Easy to set up; banana plugs for all speaker connections; 3 digital connections; good power; well built; nice warm/full sound; midnight mode.

No S-video.

An excellent performer for the price. Well made with 2 year warrantee.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha RX-V490.

Simple setup, DTS, 5.1 inputs, Clean sound, inexpensive, Onkyo

Remote has small buttons, not back lighted, same brand only.

You're Kidding me. Some of these reviews are incredible. 4's and 5's I understand, maybe even 3's but there is no way this receiver deserves a 1. It is full featured and has clean sound. It has all the power one should expect from a 55 watt receiver. If there is a negitive it is the remote.

Similar Products Used:

Harman Kardon 330i,

Sound Clarity, High Current, Flexibility, adaptability, multiroom, etc.

Learning remote, DTS display

I love this system. It can not be beaten for the money. I recommend this purchase with other Onkyo products so that the remotes line up but that is not a major ordeal.

all very clean sound

only the remote

this to all the one star posters out there this is a great reciver i have audiotioned it for over 18 hours on two consecutiove days with all types of source material you can imagine i was using the local speakers made here and also the onkyo speakers alternatively and the sound has great amount of range and is very clean and do not expect a $300
reciver to give the dynamics of a 989 or 787 which is almost twice its power.unless you use good speakers you will not get good sound and do not blame the recivers for all you
audio problems

Similar Products Used:

onkyo 575x sony recivers,onkyo 989,373

Dual Banana Plug connectors for all speakers, High Current 55 X 5 watts, DTS, DD (AC-3), 2 Coax & 1 Optical connection, easy to read display, 6 channel inputs, Sound, Price (I paid $499+tx canadian the dollar amount shown elsewhere is converted to american.

For the price non.

I have listend to music and movies on this receiver and I am pleased with both. The DD & DTS movies are excellent. I have noticed that you have to turn it up louder for certain movies to hear whisper like dialog (I guess they are just recorded at lower levels).

My system consists of:
Onkyo Tx-DS484
Sony DVP550D DVD Player
32" Sony TV
Paradigm CC-150 Center Channel speaker
Paradigm Titans Surround
Paradigm Phantoms Main
Paradigm PS-1000 Sub

Excellent entry level receiver. I would recommend it to anybody with a budget of about $500 Canadian for a reciever.

Similar Products Used:

Sherwood, Yamaha, Sony, Kenwood

Inexpensive, easy operation, reliability, sounds good

Too little power for some? Not the best remote.

I am finally posting this review because I want to counter some of the one star reviews.

First of all, nobody should judge a receiver by how high you have to crank it to get the desired sound. Onkyo underdrives the amp in this thing, you can play it at 80 (out of 80) on the volume and it will not be clipping. This is in contrast to some sony, kenwood, etc products where they allow you to turn up the gain so high the amp is far overdriven. This is the "turn it up to 11" philosophy. I admit at first I was dismayed by having to use the upper 1/3 of the volume range because I wasn't used to it, but it turns out fine.

I am worried that the person who felt it had no bass perhaps had it set up wrong, maybe speakers were set to "small" with no sub or out wired out of polarity? It does not have stunning power but there is certainly no less power in bass than anywhere else.

Sounds good for music and movies with my Paradigm Atom setup. These are not that efficient and it will play plenty loud in a 15 x 20 room, although as I said I am running at 70/80 or so to play very loud.

It's easy to assign any digital in to any source as well as switch between analog / digital ins.

For some reason the "night mode" button is not duplicated on the remote. In general the remote is unintuitive and covered with identical buttons, 75% of them being devoted to commands for other Onkyo equipment.

This is a good sounding DD/DTS receiver at a very very low price point, price comparable to Sony / Kenwood stuff but it's definitely a notch up the mid-fi ladder.

Dual banana plug connections for every channel. Six-channel input.

