Very happy so far and yes now running 5.2.4 - really can't believe the difference. I have downloaded some Atmos demo files and ordered the Atmos demo bluray just to get a full feel of what Atmos can do... but just the two movies I tested on just sounded so much better than the NR818. The sound is just amazing in my dedicated theater room. I can also confirm it runs much cooler than the NR818 which I had running just the 2 surrounds before (I have a 5 channel amp) in a 7.2 config

PM sent

Finally got not one, but two responses from Onkyo support, and they ended up having to reset my serial number for the website to work. I have now lost the ability to return the 818 for repair and my trade in offers are:

TX-NR787 ($419.40 USD)
TX-RZ830 ($779.40 USD)
TX-RZ920 ($899.40 USD)

Doesn't line up with what you were offered exactly, so weird. Less for the 920 and more for the 830, which would probably be my preference. Will have to seriously consider the 787 for half the price.

787 is a 9.2 channel, no?

9.2 without pre-outs for 11.2, so limited to 5.1.4 or 7.1.2. In the near term that may be all I would use, so I have to ask do I want to invest in the RZ that will be superseded by a new HDMI standard or take the cheap one to hold me over.

The weirdness continues. Two weeks ago the trade offers on my 709 were 2 receivers ~RZ830 @999 /NR787 for (iirc) 500(?).
I decided to take the 200 rebate and then ordered an RZ820 for 600 thru Amazon.

I am about to fill the forms and send for the mail-in; I took another look at the program and *NOW* my NR709 offers are exactly what you have. Which is to say that the offer values have changed in the last week or so and they've included more choices and better prices.
I've already purchased, so I'll stick with the 820 but I *would have* gone the other way for 779.


**However** clicking further shows that NOW the $200 rebate is now only $130, I didn't click/download/whatever two weeks ago so I guess I'm SOL, now.
Phuque me

Thank you for confirming that they are changing. I am so irritated with this process and have not decided on a way forward.

I'm a bit confused (and pissed) myself. I will maybe try to call them to see if the rebate ($200) in effect at the time of my Amazon purchase might be honored. I'm even considering the cost effectiveness of boxing up and returning the 820 to Amazon and then pursuing the 830 from Onkyo for $780 but what if they change it again?
As it is, the 820 cost $600 then minus the *new rebate of 130= $470
and the 830 from Onkyo is $780.
Do I deal with the hassle plus pay $310 more for two channels?
Or be happy with a new 820 and deal with it?

Still have not gone for this, but was about to pull the trigger today. When I started the process on the Onkyo page the offer has changed again, to now include the 630. I think the 730 was the one I was hoping for, so I need to go research the 630 to see what is up...

TX-RZ630 ($479.00 USD)
TX-NR787 ($419.40 USD)
TX-RZ830 ($779.40 USD)
TX-RZ920 ($899.40 USD)

The offer on mine has been updated the same, the rebate is still $130

What a sad experience I've had with my Onkyo PR-SC5507, a unit that seemed on paper to be an exceptionally great product. And when I spent weeks running side by side sound tests in my AV room against two or three other high end prepros is also was the best sounding. I was super happy with it.

But then . . .

First there was the issue with the endless loud mechanical relay clicking whenever inputs were changed, sound formats changed, or every time I pressed pause, stop, play, or skip on a DVD or my DVR. Drove me crazy and despite multiple statements by Onkyo that it was a manufacturing defect and then eventually that it was being fixed via a firmware update, this never happened. The issue was that any time an encoded digital stream such as dolby digital stopped or started, the processor would switch a loud mechanical relay. A stream stop followed by start meant two clicks. Skip ahead through a two minute commercial break in 30 second increments? 8 clicks. Fun. The only work around I found was to do digital audio decoding in the source devices and send raw bitstreams to the Onkyo but some devices were not capable of doing this. And it defeats much of the purpose of an expensive processor.

Then there were the occasional loud "pop" sounds coming from the unit that I eventually concluded were capacitors exploding. Why? Overvoltage? Cheap quality? Reversed direction? As the unit lost more and more caps I think the sound quality degraded.

Then the network connection became flaky and I had trouble getting it to connect or accept firmware updates, which I was desperate to receive in hope of solving the relay clicks.

Then the HDMI output started intermittently failing with no output. For some months it would come back alive after a few hard power resets and unplugs.

