Customer Reviews

Onkyo TX-SR505 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black)

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

-- Start of 10/15/07 update --
I have now moved my home theater setup into the new 20x20 room. I installed the new 4 Polk Audio RM6751 surround speakers on the side and rear walls and reused the Energy speakers up front. I ran the receiver's Audyssey 2EQ automatic speaker setup which did a surprisingly good job at determining the size and distance of the speakers from them main TV viewing position. It was perfect, off by a foot for some speakers but very close. I proceeded to test the entire home theater using some action space sequences from Star Wars Episode 3 which has a Dolby Digital EX 6.1 audio track. All I can say is WOW. The new room and 7.1 speakers has really allowed this Onkyo receiver to shine. It sounded good in the old room but was somewhat limited by the poor room layout. In the new room it sounds nothing short of amazing. The surround effect sounds very well blended and non-localized as they should. This is an excellent sounding entry level 7.1 receiver.

The ONLY reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because of the quirky behavior of the HDMI video switching. Not because it doesn't switch audio over HDMI but because of the few problems it caused with my cable box and DVD player when they were connected through the HDMI of the receiver. I now connect them directly to the TV as I did with my old receiver and everything works great.
-- End of 10/15/07 update --

I'll start by saying that overall I am very pleased with this receiver and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an full featured budget priced receiver. I am NOT an audiophile. I'm just a guy who enjoys watching movies in surround sound. As such I try to buy components that offer the features I need without all the extra stuff I don't need at a low price. This receiver fits that description perfectly.

This receiver is an upgrade from a 7 year old Pioneer VSX-D608 5.1 receiver. The main reason for the upgrade was that I plan to move my home theater system to a larger 20x20 room and felt that a 7.1 speaker arrangement would be really nice in that room. I'm currently using the new Onkyo in the old room with 5.1 speakers. The move into the new room is a few weeks way.

Since I'm still in the old temporary room I didn't use the Audyssey automatic setup system instead I manually configured all the speaker settings and distances. I found the controls and menus to be fairly easy to navigate and use.

When shopping for a receiver one of my top priorities is a clean low distortion amp which gives you very nice and detailed sound. Be careful when shopping. There are some receivers with 1% THD which IMO is too high. You can tell the difference in sound between 1% and the Onkyo's 0.08%. The SR505 is excellent in this regard.

The SR505 supports the standard formats like DD (Dolby Digital) 5.1 and DTS and also supports many new formats such as DD EX, Dolby Pro Logic IIx, DTS 96/24, DTS-ES, DTS-NEO6 and others. Even though many of these are 7.1 formats they work just fine in a 5.1 setup. The SR505 automatically handles the missing 2 speakers. These formats give a lot of versatility to the audio because they allow conversion of 2 channel audio up to 7.1 and 5.1 up to 7.1. It all works very well. It also remembers what listening mode you have selected for each kind of source audio signal. For example I have it set that when I'm watching TV through my cable box (digital connection to receiver) any channels in 2.0 stereo are converted to DTS Neo:6 and any HT channels in 5.1 stay in their native DD 5.1 format. As I switch channels the SR505 automatically uses the correct listening mode based on the source audio signal. The only negative is that the SR505 makes a 'click' sound whenever it changes listening modes. It's not really annoying but is loud enough to hear.

Regarding video connections the SR505 does allow video switching but does NOT do any conversion between different types of video inputs. For example if you have a DVD and cable box connected to the SR505 with Component inputs then the SR505 will switch the video on it's Component output to your TV. However if the DVD was using S-Video and the cable box Component then the SR505 will NOT convert the S-Video up to Component. It will only output the S-Video over it's S-Video output. The more expensive higher end Onkyo models will do that type of conversion. You just need to decide if that feature is worth the rather large increase in cost. For me it wasn't worth it.

If you read other user reviews on the net for the SR505 it seems the HDMI switching is an area of confusion. The bottom line is that the SR505 will switch ONLY video over HDMI and NOT both video and audio. All this means is that in addition to the HDMI connection you will also need a separate audio connection between the device and the receiver. So between your cable box and SR505 you would need an HDMI connection for video and a coax or optical digital for audio. Full HDMI audio/video switching is available on much more expensive higher end receivers. Again the buyer needs to decide if this feature is worth the extra money.

