just bought the onkyo tx-sr876 it,s not that good (1 Viewer)

[marcIs]

I have put a few posts in here lately to figure out what receiver I wanted to buy. This is what I got, and here is my opinion.


I put the monitor out to hdmi pass through, did the audyssey set up, and put a cd im my blu-ray player. First i'll start by saying that I choice the bi amp feature to move my polks rti12 towers. DO NOT DO THIS, the amp went in to overload protection, so I shut it down and let it reset. After I fired it back up the speakers sounded wired, I thought i blew them. So I grab my old amp to see if I did, and no, I did not. I decided to hook it up with just the - + to each channel. It worked after that. It takes some one with a dr or bachelor degree to set this up.You have tweaks for everything, there are more colour opps in this amp then my tv. Also it set my normal center spk size to 60hz cross point, and had it spitting out bass. It does not sound good when watching tv. sent off an email to Onkyo and no reply yet. I had a dennon 1803 before this and i was looking forward to getting this lovely sound stage, guess what, nothing indicates that I am even getting a sound stage. I will say this, THERE is a LOT of power coming out of this receiver it moved all 6 drivers in each tower with ease. Oh ya the sound vol moves very slow, so in fact that you think somthing bad is about to happen. buy this receiver only for the power unless you work for the, isf. or something like that. Just though i'd let some of you out there know about this product. I will give 3.5 out of 5 but this is because of it's power.

 

[Ed Moxley]

If you don't have a subwoofer, and need the bass to go to your speakers, at least set your center speaker to "small". It should then have no bass going to it. If you do have a subwoofer, set all your speakers to small, and try that.

Tweaking is part of the fun of setting up a new receiver. The more tweak options it has, the more personal you can make it, to your tastes. This process can take awhile, even days. Once you get it set though, you shouldn't have to mess with it anymore.

I'm sure the soundstage is just a matter of getting the settings where you need them. I, personally, am not familiar with the Onkyos. But they are just too popular of a receiver, to have these problems you're talking about, unless you just happened to get a bad one.

 

[marcIs]

you are right Ed. I did have a sub,until about a week ago. I think the relay in it has gone belly up. The tweaks are very difficult to set up the right way, or maybe i am doing something wrong. BUt I am not the happiest with this product.

 

[JohnRice]

Receivers are complicated items. It is clear from your post you don't know how to work the unit, which is not uncommon, but don't blame the product.

 

[gene c]

Sorry to hear of your luke warm opinion of the 876, especially since I suggested it ! As for Onkyo's in general, I've owned two in the past. An HT-500 and a 702 and both were excellent receivers. And although I've heard about the excess heat and occasional customer service issue's recently, I've never heard a bad word about their sound quality. Something must be wrong.

I suggest you double check the hook-ups, then go with the basics and put aside the more complicated features for now. Turn off Audessey, set the receiver to two channel stereo, manually set the center and surrounds to "None" and the crossover to 60 or 80 (even without a sub). After you're sure things are hooked up properly and you're more familiar with it's capabilities, then you can re-try Audessey and some of the other features. Things do become clearer over time. Good luck and keep us posted, good or bad. Oh, I almost forgot. Read the manual! Everyone says they do, but we know better!

 

[marcIs]

ha Gene. You are the main reason , or at least one the reasons i bought this receiver, and john you are also right. I have owned a dennon, jvc x 2, and a pioneer amp. I think I am over my head with this one, but truly the sound is not what i hoped it to be. I am going to get in contact with someone that knows a little more then my self to help me. I also have a bdp-s500 and kdl46w3000. So having someone calibrate it all, can only be a benefit to me. Then I will find out, if this is product or human err