Customer Reviews

Onkyo TX-SR604S 7.1 Channel A/V Receiver (Silver)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this receiver to control a home theater system that includes a 32" Samsung LCD TV, DirecTV, Bose Acoustimass 15 speakers and an XBOX 360. I wanted a receiver that had HDMI capabilities, but allowed the HDMI video to go to the TV while keeping the audio with the receiver and speakers.
With other receivers you have to do some sort of "work around" to make this happen. Not with the Onkyo! The set up was simple and now I have the excellent HDMI audio going through the Bose and the HDMI video going right to the LCD TV. Sound is phenomenal across the board. Zone 2 feature is excellent too! I highly recommend this receiver.

I don't think you can find a better receiver at the low price Amazon is selling this for. I am using this with a Denon 2910 DVD Player and a Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player hooked up through the HDMI and it works flawlessly. I also have a Samsung over the air HDTV receiver hooked up to the component and that also works perfectly.

The nice thing is you have room to hook up 3 component devices so it is perfect for connecting an Xbox360 or Nintendo Wii. The receiver also supports Dolby Prologic II so you get full surround sound on the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 2. It also upscales all of your S-video and composite devices over the component so you only need to output component and HDMI to your HDTV.

This receiver has no problems passing 1080i over HDMI or component and I have noticed no visual artifacts using the receiver as a switcher. The best feature is this receiver can accept audio over HDMI. The Denon passes Dolby Digtal and DTS without needing an optical cable hooked up. The Toshiba is able to decode the new advanced Dolby TrueHD and DD+ codecs and pass them over the HDMI as full PCM streams. This means you get to hear the full sound capability of these advanced codecs without needed a decoder for them in the receiver.

The big question for many is whether to get this receiver or the Onkyo 674. The only advantages to the 674 are slightly more power which could be helpful if you have a large room and HDMI up scaling. With the 674 you only need to hook up an HDMI cable to the TV which will save you one cable. I considered the nearly $200 of savings worth losing these two minor advantages.

I found setup to be very easy with the included mic and the remote is decent (actually better than the ones Denon includes with most models), but probably something you will want to replace if you want an all in one remote. Assigning the video and audio to each of your Video switches is also easy and very flexible.

After looking for an HDMI audio capable receiver for a while and finding nothing that costs under $1k, I was delighted to come across the TX-SR604.

As far as I know it is the cheapest receiver that can accept multi-channel Linear PCM through HDMI (the Sony STR-DG800 does NOT accept audio from HDMI, even though it has a few HDMI "inputs"). It works great with the PS3, and passing 1080p video through it works with no problem. Some have complained that it doesn't take component input and output it through HDMI, but if saving $150 means more to you than that, go with the 604 instead of the 674.

I have found the sound quality to be very detailed, and the receiver has a wealth of setup options for you to configure; although my "auto-setup" function did not work. That didn't really matter, as I was able to set it up manually with minimal instruction book reading.

The only problems with the receiver that I've found are: 1)It gets fairly hot, so make sure it has space to vent, and 2) There is no way to make the receiver take a 2-channel HDMI audio signal and convert it into surround with Dolby Pro Logic IIx (just use optical, coaxial or analog instead).

If you're looking for a relatively inexpensive 7.1 receiver with a wealth of connection options, you've found it.

I got this receiver to replace two items. I needed to replace my Sony surround receiver, and I also wanted to replace my HDMI switch box if possible. I also had a lot of components to hook up: DVR, VCR/DVD Recorder, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, and iPod.

Setup-
The setup was pretty easy. Everything is labeled clearly, and it was pretty intuitive. You need to make sure you read the directions, though. You have to set up the receiver if you are planning using digital inputs. It's really easy to do, but it isn't automatic. Also, make sure you see that only HDMI inputs are passed through the HDMI output. It's not a big deal to hook up HDMI and Component to your TV, but make sure you do it.

Use - Once you have everything setup, it is easy to use. The audio and video inputs are linked together, so just one button sets things up for you. The sound is great, and the video switching is flawless. If you need to switch back and forth between your TV's HDMI and Component inputs, it's a little bit of a pain, but if you have a good universal remote, this is automatic.

Cons - This unit does not have many negatives associated with it. However, there are a few. First of all, it would be nice to have all video signals pass through the HDMI, but that's why Onkyo has another model. This feature wasn't worth $200 to me. Second, when we watch a local HD channel on the DVR, and fast-forward through the commercials, when it switches from the network HD feed to the local feed, it throws the unit off a little. The unit will start to switch modes, the screen goes black, and then it catches itself and puts it back. Not a big deal, but it messes with the sound a little when it does this. A quick switch to another input and back again fixes it. However, it only does this at this one specific time. Finally, I would like to see it work with a non-powered subwoofer. I tried using the one I had, and it wouldn't work, so I had to get a powered subwoofer. Not a huge deal, but it was a little annoying.

However, everything else about this unit is great. It works wonderfully, and I got it for a killer price. I even received it sooner than I was supposed to. It was supposed to take 6-8 weeks, but I got it in less than one.

Final word: If you don't want to spend serious money, but still want expensive performance, go with this. You won't be disappointed.

I purchased this item on March 15 from Amazon. We've been using it for almost a month now. My wife and I have built our HT system in our Master bedroom (16x14x10) also have 40" Samsung LCD 4095 (1080p) and Polk audio speakers (in ceiling) LC60i for front and middle speakers and RC60i for the surround speakers. I'm awaiting for Toshiba HD-XA2 that was recently ordered to complement our system and would be replacing my current infinity subwoofer with a HSU STF-2 sub.