Not for a very large room or very inefficient speakers. Not for you if you want a nice convergent system that you can run with one remote, due to no s-video or component inputs. Also, I fight with the surround mode selector a little bit, there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the defaults. When I go to AC-3 it likes to default to Stereo so I have to hit "Surround Mode" to go to 5.1, and when I go back to stereo music listening it defaults to pro-logic so I have to hit "Surround Mode" some more. No biggie but not seamless at all.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DE series, H/K

Excellent design, plenty of power, DD/DTS decoding, sounds as good for music as it does for movies.

Poor Remote, Only 3 Digital ins(1 opt, 2 Coax), No S-Video Switching

For an entry level reciever, the Onkyo TX-DS484 is an excellent choice. It is rated at 55 watts but I must say, that is a conservative estimate. I've cranked it to a little more than half and it was plenty loud. The remote that comes with it is very bad, and can only do basic reciever functions or basic control of other Onkyo brand equipment(of which I have none). I may be a learning remote or I may just stick with the included one. I like the fact that the reciever has analog dials for bass and treble control as it is much easier to adjust and I just like having dials instead of having to go into a digital menu to do adjustments. As far as inputs, it only has 3 Digital inputs, 2 of which I am already using(Coax for DVD, Optical for CD Changer) so that leaves me with one open Coax. This shouldn't be a problem for me as I don't plan on getting any more equipment but it may be for some. Also, this reciever doesn't do S-Video switching, only Composite. Again, since my TV has only on S-Video in and I have only one S-Video device to use(DVD player) it's not a problem but it may be if you have a ton of S-Video devices(of course you could always buy a third party s-video switching device). Lastly, I'm very impressed with this recievers performance for listening to audio cds. Unlike some of the Kenwood recievers, the 484 does just as good a job for music as it does for movies(it is great at DD/DTS movies I should add). I'm guessing that is due to onkyo's WRAT and the lower THD rating than the kenwoods. Anyhow, to sum it up, this is an excellent entry level reciever of very high quality. If the lack of S-Video and having only 3 digital ins doesn't effect you, look into the Onkyo TX-DS484.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood VR-407

Easy setup, clear user's guide; Sound is crisp, rich, and suits the speakers I have (infinity); No useless bells/whistles, very clean design

Pathetic FM antenna; some speaker settings have not saved when turned off.

A good buy - really like it, especially for $250.00!!

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood 55 watt receiver from about 10 years ago
100 watt Sony from about 5 years ago

Price, Sound Quality, all channel banana plug, DD, DTS Decoder, Enough power for normal use

For this price NONE!!

Great sound!! OK for 2 channel...but when you use DD or DTS you can't find anything close to this Onkyo.
Some people were complaining about the 2 channel sound and the remote...you shouldn't expect everything to be perfect!!
For this price, this is the best receiver for listening music..YAP...I said MUSIC...
For MOVIE people, this is not the greatest around these price range. You might wanna listen to Yamaha before purchasing this. Yamaha's DSP is incredible!! Very good surounding effect.
You should get this if you like to listen to music.
You should NOT get this if you like watching movies with great surrounding effect just like you are in the movie.
Spend $20 more and get YAMAHA or even Sony for their special surrounding effect.
But as being a musician, I love this receiver and there is nothing that beats this receiver. thanks

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Yamaha, Kenwood, Pioneer

Clean power output, High current amplifier, Built of quality grade parts, Low noise, Binding post,

this is the lowest priced Onkyo reciever therefore it does not have S-Video switching nor a universal remote, but for the price you cannot expect all of the bells and whistles.

Awesome reciever for the money! This reciever powers a cheap JBL SCS125 sat/sub speaker system in my bedroom. It is used for DVD, DSS, and ocassional music listening. I also own the TXDS575X in my living room powering Infinity CC2 center speaker, RS5 fronts, and QPS1 rears. All of the interconnects and speaker cable I own are Monster Cable which add to the sound quality. I work at Circuit City and sell many of the Onkyo products my customers are very happy with them and so am I. I recommend them highly

Similar Products Used:

Harmon Kardon, other Onkyo products