Then all the audio died and never would not come back. At this point I contacted Onkyo and they allowed me the honor of shipping it to them for repair at my cost since it was still within its original warranty. They changed out some circuit cards and sent it back to me.

Within a few days I started hearing caps pop once again so I figured they had simply replaced the faulty circuit cards with identical misdesigned copies. This continued for another few years and the pattern above repeated.

I was living in a different house than this sound system for a few years and when I went back this year to move it, the Onkyo died again, losing all audio output.

I learned about the extended program Onkyo has offered until 12/2018. At first I was happy to see that I might get my unit repaired or replace it at low cost. I don't really want a new unit until HDMI 2.1 is solid, in 1-2 years. But I have little choice because there is no repair option now. And the replacement options are all expensive, ranging from $1300 to $1900 plus tax. I looked up the offered units online, which included the high end Onkyo receivers and prepro, but the reduced Onkyo price with tax is nearly equal to the online sales price for brand new factory sealed units from factory authorized sellers, excluding the major players like Crutchfield and Bestbuy that are ~50% higher.

Hence if I use the Onkyo program I will be spending as much as buying the same new unit from a legit online seller. And I will be rewarding Onkyo for screwing me over badly on the PR-SC5507. And I will be signing up to possibly another product life cycle of pain.

It pains me greatly to scrap this Onkyo prepro before its time, and spend $2K+ to buy a new unit from Marantz, Yamaha, etc. Especially since that unit will not support HDMI 2.1 and hence in one year may be significantly obsoleted. I might instead buy a cheaper receiver with preouts and use that as a temporary solution until a good HDMI 2.1 prepro is released.

Maybe this whole idea of buying expensive and very complex high end prepros or receivers is dumb. Before the Onkyo I had a Denon receiver which is still alive but barely, and was taken out of my main system because shortly out of warranty is started having temperature related sound failures where it has to warm up for 5-10 minutes before audio works. So I swore not to buy another Denon. Before that I had a Sony ES receiver that shortly out of warranty has some failure that degraded sound quality and caused the front panel display to "fluctuate". So I swore not to buy another Sony.

And each of these units was only really technically good for a few years before they were missing some desirable new feature. Even if they hadn't been so terribly unreliable I would still have wanted to replace them every 3 years. Maybe the best compromise path is to keep with the separates approach using a really nice amp, but not buy a matching expensive prepro that will be too quickly obsolete or inherently unreliable due to complexity. There are many medium range receivers with preouts and they are much less expensive. I could buy, use for 3 years, sell, repeat, and always be technology current. Might give up a bit of sound quality but I'll bet there are some pretty good receivers for $500-1000, excluding their integrated amps that I don't plan to use.

Anyway, goodbye Onkyo. You now join my black list.

I did call Onk about the change of the rebate offer, pleading for the $200 rebate in effect when I purchased the RZ rather than the current $130 rebate. While the person that I spoke with seemed empathetic, he nonetheless said I was SOL. He confirmed this with a supervisor. IF—— I had performed the rebate sign up previously I could have secured the amount at the time. I didn’t expect it to change and I had a hard time deciding which way to go. When I ordered the RZ, though, I should have clicked the rebate link then. (That would’ve locked in the number) So, I studied my options, decided to keep the 820 rather than paying 300 more for the 830.
I went ahead and followed the rebate link. When you do this and provide the serial numbers etc, it generates a rebate process number (an “R#”) and that is what locks in your ‘deal’.
Note that a detail on the form(s) says that you have only 30 days from purchase of your new unit to send this rebate in! I had purchased the 820 and then got sent out of state for business. I had no idea about this 30 day req’mt and I almost blew it! I had thought that I had until 12/31 which is the end of the program. It looks like they’re likely to reduce the rebate even more so I’d get the rebate *now* if you are considering it.

I sucks that you've had such a bad experience with the prepro; My own time with Onkyo has been mixed, but overall a plus.


