I was excited to see this when it first came out - Decent power and network streaming at a decent price. Then I got it a few months ago and have been fairly disappointed by its streaming capabilities.
Here are a few major shortcomings:
A squeezebox radio connected to one of their non-network capable receivers will give you a ton more functionality (none of the above problems).
I sent the following email to their support on July 5th. Although the support rep is friendly, obviously their engineering/firmware people are not very interested. They came out with 2 firmware updates since July 5th, both of which did nothing for these issues.
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AAC streams (High Efficiency AAC streams, aka AAC+, HE-AAC, etc.) are missing the high end audio component, making the audio sound very muffled and completely lacking any treble response. AAC-HE uses spectral band replication and parametric stereo to simulate components that are removed during the compression. It is as if the Onkyo TX-8050 understands the AAC stream (because it will play it), but is missing the spectral band replication and parametric stereo function of the AAC codec.
As noted on the following Wikipedia page about AAC-HE, other older components have this same problem (this line describes exactly what the TX-8050 is doing):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Ef...d_Audio_Coding
Older versions of Apple iTunes, iPod Touch, and iPhone will play HE-AAC files at reduced fidelity because they ignore the spectral-band replication and parametric stereo information, instead playing them as though they were standard AAC-LC files without the high-frequency, or "treble," information that is only present in the SBR part of the signal.[citation needed] These will report the track length as twice its actual length.
I would expect that the Onkyo TX-8050 should support AAC-HE, as that standard has been around for many years and is commonly being used for many internet streaming radio stations.
Here are a few test URLs to demonstrate what I’m talking about – Both are the same 40k AAC+ stream:
-Direct stream link for the TX-8050: http://u15b.sky.fm:80/sky_the80s_aacplus (this will sound flat)
-Web based stream so you can hear what it is supposed to sound like: http://www.sky.fm/play/the80s (this will sound normal)
Another issue is that it only establishes network connectivity every other time it is powered on. I have a static IP assigned to it. It establishes the physical ethernet link, but it is not even pingable at its static IP. As I stated, this occurs every other time the receiver is turned on, thus requiring me to turn it on and off twice to make it usable each time.
The AAC-HE issue will simply be disastrous for Onkyo if it can’t be fixed...No one will want a streaming audio device that can’t stream half of anything out there. I’m not sure if I had a partially failed firmware update and/or if this is just specific to my unit (I doubt it), but I would be happy to help you with whatever you need to address these issues.
Thanks!
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I've always loved Onkyo products, and this one still has potential with new firmware, but wanted to warn prospective buyers as to what they are getting...
Here are a few major shortcomings:
- Network connectivity only happens every other time you power on the device, whether it's DHCP or a static IP (how did they miss this?) Beyond being annoying, it also will lose the position in your playlist if you are DLNA streaming.
- AAC+ streams have no treble whatsoever - They obviously either didn't implement the AAC codec correctly or are using a very old version. This is very bad for internet streaming audio, as many online stations (including my own!) sound horrible.
- No processing of replaygain - What this means is that your collection of music that you stream locally off of DLNA will be all over the place on audio level.
- No crossfading for DLNA streaming. Not horrible, but annoying waiting for one song to completely finish with the silence at the end before the other starts.
A squeezebox radio connected to one of their non-network capable receivers will give you a ton more functionality (none of the above problems).
I sent the following email to their support on July 5th. Although the support rep is friendly, obviously their engineering/firmware people are not very interested. They came out with 2 firmware updates since July 5th, both of which did nothing for these issues.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
AAC streams (High Efficiency AAC streams, aka AAC+, HE-AAC, etc.) are missing the high end audio component, making the audio sound very muffled and completely lacking any treble response. AAC-HE uses spectral band replication and parametric stereo to simulate components that are removed during the compression. It is as if the Onkyo TX-8050 understands the AAC stream (because it will play it), but is missing the spectral band replication and parametric stereo function of the AAC codec.
As noted on the following Wikipedia page about AAC-HE, other older components have this same problem (this line describes exactly what the TX-8050 is doing):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Ef...d_Audio_Coding
Older versions of Apple iTunes, iPod Touch, and iPhone will play HE-AAC files at reduced fidelity because they ignore the spectral-band replication and parametric stereo information, instead playing them as though they were standard AAC-LC files without the high-frequency, or "treble," information that is only present in the SBR part of the signal.[citation needed] These will report the track length as twice its actual length.
I would expect that the Onkyo TX-8050 should support AAC-HE, as that standard has been around for many years and is commonly being used for many internet streaming radio stations.
Here are a few test URLs to demonstrate what I’m talking about – Both are the same 40k AAC+ stream:
-Direct stream link for the TX-8050: http://u15b.sky.fm:80/sky_the80s_aacplus (this will sound flat)
-Web based stream so you can hear what it is supposed to sound like: http://www.sky.fm/play/the80s (this will sound normal)
Another issue is that it only establishes network connectivity every other time it is powered on. I have a static IP assigned to it. It establishes the physical ethernet link, but it is not even pingable at its static IP. As I stated, this occurs every other time the receiver is turned on, thus requiring me to turn it on and off twice to make it usable each time.
The AAC-HE issue will simply be disastrous for Onkyo if it can’t be fixed...No one will want a streaming audio device that can’t stream half of anything out there. I’m not sure if I had a partially failed firmware update and/or if this is just specific to my unit (I doubt it), but I would be happy to help you with whatever you need to address these issues.
Thanks!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've always loved Onkyo products, and this one still has potential with new firmware, but wanted to warn prospective buyers as to what they are getting...
