Price, Sound

none so far

I recently upgraded my system because I wanted a true home theater setup. After some research both here and in the stores one receiver kept coming up - Onkyo TX-DS575. I had a limited budget (under $500) and after listening in the store I purchased it.

It now rests happily in my entertainment center with myself grinning from ear to ear. Coupled with Paradigm speakers all around the sound is magnificent. I like everything about this receiver.

Bottom line is you get a great receiver for under $500 dollars. Speakers, wire and interconnects brought the grand total to about $1700.00. Give it a listen.

Similar Products Used:

Mid 80's Sansui

S-Video (european model), 5ch Stereo, SOUND !!!!!

Rear speakers plugs

A very impressive receiver, excellent with any speakers.
Simple to use and to configure, cheap and well made.
Good DD & DTS decoders.
And most of all, THE SOUND IS GREAT !!!!
It sounds far better than any of the receivers I tested in its price (Sony 830/930 , Yamaha 595, Technics 930, Pioneer 808).

A little "hiss" at high volume, but nothing really noticeable (do you usually hear movie et +60 ?).
Lack of good rear speaker plugs (a pitty !), of OSD, and of a Digital Out plug.

Sorry for the no-Svideo US model ! (First time I feel lucky to buy European model product).

I can only strongly recommand it for a first amp (and then a Marantz SR-14... I've started to prey for X-Mas).

(Used with a Panasonic A360 DVD-player and Magnat Vector 77 sourround set and Audiolink OFC cables).

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Tested all receivers for the same price.

The strengths of this unit are it takes the best of what is available in new technology and puts it in a package that will offer the best use of it.

I hate saying it, but during certain movies the audio cuts out for a few seconds. I have had it in the Circuit City repair shop once. It still does it even after that. I have a feeling it could be my DVD player, but do not have a good way of proving it. Any suggestions on why this problem occurs I would love it. The only other one is the rear speaker connections. My Monster Cable cable is almost too big for it, but I need that big of wire for overall clearity.

I chose this reciever after about 6 months of looking around for a whole theater system. I wanted to buy at least the 5 main speakers and reciever in one shot. The better TV and Sub-woofer will come later. I bought Boston CR-9's mains, CR-6's rears, and CR-2 center at the same time of this receiver. It was obvious after awhile that 575 had the best package out there. The WRAT capabilities really show off the Boston's neutral sound. In movies every nuance of even the most demanding stuff is crystal clear. The two movies I love watching on this reciever are Blade and the Matrix.

I love the fact that I can switch the reciever to any digital source without the source playing and turn up the volume all the way and only hear just a faint clicking noise. Absolutely no hiss.

I had an first generation Aiwa surround system that was one of the first to have surround sound in the industry. It had three DSP sound fields. After that experience I was not actually excited to see a reciever being able to juggle several DSP fields. It alters the music too much for my taste. Give me a reciever that keeps it basic and can still do what the 575 does any day and I will buy it every time.

This reciever technically is entry level by the price tag, but after reading up on it by several audio magazines, it is much more than entry level. I would recommend it seriously for a first time buyer who wants to get their feet wet in the audio world.

I don't think that reciever's job is to switch video sources as a rule. I like the idea that Onkyo does not have anything but the basic RCA video inputs and outputs. Besides as technology goes there is composite video in new TV's and DVD's. Why would you want the reciever to be one more link in the connection to degrade the sigal how ever faint it would be on any video source.

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First serious reciever, but looked at Sony and Yamaha

clean power, solid build quality, nice array of features

no S-video, crappy spring posts for rear speakers, slight hiss, lousy sub pre-out

Purchased this 100 w.p.c. (into 6 ohm) receiver from Circ. City for $450 (with five year blow out warrantee). I must say the build quality is excellent for a receiver in this price range. I've had little problem powering my highly inefficient adiophile grade speakers (NHT 1.5s, Krix KDX-Ms), although the unit did shut down twice in the past five months when I subjected it to a heavy HT load (Vol. -13db with all mains, center, and rears at +12db).

