Crave

The Onkyo TX-NR5007 has eight HDMI inputs, dual HDMI outputs, HQV processing, and Rhapsody/Pandora streaming.

Onkyo's been on a tear recently releasing new AV receivers, and the company is rolling out another trio of high-end units. The receivers are packed with functionality, from eight HDMI inputs to HQV video processing, so let's take a careful look at exactly what each of these units offers.

New high-end Onkyo receiver photos

Key features of the Onkyo TX-NR1007:

• 9.2 AV receiver, rated at 135 watts per channel
• Six HDMI inputs
• Dual HDMI outputs
• Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio
• Also supports Dolby Pro Logic IIz and Audyssey DSX surround processing modes
• Streaming audio from Pandora, Rhapsody, vTuner, and Sirius Internet Radio
• DLNA 1.5-compliant
• Analog video upconversion to 1080p, using Faroudja DCDi Cinema processing
• Includes THX Loudness Plus and a suite of Audyssey sound processing modes (MultEQ XT, Dynamic EQ, and Dynamic Volume)
• THX Ultra2 Plus certified
• Available in September | $1,600 list price

Key step-up features of the Onkyo TX-NR3007:

• 9.2 AV receiver, rated at 140 watts per channel
• Seven HDMI inputs, including one front panel HDMI input
• Analog video upconversion, using HQV Reon-VX processing
• Front panel USB port
• Dolby Volume processing
• Available in September | $2,100 list price

Key step-up features of the Onkyo TX-NR5007:

• 9.2 AV receiver, rated at 145 watts per channel
• Eight HDMI inputs, including one front panel HDMI input
• Two USB ports (one front panel, one back panel)
• Available in September | $2,700 list price

There are some also some minor connectivity differences between these AV receivers; it's worth checking out the back panel shots in the slideshow to see if there are enough ports to handle your home theater.

Overall, these receivers are clearly overkill for the average home theater, since the most important features are included in Onkyo's cheaper TX-SR607. On the other hand, many of the feature upgrades will please home theater enthusiasts; dual HDMI outputs are great for home theaters with a projector and an HDTV, and HQV processing makes a big difference for scaling analog sources. We're still not fully convinced that integrating streaming audio services in an AV receiver is a good idea--we'd prefer to add a more flexible, dedicated streaming solution, such as a Logitech Squeezebox or Sonos--but we'll be getting a review sample of the Onkyo HT-RC180 soon, so we'll be able to see how that functionality works.

Don't let the ho-hum looks throw you, the HT-BD1250's sound will knock your socks off.

(Credit: Samsung)

Sad but true: Great sound and home theater-in-a-box systems rarely go together.

HTIBs are the province of "good enough" performance and features, but I'm totally jazzed about these two exceptional models: Samsung's HT-BD1250 and Onkyo's HT-S9100THX.

Looking at the Samsung HT-BD1250 Blu-ray Home Theater System ($550 MSRP) it doesn't exactly stand out in a field of black plastic HTIBs. But once I listened to the thing I knew Samsung had a real winner.

The HT-BD1250 sounds great on music and movies, with remarkably good clarity, bass extension/definition, and low overall distortion. Even high-impact, special-effects driven flicks didn't betray the wee speakers and subwoofer weaknesses. Sure, play a Blu-ray really loud or try to fill a very large room and the HT-BD1250 will cry uncle. But in average size rooms, the HT-BD1250 should satisfy most home theater fans.

Rocking out with the Rolling Stones "Shine A Light" Blu-ray the band's punch and impact came through like gangbusters. The HT-BD1250 sounds noticeably less dynamically compressed than HTIBs with similarly sized speakers and subwoofers.

Few HTIBs of any size can sound credible with solo piano CDs, but the HT-BD1250 truly shined with Joel Fan's excellent "West of the Sun" release. The naturalness of piano tone was striking, and even the lower register keys had just the right weight. I credit that to the HT-BD1250's subwoofer, its refined sound perfectly matched the satellites. The sats kept up their part of the bargain, delivering effortless midrange and treble resolution.

