1008 is a downgrade from the 1007...is this true and for the ones that have the 1008, how do you like it?

I don't see how the 1008 could be a downgrade. Would someone please post pics of the GUI from your 1008? Many not just one or two. So we could get an idea how it is. Please thanks.

It is a downgrade in some areas but for what I was after, which was heights + wides at the same time, it is in fact an upgrade. The 1007 simply can't do that but the 1008 can. The slightly less sensitive room correction tech and reduction in maximum power don't matter much to me.

Heights plus wides at the same time? How is this possible if the 1008 is 9.2 and not 11.2.

From 1007 to 1008
THX Ultra2Plus to Select2Plus
51.8 LBS to 41 LBS
11.6A to 8.8A Power Consumption

In order to use wides and heights simultaneously, one must give up surround backs and just live with surround left & right. I'm fine with this . .. most important to me is front and surround sound stage. Having heard wides and heights separately, I'm positively thrilled that I'll finally marry them together at once tomorrow night.

If it turns out my TX-NR1008 isn't powerful enough to power my 9.2 surround sound system (small room, moderate to low average volumes, with Dynamic Volume always set to Medium), would it be better to return the receiver and upgrade to the 3008, or should I just buy a two-channel amplifier and amplify the Left and Right speakers, thus reducing the load to something more like 7.2? Obviously I'd have to recalibrate so that the receiver knew not to send as much volume(=amperage?) to the Left and Right speakers.

I doubt I'll run into these eventualities but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Hmm, how important is DVD upscaling to you? Stepping up to the 3008 gets you more power and the better Reon video chip. If you are not as critical about the video, I would go the external amp route. There are plenty of high quality used stereo and multichannel amps that can be had for around $300-$500.

I was about to pull the trigger for the NR1008 and a friend of mine told me that I should go with the Integra 50.2 instead. Appreciate any thoughts. 50.2 is 7.2 rather than 9.2 but seems to have more power under the hood.

Thanks

Under the hood Onkyo and Integra are the same basic units with a slightly different feature list and design. It really doesn't matter what you are going to buy.
They even (usually) share the same firmware, but are sold through different outlets / sales channels

Hey chs4000,
Were you able to run both hieghts and wides at the same time with the 1008? I have read so many different answers on it I cant get it figured out. Thanks for the reply.

Not chs4000, but yes you can run heights and wides at the same time.

Yes I'm running both heights & wides at the same time and it's magnificent.

DVD upscaling quality is very important to me -- this a function best handled by the BD/DVD player IMO, not the receiver, both from what I have read and from what I have experienced.

Do you have to select both Dolby IIz as well as DSX? Thanks.

DSX does them both.

I have been looking at this receiver for a bit and I am confused a bit about the DSX setting. According to the description on amazon, it says:

"Audyssey DSX lets you incorporate "front wide" speakers, in place of the usual surround back speakers, to expand the width of the soundstage. Set up at a recommended 60° off center, these channels help to produce a more realistic soundstage and a more immersive listening experience. Alternatively, Audyssey DSX can reconfigure the TX-NR1008’s surround back channels to deliver "front height" channels. These channels carry ambient, non-directional audio that adds a new vertical dimension to your movies and games."

In either scenario, the way it makes it sound is as if you have to sacrifice the back speakers to do either wide or height. What if I want to do height and back? Or if I want to do wide and back? Are these configurations possible? I am not interested in doing wide and height. I want to keep my back speakers in the game.

Page 13 in the manual shows that you can have back surrounds with either wides OR height speakers simultaneously.

http://filedepot.onkyousa.com/Files/...781c6b5343134a

Thanks for the reply. Page 13 only shows that as a possible connection, it does not show that it can output to those speakers simultaneously..

*edit: page 26 shows that it will do any combination of the 3 layouts. Thanks for the link to the manual

I have the TX-NR1008 with firmware version 1021-0300-0010-1102 loaded. Is the 8/13/2010 firmware release a latter version?
Can anyone tell me the firmware version number for the 8/13/2010 release. Thanks

I updated the firmware on 10/21/2010 to the 8/13/10 file , which is version number 1031-0500-0010-2103

I am looking at picking up a 1008 over the 1007 mainly for the addition of the PC input and napster streaming. Has anybody used either of these features?

Thanks!

At under $900 street price, this reciever is the best deal out there for me. It is by FAR the cheapest reciever to do highs and wides with DSX at the same time, it is THX Select, which is good enough for my small room, but if it's not, I can just hook up external amps laying around. Also, MultiEQ is great, and has just as much subwoofer correction as the more expensive MultiEQ XT... which is where EQ matters! Also, I don't care anymore about high quality upconversion that Reon offers, because all I watch is HD. The VGA PC input is incredibley useful in my situation also.
I really think Onkyo hit the nail on the head with this reciever. They downgraded the things I didn't need, added the things I wanted, and reduced the price compared to the NR1007. Nice.

The 1008 is on newegg today for $799.00 and free shipping. Last Sunday I noticed their discount amount changed the day after and it was 829.00 that day, 999.00 the next.

Thanks for the heads up!! Oh how I wish I had an extra 800 right now!

I just got my Onkyo 1008 this past week and got it up and and running over the weekend. So far I have been very happy with it but I have a question regarding the 2nd zone audio:

I hooked up two pair of in-ceiling speakers to the zone 2 amps and by themselves they sound just fine. but when I turn up the main zone (using the same source) there is a lag or difference in audio between the 2 zones.

I have only had time to try this with the Net/USB source playing Pandora...

Any ideas would be very helpful!