As for the hiss, THERE IS A SLIGHTLY AUDIBLE HISS THAT IS ESPECIALLY NOTICALBE WHEN USING ANOLOG CONNECTIONS. The hiss is caused by a MINOR defect in the WRAT circuitry and ONKYO WILL FIX THE PROBLEM by installing a simple ground wire fix (Call tech. support 1-800-229-1687 for details, they were fairly helpful and knowledgeable when I called them, and they are open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10-4 East.) Also the Subwoofer pre-out is rather shoddy. It has an 80 Hz cut off! The only way around the problem is to use the speaker level inputs, assuming your sub even has them (No problem with my Velodyne). If you use the line level pre-out you and the sub's internal crossover you will get a dramatically reduced range and lowered volume to the double filtering. The net result: Poor bass output to the sub.

Despite a few minor quirks, however, I am quite pleased with the performance of this reciever. The 5 channel stereo is simply marvelous, as is the HT performance. I think anyone would be hard pressed to match the 575s level of power and performance for a better price.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood, Sony, Aiwa

Clarity and imaging

This is an excellent product with solid construction and a reasonable price for the performance and features. I'd like to clear some of the confusion about the hiss. Not all or any set fraction of the units made have the defect. The hiss is caused by some sort of grounding problem. It is not as apparent when listening to a digital source as it is with something connected to an analog input. The volume of the hiss does not increase or decrease noticeably with volume adjustments either. Now to the good part. Onkyo will schedule an appointment with a service center in your area to have the problem fixed. They add an additional ground loop to something or other and your done. The defect doesn't cause any damage but since it is free to have corrected you may as well get it done while the warranty is active. Call their Customer Service Center at 1-800-229-1687 Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm and Sat – Sun 10am – 4pm Eastern Time. While you’re at it check out this site they have excellent pricing I had gotten mine for $389 with free shipping. mczone.com

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Pioneer Elite

Remote control,

Low quality tuner, hiss in speakers

I bought 575 two weeks ago but I had to sell it . Here in Poland we must pay $ 680 USD for it.
It had a teriible hiss , heard in speakers . I tried to use professional line coditioner but it did not helped. From first hook up I felt very unconfortable with it. I had a
6 ohm speakers connected to it. Great sound from AC3 source.
Very week tuner and I was dissapinted litening to CD.
It was lacking middle bass. Strange thing about hiss is that when I hooked it up to 8 ohm speakers it went out. But I will never buy another produch from Onkyo any more.

System

Onkyo 575
Philips TV 32PW9765
DVD Panasonic A160
Speakers Front Jamo Classic 10
Speakers Rear Sony
Speaker Center Jamo 150

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Yamaha DSP

Excellent sound,

No back light on remote. Two button presses for macro functions (except direct macro button)

Well us Aussies have got some thing you yanks have not got.
SVHS inputs and no hiss.

Dolby Digital and DTS with 5 sonically matched speakers sounds awesome..
5+ Rating.

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Is there for this price range?
NO!

Sound quality, build quality, features, D/A converter

binding posts don't support spades

First, I'd like to state that I bought this receiver online even after hearing about the hissing problem. I really believe that many people have had problems with this receiver, but I tend to be lucky with electronics, so I went ahead and purchased. The well-balanced features and price of this unit were too good to pass up. I also believe that you should only review a product that is actually in your price range. Sure I could have paid more and had binding posts on all channels and s-video support. I decided I didn't need to pay more for those features. Now on to the review.
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Onkyo created the TX-DS575 for price-conscious people who believe that a receiver should sound as good when it's playing music as it does when it's playing movies. The verdict? Success! It is the perfect receiver for people who do not want to sacrifice music quality for surround sound capability. This unit gives you excellent sound without breaking the bank, thus leaving you with more money to put into the rest of your system.

First, here are the features that won me over on paper: 5 discrete channel pathways, extruded aluminum heatsinks to kleep things cool, 6-ohm speaker driving capability, 3 assignable digital inputs (2 coax, 1 optical), DTS and Dolby Digital, THX Cinema Re-EQ, 24-bit/96kHz D/A converter, direct 5.1 inputs to support future surround formats, and a conservatively rated 70W/channel into 8 ohms. This is a big and heavy beast built of much higher quality materials than you'd expect for under $500.

