I had a M504 and it sucked. My Onkyo receiver had better low guitars and bass. I have Klipsch Cornwalls and if the guitars don't come out strong with horns then something isn't right.I sold it and bought an M508 and it completely blows the M504 away.More guitars and bass and overall impact.There are better amps out there than the M504 for the money.

the dual mono amplifier design-the dual power meters,more than enough power to drive the most power hungry speakers

the stock speaker binding post have to go,,and the small line cord.

I am a retired live sound enforcement engineer and ive worked with many different power amplifiers over the course of 30 years and have tried many different amplifiers on the home system and i have not used any amp that has the sonic quallity and abiliy to produce the arieness and sound field that the onkyo 504 produces.i have four 504s in the system at the present moment and it is a conventinol 2 channel system,,the speaker compliment consite of 4 cerwin vega dx9s4 4infinity sm155s.I have been very happy with the performance of the 504s and i am on a mission to buy up as many as possible but since they have ceaced production of the 504 it is going to become very difficlt to find this amplifier in the future.

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crown,qsc,altec lansing,kenwood,hafler,adcom

Clean sound, Looks Great, Great watts per $ ratio.

Poor binding posts, input jacks, feet, fake wood sides

I will probably get a lot of flak from this, but my ears and my speakers are both pretty good, and I can't hear a lot of difference between amps (or wires either, for that matter). I am driving a pair of B&W matrix 801's, bi-amped, with one half of each amp driving the lows, and the other half driving the highs. I have doctored them up a bit, replacing the cheap particle board sides with real wood stained walnut to match my speakers, and replaced the cheezy binding posts (4 of them mounted in a cheap plastic Onkyo propreitary part) with dual gold-plated nickel 5-way binding posts, and the replaced the aluminum inputs (another proprietary Onkyo part)with the gold inputs that Onkyo makes for the slightly higher-end M-508. I can crank the volume all the way up on these with no signal, and not hear the slightest hum, and only a barely audible hiss when the volume goes over the 0db point. So I have to say that they are clean. I like to listen fairly loud, running a continous 10 watts, peaking at about 100 (judging by the meters), and do not hear any distortion, clipping, or other problems even at these volume levels. Also, even at these levels they do not overheat, and the cases, while warm, do not get hot to the touch. This would not seem remarkable, except that they only have about 1" of ventilation above them. I would have to say that these are a very good value in aesthetics as well as acoustics, but Onkyo could have spent an additional $50 (my upgrade costs) and sold them for an addtional $100 and had a much better amp. Anyway, they are each over 5 years old now, have been moved several times, and they are still going strong. That's more than I could say for my old Carver amp!

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Onkyo M5060, Yamaha, Rotel, Carver

* Beautiful aesthetics and build (except for cheap plastic feet- they should have been milled aluminum or similar).
* Very good sound for a 'higher' mid-fi product.
* Probably the most aesthetically beautiful power meters in the biz, except for the high end McIntosh and Accuphase.

* Speaker connection posts are a joke. Just what the hell WAS Onkyo thinking??? How about 5-way binding posts next time?

For it's price point, and considering that the 504 is NOT competing with true high-end amps (McIntosh, Stratos Odyssey, McCormack, Bryston, etc.), this amp holds it's own sonically. It actually sounds great coupled to good higher-end speakers, and does not impart any harshness or unatural tones or timbres.

As an audiophile my main living room system consists of Magneplanar MG12/QR speakers and McIntosh equipment with SACD and HDCD, so I believe I know great sound when I hear it. The M-504, being part of my 'secondary' bedroom system, sounds very musical, and at times, I am amazed I am listening to a Japanese mass-market amp! The 504 sounds sweet, open, and big, with very impressive soundstage and detail reproduction, especially if you are utilizing the 'right' synergy of components. If your source and speakers are mediocre, the 504, or any amp for that matter, will not do the system justice. That said, it sounds phenomenal on my setup. Kudos to Onkyo for manufacturing such a classic, and at an affordable price.

