powerful, 6 channels of amplification

none yet

After alot of research I decided on the onkyo787 for my first DD home theater. I bought an onkyo601 dvd player first on sale at circuit city for $350 but thought I could get the receiver cheaper on the net. I ordered from one cite but after several days they told me they didn't have any in stock and didn't know when they would get any. I was disappointed so I went back to circuit city to pay full price, about $1050 after taxes. Turns out they were sold out. Every circuit city in the state was sold out. I went back to the net and bought from onecall. They had it in stock and on my doorstep in about 18 hours...with free shipping
My ht includes NHT 2.3s, 1.1c, and 2 (for now) superones and a klipsch subwoofer. The onkyo never lacks for power and can really rock the house. I used the sixth channel preout and ran the signal to my yamaha 870 to run 2 rear speakers(small radio shacks for a few more months)
Given the setup I didn't know if I could hook up my 4 ohm magnapan smgs to the zone 2 and use them in the same room so I have them connected to my yamaha with a pioneer laser disc player playing cds. I have a separate music system in my home theater.
My maggys are unbeated with music. I have a small ads subwoofer for the low bass.

Similar Products Used:

yamaha, pioneer, sony, jvc

100W per channel, componet video inputs, OSD, 6.1 output, Onkyo overbuilt quality.

Not as many DSP modes than some competitors in the class.

Purchased my 787 on ebay, as local canadian retailer were quoting $2000CDN (~1300US) for it. Very happy with the sound quality for both music and HT applications, no hissing, and drives my paradigm speakers flawlessly. The On-screen display (OSD) is a nice touch as well, as you can just sit back in your chair and adjust settings. Probally one of the best remotes in the price range. Once programed, it operates all my HT equipment. Be forwarned, this is one big heavy unit, and might not fit on some smaller audio stands.

Setup:

Receiver: Onkyo 787
Speakers: Paradigm Monitor 7 (fronts), CC350 Centre, Paradigm titans (SR), Polk sub.
TV: Toshiba TN61x81 61" HDTV ready projection
DVD: Panasonic A310
CD: Cambridge Audio M300

Similar Products Used:

Denon 2801, Denon 3801, Marantz 7000.

Power, THX, clean home theater sound.

The music quality absolutely BLOWS. One person said that the music quality was better than a Yamaha? Your joking, right?

Compared to my Yamaha RX-V995 the home theater sound is awesome. Great clarity and the system drives a sub a lot better than the Yamaha.

BUT, I can't believe Onkyo puts out this great reciever with such garbage sound fields for music listening. They are pathetic. My Yamaha was truly awesome with music, especially in concert hall. This Onkyo flat out sucks in music clarity and liveliness. I noticed the difference imediately. It was so crappy I thought there was something wrong with the reciever.

Bottom line: Excellent for home theater, heinous for music.

By the way: How in the hell do you hook an EQ to this thing and get it to work????????????

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha RX-V995

6.1 surround, flexible inputs, preamp outs, good sound.

still looking for some

What a unit! This has it all. Sound, features and 6.1 surround. For what most are looking for in home theater and still giving good sound for music, this is hard to beat. The component vid switching is a bonus. And if you want the 7.1, just pre-amp out to a 2-channel amp and you got it! The new remote is great with the Lcd display, and the learning is a snap to set up. This is the receiver to get if you think you have to settle for crappy sound just to have your cheap Sony gear to work together-NO MORE!!! This remote will even let you set up macro's and has a great layout. Oh yeah, by the way Joe, if you have to use a receiver to butcher up sound with chintzy sound modes, distortion or use a cheesy EQ, TRADE IN YOUR EARS!!!
You probably don't even know what an spl meter is. You are right though, it's a great ride for home theater.
Nope, no glut of useless and ridiculous sound modes so your living room can't sound like a gas station bathroom, just good sound!
You can't lose on this one, and until more 6.1 units flood the market, this one's a no brainer.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Denon, HK

Powerful, clean, clear sound. Simple layout, great remote, solid build construction, 7.1 inputs and output w/ 2 channel amp, and Onkyo quality

Lack of AC3 RF input, not quite enough digital ins/outs

First of all, let me say that I agree w/ Kevin's earlier review wholeheartedly. Having lived w/ this unit for a little over a week, with it remaining on 24 hrs/day since I hooked it up, I continue to be amazed at how clean and accurate this receiver sounds! Especially in the 2 channel Direct mode. In my opinion, none of the DSP soundfields are to be taken too seriously by any audiophile, and are really only good for background music, filling the room with music for parties, for instance. The DSP modes degrade the stereo image so much so as to render them almost useless. Anyone that can't hear that, either has questionable ears, and/or inferior associated equipment. But not to slam anybody; everyone has a right to their own opinion!

