Customer Reviews

Onkyo UP-A1 Dock for the iPod

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Recently started to upgrade the home entertainment system. Wanted to eliminate all of the cables and get better video. Added a Sony blu-ray player and Onkyo TX-SR507. That installation is easy, you simply plug in the HDMI cables. I had XM running on the sound system for my home music. Recently found Pandora, and love that it provides music and NO taking like XM has become. I was a little nervous when I saw the previous reviews on this item. But, I had the right receiver so it should work?! The installation began with me on the floor with the iPod in the Onkyo UP-A1 and the wife ready to call out instructions. I plugged the cord into the Universal Port in the receiver, turn on the iPod and pushed the receiver's 'Port' selector and the music began to playing through the system. It could not be more simple. Just make sure you have the right receiver.

Not sure how so many people can have such problems getting this to work. If your Onkyo receiver has the port, you just plug it in. Done. On your iPod/iPhone, make sure your video is set to Widescreen and NTSC and you're all set. Works great and looks nice. My only criticism is the price. I got it included with my purchase of the Onkyo TX-SR707. But if I hadn't, I'm not sure I would have bought it just because the price is so high for a mere dock. For $29, you could buy the "official" Apple dock and have an extra USB port. Plus, it'd be more versatile since it uses a standard audio out plug and you can plug it into some small battery powered speakers for a portable solution to playing your music out loud. The advantages of this dock are that it uses a single cable for power and audio/video out, and the glossy black is nice looking if you want it to blend in with the rest of your equipment. If you can get it for under $50 or in some deal which includes it, sure get it. At full price (or obviously if you don't own an Onkyo receiver with a compatible port), I'd pass. Or at least wait until you come across a good deal.

***** Onkyo TX-SR607 AV Receiver
Onkyo TX-SR607 7.2-Channel A/V Surround Home Theater Receiver (Black)
***** Onkyo DV-CP706 DVD Changer
Onkyo DV-CP706B 6-Disc DVD Player (Black)
*** Onkyo UP-A1 iPod Dock
Onkyo UP-A1 Dock for the iPod

I replaced my 10+ year old Onkyo AV receiver and DVD changer with these units in August, 2009. Got them all from Amazon. Was able to save $25 by getting the UP-A1 refurbished.

Amazon pricing and service was great, no surprises there.

These units all work very well together. The DVD Changer shows the most improvement over the 10+ year old model. The menus are much faster to load.

UP-A1: The receiver recognized it immediately. The Onkyo receiver remote will control the iPod, but not very well. It plays, pauses, stops, fast-forwards and rewinds music and video just fine. But (unless I'm missing something), it will not navigate back to the menus once music is playing. If it is already on a menu (say albums), then navigation with the Onkyo remote works. Once music starts playing, the up/down arrows now do nothing, and the right/left arrows shift from playlist to playlist.

At first I thought video from the UP-A1 was not going to my TV via HDMI. But I had disabled TV out on my iPod. Under settings/video on the iPod, turn on TV out (in NTSC format in the U.S.). When you play a video (again, navigating to it with the Onkyo remote has the problems described above) is the only time any video comes out from the Onkyo. It looked like you'd think an iPod resolution video would look.

One really nice feature of the UP-A1 is when you hold down FF. (Yes, you have to hold it down, which is unfortunate for the batteries in your remote.) The audio samples periodically (you hear bits and pieces of the song/video). And on a video, you get the same feature with the video. So if you FF through a newscast, for instance, you'll be able to tell from the video sampling when one story ends and the next begins (or from the audio...you get enough to catch a word here and there).

Overall, I'm happy with the performance of the UP-A1. I had been listening to my iPod on the TV (via our TiVo). That meant the TV bulb had to stay on, which is silly, and the audio quality on the Onkyo receiver is much better than the TV speakers, of course.

NOTE: This review offers helpful compatibility information for potential purchasers. Please keep that in mind before you rate the review.
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We replaced all of our sound equipment during November after a power surge. The new receiver is an Onkyo TX-SR607, which is flexible and more than enough switching power to handle home theater, gaming, and auxiliary sound from a Squeezebox receiver.
Onkyo TX-SR607 7.2-Channel A/V Surround Home Theater Receiver (Black)

A most intriguing feature on the receiver is the "Universal Port," which provides power and connectivity to certain outboard accessories. The idea is to integrate extensions that Onkyo would otherwise have to build into the receiver. Among those extensions is an "extended tuner" to allow HD radio reception.
Onkyo UP-HT1 HD Radio Tuner

Another is this dock. The Amazon.com description promises compatibility with Onkyo's "2009 range of receivers" and explicitly mentions the TX-SR607.

