Has anyone puchased the new Onkyo TX656 A/V recevier? If so, how does it perform and do you have any information on it (the specs.). OneCall has them in stock but has little to no info. on it. Also are there any other new receviers from Onkyo on the market?

Lots of Power, Great Sound

No DTS

I got this receiver for $549.00 at Circuit City as demo model. I had to wait years before price went down from its $1499.00 retail to something more in my range. I always wanted one and have not been dissappointed. This is a great reciever with plenty of power and excellent build quality. I exsperienced the volume control spikes that are mentioned below. All you have to do is call onkyo and they have a free fix for it if your receiver is still under warranty. My volume no longer spikes and the receiver peforms great.

I recently purchased the ONKYO 747 and I love the thing. It sounds great with my POLK RM5300's. The only thing I do not like is the dumb remote control. To take full advantage of it though I am going to have to save my $$ for a DVD player. all in all it is a great receiver.

Presently I have a Onkyo 525 receiver that performs very well in the 14' X 14' family room (with 9' ceiling) mated up with Infinity mains and center, a PSB Subsonic II, and Klipsch in wall rears. I am looking to move to an AC-3 processor and DVD and in particular the Onkyo 747 receiver and DVD-7 player. Could anyone who has purchased these items give me their critique of the product, good/bad or otherwise.
With thanks!

Of course, there is always someone who hates a given audio product, someone who overly identifies with it etc. This receiver does a lot very well. The following is my HT system in a 12x15 room with about 9 feet from sofa to front of the TV/speaker grills.
Onkyo TX-SV838
Linaeum Extreme L&R
Optimus Center w/Linaeum tweeter
Optimus Pro LX-5 surround again Linaeum tweeters
Sunfire Sub
Toshiba 3006 DVD
Pioneer LD
JVC VCR
Thoren's TD-280 MKIV turntable
Hitachi 31" TV/Monitor

Anyway, nice middle of the road system in a nice middle of the road home. I point that out on purpose, this is NOT a high end system, clearly, but it is a very enjoyable/accurate HT setup that also plays music rather well.

Likes: very smooth volume control, it's easy to set the exact volume you want either with the remote or with the knob. Good control over the setup of the parameters for HT, with on screen graphic programming to make it easier. This is done with the remote, which has little buttons and it's a bit hard to deal with, but all in all the setup is a nice feature. Flat, left to right soundstage, litterally I cannot hear any seams between speakers, it is as if there is one huge speaker on the wall producing the front sound. I had these speakers hooked up to other equipment and when I changed to this receiver, I was amazed at the difference. It is very quiet, no signal in and volume up high, the speakers are silent. Dimmer for the front panel is nice, bright, dimmed, dimmer, off. Well thought out back panel with the connectors, it's very consistent and has enough connections for the most serious system I can imagine and it's all gold plated.

Dislikes: In Dolby mode it switches automatically from ProLogic to AC-3 upon detecting input, when you pause the input, it drops out of AC-3 mode, sometimes with a small thud from all speakers, then when going back, it takes a second to get going and dialogue can be missed. I also play my HT fairly loud (see below) so that thunk can be shocking. The remote, it's not great, it leaves a bit to be desired.

On the 50 watt rear channel issue. I played Jumanji on DVD at a volume that shook the place, the rear speakers held their own, further my front speakers are 4 ohm and the rear speakers are 8 ohm, increasing the desparity of power. I never feel as if I'm pushing the system. When I set it up, I had to drop the rear channels by 4 dB anyway, as measure with pink noise and a meter.

With the volume set to -2 dB and watching a DVD movie Michael Collins, I registered about 80 dB during "normal" movie sounds, 85-90 during a bit of action, 95 dB all the time when things got a bit crazy, and a little over 100 dB during the peaks. This is all measured at the couch seating position. That is plenty loud for me, it's got plenty more headroom, but I really don't desire more volume. The clarity is tremendous even during mayhem, dialog comes across clear and clean.

All in all a good solid system. Five Stars...

Crave SmithWhat a piece of crap!! $1500 for a cheap box that provides a wimpy 50 watts to the surrounds, boy those guys at Onkyo are really losin' it if they think that they can get away with that!

....and talk about one BUTT UGLY remote, the thing isn't even backlit.....that's a good deal for 1500 bucks. (for you Crave.)

The Onkyo TXSV-838 is a very good buy especially for the audiophiles. It has a very clean sense of surround and the power is just amazing. There are many functions that could help improve the sound to each own's taste. Trully a system that should be recommended to all Home Theatre lovers.

When I frist purchased my 838 I was very hesitant because I kept on hearing different feedbacks on the Onkyo 838. Others kept saying that a Motorolla chip isn't for AC-3 but better in DTS. But now, I am very satisfied with the sound and I am planning to keep it for a very long time.

I work in a major audio chain store so I have seen most of the best.when I was stationed over seas Ihad the chance to see what was out
there. the 838 is still one of the "big dogs" that can be had on the market today.
lots of my customers had never been in a true 5.1 set up before so I blow
them away. the 838 is well very stylish while being a big brute.
The 100watts in stereo is enough to drive a lot out of my demo room,but
the real fun starts when I put in "top gun" for the demo.At 90 across the front
and 50 to the rear is great.
Ihad the chance to give a demo to a guy that just got off an aircraft carrier, and he said that felt like that he was back there on the deck all over. most of the time I run a pair of Inifity Overture 3s in the front, overture 1s in the rear with the cc3 center channel from ini. It sounds great !! IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO BUY THIS RECEIVER, DO IT.

Just bought the 838. It's really a beast. I had not enough of one weekend to make myself completely familiar with all the possibilities. Video ,audio the 838 drives you crazy. Unfortunately I was not able to turn up the volume because of the neighbours. It takes a time to get familiar with it. The remote control could not be uglier, but it can handle all my other equipment. The first impression is very good and it produces also a lot of warmth while playing softly, like a Class-A. By the way can anyone tell me more about the amplifier stage ?