Very clean sound very reliable

Basic unit but extremely clean sound run with a 10 band equalizer and 4 tower speakers. CD and Vinyl sound great.Added a phono preamp and vinyl sounds even better

Very clean sound very reliable

Basic unit but extremely clean sound run with a 10 band equalizer and 4 tower speakers. CD and Vinyl sound great.Added a phono preamp and vinyl sounds even better

Very clean sound very reliable

Basic unit but extremely clean sound run with a 10 band equalizer and 4 tower speakers. CD and Vinyl sound great.Added a phono preamp and vinyl sounds even better

Very clean sound very reliable

Basic unit but extremely clean sound run with a 10 band equalizer and 4 tower speakers. CD and Vinyl sound great.Added a phono preamp and vinyl sounds even better

Very clean sound very reliable

Basic unit but extremely clean sound run with a 10 band equalizer and 4 tower speakers. CD and Vinyl sound great.Added a phono preamp and vinyl sounds even better

Excellent piece of Hardware. Very impressed with the sound output. The unit I have is rated at 150 watts. My speaker system is a matched pair of Pioneer Dual cone 6" or so. I pumped full volume into them, without the slightest overdrive or distortion noted. I was listening to REM's Losing My Religion, on you-tube; ported from my PC sound (realtek97) from the basic 'powered speaker' output with phono plugs exchanged at the aux device side, ported into CD function of Amplifier. I had concert ear three minutes into the test drive, hey!
Onkyo TX-8211, a powerful system, for the power user, on the cheap.
You go, Onkyo.
Hey, maybe I should go into the advertizing jingle biz, hey! Sorry, practicing for Carnival, Hey!.

I got this tx-8211 at a flee market for 40 dollars, later I got 4 bose 901's with their EQ, mix these three together and you will have one of the best sounds there is, take one of these out and the magic is gone, the onkyo hooked on to any other speakers sounds to bright, the 901's with out their EQ sound ungracefully flat, but all together will beat the crap out of my mcintosh mc2505 and advent loud speakers hands down, no b, it's true.

Watts, sound-quality, durability, selective tone control

The only weaknesses I see are the spring clips instead of binding posts (this is changed on the newer models), and the fact that the power cord is attached and cannot be upgraded. I suppose one might want things like a subwoofer out and virtual surround, but this is a stereo receiver. It does what is says, and quite well.

This is a great basic stereo receiver for the money (esp. used!). I bought it for my office and it gives way more power than I will ever be able to use there. My Polk rti4s sound great. I do not use the tuner (who uses a tuner anymore with internet radio?), so I cannot speak to that. I love the selective tone control, it is basically a compressed music enhancer that boosts the high highs and low lows that get lost in mp3s. Since I many listen to mp3s and radio, this feature is very useful, especially at low volumes. I am sure that this would be plenty receive for a basic home stereo setup in a small to medium sized room. And the fact that it still works great used says a lot for the durability.

Similar Products Used:

denon avr-1804, yamaha htr-5760

Power, sound quality, price, ease of use.

Over-simple remote, Can't change name of inputs, phono input.

I purchased this High-Current receiver about a month and a half ago, and am about 90%+ satisfied. The simplicity is excellent. My Cerwin Vega LS-12's run at 4 Ohms stable with this receiver and rattle everything in my dorm and the two surrounding. Excellent midrange and treble as well. I am satisfied 100% with the power output and sound quality. The 20hz-20khz blows my old Sony "100 watt x 2" reciever away. It, paired with my speakers make movies sound like you are in the theater. The Cerwin Vega's are a perfect match for this receiver, no subwoofer required. The only drawbacks is the phono input. In the manual it said "phono input - 2.5mv at 50kohms." Well apparently my AudioTechnica phono player puts out a little more than that, so there is great distortion. This problem can be solved by hooking it into another input, which brings up another problem. There are only 4 inputs, and you cannot change the name of them on the screen. Also, it isn't possible to change Bass, Treble, or Balance with the remote. The frequency of the AM and FM tuner cannot be directly changed, you have to choose a preset. Other than that, this is the best receiver I have owned, and one of the best I have ever heard. On a side-note, while at home after I bought this, in order to test it my friend brought in his Sub-box. 2 12" 450 watt max Pioneer Imps and I hooked up some 4 1/2" bookshelf speakers with a small cap on the positive line as a crossover. The stereo pushed them to the point a picture fell of the wall, and pushed them for 10 minutes without getting but a slight bit warm. The 50 watt per channel is a fair estimation for 8 ohms, but this could easily run those subs at 2 ohms stable, no problem. Also, the STC is not loudness. It alows you to hear extreme low and high frequencies which are not too noticeable at low volumes or with low end speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Sony STDR 185, multiple AIWA component stereos.

Not a lot of plastic found in this unit. FM and CD inputs sound fantastic.

No Pre Out/In Loop. Subwoofer line out would be nice. Cheap connections for speaker cable. Phono input is terrible. AM section can hardly pick-up any stations.

I bought this about 6 months ago based on the strength of earlier reviews. There are no Onkyo dealers within roughly 100 miles of where I live so I never had a chance to listen to one of their receivers. I really wanted to like this product but ended up being disappointed. First I will say the overall build quality is outstanding. The front panel is aluminum instead of plastic, the LCD display comes shipped with a removable opaque label protecting it, and even the bass/treble/volume knobs have a smoother motion than what I am used to. When I play FM stations or compacts discs on the 8211, I would put it up against any receiver on the market(though probably not against discrete components). You can control the sound from a very flat freq. response all the way to a saturated bass/treble heavy curve. The Selective Tone Control gives listeners a preset sound if they don't want to mess with the Bass/Treble knobs. With all of that being said, there were some aspects where I thought Onkyo really dropped the ball. The phono section is terrible: there was all kinds of noise in the volume control when raising the knob up or down and a lack of bass output from my records. The AM section could only pull in two stations (they were on the top of the band) compared to the several stations I could get using the same antenna on my previous receiver that also had a digital, not analog, tuner. I also expected stronger speaker cable connections but that was not so. In fact, I had trouble with one of my speaker wires constantly coming loose out of it's connection and the speaker cutting out on me. Binding posts need to be added to future products. Also there is no Subwoofer out connection which these days is becoming more of a feature many consumers want and can be found on some competing brands' stereo receivers. If Onkyo on future models could just improve the phono input, get banana/binding post speaker connections, and add a subwoofer output, they would have a heck of a unit. I have settled on the HK 3375 in the meantime and love it.

Similar Products Used:

Harman Kardon HK3375 Stereo Receiver Sony STR-DE715 Stereo/Pro Logic Receiver