I have listened to both products side-by-side at home
I couldn't really tell much difference in quality between the two.
I might give h/k the musicality edge and Onkyo the H/T edge
The H/k has 3 sets of crossover frequencies so you can set you front, side and rear speakers at a different crossover. I think the options were 40,60,80,100,120 for each set.
The onkyo only has one set with the same options. Aside from this the onkyo is insanely configurable. Download the manual from onkyousa.com and take a look.
I did notice what I think is a bug in the decoding of the H/K. If you configure your receiver for 7.1 speakers and pop a 5.1 DTS disc in your dvd player, the recevier by default is supposed to use the DTS Matrix decoding to derive a 6th channel for your rear(s). Hoever the display showed DTS:Neo6 which is a decoding scheme for an analog/pcm/2 channel signal. I can't say for sure, but I think I was getting sound out of the rear but I dont know if it was actually decoding Matrix but displaying Neo6 or Decoding and displaying Neo6. Iim thinking it was the formar but either way, in my opinion its doing something incorrectly.
This happened as well on the 525, I havent checked the 520.
I was on the phone with Harman Kardon and they reproduced the problem so it was not isolated to only my unit. They were very dodgy as to admitting it was a problem.
Either receiver should have no problem driving those speakers.
THX is a nice to have, I wouldn't base your decision on it. If a receiver w/o thx sounded better than one that did, I'd take the one that sounds better.
If remotes are a concern, the onkyo's is 500 million times better...kay a little exageration. The h/k remote is horrid, especially close to the bottom where there is a 4x6 array of small, identically shaped buttons with osd in the middle. Oh, and the h/k remote is not backlit. Have fun in the dark with this one. The onkyo remote is backlit.
One last thing is the h/k uses a variable speed fan for cooling. I never heard it and the h/k stayed pretty cool. The onkyo on the other hand does not use a fan, but ran pretty hot (something I'm not used to)
I'm considering the Onkyo 800 myself, unless the new nad t762 comes out soon. I have also listened to the Nad T752 and is is a definte step up in audio but had a couple of issues.
I couldn't really tell much difference in quality between the two.
I might give h/k the musicality edge and Onkyo the H/T edge
The H/k has 3 sets of crossover frequencies so you can set you front, side and rear speakers at a different crossover. I think the options were 40,60,80,100,120 for each set.
The onkyo only has one set with the same options. Aside from this the onkyo is insanely configurable. Download the manual from onkyousa.com and take a look.
I did notice what I think is a bug in the decoding of the H/K. If you configure your receiver for 7.1 speakers and pop a 5.1 DTS disc in your dvd player, the recevier by default is supposed to use the DTS Matrix decoding to derive a 6th channel for your rear(s). Hoever the display showed DTS:Neo6 which is a decoding scheme for an analog/pcm/2 channel signal. I can't say for sure, but I think I was getting sound out of the rear but I dont know if it was actually decoding Matrix but displaying Neo6 or Decoding and displaying Neo6. Iim thinking it was the formar but either way, in my opinion its doing something incorrectly.
This happened as well on the 525, I havent checked the 520.
I was on the phone with Harman Kardon and they reproduced the problem so it was not isolated to only my unit. They were very dodgy as to admitting it was a problem.
Either receiver should have no problem driving those speakers.
THX is a nice to have, I wouldn't base your decision on it. If a receiver w/o thx sounded better than one that did, I'd take the one that sounds better.
If remotes are a concern, the onkyo's is 500 million times better...kay a little exageration. The h/k remote is horrid, especially close to the bottom where there is a 4x6 array of small, identically shaped buttons with osd in the middle. Oh, and the h/k remote is not backlit. Have fun in the dark with this one. The onkyo remote is backlit.
One last thing is the h/k uses a variable speed fan for cooling. I never heard it and the h/k stayed pretty cool. The onkyo on the other hand does not use a fan, but ran pretty hot (something I'm not used to)
I'm considering the Onkyo 800 myself, unless the new nad t762 comes out soon. I have also listened to the Nad T752 and is is a definte step up in audio but had a couple of issues.