(this is the 575X model) remote, s-vid, good looking unit,plenty of inputs,5 year warranty.

been to exited to find one yet

Only had the 575X for 4 weeks and the neighbours have moved in already, they figure they may as well see the movie as well as hear it. The sound is awesome.I am running it with
JBL Studio fronts and center..JBL-CM42's rear..
Yamaha YST-SW320 subwoofer.....and i can say that after 3 months of listening to so many different av/receivers and speakers, this was a match i am more than happy with.The learning remote has taken place of 5 remotes.I gave it a 4 star overall rating because the wife can't drive it.......is that a bad thing :)

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plenty to choose from in the price range,but don't bother.

lots

no s-video, the 575x with s-video is out no, why not 7 months ago when i bought mine :{

I am extremly pleased with this reciver, there are others that I consider in it's league that are made by people such as marntz and denon, but they cost more and have a more refined feel and more toys for the extra money. For a no frills preformer this is the reciver of choice, extremley clean powerful amps. e.x. My friend just bought a Sony STR-DE945 of a website for 400 bucks, would be about 500 in the stores, extremly dirty amp, mine can put out cleaner sound at the same levles than his can. Once again, he has alot of bells and whistels that I can't say are worth the scarfice of fidelity. Not an extremley musical reciver, but clean, kind of monotone, but I don't have very good components hooked up to it. Killer 5 channel soround sound music mode, don't listen in stereo anymore, if you listen to music as much as you do movies and are going sournd sound then make sure whatever you buy has a 5 chanel stereo mode. Very good dsp decoders for pcm, dts and dolby digital. all other dsp modes but 5 channel stereo mode are worthless. hope this helps the real audio enthuiast looking for a soround reciver but the right one. i'm out, peace

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to many to name

Nice clean power, easy user interface, no silly bells and whistles

a tad underpowered, some units have a hiss... mine doesn't.

This receiver is a great little guy for under $300. I am pleased with it's performance. If you're considering a Pioneer, or Sony, or anything in that range, I would definitely buy this over them. Onkyo tends to inflate their power ratings much less than most other brands (ie: this receiver has more power at 70 watts per channel than a Pioneer at 110 watts per channel.) Onkyo uses high current power, and it's very very nice. I personally prefer the Denon now, and intend to buy one since lightning has killed my Onkyo

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Denon AVR1800, Pioneer 608

Price; sound; build quality; learning remote

no S-video inputs; no binding posts for surround speakers

I have had this receiver for about 4 months and love it. It has fantastic sound (no hiss whatsoever) and for the price cannot be beat. The remote is incredible -- you can program it to control any other remote for any other componant (any brand) that you may own. The receiver is build like a tank and very heavy. It has never even gotten warm even after heavy usage. The fact that there are no s-video inputs isn't even much of a weakness. I only have s-video source so I hook that directly into my TV anyway. Depsite only being 70 Watts per channel, that is still plenty of power. However, I do live in a NYC apartment, I am not sure if it would suffice for a much bigger living room. In any event, I thik you can't go wrong with the 575 and for its price, I don't think that you cna beat it.

Allan

** Realize This is the 575-X not the 575 ** ie
SVIDEO SVIDEO SVIDEO
Auto detects in Dolby Dig (with digital inputs)
Clean sound ample power no heat clean front assignable digital inputs. actually EVERYTHING is good!

No Pre outs for additional amps, but honestly for the money can i really ask for more?

Onkyo really improved upon this model. The Svideo in a definate plus something that astounded me. As with Onkyo their amp is a workhorse that supplies clean consitent power. This is the best you get at this price point. There is no way anyone can say a sony,pioneer,technics,aiwa,kenwood will be able to either outperform or have better sound quality than what this reciever has. look no further this puppy has it all for the price and i am surprised onkyo isnt asking for more .. thankfully =)

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Sony STRDA-555ES, YAM RXV595, ONK TXDS575 (original 99 stock)

Learning remote replaces all of your remotes. the ability to turn on and setup all of your components with just one button.

Not very powerful...but if you care about your hearing, it does not matter.

I'm back...I xchgd my JVC RX8000VBK for this ONK TXDS575X. This is the new model which does have S-Video (4 INS and 2 OUTS)and has lit (or lighted) remote which the previous model had neither. I truly enjoy the features of this reciever, especially the LEARNING remote. Before I had 4 remotes which controlled a Mitsubishi VCR, a Panasonic DVD, an Aiwa Mini-System, a Gen. Instruments Cable Box and a Mangovox TV. Now, I just use the Onkyo learning remote which controls everything....IT'S INCREDIBLE!! You can even program the remote to turn on your entire entertainment system with just one button!

