The only amplifier in this price range you can get DD, DTS and THX select. Powerful. Good enough for watching movies. The learning function of the remote, and the solid bilding.

Lack of deep bass, low level hiss sound from speakers.

To be honest, I think my 5 years old Denon Prologic Amplifier sounds better than the Onkyo in music and in terms of bass. For this bass problem, I heard that the Onkyo 777 automatically cuts the frequency below 80HZ from the speakers, I don't know if that's true. Anyway we got a sub now usually.

Of course, it has DD, DTS, which gives very accurate decoding, you really won't miss anything. I enjoyed watching DVD with this machine. What Disturbed most is the hiss sound from the speakers.

My setup (its not very expensive) is as follows:

Onkyo-777
Pioneer DVL-919
Timbre surround speakers
JBL center
JBL AC-310 front speakers
DH labs silversonic T-14 speaker cables
Pioneer S-W200

Similar Products Used:

Denon Prologic Amplifier

Power, Remote, Sound Quality. Seems very well built.

Unit Chasis is very deep. May not fit in all entertainment units without modification.

This being my first home theater receiver, I was not prepared for the huge improvement in sound over my old unit. This Onkyo has plenty of power to drive any speaker I can imagine. Movies now sound better in my home than in my local theater. CD Music sounds great, but the tuner does not sound as good pulling in radio stations. However, it could be poor reception in my area. This reciever demands good speakers and wire. I Set it up after purchase with my old speakers and it sounded very "thin" with little bass. Installed some high quality speakers and a good wire and it made a world of difference.

Similar Products Used:

Realistic 3870- Not bad for an old radio shack stereo. decent sound.

Features, Ease of Use and Setup, THX Cert, Sound, Power, Build.

Runs very Warm, Poor FM Reception, Dated Asthetics.

Sounds great. Have not heard any Hiss or Hum at all. Good Features, without too many useless ones. Easy to find at less that MSRP, perhaps due to the problems with older 777's.
Did not really consider Onkyo at first, but glad I gave them a look. After being impressed with this unit, I'm Going to check out their new 300 CD/DVD Changer next.

Similar Products Used:

SR7000, Sony DB930, HK75, Yamaha 2095.

Features, Ease of Use and Setup, THX Cert, Sound, Power, Build.

Runs very Warm, Poor FM Reception, Dated Asthetics.

Sounds great. Have not heard any Hiss or Hum at all. Good Features, without too many useless ones. Easy to find at less that MSRP, perhaps do to the problems with older 777's
Did not really consider Onkyo at first, but glad I gave them a look. After being impressed with this unit, I'm Going to check out their new 300 CD/DVD Changer next.

Similar Products Used:

SR7000, Sony DB930, HK75, Yamaha 2095.

DD; THX; 5-CH Stereo; Multiple Digital Connections

Receiver becomes very hot; Remote

I decided to upgrade my receiver about 2 mo's ago from a Kenwood, so that I could get DD. I as others below checked out Marantz; Denon; and Sony. This receiver blows them away the sound is great!! and powers my Paradigms very nicely. The cost is great if it had no other features, but you also get 5-Ch Stereo and THX cert. I do not have the hissing that others describe below.

I would recomend this receiver to anybody that was in the market for one at a good value with lot's of features. My only problem is that is heats up, but that is to be expected from such a powerful amp.

Similar Products Used:

Just about all of Kenwoods recievers

Full featured (THX, DTS5.1, etc), great bass response, flexible fully programmable backlit remote, 105W/CH, future flexibility (expandability).

POOR manual, Remote can get complicated to operate if you have many remotes to program into it, runs warm to hot, too many parameters to set for each sound setting (DSP's).

Have owned it for 1 week now. Bass response is excellent. My JBL subwoofer came to life under this receiver (was never working under my Pioneer). Has many connections for just about anything audio you have. Receiver is very powerful and it's 105W/Ch has no problem with my 6.1 set-up (I have 2 center channel speakers combined into 1). Some DSP modes, however, are difficult to hear the characters talking whenever TV, video or DVD is being played. This can be overcome with adjusting the reverb and echo. I did much e-commerce shopping and found it at Douglas TV in Chicago for 688 dollars + 10 dollars shipping. Try respond.com for the BEST prices!!!!! Overall impression for this receiver is EXCELLENT. You will be hard pressed to find a comparable receiver at this price with this many features. Make sure receiver has flow through ventilation to keep it cool because it runs very warm! I would recommend this receiver to anyone who wants premium sound at a reasonable price. For folks who want remote operation simple, stick with your separate remotes because programming all of your existing remotes to this one can create confusion when switching modes (ie: DVD to Video1 to TV to VCR, etc).

