Bought new Onkyo TX-NR6050, hope I won't regret (4 Viewers)

[Mike Up]

I have loved my Denon receivers but they have quirks that I don't like as anything. Music side, they sound great but on HT side, the AVR-2312ci is very complicated and had some analog to HDMI black level issues. It's equivalent to the Denon AVR-X3800H but with 7.1 channels. AVR3803 was the best receiver I've owned but it's only analog and 19 years old. It's equivalent to the newer Denon AVR-X4700H but with 7.1 channels.

Anyhow, since I've moved to 4K and Dolby Vision in my living room (Denon AVR-2312ci 1080P HDMI Only) and 1080P in the media room (Denon AVR-3803 no HDMI), I have been getting irritated with no on-screen displays since everything goes through the TV's HDMI inputs, then TV's optical output to the receivers. This way I can enjoy 4K in living room and HDMI in media room.

I would had loved to get the Denon AVR-X2800H but this is a $800 receiver selling for $1200. This is thanks to Denon jacking up their prices due to the Pandemic. Denon has had no discounts while other brands have had discounts trying to bring their selling price somewhat back to their previous Pre-Pandemic MSRP prices.

Looking at the Onkyo TX-NR6100 at $700 looked like a great deal compared to the Denon AVR-X2800H for $500 more. Well I stumbled onto the Onkyo TX-NR6050 which is really a TX-NR6100 minus the THX feature for an amazing $440! I've never used THX sound features so I wouldn't had with the TX-NR6100. The Yamaha RX-VA6 was another that use to sell at $650 MSRP but jumped up to $850 MSRP with price raising. I had many Yamahas and every one either had firmware/software defect, hardware defect, or dented or scratched faceplates with no box damage. To say the least, the Yamaha RX-V2095 was the last Yamaha I actually kept without returning for defects.

I'm not so sure with this Onkyo as they have had HDMI issues and software/firmware issues of their own while Denon has been pretty solid in previous years. I've read Denon did have some firmware/software issues in the later receivers but no worse than any other brands fight with HDMI copy protection.

Hopefully I won't be disappointed with the Onkyo TX-NR6050 as it has a great feature set, good looking amp section, and unreal low price.

I actually bought this mainly for the great deal. Otherwise I would had waited another 6 months to a year.

Anyone here have good or bad experiences with it?

 

[Mike Up]

I regretted it, had a lot of initial issues where I had to do several resets. Once I got past that, found the manual was incorrect in many areas. Once I got past that, found that Onkyo flips the surround channels for the surround back channels in straight 5.1 DD/DD+ and Direct 5.1 DD/DD+ listening modes. So then I have no side surround output from the speakers, just the surround back speakers.

Found out this is by design and not well liked by many. So I was done with Onkyo. Poor engineering IMO, this goes all the way up to the RZ50 with the flipped channels as well!

Also had issues with the subwoofer playing right. After a few resets I thought it sounded right. Got the new Denon AVR-S960H and immediately had stronger and more dynamic kick drum output with only +2db sub output over the main speakers. I had +4 db sub output over the main speakers with the Onkyo and still sounded more anemic. This was calibrated with a Radio Shack sound level meter with the 2 db bass reading discrepancy taken into account. Plus had all the crossover settings the same in both receivers.

Initially I thought I had weak bass output and did the resets and thought the bass was restored. Not until I put the Denon AVR-S960H in the system, did I notice what bass I was missing with the Onkyo.

Onkyo box was in great shape as was all internals in the box. The receiver was not damaged, this is just what the receiver sounded like. Also I did an initial firmware update out of the box as was recommended. Maybe that was the cause of initial quirks that needed resets.