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JVC RX8000VBK

Price. Good dynamic range. Mid-fi clarity/detail. Resonable build quality in heat sink and transformer. More for HT than music.

Poor QC - hissing & poor soldering. Signal bleeding from tuner/video1. Not truly high current (4-6ohm). Spring clips. Interface too dependent on front panel.

I own a Marantz 8000. For kicks, I swapped receivers w/my neighbor who was gaga about his new Onkyo.

Yes Virginia, there is hissing. Lowish levels that don't change w/volume til near the max volume (last 10dB). Near the max a sudden increase to very annoying hiss levels.(It's not the set-up - The Denons and Marantz' were DEAD quiet under identical circumstances.) Noticable cross talk between tuner and video 2 - had to unplug tuner's antenna to watch VCR. Annoying during quiet passages. Similar to the Yamaha 795a in these respects - about same hiss and cross talk. The monitor output RCA jack was flaky - I checked the cable. Nope. It was the solder job on the jack -cold joint. Told my friend to exchange the unit. He did. W/the new unit, we tested it in my system. Louder hissing and no crosstalk. Granted, at low abolute levels, but noticable at a few feet at a reference level SPL of 70dB (hissing was about 20-30dB). My friend exchanged it AGAIN -still crosstalk w/the least hissing so far at normal levels. This unit had loose binding posts that nearly unscrewed from the chassis - I did my friend a favor and tighten these for him and re-soldered the connectors. Same Kimble cable, same NHT towers. Sporadic QC from Onkyo. The hissing we found (from Onkyo) is related to poor grounding. Your results may vary-but that is not a good sampling.

As far as performance goes, it's ok - that's right OK. This in no way can be compared to a $1000 Denon (D)or Marantz(M). It's a $300-$400 receiver, street price. The clarity is fair, about as good as a Kenwood or Yamaha, maybe a little mushy or dull. Doesn't have very sharply defined instrumental voices of the D or M. Complex vocals (opera) can get bottle-up. Imaging also fair. Perhaps a little dark when pushed hard (all the others go bright) - doesn't distort like a Kenwood or Pioneer. You get what you pay for: adequate performance about on par w/ Pioneer, Kenwood, Yamaha.

As far as the high current capabilties goes, the receiver was never meant for nominal 4 ohms, but my 2.5i's are 6 w/a few 4 ohm dips. Tough for the receiver - got hot. Loses bass punch than a Yamaha provided. Sounded a little winded.

For completeness, I hooked up the Onkyo to NHT bookshelfs in my HT set-up. Better dynamic range and bass, still not as much as the Yammie. Quite suitable for HT. RE-EQ useful.
DD and DTS decoders worked fine, again maybe not as detailed as I am accustomed to. The dynamic power was a little lacking - the "blowed up" scenes level off a bit as well as orchestral bursts. Higher sensitivity speakers (>86dB) will fair better. My iota is that the 575 is marketed as a high current receiver.

Lastly, the interface is a bit cumbersome. While the Onkyo has the best remote in its class (even better than some higher class receivers like Denon) by far, the set-up needs a manual and quite alot of front panel work, which diminishes the benefit a good remote. Speaker set up, some tuner options, RE-EQ, latenight can only be accessed from the front panel and it's not clear when those things are on/off. Even some cheaper receivers Kenwood and Pioneer, have a better interface w/bad remotes!

Overall, it's a fine receiver in it's price range. Better than the Pioneer or Kenwood, in that it doesn't distort or blare when run hard. Between the Yamaha and Onkyo, the 795a is clear and detailed w/a tendency to brightness and sibilance, whereas the Onkyo a little inarticulate. For music, both are flawed, but adequate. For HT, the 795a's clarity and dynamic power/range win out. The onkyo can be little dull, needing perhaps, a treble boost rather than RE-Eq. Too bad the Re-Eq isn't on the Yamaha. Anyway, I'd dock one point overall for QC - Onkyo clearly had problems in this case. Then, it gets hard. Comparing on an absolute scale, this receiver is NOT in the same class as $800-$1000 receivers: it would be a 2 or 3. On a relative scale, I'd placed it about above average in its class from the sampling of receivers I listened to, making it about 4 w/o the QC considerations. Poor QC is a very frustrating experience and real problem. Most people would not be as patient as my friend and I were. Three receivers from 2 different stores is enough of a sampling.

I am a real person w/o a vendetta against Onkyo. After 2 weeks of this, I had to share this experience. At least, I am finally re-united w/my excellent Marantz receiver. You don't really know what you have until you've lost it.

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Marantz 7000, Marantz 8000, Denon 2800, Denon 3300, Yamaha795a, Kenwood 309, Pioneer 608

Great, transparent sound.

