Onkyo quality decline ? (1 Viewer)

[Pdxmonkeyboy]

Hey gangLong time forum poster here but could not seem to get into my old account. At any rate, I'm setting a new system up at my house and was looking for a decent wifi enabled receiver. I spotted the onkyo 616 and it looked great. Then I started reading about bad reviews, then I read bad reviews, then I went to my local video only store. They said "we are done with them" "no more, no way". Over heating, friend boards, signal interference issues. So I was pretty bummed as I have been a life long customer. Would like to get the straight scoop from people. And if the outlook is bleak, maybe a suggestion for a decent receiver. 5.1 or better and at least 100 watts per channel and of course wifi enabled. Thanks!

 

[schan1269]

I have a DTR 5.8, DTR 7.8, SR707 and NR1008.

All bought used. All work fine. Onkyo owns 40% of the market, with the least profit margin. Nobody likes selling them, cause they don't make any money.

Integra is a different story.

Bottom line...

Onkyo, because of their "size" has absolutley lousy customer service. On the X08 models they were shelled by a recall for an "overly rubberized flat wire" that the rubber was supposed to prevent the wire from getting hot and shorting. However, too much rubber...excaserbated the problem. What was the scope of "Onkyo's worst manufacturing blunder in 15 years"?

Approximately 15% of the X08 models were covered under the recall. Meaning 85% of them never had a problem. 15% is horrendous,

So, your call. Listen to people whine and gripe over 5-10% of 40% of the market "failing". Or you can buy a Denon and live with 5-10% failure on 8% of the market. Or you can buy a Pioneer/Elite and live with 5-10% failure of 22% of the market. Or you can buy a Yamaha and live with 5-10% failure of 10% of the market...

However, even I'll admit that Onky's customer service is overwhelmed. If you want an Onkyo with good customer service...

Buy an Integra.

 

[Gary Seven]

Since the one I bought In the late 70's, I've always thought of Onkyo more for features than quality.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I have an Onkyo 616 purchased from Amazon a few months ago. No major problems except trying to do the newest firmware update which must be done via USB memory stick. I called Onkyo customer support and a very patient associate walked me through the entire process of downloading the update and configuring it on the memory stick so it would work and stayed on the phone until the process was complete and my receiver was updated, took about an hour and a half of his time. I was very favorably impressed with Onkyo's customer support based on this experience.

 

[Brainwasher]

I'll tell you who stepped up their game. Marantz...I've been a long time yamaha owner (since early 90's), and decided to try a Marantz 5007. It's been amazing.

 

[Everett S.]

I have a DTR 5.8, DTR 7.8, SR707 and NR1008.

All bought used. All work fine. Onkyo owns 40% of the market, with the least profit margin. Nobody likes selling them, cause they don't make any money.

Integra is a different story.

Bottom line...

Onkyo, because of their "size" has absolutley lousy customer service. On the X08 models they were shelled by a recall for an "overly rubberized flat wire" that the rubber was supposed to prevent the wire from getting hot and shorting. However, too much rubber...excaserbated the problem. What was the scope of "Onkyo's worst manufacturing blunder in 15 years"?

Approximately 15% of the X08 models were covered under the recall. Meaning 85% of them never had a problem. 15% is horrendous,

So, your call. Listen to people whine and gripe over 5-10% of 40% of the market "failing". Or you can buy a Denon and live with 5-10% failure on 8% of the market. Or you can buy a Pioneer/Elite and live with 5-10% failure of 22% of the market. Or you can buy a Yamaha and live with 5-10% failure of 10% of the market...

However, even I'll admit that Onky's customer service is overwhelmed. If you want an Onkyo with good customer service...

Buy an Integra.

I just had to deal with their ser. dept. on the sr508 all done in about 5 mins. Where as Panasonic could not help me with the setup for sound from tv to receiver! thanks Onkyo!!!

 

[zoetmb]

The fact is that for most receivers today, you're not buying a brand - you're buying a label. Many companies don't design their own receivers and few manufacture their own receivers. Although the following tends to change year to year, as of 2011:
Pioneer and Denon receivers below $1299 were designed/assembled by Inkel, the parent company of Sherwood.

Onkyo AVRs below $1500 were designed by an independent Korean team which also did design for Harmon/Kardon, however they were manufactured in Onkyo's own factories in Malaysia.

Harmon/Kardon, NAD, Marantz and Teac were assembled in Chinese factories.

It was reported that some of those arrangements were changing for the 2012 model year and some may have changed again since then.

Back in the hi-fi era, audio equipment was designed primarily by the owners of each company and reflected their own personal biases and design approach. Back then, you could listen to a receiver, preamp or poweramp and know who must have designed it. That was even more true for speakers. But today, they're designed and manufactured more like fast food.

Like most of the Japanese TV manufacturers, few are making any money in this business. So don't expect much. It's also a small market. That's why we don't see a lot of changes from year to year. So lately we get 4K passthrough or upscaling and more reliance on Bluetooth and Apple AirTunes instead of docks and cables, but we're not seeing any substantive advances.

The one place where I thought things would get far better was in the area of user interface. I'm amazed that at least on the high end, we haven't seen the equivalent of a smart phone panel as the central display of a receiver or pre-pro, but it hasn't happened. But even without that, the overlay interfaces that display on the TV from the receiver are still all pretty lame.

I wish OPPO would decide to do a receiver. I think they could get it right.

 

[gene c]

"I wish OPPO would decide to do a receiver. I think they could get it right."

I remember wishing for an Outlaw Audio bluray player way back when. The 990 pre-pro was a jewel in it's day. An OPPO receiver might be the only thing I'd put a deposit on without knowing anything about it.

 

[3zone]

I've got the 616 and of course was concerned with the problems and reviews. I took a flyer. So far mine has worked as intended. No issues and so am impressed by the features for the price since I can't complain. I've got it set up with a 5.1 system with an Energy Take 5.1 system in the family room with an upstairs, master suite, 4 speaker powered zone 2 and a soon to arrive zone 3 set up. All the components are hidden in a head end cabinet far away controlled via IR inwall repeater and so nothing is visible. The convenience of having the ability to control everything I want from from the Phone App is great. Only having to have volume control knobs instead of pads saved a bunch of money (even though I future proofed with cat5e wire just incase I end up wanting something else). I'm going to say my biggest beef that I knew going in is the lack of ability to listen to digital sources to zone 2 and 3. I'd have had to spend a lot more money and expend a lot more WAF capital to go higher end.