I have owned various highend equipment for many years now, currently using an Audio Research SP14 preamp, and tube power amps, and I can tell you from experience, I know really good quality sound. I decided to purchase a separate system for home theater, thinking that I'd have to seriously compromise listening to music on that system. But I have to tell you that I'm absolutely surprised at how much I don't have to apologize for the shortcomings of this Onkyo when listening to CD's on it. Don't get me wrong; it's no Audio Research! But then, it didn't cost $3000.00 either!!

I'll never part with my AR preamp, but I'm also looking forward to many years of enjoyment with this receiver; both movies and music. Since I've hooked it up, I haven't had ANY problems with it. None of the reported hisses, hums, etc. that others have reported having. And I'm really impressed with the build quality of the unit. Just picking it up reveals that it's not like most mass-produced receivers out there. For a quick minute, I was considering Sony ES receivers, but when comparing one (V555ES) in a showroom with an Onkyo 777, and witnessing the Sony keep going into protect mode, it didn't impress me at all. I was even told by the salesman that the Onkyo was hands down a much better built and sounding unit, especially for music.

So what the Onkyo doesn't have the pleathora of DSP modes that the Sony has. Most of them are junk anyway. I'm glad that Onkyo concentrated instead upon building a solid quality receiver with excellent DD and DTS decoding and very good to almost excellent 2 channel reproduction!!!

Kudos to Onkyo!!!!

I wholeheartedly recommend buying this receiver for anyone interested in building a home theater setup, but who is also looking for solid music performance as well. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Home Theater sound, THX, power.

Onkyo did not configure this for use with an EQ. Direct mode desperately needs the EQ assistance.

It's a great buy, especially for home theater. This thing drives a sub like I couldn't believe. The light-up remote is awesome.

I do disagree on the comments about the direct 2 channel sound being so good. Some of you make it out to be gods greatest gift. In 2 channel mode you can't even adjust the treble or base. It even says in the manual that the direct 2 channel mode it set to the "minimum sound quality adjustment and filtration". How can you lable the sound as being great just after reading that?? It doesn't really compare to my Yamaha. That was obvious to me when I compared the two. The sound in direct mode is kinda flat and the bass is absolutely pathetic. Onkyo also doesn't have an EQ capability with their digital recievers because they claim that it will damage the digital board. I find that silly because on my Yamaha you can't even use the EQ in digital mode. It's voided out. Couldn't Onkyo do the same??

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha

6 channel amplification

may not be discrete 6.1 decoding

I recently decided to enter the market for a HT system and started searching for a good AVR in the $600 to $1000 range street value. I am not an audiophile but am an expert in ergonomics and design. So here it goes and I hope my discussion is helpful to others.

The onkyo 787 appears to be in a class of its own with the Dennon 3801 (I haven't previewed this model yet) in regards to offering amplified 6.1 at the $700 to $800 range. I feel however, this is where the Onkyo 787 stops. This unit simply doesn't compare to the Yamaha or Elites in its 5.1 surround modes, DSP settings, or 2 channel performance. The build quality and face plate appeal is not even close to the Yamaha or Elites. I noticed as I shopped and listened to the units in various audio stores the more I looked at the Onkyo the more the word "cheap" came to mind. The first although technically minor thing that smack you in the face from a production standpoint is the lack of gold(brass) plating on the front AV and S-Video inputs. Then one starts to look at other features such as the front panel layout then the rear panel layout and connector quality. Here again the Onkyo doesn't compare to the Yams and Elites or HK-510 for that matter.

Now for Joe who is interested in attaching an EQ, well if your going to buy a separate amp to do that just get one of the elites. The elites have a tape monitor function if thats what your EQ requires. You will probably only want to use the EQ on the front speakers anyway so as not to cause a disruption in the phasing of the surround sound.
And don't listen to all these people that tell you not to use an EQ and say "you should listen to the music the way it was meant for you to hear".
PLEASE PEOPLE!!...do you mean before or after the sound engineers at the recording studio tampered with the sound and over dubbed the vocals 4x so that the artist sounded decent. Once you bring the music home,its yours. I listen to the Allman Brothers and I am sure if I told them that during Dickey Betts' guitar solos I turned up the highs or turned down the lows they wouldn't stay up at night worrying about it.