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer VSX-401 (9 years old & pre-Dolby surround).

Great build quality; Multiple modes (DD, THX, DTS); Good bass response and clear highs; Good value

Audible clicking noise when changing volume; Remote a bit lacking in ease of use; Manual a joke

The System:

Onkyo TX-DS777 (Reciever)
Onkyo DV-S525 (DVD/CD)
JVC HR-S9600U (SVHS VCR)
Sony KV-27V42 (TV)
Monster Cable Interlink 400mkII (Audio Interconnects)
Monster Cable Super Video 3 (SVHS Interconnects)
Monster Cable Datalink 100 (Coaxial Digital Interconnect)
Paradigm Mini-Monitor (Front LR)
Paradigm CC350 (Front C)
Paradigm ADP350 (Surrounds)
Paradigm PS1000 (subwoofer)
Monster Cable Z1 Reference (Speaker Cable)
Monster Cable HTS-2000 Reference Power Center (Power Strip)

The Review:

I upgraded my reciever from the TX-DS828 mainly to get the DTS decoder and the THX certification. In the process, I considered the Denon AVR-3300 but I must admit that I was leaning toward Onkyo to begin with. I have had three Onkyo recievers in the past six years and I have never been dissapointed... the technology just changes too quickly.

But I digress. The 777 has functioned quite well these past few months, taking both music and movies in stride. I have only experience hiss when the volume is at maximum, and even then the hiss is audbile only up to about a foot away from the speakers... hardly worth mentioning, I think. The clicking noise I get when I change the volume is a little more irritating though, but I doubt it can be corrected. Seems to me like it's the product of the changing volume display and the EMI it generates. Perhaps the DTR-7's more robust build quality might alleviate that? Any of you out there who own a DTR-7 might be able to help me out on this...

The SVHS video pass-through provides a rather clear picture on my TV, especially from the DVD player. Note, the recent addition of the Monster Cable power strip really improved the picture... both contrast and color separation were noticably better, and picture noise was drastically reduced. I'm not sure if the improvement was in the reciever or the other components, but there was a definite overall improvement.

Hope this helped...

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo TX-DS828, Denon AVR-3300

Sound for movies and CDs, onscreen menu, THX, digital OUTPUT (for minidiscs, DVD RAMS) features, remote is fully programmable

remote is tedious to program, somewhat weak FM reception,very mild hiss from rear speakers if you put your ears up to them, it would be nice if the on screen menu went to both S video and regular video, but it only does 1 or the other

I am very happy with this receiver as an upgrade from my Dolby Prologic Harman Kardon. I liked the new HKs but they had a digital clicking when changing volumes which was unacceptable. The sound for movies is intense with my Bose Acoustimass 15s and an extra powered JBL subwoofer as there are 2 subwoofer outputs (I have a long room). Everything is completely programmable from receiver including modes, inputs, volumes for each mode and each individual speaker/subwoofer, etc. For example, it knows to set the video 2 input (DVD) to Dolby Digital/DTS (if available) with THX, and the correct mode that I prefer for CDs, etc. The speaker volume adjustment is quite nice as everyone's room is laid out differently. The overall sound is excellent. There is a digital output for CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, MDs, etc. The remote can run anything pretty easily.

The only complaints are the remote takes a long time to program as you need to manually program in each and every key stroke. However, once you do, it will do anything that your old remotes would do. The macro features of the remote is nice but somewhat slow (it takes about 5 seconds to turn on a TV, set it to the correct input, turn on the amp and turn it to the correct input, turn on the VCR or DVD and cable box. However, it is nice to get rid of all of those remotes. There is a very slight hiss from the rear speakers if your ear is against it (which my old HK did not have), but it was not worth returning it in my opinion. Mine doesn't run too hot so it isn't an issue for me. If it wasn't for the hiss (which most listeners in my house cannot hear), I would have given it 5 start for both.

To Scott R: If you program macro modes into the remote, you can set the DVD macro to automatically turn on the DVD player, switch to the S video input mode of your TV (I have a non S video cable and VCR), and switch to the correct video mode of the receiver. When I watch TV, I have the "cable" macro turn on the cable box, switch to the regular video output on the tuner (and TV), and switch to the correct video mode.