I have also found the HDMI to be a bit quirky so I decided not to use those connections myself. For example, when I add my cable box connected to the SR505 over HDMI the display on my cable box would flash 'd00' every few seconds whenever the SR505 was turned off. I found the flashing annoying so I connected my cable box directly to my TV. The only other HDMI device I own is an upconverting DVD player. The player doesn't show any usual behavior when connected through the SR505 but I noticed that whenever the receiver is turned off my Sony TV forgets which wide video mode it was in for the DVD player input and I have to change it back manually the next time I play a DVD. I don't know if it's a quirk with my TV or what but it doesn't happen when the DVD player is direct connected to the TV over HDMI so that how I have it connected now. The bottom line is that I tried to use the HDMI switching on the SR505 but because of the unexpected side effects I mentioned above I decided to not use it and went back to direct to TV HDMI connections.

The SR505 includes a nice manual a fairly good remote which will also operate your other devices.

Overall I'm pleased with my purchase. The SR505 is a great receiver for the price. I have no regrets. Recommended.

I purchased this receiver because it offered all the features I required. My current setup is 5.1 but this system will allow me to easily transition to 7.1 It comes with three connections. My only gripe was that it required an additional conection for audio. The HDMI cable would only passthru the video signal, audio has to come through a separate connection. There goes the simple setup solution. Other than that, this is a wonderful unit that offers many highend features of more expensive units.

I hooked this up to a new Infinity speaker system (pair of Primus PC362s, PC350 center and 4 CS60 in wall speakers) for a 7.1 setup for my new basement home theater. Sound is absolutely amazing. You hear effects in movies and music that were not there before. My other setup is an older Sony model receiver with older Infinity speakers and this does not even compare.

The need for separate audio setups for HDMI connections is not a huge deal to me, I have the cables already so why not use them. Even so, to spend $30 in cables to save $150 on the receiver (compared to the Onkyo 605) seems like a deal to me. I personally would not be using the analog to HDMI up-conversion so that is another reason to go with the lower cost of the 505.

The auto speaker setup was a snap. Gone are the hours or measuring and tweaking speaker setups!

This system has more than enough wattage to rattle the windows in my house.

IMHO, unless you desperately need the up-conversion of the 605, get this model and put the money you saved into better speakers. Speakers have a MUCH longer life than receivers anyway!

Again Onkyo has produced a low to mid priced unit that produces great sound and has very good functionality . The 2 main limitations on this unit have been mentioned a number of times in other reviews :

1) Only 2 HDMI inputs (1 HDMI output ,you only want 1 output)
In North America most devices come with high quality HDMI outputs nowadays . So a receiver takes all the HDMI devices into it's HDMI inputs and then sends the HDMI signal over the 1 HDMI output connected to the TV (HDMI output only accepts signal from HDMI inputs , component inputs will have to go out over component output). So you have only 1 connection to the TV (simple!) and switch between input devices in the unit ..HDMI 1 you're watching the DVD , HDMI 2 you're watching the HDMI enabled cable box .
As this unit has 2 inputs you can only attach 2 devices via HDMI ( fine with me = DVD and satellite box) . Extra devices will need to be atttached via another high quality input ..like component , and go to the TV via another quality output like component . Not a big deal but more cabling and switching TV inputs on the TV .
2) HDMI passthrough only
HDMI signal comes into the receiver from your DVD player say ..but you can't split the audio signal out and play it at that point as this unit just passes the whole signal (audio and video) to the TV . So you have 2 choices to get the HDMI audio back to the unit for playback :
a) Let the TV split out the audio and send it back to the unit over digital (optical) cable . Set the unit to "listen" to digital audio in .
Then ALL HDMI audio sent to the TV will play back over digial audio in . Simple ..IF your TV has a digital audio out . You'll want a high quality/fast digital/optical cable .
b) Send all sound to the unit via another audio input e.g component inputs on the unit and set the unit to "listen" to component audio . Works if your devices have the outputs but it means more cabling / less simplicity .

Summary
For around 250 bucks this unit is a steal bearing in mind the caveats above . If it doesn't work for you for those reasons then the 605 removes those limitations for 200 bucks more (and it's a little taller) .

