Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Onkyo TX-SR304S 5.1 Channel Receiver, March 14, 2007
I was looking for a low-cost receiver with surround sound capability for a vacation home. I have never purchased any components from Onkyo before, but a friend of mine more familiar with audio components recommended it. The price was very reasonable, especially after Amazon recently reduced the price to just over $140.
The receiver was shipped from J&R Music World. The packaging was good, and everything arrived in good shape. The directions weren't great, but having set up 5.1 systems before, this was not a tremendous hurdle. Once the unit was turned on, though, the actual setup of the speakers and other features was much simpler and much more effective than the unit I have in my primary home. It was really a snap to get the speakers configured and balanced.
The sound quality is excellent. I don't have a sub-woofer hooked up yet, but the compensation by the unit is excellent, and the sound quality is still top notch. It does not have many of the bells and whistles of other units, and it is just a 5.1 system, but if you're looking for a basic unit that provides all of the necessities, good sound quality, and ease of installation, this unit would be an excellent choice.
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy this Receiver!, October 12, 2007
A great price on a really nice 5.1 surround receiver. My biggest concern was the power rating. I was worried it wouldn't fill my theater room with sound. That concern ended the moment all 5.1 speakers were connected. Immediately my wife turned to me and said, "Can you turn it down?"
Onkyo is a quality company that rates its wattage at full bandwidth and that's why it appears to be a little low on power in the specifications. Many other manufacturers rate their wattage at only a fraction of the bandwidth, thus making them look more powerful than they really are.
This receiver does DTS and Dolby sound and will automatically choose the superior DTS sound if both are available. If it doesn't detect any surround, it will automatically choose a surround emulation. I watched a football game broadcast in stereo, and the receiver split the sounds perfectly into 5.1 surround, even placing the crowd noise in the two rear speakers!
I can't say enough about this receiver. It has plenty of input and output connections - more than the average person will need, and all at an outstanding price.
This is quality at a bargain price.
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62 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Could be better, July 22, 2007
It's not a bad receiver, sound quality is decent, it has enough connectors, but I've compared this receiver with Yamaha HTR-5930 (which you could get for the same price as Onkyo) and here's where Onkyo loses:
1. The biggest disappointment: I've connected subwoofer to the unit and could hear humming noise coming from it. Yamaha is dead quiet unless, of course, music is playing.
2. Yamaha is more powerful (110 vs. 65)
3. Sound from Yamaha is more "natural". This may be something that you won't like if you prefer a lot of high frequency tones, but for me it worked better.
4. Inputs are named 'DVD', 'Video 1', 'Video 2', etc in Onkyo. In Yamaha they have 'DVD', 'Cable', 'VCR', 'Aux' - it is much easier to remember what you need to switch to. On top of that you can customize Yamaha's input names, which makes it even easier.
5. Yamaha's remote works very well as universal remote. My favorite feature: when you press a button to switch receiver's input to DVD, for example, remote also switches into DVD mode, so you can immediately press 'Play' on the remote and your DVD will start playing. Press 'VCR' button and receiver starts playing sound from VCR and remote controls VCR as well. Very convenient.
6. Onkyo's appearance is somewhat dated, finish gives impression of a cheap product (again, I am comparing with Yamaha here), screen looks like it came from 80-s.
7. In terms of size, Onkyo is about 1.5 times deeper then Yamaha (width and height are the same).
I went with Yamaha.
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