Originally my first choice was a Pioneer VSX-1016 receiver but with lack of zone 2 and HDMI video pass-thru only. I didn't think it fit our needs. However, Onkyo TX-SR604b not only was a true bargain but it also exceeded my expectations, ease of use (very easy setup) user friendly powerful enough to drive all my polk speakers clean and crisp sound. I did'nt have any problem as far as clicking sound related to HDMI issues like few folks have mentioned on their reviews and I didn't mind running extra component cable to my TV knowing it doesn't up-convert component to HDMI. The only thing that I haven't tested it yet was the zone 2 feature. I'm planning to install my extra pair RC60i in wall speakers to our master bathroom hopefully soon so can't comment on that part yet.

Overall we're very pleased with our purchased Thanks AMAZON!!

A very good A/V for your first home entertainment system. Sounds good (if you buy good speakers, and have a good incoming signal), and does contain two HDMI inputs for a DVD/HD Cable/Blue-ray etc . -1 star due not being able to convert analog line to digital, meaning if you want hook up a ipod, or VHS,up to a HDTV, you will need both a HDMI cable and RCA/S-video or some other analog cabling between the A/V and TV. Never the less, if you need that, there is the Onkyo TX-SR674 which will, but is worth the extra $150? so that's your choice, but i chose no.

So if this is your first system or you're on a budget, for a ~1500 system (A/V, DVD,TV, Cabling) , this is a great A/V.

I decided to go for this receiver instead of the TX-SR674 which is exactly the same as this except for the added benefit of up-conversion to HDMI for $200 more.

I am not disappointed. This receiver is very user friendly. It supports speakers of 6 Ohm impedance which many receivers do not openly support. If you are buying a new speaker system, it should not matter. Set up is very easy. Plenty of inputs! The on-screen set up display is very useful. The remote control can't operate my Viewsonic TV, though.

The sound is sharp and crisp. It has the ProLogicIIx which is a plus.

I like this receiver I am using it with polk speaker RM6900. I wanted to have 4 audio/video input, on screen display, auto speaker setup, and HDMI input. I knew that it doesn't do upconvert to HDMI, however I don't care of running one more cable to the TV.

I am still in the process of buying HDMI TV. Can any of you conform, if onscreen display will work, if I use HDMI connector + normal S-video to connect to TV. I know this onscreen display works with S-video and composite o/p however when my TV is switched to HDMI input, how the on screen display going to work via S-video? In the manual and someone in this review list mentioned that, to make display to work in HDMI input of the TV, you need to connect via S-Video too.


I did the auto speaker setup, it set the volume level, I wonder, if it sets frequency too i.e. upper and lower 3db stuffs. Can any of you conform this ?


I used to have HTS790, it also has good sound quality, but it doesn't have 4 audio/video input and the speakers were ugly. However my 604 sound level is low. On HTS790 I used to watch TV/DVD at 25-42 volume level, however in this I have to set minimum 55. Is there something wrong in my system or it is general problem with this model. I feel HTS790 has great volume level.

This is a fairly decent budget receiver but I'll be looking for something else. The sound quality is good and it has enough power to drive a typical home theater. The automatic speaker setup is straightforward and works well. There are several DSP modes, most of which I probably will never use. HDMI works about as good as everywhere else, which is to say expect having to switch back and forth between sources or cycle power if the handshake doesn't work the first time. However, here are the problems:

- Too few component inputs. Yeah, this is a budget receiver, but still...
- Could use another HDMI input, but again, this is budget.
- Could use more coaxial digital audio inputs.
- U.S. version will not support speakers down to 4ohms (European version does). This could be a problem if you have speakers that you've been bi-wiring in the past. You'll be overdriving the unit.
- U.S. version does not include RDBS.
- It gets really hot.
- The remote isn't very flexible when using the universal control aspect of it; for example if you plug a DVD player into the CD input you will not be able to control it because the remote will only allow you to choose from the CD category when assigning the control code. You might be better off with a more powerful universal remote and not using the one that comes with this.
- And the reason I'll be looking for something else - it's not passing component video correctly. It seems to roll-off high-frequency signals. My source material is the Chicken Little Blu-Ray on a PS3. The PS3 is outputting 1080i component. If I run the signal through the Onkyo then my projector loses sync during rapidly changing scenes. This happens at the beginning of the disc during the previews and about two-dozen times throughout the movie. If I jumper just the Y channel (it contains the sync signal) around the Onkyo, then no problem... Note that nowhere in their user manual or specs does it say what component formats are supported but the bandwidth is quoted as 50MHz which should theoretically be sufficient for 1080i. Perhaps I have a bad unit. If that is the case and I am able to post an update then I will do so.

My receiver was delivered on 3/23/07 and I am thus far very satisfied with it. Setup was fairly easy and the manual was straight forward. I connected my Definitive pro 1000's to it and have experienced very clean, vibrant sounds. DVD's look and sound amazing via component hookups. The radio also sounds great. The remote control setup was also easy, and it controls every piece of my home theater. The retail for this is around $500, but Amazon sells it for $370 with free shipping and no sales tax, so that is a great bargain. If you are looking for a mid-priced receiver with tons of functionality, go for the Onkyo.
Update 4/3/07: I had been having problems with my Definitive subwoofer automatically turning off because it wasn't getting a strong enough signal from this receiver. You might have to turn up the settings on the on-screen menu to 10dB. It was initally set at -3dB, which is next to nothing in terms of bass sound. I thought I might put that out there in case someone else had the same problem.