Similar Products Used:

HK AVR 25 II, HK AVR 500

Love the awesome 5 channel stereo DPS setting, 400+ remote memory functions and the Intellivolume source input settings.I found this unit to be easy to set up and use.

None

I used a Pioneer VSX9900 for about eight years.It was a good reciever but the center channel finally went out. I'd say I got my money out of that unit. I was ready to upgrade anyway. First I bought a Pioneer Elite VSX 29 TX. It had a good clean sound but it just didn't have the punch that my old reciever had. I thought for $2000 + It should have sounded a lot better, and the touch screen remote really sucked. I kept it for about 10 days and took it back. My only other option, for the features I wanted was the Onkyo 777. I was concerned about the problems I was hearing about the center channel hiss. I researched a little deeper to find out that Onkyo was aware of this problem and that this model was to be discontinued. The new updated model is the TX DS-777 (B). I was glad to hear that so I went out the next day and bought one. This reciever KICKS!!! I was so pleased with the sound on my old speakers that the next weekend I bought new center and surround speakers. Now I have JBL L-100T3's for my mains,JBL studio center and surround speakers and the JBL PSW-D 115 sub. I am in hog heaven now. This 900 Watt system will almost make your ears bleed and I've had to do everything shy of gluing down all loose items sitting around the living room, bedroom, bathroom etc. I did actually have to silicone the glass in the wife's hutch. I am as much into music as I am movies and this unit is awesome for both. The Dolby Digital has so much definition and seperation that I'll never go to the movies again. DVD rocks I'll just bring the movies to me. For some of you guys that said this reciever was lacking in bass, you should invest in a (powerful) sub. I run my reciever on flat with the sub set on (0) and I have more bass than I have ever heard (felt). It feels like the recliner vibrator is turned on.My final words are AWESOME,AWESOME. Buy one you will not be sorry.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer VSX9900s and Pioneer Elite VSX 29 TX.

DTS, 5-channel stereo, learning remote, flexible digital input assigning, input labelling, PCM rate display, aesthetically pleasing and good build quality.

Wimpy speaker binding posts and RCA's not gold finished. Can't turn off display (can someone tell me why they took this simple feature away ? )

I think I can safely do a review now on this receiver as I have had it since February this year. I was also confronted with a slight dose of the notorious hum problem. I had to return the unit to the retailer and their technician installed a ground loop circuit which seems to have resolved that problem.
The hum problem was not my biggest concern. While playing a DVD at about absolute volume 55, there was a sudden loud crackling sound from the frontstage on one of the speakers. My frontstage went dead and only the surrounds were active. I powered down/up the unit and everything came back to normal. I read a review on this site where someone had had a similar experience (and blown his speaker I think) and I discovered later that Onkyo had also become aware of it. I returned my unit (at the same time I returned it for the hum problem) to the retailer and the technician swopped out the processor board with a new unit’s board and after that I had no problems.
Apart from these two glitches, I must say that the 777 is a great improvement over the 747 feature wise which I owned previously. The digital assignments are more flexible which means my DVD player is also my CD player when I select the CD input and the input labelling feature is also useful. I find the soundstage is a bit closed in when in stereo mode but 5-channel stereo makes up for that in a big way. I was glad to see that the ‘bass peak setup’ feature gets forwarded to the mains LR channels when the subwoofer is set to ‘no’ in the setup. This is wonderful because I can set up the bass peak level in a sub/satellite configuration; my mains being satellites to the sub. This means that all the dot 1 LFE info is going to my mains which is perfect.
The intellivolume feature was a nice thought but it does not solve the problem of the TV channel blasting you out when you push stop on the VCR; especially when you are listening to the commentary track that was recorded from DVD onto the VCR’s mono track.
The digital volume control was also something I found attractive over the 747. I don’t know if that is a good thing or not because I’m told you get ‘digital volume controls’ and you get ‘Digital Volume Controls’ and the latter are normally only found on the high end stuff.
The OSD is very user friendly and straight forward as has always been one of Onkyo’s traits. The five onboard amps are quite hefty and the sheer weight of the unit gives away this fact even before you have powered it up.
The learning remote is very easy to use and it has learned all my remotes except for the LG DVD-3250P DVD player’s remote; and yet it learned my LG TV’s remote......very strange.
There are plenty of inputs and outputs at the rear to satisfy even someone like me who owns 2 VCR’s and 2 DVD players.
The 777 is very attractive aesthetically with the brushed aluminium faceplate and dot-matrix display.
Overall, this is a superb machine and will ‘feel at home’ as the heart of any mid end system.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo TX-DS747