Awesome bargain, awesomwe quality, awesome power.

Plain old stereo, strange speaker binding posts

This amp gets a few bum raps in this list of reviews, being blamed for the faults in ancillary equipment. This amp reveals what is there and that is what one wants even as it sounds unpleasant to the ears. With a quality item like the M504, there is power to the point that it is superfluous to discusss dynamic headroom and high currrent capabilities. Low power amps need these terms to argue that they can perform despite their modest power. Double blind comparisons should be the order of the day. High-enders tend to sneer too quickly at the possibility that a consumer electronics firm could market high performance gear among its offerings. All of this is to the high-enders loss, because it does happen every now and then.

This I offer in the spirit of friendship and the desire to share a good thing.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, NEC, Nikko, Macintosh

Warm and detailed sound, great looks

Very large, heats up badly

The M-504 delivers 165w per channel into 8 ohms, but is rated at over 200w/channel for dynamic power. Its sound is very pleasing, especially with bright sounding speakers. I think it rolls off the highs a little. This amp sounds wonderful at low listening levels, and is a good choice to use with speakers with high power requirements. I'm currently using them to drive Infinity Kappa 6.1's.

looks, reliabiality, price

Two dimensional, bright, etched.

This piece of s... looks cool, and I really wanted to like it.
I used it on Celestion SL-6 speakers, inefficient and real imagers.
It flat shut down the soundstage, and the high end sounded hard!
I hate to spoil the party, but if you even think this amp is a Krell, or even a nikko alpha 230, you are dreaming.
Even the phase 400 i have in the garage sounded better.
Thank god I got it at circuit city!
I took this high end pretender back to become an open box piece of s...!
I have several tube amps, dyna stereo 70, mesa baron, audible illusions, etc.
This amp is anything but tube like!
Its sound character is thin and lean, and etched.
There is fire in the upper midrange!
It dont sound anything like tubes at all, completely the other way.
I also used it on Vandersteens, and 801 b&w, it just sucks, big time!
It may sound good on Bose 901, its upper midrange hottness and etched detail should mate real well to the 901!
The Vandersteens are real laid back, so I tried it on them, and they became bright!
And, this amp commits the worst sin of all, it shuts down the soundstage!
I would stay away from this amp, unless you want to impress people who dont know any better with the light show from the meters!
Not Recommended

Similar Products Used:

Nikko, krell, Audionics, Sumo,etc

I purchased this amp from J and R for $550. It replaced a Carver TFM-22 which wasn't a great choice for my Magnepans. I noticed a marked improvement in detail, especially in the bass. The unit is very attractive. Apparently, it can not be bridged. The manual is sparse and almost worthless. The speaker connections are designed for bare wire only although I did manage to get a set of pins inserted without shorting anything.
5 stars for sound quality, value, and cosmetics
3 stars for speaker connections and manual

Associated equipment:
Carver CT-24 Tuner/Preamp
Pioneer PD-65 cd player
Denon DCM 360 cd player
Magnepan 1.6 speakers
(and most important)
Home Theater remote control

all i can say about this amp is that i love it.although rated at 165 watts per channel at 8 ohms i have measured over 300 watts per channel at 6 ohms. the sound is very clean and warm.i have listened to many different brands of audio equipement and the onkyo rates right up there with the best

I have owned the 504 for 6 months now. The 165 watts of power was what I had been missing. The unit is heafty, powerful and pleasing to the ears & eyes. A fine value that should last many years. I purchased the 504 for added power to my Onkyo receiver for listening to CD's. I'm very pleased with the set-up.
My 504 is connected in the following system:
Onkyo 535 DPL receiver
Onkyo 504 Power Amp
Onkyo CD-340 6-disc CD player
Onkyo dual cassette deck
Sony CDP-240 200 disc changer
Pioneer Speakers w/ 14 inch woofers

Plastic feet, and most of all, very cheap speaker binding posts!!

I recently purchased this amp for $600. For the money its a steal. However, it has a few features that I find very lacking. I had purchased new high end cables shortly before I bought this amp. After I saw the speaker terminals, I was really dissapointed. Basically, all you can use is bare wire. On the other hand, this amp sounds very clean and quite accurate. I am using my Yamaha rx-v2095 as a preamp, a yamaha cdc-775 cd player, and temporarily my JBL ND-310 speakers. I have noticed that this amp can sound a little harsh on the high notes with some types of music. I also found out that after onkyo has been making this amp for nearly 15 years or more, they are discontinuing it now. So, finding parts for it if I have problems may be difficult. All in all, I would really recommend this amp to anyone looking to have a somewhat hi- end system. This is an excellent amp for the money!

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Sony ES

Aesthetics, nice tonal balance, heft, sound

Plastic feet, an amp this size and weight should have cast metal or aluminum feet pods

I've had this amp since the 80's, and it has served me well! For the money, this is one of the better separate amplifier buys out there. This one has been around for a while, which also attests to it's quality. The sound is dynamic, warm, and accurate. I would highly recommend this amp to anyone trying to round out a good hi-mid-fi to low-hi-end system.

Equipment consists of:

Onkyo M-504 power amplifer
Onkyo P-304 preamp
Marantz CD5000 single CD player
T-14 speaker cable runs
AudioQuest Jade interconnects
Mission 775 speakers

Similar Products Used:

NAD, Proton, Carver

Onkyo M-504 power amp
Unit suffered a fatal failure 3 months after warranty expired. It was showing intermittent quirks before that but had hoped it was nothing serious, not wanting to go through the hassle of disconnecting it from system. Needless to say I am very disappointed, it seemed well made and a good deal for the specs. It was being used to power a pair of Vandersteen 3's

onkyo power amps-receivers