My system with the 504 consists of:

Onkyo M-504 amp
Hovland 100 preamp
Harman/Kardon DVD-50 HDCD player
JM Lab 'Opal 607' speakers
Cardas Quadlink 5C interconnects
AudioQuest 'Type 6' speaker cabling

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Rotel, Yamaha, Marantz

Excellent mid to high end amp.

None I can discern.

Firstly, as to the previous poster here, and regarding the terms 'open and airy' describing a music listening experience (2 of many common terms), they are popular terms used to describe the experience. So before you criticize others for using these common and descriptive terms, why don't you educate yourself, and try to be more articulate and learned yourself? If you are 12 years old or under, please excuse me for the constructive criticism.

Regarding the 504, it is an excellent high mid-level amp. The sound is only as good as your source components and speakers. Coupled to some decent components and revealing speakers, the amp sounds fairly neutral with excellent soundstaging. It won't compare to McIntosh, Krell, or Levinson, but it does deliver excellent sound for a mid-level unit. The meters add a nice touch as well. Kind of like a McIntosh amp, but with a green backlit ambiance. Overall, and exellent, classic amp from Onkyo. I wish they would bring back their 2 channel GRAND INTEGRA line though!

Good looks. Meters are a plus.

Light in meters quickly burned out. This amp is too heavy for the amount of power it puts out. The connectors are poorly designed.

This amp actually sounds pretty good. However, it runs out of steam on music with loud, low bass passages. It really was noticeable with Maggie 1.6's, but it had trouble driving ACI Sapphire III's also. After three years, it quit working all together. I can't say that I will miss it.

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Carver TFM-22

looks good good power sounds good as well

?

having owned it for only a year or so, im so far not displeased. i often wonder how it would compare to an expensive amp, because sometimes i feel as though i want it to sound better. i think ill return after i upgrade my speakers, my current infinity's are pretty much mass market garbage. after reading alot of the reviews here i think everyone should stop reading magazines before writing your feelings on your audio equipment,"open and airy". lacks low end? "brisk highs". you all sound as though your writing for a magazine! with that b.s. i love music and would love to replicate the sound of a live band playing before me,and never while listening to live music did the adjectives "open and airy" come to mind . my current system is far from acheiving such sound, at any level though i find it sounds great depending on the music and the quality of the recording. the 504 amp has not made me happy as far as finding what im looking for in music reprodution although better speakers will make a huge difference in my opinion! if your buying this amp because its in your price range then i dont feel youll do better

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nad, yamaha, kyocera

Looks great! sounds great!!....but, I bought it for it's sound quality...

just one....the damned speaker posts......

Well, a friend of mine at a local hi-fi shop...let me use the M-504 for a weekend....to use with my then anemic system....and it rocked the house!
when I bought it....my pal even threw in a used Onkyo Integra P-304 Pre-Amp...at no cost!!
day in, day out...with out a day of trouble...I've been truly impressed with this modest system...yes, I have to buy better interconnects and speaker Cables...but, I won't replace my pre-amp or main amp...until they croak!
my system consists of the P-304 O.I. Pre-amp
the O.I. M-504
a Philips CD Changer
a Philips CDR- Recorder
AudioQuest Jade Interconnects
Monster Cable 16 AWG speaker wire....Bi-Wired
and Sound Dynamics Speakers....made by Mirage Speakers....

PS. I've even used this Amp for DJ gigs and it still works awesome!!..yes, I do take care of my Amp (I use a fan)... great quality, great sound....excellent purchase.

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NAD is the only other Amps I've had.

I was told that these seperates are 12 years old and still going strongbecause they are fundamentally "sound."I paid $1300 for the pair and
am impressed with its power...165 watts per ch; handles range of speaker
frequencies accurately and effortlessly. My old adcom amp and pre-amp
can't hold a candle to the Onkyo 504 and 304.

I am unable to recommend the The Onkyo M-504. While this amplifier does offer high power for the money,[165 wpc 8 ohms] for $899, I found that I could
not see into the music at all with this amp. It was musically uninvolving. The 504 sounds very powerful and very polite; too polite to be musiclly interesting. While this amp does measure flat the bass sounds bloated and the
highs sound rolled off. I know that the hard line music loving audiophile can
do alot better for the money even if you do have to give up some watts.