When I first set up the receiver and spun up the first CD, I was absolutely floored at how much better the music and speakers sounded. (The previous system was my housemate's gargantuan 100W/channel Toshiba receiver made in the 70s. Very high quality, but old technology.) The separation of the channels was noticeably greater and the soundstage wider. The sound is crisp all around while remaining true to the source. Tight bass, clear highs, smooth mids. The sound is absolutely amazing. One thing that stood out was that the woofers on the main speakers were no longer distorting at high volumes on Bela Fleck's "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo" as they had with the previous receiver. The subwoofer pre-out was doing its job and relieving the mains of the lowest octaves of sound. I could have listened to CDs all day, but I had the surround sound to test as well.

After I finished hooking up all the speakers, I calibrated them with the standard pink-noise generator. I sat in the sweet spot and adjusted the levels using the remote until I had everything perfectly adjusted. I then put "The Matrix" in the DVD player and skipped to scene 29: The Lobby Shooting Spree. I had watched this scene many times in just stereo, and there is absolutely no comparison. Bullets whizzed by my head and shell casings fell all around me with crystal clarity. WOW!

Some people might find that s-video capability is very important and should not be left out of an A/V receiver. I, and Onkyo apparently, disagree. My DVD player is the only device that has s-video capability, so I pipe that directly to the TV. I can easily do without fancy on-screen menus also. In a word, Onkyo chose to compromise this capability so they could put higher qauality components into the receiver. In other words, it's a compromise that doesn't feel like one. I'd give up 20/20 vision if I could make music as well as this Onkyo transmits it.

The only other thing that deserves mentioning is that the remote supports macro functions and can learn to control any remote-controllable device in your home. This means that with one button, you can turn on the receiver, TV, DVD player, adjust the volume to your favorite level, set the surround sound mode, and start playing a DVD movie. If the lights in your TV room were also controllable, you could dim them as well. While it's tedious to program, using the remote is relatively simple.

In summary, this is an amazing product that will not become obsolete any time soon. 5 stars for value. 4 overall (there are always better products out there).

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Ancient but high-quality gargantuan Toshiba receiver

DTS, video switching, binding posts, learning remote

No s-video, rear channel spring clips. dB difference stereo and surround

This is one value packed reciever. For $400 shipped you get a high current DTS reciever with alot of the features that you see on the higher end models. I especially like the programable remote. Sue codes are convient, but this is programable. One thing I dont like is the sound level difference between stereo and surround. I know the wattage is rated somewhat less, but that doesnt entirely account for the level drop I think. Amp sounds nice and clean. Im driving phase tech 7.5 mains with 6.5 Center, 4.5 rears and a octave12 sub. Re-EQ is of dubious usefulness. Includes several sound modes, but seeing as I dont like effects much, I like the 5 channel stereo mode. Quality over bells and whistles I always say and I think Onkyo echos this.

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Onyko tx-474, HK 3300, Denon and Sony of unknown models

Excellent clarity, plenty of power, learning remote, all for under $400!

Can't control bass or treble from remote!

I have no idea what all the "hissy-fits" are about... mine sounds perfect. I have Klipsch synergy speakers hooked up as well as a Yamaha sub. This system sounds excellent! The clarity and the sound reproduction are second to none. I bought it mainly for home theatre and it outperformed my expectations! I popped the Matrix in and could not believe the 5.1 Dolby Digital "experience"! It is superior to any store setup, as well as any movie theatre I've ever been in! It shakes the house. It scares my cats. It makes my dog bark when he hears one on a DVD. It makes my wife get up to answer the phone! What more could you ask for?!

This is the first receiver that I actually like and listen to the DSP modes. It has more bass and treble than you need, and I turned it all the up during movie playback and had no distortion at all! (Yes it was very loud!) The fact that you can put the 5.1 surround on for music was a very pleasant surprise!

The learnable remote was a pain in the ass for the first 5 minutes. (Then I read the manual.) After I learned how to program it, I programed all my remotes in less than 30 minutes. The nice thing is that I have ALL the buttons I really, really need, and none that I don't. Plus you can mix and match depending on your "remote style." Like putting the T.V. volume on the VCR settings.

This system is not quite as smart as my old JVC which uses the compulink computer to memorize your last settings on every component. But... this remote has macro settings which let you put in up to 16 commands into one button! I have my "movie" button which turns on all my components, sets the volume, the surround mode, and makes my popcorn. (Well, almost.)

To sum up, I don't know that you can do better between the price, features and quality of sound you get from this unit. Not only that, it's easier to operate, and IMHO, looks better than most all other models available. - I highly recommend this to people who have speakers that don't hiss.

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JVC