Onkyo New AVR's TX-NR818,717,616 official Discussion [No Price Talk]Thread - Page 6

Onkyo has improved their reliability over the past couple of versions, but they still have some catching up to do. They give you a lot for the money, but you're also taking a bigger risk IMO.

Surprisingly I have had great luck with them. I own 5 AVR's from Onkyo I use for app development and this 5th one was the first to develop any issues. That does say a lot since the one I mainly use in the entertainment center is a TX-NR708 which has been dogged with severe reliability issues - but mine has been a stellar and solid performer since I picked it up a few weeks after it shipped.

The 609 was decent too, with just a few annoying network issues. I just didn't like how cheap it looked and felt compared to previous models. The 616 is a fine example of Onkyo refining the OSD of the unit, but it shared the cheap feel of the 609.

I'm hoping the 818 is more solid.

Well another guinea pig on board, just pre-ordered the 818 from Amazon.

I think that makes 4 of us guinea pigs now. lol

I'm in too. Wish we had a date...it is killing me.

No doubt, sold my 709 & moved my HT270 from my bedroom into the living room & miss the sub eq-ing in MultiXT. I'm anticipating a mid-May release.

The vendor I ordered from said beginning of May, the press releases say mid-May. Those estimates are better than Apple's. When they say "Ships in October" that usually means they roll out of the factory on October 31st.

I got an email from Amazon this morning saying to expect shipment by May 9.

Now, not sure how accurate this is, but I will say I use them for business mostly (over 75K a year in purchases) and I get emails like that on most big-ticket items I buy from them.

99% of the time, the dates are within 1-3 days of the item going out.

Take it for what its worth.

Good to know, but I had my 616 on preorder from them and three other vendors were shipping for nearly a week while my order was still in preorder status. I had to cancel and order from someone else.

My hat is off to you early adopters. I will sit back and await the reported successes/problems and buy when the price dips a few hundred $$$.

Some of us cannot afford to wait. I have an app for Onkyo receivers and need to get a new model every year to keep it up to date. I have them all in a stack on my desks with two others hooked up in the bedroom and living room.

You don't need to justify your reasons to me.

What I said was not meant to be taken badly... I'd rather wait and catch them on sale too.

To bad with their reliability. I really wanted to buy one of the receivers. I was going to buy the TX-NR709 until I've read so many reliability complaints at so many different forums and store product reviews.

Then I was going to buy the TX-NR609 because I was told it wasn't affected by the bug that affected the 709 and 809. In fact I was holding my order because the receiver was sold out and was waiting for it to be back in. In the mean time I read of so many problems with the 609, just as many if not more than the 709, I called the retailer and told them I wasn't purchasing it due to the reliabilility issues.

I had to go to another retailer and did find the Yamaha RX-A710 for about $100 more but it doesn't have THX or resolution up-conversion as well as the Onkyo. But it does offer an analog audio output recording loop and better input/output connection compatibility.

Would have really loved to get the TX-NR709 as that deal I could have got was absolutely unbeatable for the options and features that this receiver offered. The 709 was only $50 more than the A710 and that alone is what a phono preamp would cost.

The 609 and 709 offered the biggest bang for the buck but their reliability made me draw back from them unfortunately. I don't at all like the limited connections the new models offer and would never consider them but the older models TX-NR*09 was the best bang for the buck offered. When Onkyo gets their act together and makes a product that works correctly, then I may buy if they offer connection capability as they did on the TX-NR*09 series.

Onkyo, get your act together or people will have to cancel orders as I did. We don't need the hassle or the gamble if a product will work correctly.

Hello,
That is interesting that you read about a large number of reliability issues with the x09 Series as prior to the Recall which came at the very end of the production cycle, I had not read about very many issues with the x09's.

The x08 Series was another story with a number of folks affected by the Serial/IDE Cable issue, but I have not read about many needing further service after the repair of this dollar Cable which was a huge PR disaster.

My TX-NR3008 has been excellent and the TX-SR805 and 875 which I purchased around 5 years ago are both still working perfectly after selling them to friends who live nearby. I did have a B-Stock TX-NR3007 that had a strange HDMI issue that resulted in Onkyo exchanging it for the A-Stock 3008 I have now.