My first receiver with the auto speaker setup feature--very cool. Has plenty of power for my basic set of JBL bookshelf 5.1 speakers with Yamaha subwoofer. Note: this version does NOT up-convert signals from one input type to another. Thus different sources (component, HDMI, composite, etc) must be switched at the TV. The 575 and up seem to convert signals if you need to do that. Plenty of inputs, automatically set up for my 5.1 system although it can do 7.1. Can do stereo in another room but uses two of the 7.1 channels to do it. I am very satisfied with this unit, good value in my opinion.

Just hooked up the new reciever from Amazon and so far it sounds great ! Even though it has the HDMI capabilities I didnt use it, just the old standard method using the audio/video cables. Everything looks and sounds great!! I found the 505 easier to use than my old Onkyo TX-SV727 instead of video 1 & video 2 etc there are DVD, CD, Cable/Sat. This makes it much easier for people other than myself to use the reciever, also if I want to use my outside speakers all I have to do is select speaker B and no further fiddling with the reciever. I'm still learning about the reciever, but I would highly recommend this model for someone who wants the high end quality that Onkyo offers at a reasonable price. I looked at the 605 but it didnt make sense to pay twice as much for a little more power and a few more features!

First, the bad:
When I originally got the receiver, I had some major issues with it. It would go into auto-protect mode for no reason every hour or so. I would need to unplug it and wait a half hour before using it again. The final time it went into auto-protect was when the receiver was not even on. I needed to take it to an Onkyo dealer to have them fix it, but it was still under warrantee, so it was not too bad.

The only other problem I have with the receiver is that the connectors on the back for the speakers are hard to use. I assume that these connectors are higher quality than the traditional spring clamp types, but they make it very difficult to connect speakers without taking the whole unit off the shelf.

Now the good:
Ever since then it has been working very well.

There are plenty of connections for whatever types of input you could possibly need. I use the digital inputs a lot, and it is nice having 4 of them (2 optical, 2 coaxial).

The interface is quite easy to use, even if you want to use all the advanced features. The auto-setup works well and there are a lot of ways to customize your set up. You can use and equalizer on each set of speakers individually, as well as adjust the relative volume of each. Also for the low-level subwoofer output you can set the crossover frequency, which is very useful.

The unit does get a little hot in the back right corner, but the rest of the device stays cool. I wouldn't recommend putting anything directly on top of the unit unless there was a gap and some airflow in between.

The different cinema filters are pretty useful too. Having both DTS and NEO is a plus. Between these two standards, you can pretty much handle anything a dvd player can throw at you. The filters include settings for music, movies, unplugged, studio mix, etc. There's also a "theater" filter which adds some reverb to the mix for that movie theater feel.

Overall, I definitely recommend this receiver. It does everything I wanted it to do, and then some.

'HDMI Pass through' means you might as well have paid $30 for an HDMI cable as bought this reciever. It cannot extract the audio channels from HDMI. It also cannot do any upconversion or downconversion so you have to wire every possible video source to your TV. The whole reason I bought this thing is it could take HDMI S-Video, and Component inputs and switch them to my TV. I wasn't careful enough.

In terms of sound. It sounds really good, but it does its own mojo on the audio and it sounds quite different than the raw mode when you play it through their DSP surround logic.

I didn't find it simple at all to set up. The manual references an earlier button interface than mine has. I spent hours trying to get it to provide a center channel unamplified signal output so I could use my TV speakers as the center channel. Impossible, unless I missed something. It only switches audio off the inputs onto its powered speaker terminals when it is set in surround sound mode. Although there are a bunch of audio out plugs, they are never active for the digital inputs AFIK.

Review of Onkyo TX-SR505 A/V Receiver

This product performs quite well as stated by many other users. Aside from its cinematic attributes and features, I was very impressed with the performance of the tuner. I will dedicate much of this review to that aspect for a few reasons. First, my wife and I listen to radio very often in our daily lives. We listen to the radio during the day (aside from us working), and watch TV at night. Besides listening to FM broadcasts, I listen to AM programming as well. I am also a radio DX enthusiast. This unit replaced my two previous Onkyo receivers, and I thought it was time for an upgrade with another Onkyo product.

My entertainment wall is equipped with a 27-inch Sony NTSC TV, Samsung DVD / VCR recorder, Onkyo cassette deck, JVC direct drive turntable, Technics CD changer, and even other components that I occasionally use as secondary sources. My speakers are from various companies, and are they not the "best in the world." This receiver gets out the best from them.