Read the full CNET review of the Onkyo HT-BD1250 to learn more.

It looks like a typical Onkyo AV receiver, but it's packed with streaming-audio functionality.

Last week, Onkyo released its new "HT" line of receivers, and the company has followed-up with two additional models in its traditional "TX" line. The Onkyo TX-NR807 ($1,100) and TX-SR707 ($900) are both available now and are step-ups to the popular TX-SR607 model that we reviewed in April.

The TX-NR807 is the most interesting of the two; on top of normal AV receiver functions, it adds streaming-audio functionality from Pandora, Rhapsody, Sirius and Internet radio (using vTuner's database of stations). It's also DLNA 1.5-compliant and capable of playing back MP3, WMA, FLAC, Lossless, Ogg Vorbis, and AAC files from network-attached PCs and hard drives. (It seems to be the "TX" analogous model to the HT-RC180 released last week.)

Onkyo TX-NR807 and TX-SR707 photos

Aside from audio streaming, the TX-NR807 has six HDMI inputs, analog video upconversion to 1080p, and onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. The TX-NR807 is THX-Select2 Plus certified, which means THX gives it the stamp of approval for rooms where you'll sit 10 feet away from the speakers. Generally we don't put much stock in THX certification; it costs the manufacturers money without adding performance and there are great-sounding receivers that lack certification.

The TX-NR807 also has support for Dolby's Pro Logic IIz format, which adds "height" speakers to the standard 5.1 speaker arrangement. We weren't fans of the format when we tested it in the TX-SR607. There's also support for Audyssey DSX processing, which involves up to 9.1 speakers. Given that we feel like the difference between 5.1 and 7.1 is often minimal, we're skeptical as to how much benefit these new surround formats really provide.

The TX-NR707 is very similar to the TX-NR807, but it lacks the audio streaming and networking features and has less power.

(Credit: Onkyo)

Onkyo is one of the heavy hitters in the AV receiver market, with its TX-SR lines of AV receivers consistently scoring well in our reviews for their combination of features and performance. Wednesday, Onkyo announced a new line of AV receivers, dubbed the HT series, which includes the HT-RC160 ($550) and HT-RC180 ($1,050).

Although the model name is new, the HT-RC160 is only slightly different from the existing TX-SR line. For example, if you use the "compare" feature on Onkyo's Web site, the major difference between the HT-RC160 and TX-SR607 is that the HT-RC160 has slightly lower-rated wattage, lacks Sirius support, and doesn't have a front panel HDMI input. Otherwise, they're virtually identical and the HT-RC160 has a $50 cheaper list price. Also, it's worth pointing out that the HT-RC160 is the receiver included with the upcoming HT-S7200 HTIB.

The Onkyo HT-RC160 back panel.

(Credit: Onkyo)

The HT-RC180 is more unique and doesn't currently have an analogous TX-line model. It adds network functionality to the HT-RC160's features, including support for Pandora and Rhapsody. We've generally found that digital audio streaming is best handled by dedicated network music players, but we're interested to see how well Onkyo can integrate the functionality into the HT-RC180.

The HT-RC160 is currently available and the HT-RC180 is coming out later this month. We're already expecting to get review samples of both receivers, so expect more coverage in the future.

Matching SACD player and stereo amplifier from Onkyo

(Credit: Onkyo)

Face it: Most people listen to music on CD, LP, radio, or some form of downloaded file, and each and every one is a stereo format.

Even high-resolution formats like SACD have stereo mixes, so it's no surprise that Onkyo just introduced two new stereo components: An integrated stereo amplifier, the A-5VL, and a stereo SACD player, the C-S5VL.

The amp seems like a rational alternative to a feature-laden AV receiver, jam-packed with so much wizardry you need to read and comprehend a 100 page user manual to get it to do much of anything. Stereo is simple; no need to navigate multilayer menus to turn the bass up or down. No, with the stereo Onkyo amp, all you'll ever do is select the input--CD, aux, radio, etc.--and adjust the volume. Then sit back and enjoy the tunes.

