Receiver

Short answer.. Heck yeah they are.

Heck no they are not. My father got one an it never work from day one. Onkyo customer service just turn their back and walk away. We took it back to Brandsmart and it will take 8 weeks to be repair. Becarefull with Brandsmart's ext. warranty. 1 out of 10, I will  give it a -100. Do not buy it. 

I'm loving my Onkyo.
Onkyo gives a lot of bang for the buck. You can get a bad one of anything. Don't close an Onkyo in, in an entertainment center. It could get pretty hot that way. You can't beat them for the money!
Good luck!

From day one? Why didn't he take it back and exchange it? Had to use an extended warranty while it was still new? Brandsmart must not be an authorized dealer. That's probably why Onkyo turned their back on it. Any brand does that, if you get from anyone other than an authorized dealer.

IMHO it depends on the model you are talking about and what your expectations are from that model.  My former roommate had a Onkyo home theater in a box that sucked!  It ran to hot and the 480p video seemed to pick up noise going through the video on the reciever.  And like others have mentioned that Onkyo seems to have issues with customer service!  I have owned Onkyo product in the past and have been happy with it, but it was actually Onkyo Integra gear back before they seperated the two name plates.  I do like the upper end of the Onkyo line and almost purchased a Onkyo 805 until it was replace my the 806 that was not worth it IMHO.  Not having enough money to upgrade my receiver is the only reason I have not took the plung yet. 

But enough of my rambelings, LMAO.  The main thing you need to ask yourself is what are my needs?  How big is my room?  That will tell you how much power you need to have.  How many inputs of component, hdmi ect do I need?  Are you a casual listener or a critical listener?  One thing that may or may not mean anything is that some Onkyo receivers have Burr Brown DAC's and some do not.  The lower end receivers all the way up to the 807 or the model just under it do not have 100MHz video switching on component video. 

Now I am not saying the Onkyo's sound bad, it is just with Onkyo unless you are buying towards the top you will find compromisses in most of there lower end models. 



Especially Denon, they do not like unauthorized dealers and will not honor a warrenty from places that are not authorized!  


But overall I think I would still give Onkyo a higher rating over Sony!

In respect to warranty, Sony does not care were you got it from. As long as you have your receive they will honor it. They send you a box and the only thing that they want is a copy of receive. That is customer service. About sound, I see a lot of you complaining about sony receiver, too bab. I had gone to diferent stores and I could not hear the different in sound. In a surround system you need to have a good set of speakers in order to get the best out of a movie. You can also say that it depend of the person prospective. The reason I am saying that is becase I know some people that will say that Bose is a great system, when in reality is really a very bab system.

My sugestion will be for you to go to different stores that has a room set up for different system and test all of them. At this point we are not talking about which system has more fitures or cost either less or more, you just want to know which one is better for you. Trust me it will be better to go out and test the unit. 

I currently have 3 pieces from Sony and am very happy with them.  I own a Sony BDP-S300 Bluray player, Sony DVP-S9000 ES CD/SACD/DVD player and a Sony 50" KDF-E50A10HDTV.  But I personally would never have a Sony reciever in my a/v rack!  I do not like there surround modes, the way there internal amplifiers sound and they are a little on the eneimic side.  The ES look nice, they have plenty of conductivity and a nice gui, but I just personally do not like them and wouldn't even want one if it was given to me!

IMHO the Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, Integra, Adcom, Rotel, Pioneer Elite, Pioneer and NAD are all better than Sony's reciever offerings.  I had the chance go to CES in 03' and 04' and heard the flagship Sony back then and didn't like it, was not the most musical reciever ever.  Granted there is alot worse like Sherwood, Kenwood, JVC and an assortment of other off brands.  And Sony really missed there oprotunity to make a flagship reciever this year!  Instead of putting out a top notch reciever with better amplifiers, high current (50a +) and more wattage.  They basicall charged $1k more for a few features and the same amout of power that is in the two models beneath it, not a great move on Sony's part!