Onkyo TX-SR605 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)This receiver does a great job. It replaced a 7 yr old Denon 1601 that quit working one night. It drives my 5.1 Polk system at least as good as the older Denon, which always sounded great. At this price, good sound quality is probably a given, so this review is more about the features that set this unit apart. Let's talk video first.
The nice thing about the video processing is that you can hook anything up to it, and it will send the video feed to your TV through one cable. Its basically a big switch, letting you easily change between A/V sources. You just leave your TV on the input through which it is connected, and it feeds the TV whatever source you pick, and sends the audio through the speakers. I hooked up my Samsung DLPSamsung HL-S5688W 56" 1080p DLP HDTV to it via the HDMI output. I used the two HDMI inputs to connect my Samsung DVD player and my Comcast Motorola HD-DVR. I also hooked up my Samsung VCR through a composite input and RCA cables for the VCR's audio. The Onkyo basically passes anything its sent through the HDMI inputs out through the HDMI output. You don't get any upconverting if you use the HDMI inputs and are outputting via HDMI. If you feed it 1080i through the HMDI inputs, it will output 1080i. Feed it 1080p, and you get 1080p output. (I've set my DVR and DVD players to send it 1080 input.) This is not true of the component inputs. It will send those inputs out as 720p, even if you feed it 1080. Just use the HDMI inputs for your 1080 sources. If you have more than two 1080 sources, this Onkyo might not be for you, since it only has two HDMI(1080 capable) inputs. I guess you could get an HDMI switch HDMI 3 Ports Switch With Remote (or some other brand) if you needed it in the future, or just watch your third HD input (video game, maybe) at 720p, or maybe your TV has another HDMI input itself. Another oddity is that it won't send digital sound out the HDMI that you associate with the component video inputs. This is only a problem if you need the TV to produce sound. I use the 5.1 speakers for all sound, so I don't care. The video it outputs seems to be a little better looking than video straight from the source, but I'm not sure its noticably different.
(A word on upconverting of video. Its just interpolation. Upconverting tries to add lines were there were not lines in the original source. Its not going to make SDTV look like HDTV. It might make it look a little better, but its in the eye of the beholder, and some sources seem to look better upconverted than others. Too me, it isn't worth much. My DVR can upconvert, as can my DVD player and even my TV. I've tried them all, and don't think any of them can improve an SDTV picture much. If you want to try this receiver's upconverting, there's a hidden menu to turn on upconverting 480 HDMI input to 720p, but it will also make it downgrade 1080 HDMI input to 720p. Holding down the aux and power buttons will activate the hidden menu. I leave it off, which is called auto mode, but have my DVR upconvert 480 to 1080 before it sends it to the Onkyo. Other things in the hidden menu are standard video settings like sharpness, contrast, etc.)
I also like the remote. Its fairly small, yet controls all my equipment very well, even the Comcast/Motorola DVR. My wife has put away all the other remotes, so that's a good sign. She can operate the entire system with the included Onkyo remote. My 65 year old parents even figured out how to use the entire system, so the remote must be pretty good. It helps that the Onkyo's switching simplifies everything so much. Another feature that is nice is the front panel inputs. You can hook up your digital camera very easily that way. It even has an optical audio input on the front.
The setup is pretty straight forward, especially if you have some experience setting up home theaters. If not, the manual explains things well enough, and a little Internet reading will get you all the way there, if you are like me and enjoy tinkering with the settings. The onscreen display is great. You do have to use the menu system on the front panel to tell it to output the setup menu via the HDMI, otherwise the blank screen will frustrate you. The Audessey auto-speaker calibration does a fairly decent job of configuring your system for your room, measuring distance and equalizing the volume, setting timings and equalizing sounds. I think I improved it by using the manual 5 band equalizers, though. I thought my center speaker sounded flat, so I tinkered with the equalizer and am much happier. I tried messing around with Audessey's crossover settings, but couldn't improve them any, though. Audessey also correctly set up the speaker distances.
One main reason I bought this thing was the future proofing features. It has the Dolby TrueHD and the DTS-HD, so if those every come out I can use them. I can also upgrade to a 7.1 speaker system, but my living room really isn't configured to handle that many speakers. It also offers I-pod connectivity and XM and Sirrius satellite radio connectivity, should I ever want those.
Some common complaints I've read are speaker popping noises and that it runs hot, and some people think that overheating causes the popping. I don't have the popping problems, and I don't think it runs too much hotter than my older Denon. I have it in a decently ventilated cabinet, though. I don't think it would do well in a closed up cabinet without any airflow. My ventilation is simply a crack at the bottom front, and at the top back. Hot air rises out the top back, pulling in cool air from the front bottom. I have about 6 inches of space between the receiver and the top of the cabinet. The receiver is a bit tall, so you should measure your space before your buy it. Make sure you can allow for this ventilation space on top of it.
Lastly, I like some of the many different listening "modes". Dolby Prologic IIx is better than the old Prologic on my Denon. It improves the surround effects of non-DD or non-DTS TV shows. It has the 5-channel stereo that I liked so well in the Denon, too. The other modes seem like gimmicks, though. It does do a good job of picking the appropriate mode, but you can also tell it what to use as a default mode for each source. For example, if the TV feed is in DD or DTS, it uses DD or DTS, but if its in Prologic, you can specify to use Prologic II cinema. However, if your TV show is a concert, you can change it to Prologic II music.
In summary, the Onkyo will simplify your system, allows for future expansion, is easy to use, sounds great, and costs less than anything else out there with this feature set. I recommend it.

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