Onkyo HT-S7200 home theater system

Onkyo's home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) systems tend to be everything HTIBs usually aren't: big, boxy, and they actually sound pretty good. Today the company rolled out two new 7.1 HTIBs, HT-S7200 and HT-S6200, which are step-ups to the existing HT-S5200 and HT-S3200 (full review).

Onkyo's new HTIBs have several upgrades, but the first thing we noticed is that the systems aren't stuck with the same "pass-through-only" HDMI inputs that plagued the step-down HT-S3200 and HT-S5200. Both the HT-S7200 and HT-S6200 can accept audio over HDMI (you don't need to run separate cables like on the step-down model), and have onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

The included receivers also have Dolby ProLogic IIz decoding, which enables the use of "height" speakers placed above your standard front speakers. You can read our experience with the technology, but the short story is we didn't feel it was worth the hassle.

Onkyo HT-S6200

The included AV receiver looks to be nearly identical on both systems, with the major exception being the HT-S7200 has five HDMI inputs, while the HT-S6200 has four. Otherwise, both systems have 130-watt receivers that come with Audyssey 2EQ automatic speaker calibration, plus two Audyssey sound processing modes: Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume. The included AV receiver also features Onkyo's propriety universal port connection, which works with the included UP-A1 iPod dock.

The other major difference between the two systems is the included speaker package. The HT-S7200 features two tall-boy speakers (dual 3.25-inch woofer plus a 1-inch tweeter), plus surround bookshelf speakers, a center channel, and a 230-watt subwoofer with a 10-inch woofer. The HT-S6200 includes nearly the same setup, except trading the tall-boy speakers for another pair of bookshelf speakers. The speaker package included with the HT-S7200 will also be available separately as the SKS-HT870 with $500 list price.

Both the HT-S7200 and HT-S6200 are currently available, with list prices of $900 and $700, respectively.

Onkyo is best known for its home theater systems and AV receivers, but the company also produces both Blu-ray and DVD players. Today, Onkyo announced the latest Blu-ray player in its line, the DV-BD507.

The DV-BD507 is the company's first Profile 2.0 player, which means it can play back BD-Live features available on some discs, although you'll need to have an SD card in the slot to download the content. (There's no onboard memory.) Like virtually all the Blu-ray players this year, it has onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential, so you only need an HDMI-compatible receiver to take advantage of those formats. There's also for support Deep Color and x.v. Color, but since we haven't seen any Blu-ray content that supports either format, you're unlikely to get any benefit out of this.

The DV-BD507 is available today with a list price for $450, but it's hard to see how its basic feature set will be competitive at that price. LG's BD390 costs $50 less and offers Netflix and Pandora streaming, built-in 802.11N Wi-Fi, 7.1 analog outputs and 1GB of onboard memory. Perhaps the DV-BD507 has superior build quality, but we imagine most consumers will go for the extra features.

When Onkyo announced the TX-SR607, the company made a big deal that it was the first AV receiver to include onboard Dolby Pro Logic IIz processing. Dolby's new format relies on "height" speakers--two satellite speakers situated above the standard front right/left speakers--to create a more "airy" soundscape--or at least that's the idea. We tried our best to enjoy the extra atmospheric effects, but the reality is our ears had a tough time hearing anything beyond placebo effects. But honestly, who cares? The Onkyo TX-SR607 is a great midrange AV receiver without Pro Logic IIz, offering up six HDMI inputs and excellent sound quality at a street price that is already down to $500 online.

If you're looking for more video-centric features like a graphical user interface or high quality analog video upconversion, it may be smart to hold off until the Sony STR-DN1000 and Pioneer VSX-1019AH are released. But if you'd rather maximize your HDMI connectivity and sound quality on a budget, it's tough to beat the TX-SR607.

Read the full Onkyo TX-SR607 review.

Onkyo TX-SR607 photos