Looks, Sound, Components Upconversion, and power

Remote control, very cluttered but it is a learning remote with 3 macros available

First off, I have the advantage of living in Orlando so I was able to pick up the unit from their establishment. I was torn between the Marantz 4600 and this Onkyo unit.

After speaking to the Salesperson, (They are great...I have also purchase speakers from them in the past and still have them to this day...6 years and counting) he highlighted both unit for me which led me to pick the Onkyo. Biggest feature that sealed the deal was upconversion to components from composite or S-video. This meant only one set of cables to my TV.

The unit is a 7.1 channel with 90 (Real World Watts) per channel. These watts are not inflated as other companies lead you to believe you are getting more but when you look at the specification they never say full bandwidth watts. That is the key.

This unit is replacing a Pioneer Elite 24TX (THX Select unit) that died on me. It was a great unit but I never expected this Onkyo to surpass it in every detail. Granted the Pioneer ELite is over 6 years old.

My Pioneer Elite also had 90 watts per channel but for some reason this Onkyo has been able to sound louder and cleaner and it's not even a THX certified unit. The volume and clarity has been astounding.

The video looks great through the Onkyo. It has 5 S-Video inputs, 3 compnents inputs as well as a slew of composite. It has 4 digital inouts, each assignable.

What I like is you also get a on screen display as well as the abilty to set up your speakers in so many ways. Also you can have your speaker set automatically. Yes, it comes with a microphone that you place in the listening area, hit setup and the receiver will send a test tone to each speaker and set it up correctly.

All in all you will be evry surprise at the sound and power.

Customer Service

Great, top notch

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer Elite 24 TX, Pioneer VSX-816