Customer Reviews

Onkyo TX-SR506 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This receiver is pretty impressive on paper and visually by oogling at all the ports on the back. The biggest thing to note, I believe, is that the 3 HDMI inputs are "pass-through" and do not extract audio and play it through the speakers connected to the receiver! (the audio will only go to the TV!)

You NEED a secondary cable for audio (for each HDMI input!) and then you must configure the receiver to pair the corresponding HDMI input with the audio source. For example, if I have my Xbox 360 connected via HDMI, it is total FAIL because the optical audio connector for Xbox only exists on the component out... so I must use the component output for the Xbox instead, and pair it with a TOSLINK optical cable setup on the receiver.

While being an excellent receiver for the price, this single ridiculous gotcha makes the technology of HDMI near totally moot and could lead to some annoying workarounds as I have done for my home theater.

From the manual, page 29
"If you want to listen through the speakers connected to the AV receiver, in addition to an HDMI connection you'll need to make a separate analog or digital audio connection."

That is, one of the high points of HDMI (the fact that one cable transmits both audio and video) is completely lost in this receiver, since a second cable is needed for the speakers to function. Furthermore, the unit has 3 HDMI inputs but only 2 optical audio inputs.

TO me this doesn't make much sense...

i was on the fence for awhile about picking out a new receiver to replace my old Sony 5.1 setup. i wanted something easy to operate for my wife and kids, something that i could run one wire to my tv so i didnt have to change inputs on the tv as well as the receiver.

this onkyo was the ticket! i have my playstation 3, xbox 360, and Cox Cable box feeding this receiver, all hooked up via hdmi (for video) and optical (for audio). my tv is pre-hdmi, but i have an hdmi-dvi cable that works perfectly with this setup.

installation took me about an hour. i didnt run the auto setup on the speakers because for some reason i was getting an error. i was able to set the speakers up manually very easily so this didnt bother me at all. all the hdmi inputs and all the optical inputs are assignable, which couldnt be any easier. i just hooked up all my toys (ps3, 360, cable) turned them on, and just scrolled through the inputs until the all matched up, then moved on to the next.

the sound that this unit produces is absolutely amazing. dont be fooled by its low power rating because this is a high quality unit. it pushes my Klipsch Quintet II speakers much higher and produces a much cleaner sound than my Sony 100watt receiver did.

the remote that is included with this receiver is perfect as well. its programmable, although it doesnt have all the commands that i need for my cable box, it can do everything except pull up the DVR menu. on top of that, its small and simple to use!

the only reason i didnt give this unit a 5 star rating is because the switching between hdmi sources is a little slow, takes about 3-5 seconds to switch.

all in all, it fits my needs perfectly and i wouldnt hesitate to make this purchase again!

This receiver has a ton going for it, and little holding it back! With 1080p passthrough, 3 HDMI inputs, 1 HDMI output, 7.1 channel surround sound, and all the dolby and dts decoding, this is a sweet home theater receiver at an amazing price. I have mine hooked up with a blue ray player, a 50" 1080p plasma, and a bose surround sound system, and it couldn't get much better. The ONLY beef that I have with this receiver, is the hdmi inputs only pass through video, no audio! This means that you can hook up 3 pieces of equipment via HDMI and output it all to your tv, but you will have to hookup the audio sources separately. At first, this might seem ridiculous, but here is the scoop. It is equipped with 3 optical inputs, and optical is capable of reproducing any sound quality with the exception of Dolby HD Master. I have heard an HD master track, and the difference is too minute for me to discern. Overall, this receiver is Money in the Bank... literally, at this price

I was torn between the Onkyo TX-SR506 and Sony STRDG720, which both have very comparable feature sets (7.1, 3->1 HDMI switch, optical inputs, component pass through) and are in the same price range. Even though I prefer Sony and have several Sony components (TV, PS3, etc), the Amazon sale price and some good brand recommendations tipped me to the Onkyo -- ordered it Friday, and had it on Monday!

First off, I knew the Onkyo only did HDMI pass-through -- which means the 7.1 HDMI audio is not intercepted at the receiver but passed to the TV. This means you either have to connect the TV's audio back to the receiver, or wire each of your components to send audio separately. Sort of defeat the purpose of audio-over-HDMI, but I was willing to accept this. What I didn't realize is that the optical TOSLink connection cannot do 7.1 at the HD bitrate. In fact, the only way to get 7.1 out of the unit is to use the DVD analog inputs (only 1 set of eight available), otherwise your 7.1 unit can only play downsampled or 5.1 audio.

After installing, my DirecTV HR20 Satellite/PVR worked fine over HDMI, but not the HD-DVD or the PS3. The HD-DVD unit would play fine for about 90 seconds over HDMI, then would lose picture and audio. Resetting either the receiver or the HD-DVD player would get me another 90 seconds. The PS3 was even worse -- it never passed any video or audio! I could tell I was getting an input signal at the TV, but it was just black. Of course, the same components worked fine directly to the TV directly over HDMI , but failed through the receiver. I suspected HDCP handshaking issues.