I started with a TX-SR674 which was actually a very capable machine with upscaling ad upconverting features that the competition could not touch in the same price range. After a while I learned (from this forum) of a problem that some folks had relating to using a PS3. I didn't have a PS3 but I bought the extended warranty that Onkyo was offering. Some time later I did get a PS3, had the issue, sent it in and got the fix installed, no charge. I posted about the experience in this forum. I had a huge issue involving shipping damage but that had nothing to do with Onkyo. The PS3 issue was a 'known' issue and it was repaired under warranty, I really couldn't complain about it as the machine was years old and got fixed. I upgraded to the NR709 as I now needed more HDMI switching. The 709 worked for years and then broke (no audio). Again, *this forum* alerted me to the 'known issue'... This lead to my participating in the rebate. Ideal? No. Horrible? No.
No matter if I *want to be* upset with Onkyo, this fact remains:


Looking back through my posts in this forum I found that I bought the NR709 Christmas 2011 as an upgrade to my TX-SR674. I did not buy any extended warranty. I've had this machine for SEVEN YEARS, and Onkyo is STILL providing some support in the form of a check... for a problem that didn't affect mine until THREE YEARS beyond the three Year warranty!
You'll never get support like that from Denon, Sony or Yamaha...

The first post in this thread states that Onkyo would repair units that were built as long ago as 2009. That's a 9 year warranty.......

I've owned many Onkyo pre-pros and had good luck with them all. An 885, 886, 5507 and 5508 over the years. Each one was purchased used, and only the 5508 got the new HDMI board. None of them needed it, but Onkyo swapped it out on the 5508 for free just in case, and because I asked. I still have the 5507 and 5508 in the closet, and both work fine. I understand why owners are unhappy about the failures, but IMO a company who would extend warranties for years, not require any proof of ownership, and pay for shipping (and a box) both ways to fix their products has done about all it can to stand behind its products. Of course, not everyone had the same good experiences as me, but stuff breaks.....its inevitable, and Onkyo stepped up, in my opinion.

So, if it helps, you are welcome to my 5507 to hold you over for a while, if you'll pay for shipping costs. PM me if you are interested.

Thank you very much for that generous offer. I went back and forth for the last few days about what I should do now that my 5507 is dead, and I'd concluded to not use the Onkyo offer to buy their current top of the line PR-RZ5100.

Alternative options included:
(1) Take you up on your offer to use your 5507. One downside of this approach is that I'm currently using a newish 82" Samsung UHD TV as the HDMI switch so I can run Apple TV 4K and other UHD sources. It would be nice to migrate to a newer receiver/prepro that can handle 4K HDR HDMI switching and has ARC to pass the audio from the built-in TV apps to the sound system.

(2) Buy an inexpensive (~$500) temporary 4K HDR receiver. Downside of this approach is that the receivers with the desired set of features at this price point don't tend to have a full set of preouts and I want to use my external amp.

(3) Buy a current prepro. I eliminated the Onkyo per above. Yamaha makes another option at ~$2700. Probably I would end up with a Marantz, either at ~$2500 or ~$4500. Downside of this option is that all the options are $2500+ and that's a lot to invest right now with HDMI 2.1 just around the corner.

(4) Buy a medium cost (~$1000) temporary 4K receiver with pre outs so I can run my separate amp. Downside is that it may not be quite as nice sound quality as a prepro such as the 5507 or modern versions and I will have to use RCA interfaces to my amp instead of XLR. But I could use it for a few years and then likely sell it for 25-50% of price. I was looking at various receivers from Yamaha and Marantz and then I found that the Marantz SR7012 (last year's model recently replaced by the SR7013) is on clearance sale for $1000 below MSRP. The feature differences appear quite minor. I placed an order and will test in my setup. Seems likely an SR7012 unit with MSRP $2200 could be sold for $500+ in 2-3 years so that seems like a reasonable cost for a compromise of immediate access to the latest technology, decent sound quality, and price.

Thanks again for offering your 5507! I ended up deciding to try option (4) for now, but it was a close race.

Now what do I do with my ~no audio~ NR709?
Sell to the steelmonger down the street? Salvage caps and other components?
Have it repaired? (Definitely my preference)
Put it on ebay for others so inclined?

My NR807 that has always been exposed to open air (Never in a rack) just started going to the "pure audio" route on startup that results in no sound and needs power pulled or a restart to get sound going.

The rebate offer is a joke.

Which one of these would you guys take?

TX-RZ630 ($479.00 USD)
TX-NR787 ($419.40 USD)
TX-RZ830 ($779.40 USD)
TX-RZ920 ($899.40 USD)

I'm leaning towards the 630 because it seems like a good deal. I only have a 3.1 setup at the moment, but will be moving in July, so might be able to finally do a nice surround system like I've always wanted to. With that in mind, would you go 830 for that price? Thanks for any help.