Similar Products Used:

HK AVR510, Dennon AVR3801, Yamaha RX-V1000, Pioneer elite VSX-35 and 36TX

Unfortunately, many reviews posted here are often diluted by confusion and lack of information. I will not waste time addressing individual reviewers, but I think it would be helpful to clarify the strengths of this receiver. I have owned many audio components and am by no means new to home theater systems, and the Onkyo TX-DS787 is one of the few 5 star receivers that I have ever seen.
My definition of 5 star is that the unit meets or exceeds your expectations in all areas. Equipment does not deserve a 4 star rating because another unit costing four times as much outperforms it.
This receiver is a fantastic value, and successfully combines very high quality home theater with high quality 2 channel audio. This unit is optimized for today’s high quality sources. If you are still using analog sources (tape, record, etc.), then you will not get the full benefit of this unit. (Nor will you be able to properly review the quality of the unit). There is absolutely no need for the use of an EQ with a 96kHz digital source. There is also no need to use DSP modes on 2 channel sources unless you want to just fill the room with sound (Onkyo offers “all channel” DSP which is all you need for this purpose).
The DTS, THX, and DD modes are very clean on this unit. With THX certification, this should not be a surprise, but the Direct mode is fantastic for allowing you to hear two channel source as it was recorded. “Direct” implies that there is nothing between the source and your speakers (No EQ, no DSP). This feature combined with the clean, powerful, and wide range built-in amp produces respectable 2 channel music. There are few units on the market that offer this quality of 2 channel with the outstanding quality of 5 and 6 channel modes that the Onkyo offers. It does not outperform a $10k 2 channel system, or a $7k THX separates system, but it offers 90% of the performance for 10% of the price. It will support the use of very high quality components (source, cables, speakers), and you will hear the difference with this unit.
There are other units on the market that are also good performers in this price and feature bracket, but I can’t see how anyone could be disappointed with the purchase of this unit. If you are willing to fight difficult set-up or lower sound quality on a competitive unit just because it has gold plated connectors and the Onkyo has silver, then this unit was not designed for you to begin with.
The Onkyo is a true workhorse that is designed to disappear in your home theater system. You will not have to fight to get it set-up, or adjust it every time you play a new DVD or CD. You will not kick yourself for paying too much for features that you don’t use. You will not wish you had more power. You will simply enjoy Movies and Music…that is the point, right?

6.1 THX Select, Superb Onscreen Menus, nice speaker toggles, enough S-inputs.

Too few digital inputs, not enough BASS, esp. for music, lack of builtin crossover, does not have 7.1 amps.

After all the reviews and my inability to afford the Denon 5800 or the Onkyo 989 (or even Pioneer 37tx) I decided to get 787 (and the price was REALLY right too).

I recently played with Pioneer 509s reciever (rel. low end unit) and it was giving really nice deep bass on the fronts, which in this case are WHARFEDALE MODUS 16.

With Onkyo everything is good except the lack of deep bass coming out the front. The only way I can induce it was to increase gain to 8+DB on the fronts and that cause speakers to pop and introduce additional noise. This was done in Stereo mode. I do not have a full complement of speakers at this time to test all surround modes, but it seems as far as music reproduction is concerned the reciever is lacking in getting good signal to woofers, plus a lack of a builtin crossver and ATT that are present in the low-end Pionner 509s is really rather suprising.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha AVR1000, Pioneer 509s

Power, Clarity, Value, Quality, Weight, Remote

Looks (come on 'kyo!!)

The 787 is my first and only experience with a digital receiver and I really have nothing to compare it to except for my old HK Pro Logic receiver. Prior to making the purchase, I narrowed my search (specs, reviews) down to the 787 and the Denon 3801. I chose the 787 simply because it was cheaper and my dealer carried it. The quality associated with THX certification factored in as well.

Not being familiar with digital receivers, I probably took a little longer than most people to setup the 787 (optical this, coax that, component video?? Duh!). Anyway, it was a worthwhile learning experience. The OSD control is easy to use and it's just a matter of time before you learn all of the available functions. The OSD itself is great, but it's unfortunate that you can't display it on your TV through component video outputs. The rear panel is well laid out and the connections were all made easily ...provided banana plugs are used for the speakers. The remote control was incredibly simple to setup ...and I was very surprised by the learning and macro features. It's nice having one remote control for everything.

The 787 has incredible power with amazing clarity and performs at it's best in DD, DTS, and THX modes. I really don't care about the other DSPs. When listening to music in stereo mode, the sound quality is inferior to that of my old HK receiver. The 787 is very bright with bass that is somewhat flat ...however, after adding a really good subwoofer to my system, I got the full & rich sound I was looking for and more. Perhaps the 787 was designed to work musically with a subwoofer??

One odd thing... when in DD mode, the OSD reads Dolby Digital 3/2.1. I swear at one time it read Dolby Digital 5.1. Can anyone enlighten me on this?

Overall, I am very happy with the 787 and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Considering the 787's features and the fact that it's big brother (the TX-DS989) costs almost three times as much... the 787 is not expensive. It's a great receiver at a bargain price. Six stars for value, Five for Overall!

My system...
Hitachi 53SBX01B Rear Projection TV
Panasonic DVD-C220 5-Disc DVD Changer
Onkyo TX-DS787 6 Channel Digital Surround Receiver
B&W DM603 S2 Front Speakers
B&W DM602 Rear Speakers
B&W LCR6 S2 Center Speaker
B&W ASW2500 Subwoofer

Similar Products Used:

Harman Kardon AVR25 MkII Pro Logic Receiver