For those who are reticent to purchase Onkyo, the good news is there are a myriad of other choices out there. While my experience with Onkyo has been overwhelmingly positive, I realize not everyone has been so fortunate and will probably never purchase another Onkyo again.

I have a 708 that was one of the first batch that rolled off the assembly line. I never had a problem with it, and it's still running strong - but heard of lots of other people having issues. I even recommended it to a co-worker - they were later bitten by the cable issue.

My only observation about Onkyo is that they are buggy as hell when the new models are first released, but issues slowly get ironed out over several months and firmware updates. I had to wait a year for the HT-RC180/TX-NR807 "no sound" issue to be solved. Now that it has, it's been a super-reliable unit. The 708 is rock-solid after last years' firmware update and I was quite surprised that even after the X09 series was released, Onkyo still saw fit to add UTF-8 support, a new detection protocol, and DLNA search on the previous year's models... something they practically never do.

The 616 could have either a firmware bug or some other issue. It's going back tomorrow, but I hope the 818 will be more reliable.

That's just it. This time, the issue with the x09 Recall due to the Transistor Board happened in November, December, and January after the replacements had been announced. I know there are often little issues that FW Updates handle quickly handle when a Series is first released, but it is exceedingly rare for a Recall to come at the very end of a Series.

Yes, plus my dealer said they did have older stock and couldn't verify if their stock had the recall fix. So I just couldn't gamble on buying a new defective receiver.

To bad because the TX-NR709 was discounted $320 or 36% after shipping/tax was included! I did get my Yamaha at 25% discount after shipping/tax was included, which isn't to bad for that model.

I have the 801, and have luckily never had an issue. I'm looking at upgrading to the 818 possibly - so I hope it's as reliable as my 801 has been!

I just purchased an Onkyo TX-NR609 and although I thought I knew what I was doing hooking it up, it appears it does not work. I have a Cox HD Motorola cable box (component video output) and a Sony Blu Ray hooked up as component inputs 1 and 2 on the receiver. I then used the component video monitor output to send the signal to my Sony XBR9, but when doing so I get no picture at all. I can hook the sources up direct to the tv utilizing the same cables and in both cases get a picture, but when using the monitor output on the receiver I get nothing. Did I miss a set up or something? Anyone have any ideas?

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but I am looking to upgrade my 707 and was just about to purchase the 1009 when I saw the 818 was just around the corner. They are just about the same price (with closeout pricing) and seem to have the same specs. Other than XT32 on the 818 and 9 internal amps on the 1009 (vs 9ch preouts on the 818), are there any other note worthy features between the two? Could be a deciding factor for me as I already have a Parasound 2ch amp and really want XT32, I'm leaning toward the 818, is there any reason I should consider the 1009 over 818 other than possible even lower closeout pricing?

Also, will either one of these be a big improvment over the 707? I'm pretty sure the answer is 'yes' but I'll ask anyway.

The 818 has a built-in digital cross-over for bi-amping the fronts. If I were in your position I would get the 818.

It isn't clear what this crossover system is. One sees blurbs like this:


which is not a digital crossover. To use a true digital crossover would require an impossible amount of effort. Bi-wired speakers retain their passive crossovers internally, and efforts to bypass them would require surgery on the speakers - not something the average buyer is likely to contemplate. Further is is not possible to create a useful crossover without significant understanding of the speaker design. It isn't just a matter of picking a crossover frequency.

It is hard to come up with useful processing they might do that is specific to a bi-wire system. They might add their own additional crossover in a way that seeks to avoid sending the entire signal to both halves of the speaker, but otherwise keeping away from the speakers own crossover frequencies - something that will probably help reduce intermodulation distortion in their amps, but until we see real specs, and maybe some information in the manual it is hard to know.

are you SURE about that?

According to Onkyo, not sure how functional it will be.

^^^

link please...

30 second mark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fVMmxrjG6M

whats this hoopla about a half baked xt32???