RADIO SECTION

The New York City market and technical environment puts many demands on tuners. Both bands were highly sensitive and selective.


FM Section:

The front end has the ability to squash spurious signals quite well including the hash produced by the stations carrying HD broadcasting. Here in Brooklyn a receiver has to combat pirate broadcasters and must have the ability to pull in stations from our suburbs. The stations broadcast from the Empire State building have a tendency to push away the suburban stations. Many FM stations operate on class A local channels with no more than 6,000 watts of effective radiated power.

I tested the FM wire antenna that is supplied from Onkyo. It pulled in the local stations from the Empire State Building very competently. Some suburban stations came in without too much noise or hiss.

In our attic I use a Terk TV/FM bar antenna for the terrestrial reception. We have satellite TV service, but some TVs operate from the attic antenna.

My previous Onkyo, which this new unit is replacing, is not able to reject the spurious signals and hash too well, and I see the technology difference that Onkyo engineers are now able to design.


AM Section:

I was astonished with the performance of the AM section, especially from that of a typical A/V or stereo receiver. The tuned AM loop (as the company supplied AM loop antenna forms a tuned circuit with the front end of the tuner) does much justice. A drawback, however, is that the AM section is highly prone to noise. I suppose it is difficult to have your cake and eat it, too, I found the AM loop to be very picky, yet effective and receiving "hard to get" stations. You have to rotate the loop, which is normal. When testing the external antenna, I found it to overdrive the front end, which is not at all surprising on these units.

As an excellent example, in New York City we have WEPN 1050, a 50,000 watt directional powerhouse. At about 2:30 in the afternoon I was able to barely receive adjacent KWY 1060, another 50,000 watt directional powerhouse, located just about 100 miles from the New York Metro area. Technically, these stations cannot interfere with each other due to FCC mandates. Each station is highly directional, especially when you go into central New Jersey. When rotating the AM loop antenna to a specific position I was able to receive KYW. It was scratchy, but I was very impressed!

It is very important to footnote that it is very hard to get distant stations outside of New York City when you are located within the city. Some stations are directed to be so strong that others cannot penetrate into the market. With HD radio, this situation is even worse, as you hear the hash. This applies day or night.


Summary of Entire Tuner:

It would nice for Onkyo to proudly publish their FM tuner specifications like they always have. Customers with sharp technical skills will discern quality when selecting equipment.


CASSETTE DECK AND CD:

The cassette deck plays awesomely through this unit. CD's play precisely.



HOME THEATER ASPECTS

My family was quite impressed with Onkyo when watching some movies from the DVD and from our satellite sources. We still have an NTSC TV and we will upgrade to HDTV when our main TV decides to retire. Hence our satellite delivers in Dolby Prologic II format and of course our DVD delivers in Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS. The receiver delivers precise and brilliant theatrical results from its Dolby and DTS sources. The decoders show strong surround processing design. You can hear with razor sharpness from the program sources. Sometimes you cannot tell if the ringing of the phone is from the movie or your own.

The receiver provides many listening format options. I would appreciate if there were a few more inputs. However, for the money, this unit is a really good bang for the buck.



OVERALL REMARKS

We were a bit disappointed with the adjustments on the tone control. The selections were limited for high to low on the bass and treble.

This receiver is very easy to use. You do not have to refer to the manual to get up to speed on the more detailed functions.

As you may observe, I am a demanding customer, and Onkyo did not let me down. I give the Onkyo TX-SR505 at least 4.5 stars out of 5.0.

Almost pulled the trigger on the 605. But I realized that I did not need the 605's ability to 'convert' everything thru the HDMI port. As someone else here mentioned, why would I want to degrade a 1080i picture to 720P. HDMI, component, coax, and optical ports work fine.

75 watts is plenty for our great room. Some of the functions you need to access on the AV receiver's front bezel (hence only 4 stars). For roughly $250 this receiver has a LOT of bang for the buck. Very Happy, saved myself $200 over the Onkyo 605! My biggest concern was whether or not the HDMI pass through carries just video, or video and audio. I tested and the the answer is that it does carry both video and audio, as it should since it is advertised as HDMI version 1.3a.

Note, that my TV has HDMI in and an optical output. Therefore, whatever HDMI source I send to the TV, it will extract the audio from the HDMI signal and send it over the optical cable back to the receiver for processing. No need to change audio sources, just HDMI source.