To close out my story, sort of, I took the exchange for the RZ830 and sent in my serial number. I will say that the RZ830 build quality seems pretty pathetic compared to the 818 it replaced, and they are trying to sell this for nearly double what an 818 cost new. The 830 is smaller, much, much lighter, has a sad little discount store remote control, can only drive 2 channels full power, and seems to require toggling inputs to get it to perform a successful HDMI handshake, even with proven HDMI cables. I think Onkyo will be out of business before too long. This is definitely my last product after having an Integra pre-pro flake out and the 818 lose all audio.

The receiver is a huge "paper weight" AGAIN!
this thing was in repair shop 3x already and was told by Onkyo i have exhausted the free "extended" warrranty repair option.
so I am wondering what is wrong with this company if they can't fix this?
how do they expect someone to go back to Onkyo and buy another of their products?


I think my lesson is : Onkyo? NEVER AGAIN!!

Hello, I own TX-NR818 and suddenly it's not powering up. When I press POWER ON button I hear relay click and LCD display starts to work, but after a few seconds relay clicks again ant amplifer shuts it down.

What I can check ? Is it possible that problem is with power board (that one which connects to AC directly) ? I opened the cover and checked (with tester) all fuses I can check, but none of them was bad.

The Receiver is going into "Protect Mode". The most likely cause is a blown channel. Repair would likely involve replacement of up to 6 transistors, a couple of resistors and a couple of capacitors. The good news is that the total cost for parts would likely be under $30 but it would take about 2 hours of a tech's time so they would probably charge over $400.


I have fixed many of these and while the repair isn't difficult, the parts are located deep within the Receiver so it has to be almost completely torn down. On top of this, there are 7 channels so you would need to be comfortable enough with electronics to know how to diagnose which channel is bad and then identify which parts need to be replaced. Of course, you would need to have soldering skills as well.



Sorry to be the bearer of bad news....



Todd

I bought a TX-NR1009 in spring 2011 and it worked faithfully and perfectly until this fall when suddenly on power-up it would sometimes not have any sound. If I let it warm up and then power-cycle it would sometimes work (random). I was pretty sure it was the known defective chip problem. I put my serial number into the Onkyo site and they sent me a box and shipping label. I got it back a couple weeks ago as good as new. Total cost: $0. I’m pretty thrilled that Onkyo has supported these receivers for such a long time. Also glad I beat the end-of-2018 deadline!

Hi,
My community clubhouse has a DTR 20.3. It just started to experience the No Sound or Network issue.



1. My initial serial number check said it wasn't covered. I emailed Onkyo, they said:


"Please contact your original dealer/installer or locate your local dealer using this site and tell them you would like to take part in our special service program and they should be able to offer you an option for this issue."


I replied that the original dealer went out of business. But a lookup showed a different local one, also an authorized local repair center ~20 min



Anyone have a similar case where they were initially denied repair, but then were able to get it?




2. If the warranty repair is ultimately denied, I assume an out of pocket repair is at least a few hundred dollars. I've read some cases where even repair units have later had problems. Any consensus on whether to do the repair? Or, use the money instead to purchase a new receiver? There are no new technical features that we need (4K, Atmos) that would make a new receiver desirable.




3. In the short term, does anyone know if the HDMI does pass-through of the audio, or does it remove it? In the meantime, I'd like to use the DTR 20.3 to still performing switching of video sources, but then use the internal speakers of the TV for the audio. We have a Sharp 70" tv, and when connected to the DTR 20.3, it gets picture but no sound. If I connect a video source (cable box or BD player) directly, picture and sounds are fine.


Family members have Onkyo HT receivers, and with Sony TV's, I know it will play sound passed-through the receiver (ie when it is off) fine). When the TV is changed from TV Speakers to Audio System, the tv sound goes off, and it switches on the receiver, and I get sound from it.
Since sound works find with a direct connect, I'm not sure if it's a TV setting that's stopping sound when it's connected to the HT receiver. The TV's HDMI port does support ARC, though I'm not sure that's involved.



Thanks for any help.


Jeff

Interesting question. I have never tried this but it could conceivably work. You would need to open the "SETUP" menu, scroll down to the "HARDWARE SETUP". From there, open the "HDMI" option and turn "AUDIO TV OUT" to "ON".