The good: it takes less than five minutes to thread the cable into a media cabinet, pull the receiver forward, and plug in to the universal port. The "PORT" input on the receiver is preset for input from devices on the universal port. Both an iPod Nano (3G) and an iPhone (3G) fit easily into the dock. Rather than bothering with a set of plastic inserts keyed to the various iPod configurations, Onkyo places the port connector in the center of the dock and uses a thumbwheel to hold the device in place. This is a clever, and much less fiddly, arrangement. Audio plays well and sounds terrific. Video plays through. On our 1080i flatscreen connected via HDMI, the video appeared to be up-sampled appropriately, though it did show the kinds of artifacts one would expect from a source originally formatted for iPod.

The bad: there is no On-Screen Display (OSD). The Amazon.com description correctly notes that "UP-A1 is only compatible with 2009 A/V receivers TX-SR507 and higher and 2009 Home Theater Systems HT-S5200, 6200 and 7200" (a statement picked up from Onkyo's Web site), but fails to note that Onkyo also includes this footnote: "Note: Extended Mode is available only on compatible A/V receivers. TX-SR607 and lower models feature only Standard Mode (no OSD from iPod available)."

The lack of OSD means that, in effect, one has to walk up to one's iPod, with the Onkyo remote in hand, in order to have any control over what is playing on the iPod. This negates most of the benefits of an integrated dock!

One could argue that, gee, Onkyo's site states this fact plainly...but of course we rely on product descriptions from Amazon, as well as reviews, to make purchasing decisions. It is also worth noting that the product packaging and documentation make no mention of compatibility or features.

Amazon has graciously agreed to accept a return on this product (only the third product I've returned in eleven years with Amazon). I'm doing this regretfully, because the idea is so good. But, for the price and for the unfulfilled promise of the universal port, I expected something very different than what I got.

The ipod dock connects with one cable (included/attached) to the back of the receiver that both charges the ipod, and allows listening to the ipod through the system (this also works for radio apps like "I Heart Radio" and "Pandora".) The Onkyo remote controls the ipod/iphone flawlessly (volume/advance tracks/etc). Make sure you have a compatible Onkyo receiver. I use mine with the Onkyo HT-S3300 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver/Speaker Package (Black). I use this to charge/play both my ipod and my iPhone 4 through my living room stereo system. I recommend this product.

Hi I bought this with the intents of using it with my txsr 607. I only get a blue screen, so I called onkyo support, which told me unfortunatly, unless I had a 707 or higher I wouldnt get an onscreen display. Save your money and buy a 7 aux to RCA cable, it will do the same thing as this 90 piece of garb. Well except charge it I guess...

I was disappointed with this docking station for my iPod Touch. I had been using my iPod with my Onkyo TXNR5008 AVR (Audio Video Receiver) using a USB cable plugged into the front USB port of the Onkyo TXNR5008 receiver. The sound was great and for each album I had the album cover visible on the TV screen when using the iPod in "Display" mode on the Onkyo receiver. However because the white iPod USB cable is plugged into the front of the receiver, and the iPod was just laying on top of the TV stand, it was unsightly. Therefore I bought the Onkyo UP-A1 dock for the iPod because it would plug into the Universal port on the back of the Onkyo receiver and the cable was not visible. It was easy to setup but there is no album cover on the TV screen (the rest of the music information on the TV screen is the same as when I was using the USB cable). Initially I thought that the sound wasn't nearly as good as it was when feeding the iPod through the USB cable. There was a graininess to the sound and the sound wasn't nearly as open and vibrant with the Onkyo dock as it was when using the USB cable feed. Then I discovered that I could adjust the sound using the "Music" listening mode button on the front panel of the Onkyo TNR5008 AVR. I set the "Music" listening mode to Direct and the sound improved remarkably. Note that the Music listening mode button on the remote can not be used to do this since it is set to control other things for the iPod.

I was a little leery after reading all the negative ratings here but I'm happy to report that the Onkyo UP-A1 Dock is fully compatible with my Onkyo TX-NR708 and my 4th generation iPod Touch. I just plugged the connector to the Universal Port, seated the iPod Touch onto the dock (make sure it's seated firmly), and it was off to the races. iPod menus work great and are fairly fast. Video also plays flawlessly without the hassle of composite cables...all HDMI. I'm a happy camper.

The device worked and is working flawlessly. I can control the docked device with one remote is a big plus but the only reason this device isn't perfect is there is no on-screen menu. Example: It would be great if when you connect an iPod, iPhone or iTouch the device would display the attached devices menu on screen so it wouldn't be necessary to walk all the way up to the device to make selection.

Based on the instruction manual and on comments from other users, I didn't expect the UP-A1's on screen display (OSD) feature to work with my brand new HT-S3300 system (HT-R380 receiver). Luckily, Onkyo has stealthily upgraded the S3300 and I received an HT-S3300(B) instead. One of the new features is full compatibility with this dock! That means the OSD works as advertised. I tested it on an iPhone3G and a third generation Nano. I was able to navigate the menus for both units on my TV screen (browsing playlists, artists, albums, etc). Which was a very pleasant shock.

So if you are worried about compatibility issues, rest assured that the new HT-R380(B) receiver, which comes in the new HT-S3300(B) home theater in a box, works perfectly with the UP-A1.