Hiss, overall QA and customer service/dealer support

This is a re-review. Sorry, I know it says only one, but I am actually reviewing another unit and am starting fresh. I had given my first try at this unit a thumbs down, noting a monster hiss. Now for all you pea-brains who flamed me last time suggesting line conditioners, quality speaker cable, brain operations to remove the tumor, etc., let me repeat what no one obviously bothered to read when I published the first one - I DID ALL THAT STUFF, DUMBASSES!!!!! And I A - B'd the unit with other brands(Sony, Kenwood, Pioneer) that did not hiss. I did this also with different brands of cable, all audiophile quality. I connected various combinations of different input devices and speakers. I moved it away from the TV. Took it to work where due to the all the sensitive electrical equipment everything is conditioned out the wazoo. I consulted with the audio guys where I bought it(Ciruit City), who were fairly nice and knowledgeable, and dutifully tried their every recommendation. I did exhaustive sets of substitutions and controlled tests, hoping that the problem was something I could fix. Still hissed.

Called Onkyo support. Got to an internal guy who admitted that there was a grounding problem with a number of these units(as well as some of the other models), and that if I sent the unit back for service that there was a factory supplied grounding fix that would be applied. He also stated that even though they were telling people to do this there was no "official" bulletin or publication stating this. And he would not comment on the random nature, distribution of defectives, or what was at the root of the problem. Obviously, unless you were persistent enough to ignore the boneheads telling you that the hiss was imagined you weren't going to get any information given out voluntarily. As it was, I never even got the old unit back, since when CC service got it they kept it and swapped it out for a new one. Which didn't hiss by the way. Gee, isn't that odd?

Actually, I've gotten to really like this receiver now that I've got one that works. Unlike some, I like the 5 channel stereo, and the HT performance is also very good, although some DVD's are such that sometimes I crave just a bit more power. Remote is adequate, maybe better than that. I just don't think about it that much. I like the programmability. As many have commented, no bananas for the rears strikes me as an odd feature to have cheaped out on, but given everything else it isn't all that surprising. Can live without S-Video's although I will admit they would be nice to have. The big plus is the sound for music - without a sub, bass would be a little light, but with a decent one it's fine in my book. All my CD's sound really fresh, and I can hear stuff that just seemed to elude me before.

Anyway, I rate this unit a bit better than the first time. Give it 5 for value, but overall they get docked a point for questionable loyalty to their customers. Just putting up a silent front to see if anyone will complain and dealing with it on a one to one basis pretty seems hard to excuse, even if the product seems to have stabilized. My own hunch is that some kind of corner was cut during the manufacturing process, and then restored when it became evident that it was going to burn them.

But the category I wish I had here is a rating for the die hard fans of this product, who rated a -5. I had a mail from a guy who had a similarly challenged unit bench tested against newer models and other brands and saw all kinds of red flags. Another who did similar things as I did, but was having trouble getting the place he bought it to even accept it for service. For every person spewing multiple spams against this unit, there were people who obviously were making reasoned, methodical tests - and getting shouted down. Or the print equivalent, often by people who did not include email addresses at the time. People who project their own experiences on everyone else are in the same league as those who argue that because not everyone who smokes dies of lung cancer there is obviously no health risk. Right. Or that a car model with a documented history of defects is a great buy because they weren't among those who got the recall notices. If you didn't see the same result, say so. That is your privilege. But if your self esteem is such that you need to belittle someone who doesn't supply you with positive reinforcement on your purchase, you need to think about acquiring something that resembles a life. In spite of that, I'm going to rate this product pretty highly. It deserves to be judged on its own rather than by its associations.

Good sound,well built,remote.

None so far.

This is a very good sounding reciever.I use the 5 channel
stereo all the time and it sounds great if you have the right rear speakers.Ive had no problem with hiss or the
treble.IM sure there are better recievers out there but for the price I'll stick with the Onkyo.For reference along with the 575, I have infinity rs 5's for the front, rs 4's
for the rear and a cc3 center.Im currently looking for a sub
to round it out.

The word "Onkyo" on the face plate.

This receiver is nothing compared to my Harman/Kardon AVR 40.

I wanted to replace my H/K Pro Logic receiver with DD and DTS. I went to Circuit City, but all they had in my price range was the TX-DS575...what a piece of crap. I pratically had to turn it all the way up just to get a desired listening level...the sound is so muffled. "Where's the treble?" That's all I can say. The word Onkyo has become so famous that they cut there quality and expected buyers not to notice...tsk tsk tsk. I'll take it back tomorrow and buy a new Harman/Kardon (A real receiver)

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Harman/Kardon AVR 40