I have fixed dozens of these (including a 20.3) and there is no way to bi-pass the DSP (that I have found) but this might actually work. Essentially, this approach would instruct the HDMI Receiver to route all audio through to the HDMI Transmitter so it might not care if the DSP chip is working.

If you do this, you are essentially using the Integra as a video switch so you may want to play around with the HDMI Control as well. I use HDMI Control on my units so that the receiver automatically turns on when I turn my TV/Satellite system on. It saves me having to bounce between remotes.


HTH
Todd

I have the TX-NR809 that I bought in 2012. It is still working fine but I thought I would just see if it was eligible for the repair and entered the serial number just a few minutes ago and found they are no longer repairing them. I have never used the onboard amps except for the first week of ownership and then I went to outboard amplification for all channels since then. So obviously the unit stays as cold as the air temp in the room for obvious reasons. Has anyone else done this and if so is your unit still working or did the problem happen anyway? I ask because I thought maybe heat is an issue and that it could hurry the failures.

A couple of clarifications:


1) their are two major causes of DSP failure:

a) The first is heat related and results when the HDMI board sustains a slight warp due to heat which causes the solder ball connections of the DSP to break free. This type of fault is repairable. Some people apply heat which can cause the board to flex back to a point where the DSP makes contact. This is only a temporary solution with the permanent fix being to reball or reflow the DSP.

b) The second, and most important, cause of DSP failure is simply that the chip wears out prematurely. One of the Service Advisories I read described the issue as "too few CPU buffers which wear out and cause premature failure of the chip".

The symptoms of both are the same (loss of network, USB and sound) but the actual Onkyo recall was aimed to fix the second issue. The first issue is inherent in the use of Silver based solder and can happen even to chips (D rev) that are not prone to early wear out.

2) I think you may simply be lucky. I have fixed close to 50 Onkyo Receivers and every one of them applied full voltage to the Power Transistors shortly after the Receiver was turned on. While it is true that if they are not passing sound, they won't generate as much heat, they are still generating significant heat. In fact, one of the final steps in a Receiver repair is to dial in the Idling Voltage. To do this, you remove all inputs and disconnect all speakers and then let the amp section warm up for 5 minutes before adjusting the idling voltage. I can tell you categorically that even with no load, these chips are still heating up.

In my experience, the "bad" DSP chips seem to last up to 17,000 hours but not much more. You can view how many hours of service your Receiver has by holding the "DISPLAY" button and then pressing the "ON/STANDBY" button. Within 3 seconds, press the "SETUP" button and the Receiver should display the number of hours it has been powered on. On some models, you need to press the "SETUP" button a second time to see this. BTW, this menu will also show you the temperature the Receiver last measured. To exit this menu, simply turn the Receiver off. If you press the "RETURN" button, it will erase all counters making it impossible to keep track of your hours of use.


When I repair an Onkyo with a DSP failure I first check the hours of use to determine how much life is left in the chip. If the number is too high, I replace it. If it is low, I reball the chip and reinstall it.

HTH
Todd

Wow, Thank you for the detailed explanation. I will check to see how many hours I have on the unit and will keep an eye on it. I do use it allot so I would imagin I would be fairly close after six years of use. I will post back with my hours of use. Thanks, Tom.

I checked and the reciever has 12,533hrs on it. I will post back if I have any issues on my way to 17,000hrs.

I was able to change the setting of TV Audio Out to ON, but that didn't get me any sound. I don't know if that means there's an issue elsewhere.


Also, I wasn't able to get the trick to show the runtime in hours to display. Assuming I get the unit repaired, I'll pass that on. Maybe they know about it. As mentioned, could be a decision between resolder and board replacement.



Now to email back Onkyo, and see if they can help me.


Jeff

Well, my 808 has finally succumbed to the "no audio" issue. I couldn't remember how long Onkyo extended the warranty for this issue, so I was excited to see that I still had until the end of the year to get it repaired. I confirmed that my serial number does qualify, but now I see that they aren't offering repairs anymore. I called Onkyo, and they confirmed that the parts for the repair aren't available anymore, so my only option is to get $130 toward the purchase of a new AVR. Now I'm trying to decide between a new Onkyo TX-RZ830 and the Denon AVR-X4400H. Any opinions either way? I know I won't get the $130 rebate if I go with the Denon, but I don't think I really care at this point.