Now, I'd googled several reports where people had no HDMI audio (due to the pass-through above), and a handful where they had no video either (almost always failed to assign the inputs properly), but there were a couple that had the same problems I did and no resolution. I decided to call Onkyo tech support.

It tooks me 2 days of disconnects and unanswered voicemail to get through to a person, and after walking through the necessary steps (reset unit, configure inputs, check connections, reset everything, try connecting directly to TV), he gave up. Said it should work, that they had a PS3 in the office that worked, but didn't know why mine failed. Maybe it was my TV that failed the HDCP -- but of course, everything worked fine *without* the receiver. Anyway, I was promised a call back within 24 hours. It never came. I tried calling tech support again, and again I suffered disconnects, dead ends, and unresponsive voicemail. I finally tried customer service, who redirected me to an open support person. We repeated the above steps, and he suggested I return the unit as defective or bring it to a nearby service center.

Given the limitations I'd found, the unexpected failures, and the very poor customer support, I took him up on his offer -- I returned the Onkyo to Amazon and I picked up the Sony on sale for $25 more. It reads 7.1 LPCM over the HDMI (not just pass through), it works with the Sony TV and PS3, and I know I can get through to their technical support. I'd heard good things about Onkyo, and I'm sure the SR506 feature set will suffice for some people, but I wasn't pleased with it. (I also despise HDCP, but that's a rant for another day.)

This replaced my older JVC receiver and the difference in sound and its quality is very satisfying. Clear sound can be heard at much lower volume levels than the JVC. In surround sound the quality is great, escpecially at this price. It has HDMI but this lower end model is only a run through, you need an optical cable for the sound which is very good. Can't go wrong with this receiver.

I had a hight problem with the space I needed to put a receiver into (less than 6"). This Onkyo fit. It was not as powerful as I wanted to buy, but to my surprize it's performance is much better than I expected.

I especially like the capability of the receiver to automatically adjust the speakers using a mic that I place in the center, right and left of the sweet spot in my room. I did not expect that from an inexpensive 70 watt per channel receiver

OK, you have a game room, bedroom or other location where you want the benefits of a good receiver but don't want to bust the bank. This is it. The 506 hits the nail on the head. The only thing I might add, is audio pass through for the HDMI. Not a problem with digital audio outs but it would be nice to take advantage of that HDMI capability. I have it on my 705 and like it. I have 5 Onkyo receivers in my home and can tell you, I believe in Onkyo. 1 is a stereo source and the other 4 support surround sound systems at various locations. With the exception of one unit that has issues with a "hot" signal from my FIOS connection, they are flawless, easy to set up and offer good value!

There seems to be a lot of complaining of late about the HDMI pass through but not enough reviews about how great this receiver really sounds, so I just want to throw my 2 cents in with the other happy SR506 owners.

Yes, the receiver doesn't extract audio from the HDMI connections and doesn't do any video upconversion processing (its a $200 receiver for Pete sake). That's what the words "pass though" in the specifications mean. Do you really need your audio extracted from the HDMI connections and video upconversion processing? That all depends upon your needs, but I didn't need it. My blu-ray player does all the upconversion I need, my TV has 4 HDMI inputs, and my universal remote coordinates the input switching for me. So what if you have to run Toslink (and/or coax audio) cables from each component into the receiver. You do it once. It's not like you have to re-wire the thing every time you power it up.

Anyway, on to the sound quality: I have been a Yamaha receiver fan for years, and was hesitant to buy an entry level Onkyo, but since this was going in the living room where the kids will be beating on it, I decided to save a few dollars and give it a try.

Much to my surprise the sound right out of the box was very good, and once I ran the Audyssey 2EQ setup the sound was incredible. I have the same set of speakers in our master bedroom that I have hooked up in the living room. The bedroom has a Yamaha HTR-5860 7.1 YPAO configured surround receiver. So, to do some comparing, I played a few scenes from a few blu-rays on each system, and I hate to say it, but the Onkyo TX-SR506 just sounds better. The bass is stronger and tighter, the highs are cleaner, and the surround sound effects are more enveloping. Not to say that the Yamaha is terrible, it is a good receiver with different features than the Onkyo has. Perhaps the Yamaha could be tweaked to sound better. And Yes, the rooms are differently shaped which could affect the perceived sound, but both YPAO and Audyssey are supposed to correct for this. All I am saying is that, as installed, the Onkyo sounds better to me, without any tweaking, for a lot less money. So if you are contemplating getting this receiver, and are OK with its HDMI pass through, then don't hesitate to save some money on this receiver.

This is a good basic A/V receiver. I got this for my computer to drive the 7.1 speakers I already had. I'm strictly using it for amplification so I'm not concerned with the lack of audio through HDMI. Audessy is a nice plus for easy setup. I would definitely recommend this receiver as long as it is not a center piece for a home theater setup with HDMI.