Review: ONKYO TX-SR805 A/V Receiver

This product is one of those rare things that very well might end up making all of your other products look and sound better.

Hardware Review
By Henning Molbaek
FIRST ONLINE Sep 13, 2007

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Sound, as you know, is the main thing when you buy an A/V receiver. So let´s not waste any time and start. This one comes packed with seven 130W THX ULTRA-2 certified channels of sound. It decodes everything you can imagine, including the new HD audio codecs Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD. Are you ready to see "How far the Rabbit hole goes"?

The ONKYO TX-SR805 A/V RECEIVER - ZOOM

Lift off!
We started off throwing a normal Dolby Digital signal at it to see how it responded. I most say, amazing. It was incredibly precise and accurate in its interpretation of the surround signal. Voices are clear, even in the high-action scenes with a movie score and a pounding V5 Saturn rocket as found in the liftoff segment of Ron Howard´s "Apollo 13." Being in this industry for more than ten years, I have heard my share of audio/video receivers. This one is at the top of the list and packs a serious punch to sub $1000 receivers.

HD Audio - Does it add anything? (Added December 18th, 2007)
When I first reviewed the ONKYO TX-SR805 A/V Receiver, I had no player that could supply the unit with Dolby TrueHD sound. As a matter of a fact, not many people in the world had such a player. A few months have passed, and Toshiba finally released a firmware upgrade for my XA2 HD DVD player allowing it to pass a HD bitstream via HDMI to the receiver.

I could finally test the HD audio parts of the receiver. I lined up my favorite HD audio titles from when I used the player as decoder and could not wait to let my ears be spoiled. At least I hoped for this.

Many have reported that HD audio appears lower than regular audio codecs if they use their HD DVD player for decoding through the 5.1 analog outs to the receiver. This is not the case when using the receiver with HDMI. A first pleasant surprise.

I popped in "Batman Begins" and quickly found one (of many) of my favorite scenes in the movie. It is the scene where Bruce Wayne trains with Henri Ducard (played by Liam Neeson) on the ice. There are many things going on sound-wise in this scene. We´ve got swords clashing, ice cracking, and music and a dialogue that gets more and more intense as Liam's character tells Bruce that it was his father´s fault that both his parents died.

What was noticeable using normal Dolby Digital 5.1 became even clearer in Dolby TrueHD. The ONKYO does an incredible job. It keeps each element tight, clear, and precise, avoiding any kind of muddy sound field. The audio is clear and distinct, which allows you to absorb each detail.

I used the opening scene of "Terminator 2" for my test in this movie. It´s got music, dialogue, laser guns, and much more going for it, so it seemed like a logical choice. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised. Being an older movie, it did not seem as detailed and well produced as "Batman Begins," but it surely packed a punch when needed.

What you begin to realize is that precision is key to good audio. If your receiver does not deliver each detail in each channel with millisecond precision, your interpretation and appreciation of the sound will be less. So be sure to run the setup correctly. If you do, this unit will not let you down, and that goes for HD audio as well, adding even more detail and clarity to the viewing and listening experience.

Setup: Is It a Breeze?
Now let´s go back in time. We have just watched Tom Hanks lift off into space and Batman yelling at a corrupt cop in the worst rain possible. Amazing. How did we get the big black box to do this? That´s right, I want to talk setup.

When you want to get the best possible surround experience, it is important to get this part right. You want to have a set of well-balanced and full-range speakers for your front, center,
and surrounds. Now, connect them to the receiver with some good thick speaker cable. Now comes my first complaint. When connecting the cable to the receiver, I found the speaker terminals of less quality than I expected. Seemed a bit to small for a more solid cable. However, when correctly attached, they seemed to work fine. For the surrounds to work as well as possible, it is important that the receiver knows the distance from each speaker to the listener. It uses this distance to make sure that the level for each speaker is set so the listener gets the most natural sound possible. It also adjusts delay times among the speakers so the sound arrives at your ear as it was intended. The receiver comes with a microphone that makes this part of the setup a breeze. You simply put the mike at the listening position, and the receiver will run a series of tests and do all this automatically, better than you ever could have done manually. When you tried this you don't want to go back.

It is important to not just talk but also listen. The mic that comes with the unit.

Your Digital Hub
You quickly realize that this very quickly will become the hub of your home-theater setup. You can virtually connect everything on this planet that has audio or video outputs to this thing. It has three HDMI 1.3 ports in and one out. This allows you to use it as a very effective HDMI switch, but it doesn´t stop here. It also has an array of video connections like S-Video, component, and standard video, too. It will then upscale to 720p any unit connected to it (if you want 1080p upscaling it has a big brother, the 875 that will do 1080p using the Reon-HQV™ chip), and it will also send these connections out through the HDMI port. This allows for a setup requiring only one cable from the receiver to your TV or projector.

Baby got back - All the connections you could wish for - ZOOM

Conclusion
All around, the Onkyo TX-SR805 A/V receiver is a fantastic machine that performs in every way it was intended. So to get a THX ULTRA-2 certified unit with this many features for less than $1000 is a steal. This product is one of those rare things that very well might end up making all of your other products look and sound better. Not a bad thing. Now, please send me an HD audio bitstream-compatible HD player. I'm ready to take the red pill and I want "Kansas to go bye bye."

Learn full specifications and more on:
Onkyo USA
Onkyo Europe

Amazon.com:
Onkyo TX-SR805 - Price from $677.02

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