Is Onkyo the most user friendly of receivers?

Question

I want to buy a receiver for around $500. But I am not savvy when it comes to settings and all that. I really just want to turn it on and have my 5.1 surround. But I want my sound to be free of distortion as well.....My friend had a Yamaha, and it was so confusing, it almost turned me off to Home Theater when he was showing me how all the settings worked. I need somewhere between 80-100 watts per channel, whatever that means......

Answer 1

It really depends on how comfortable YOU are with the Onkyo's remote control. Unfortunately, 5.1 surround receivers are generally very confusing to setup, but this can be mitigated by having your friend or a professional do the installation. After that, it's just a matter of learning the on/off, volume and switching different inputs on your remote control.

I would audition a few different brands (Sony, Pioneer, Denon) and see which remote is most comfortable for you. After all, we are now an armchair society, so the remote is really the key to becoming "savvy".

NOTE: There are integrated remotes that allow you to press one or two buttons to do a whole series of things (turn on the TV, cable box, DVD, receiver...) to eliminate 3-5 different remotes. Harmony makes some very nice remotes.

Good luck and enjoy your new remote!

Answer 2

For the love of God steer clear of BOSE and Fluance. The latter are not much better than white van speakers, the former are the most over-priced over-rated speakers on the market. BOSE = Buy Other Sound Equipment. Better Sound Through Marketing. No highs? No lows? Must be BOSE. Onkyo make excellent receivers. So do Pioneer and Denon and Marantz and Yahama. Anything from these guys will be good, go with your budget and yes Amazon is a great place to look for pricing and check their marketplace sellers too as good vendors like Vanns, Crutchfield, JR, OneCall, etc., sell through them also. For speakers if you can move to individual bookshelf speakers you'll really elevate your system. Polk's TSi series aren't going to win any "high quality top of the line" awards but they are great value for money. I hooked my father's system up and we went with an Onkyo TX-SR609, TSi 300's for fronts, TSi 100's for rears and the larger of the two TSi centre channels for the centre with 2 Lava 10" subs, sounds very nice for the money spent. For full disclosure I don't work for any speaker or receiver manufacturer. I have Panasonic plasma, Paradigm speakers, Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver. Goldring turntable, Pioneer Elite SACD/DVD-A playback, PS3, Parasound phono preamp and a mixture of Monoprice, Ixos and Ultralink interconnects. Seriously, avoid BOSE and Fluance like the flu vaccine.

Answer 3

i own a onkyo, but im currently not using it because, i bought an Cambridge audio amplifier to power my KEF Speakers in an audiophile setup. The onkyo is Super easy to use and sounds Great! (coming from a very picky person). Onkyo are 75-90 watts per Chanel but it is high current so it can dive even the most power hungry speakers with ease. I highly recommend onkyo Over any other brand of receivers for home theater.

Onkyo TX-SR605 (90 high current watts per Chanel RMS)

its on sale for $429 with no sales tax and free shipping if you buy from the link below. They are a fully authorized Onkyo dealer so you can obtain your factory warranty, i bought mine from vanns and had no problems.

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/details/538500464

if you need any help just email me at [e-mail] i can help you with the setup because i am very familiar with onkyo's controls.

Answer 4

Hi. I am not sure if Onkyo Receivers are the most user friendly ones to set up but i have not heard anyone complain about them . If you have any problems setting one up just ask us to give you a hand.

Here is a link for the ONKYO TX SR 674 95 watts X 7 The lowest price is $400.

http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Onkyo-TXSR674B-7-1-Channel-Home-Theater-Receiver

Answer 5

In my experience, all receivers (and other AV equipment for that matter) are overly complicated. It is caused by a lack of any industry standards for set-up menus, etc.
If you bother to read the manual - you should be OK with any receiver.
In my experience, "SIMPLICITY" would not be a reason to choose Onkyo. The reason to pick Onkyo would be HDMI 1.3 - which is offered on Onkyo TX-SR605 (~$450), 805 and 905.