Onkyo TX-SR705S 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Silver)

The sound quality from this Onkyo is amazing. The room is about 18'x25' and sounds as much like a mini-theater as I could ever imagine. I'm going to do a pro/con list as far as my experience has gone:

Pro:
1. Wiring was really easy to hook up. I use very low gauge speaker wire (which means its thick and well shielded) and the "screw knob" connections on this receiver accepted them without a problem. My former Sony had the little clamp-type connections and those were a pain.
2. The remote is truly universal. While it's not the most attractive or well designed piece of plastic, it was very easy to configure it to all my devices (Sony Blu-ray, Time Warner cable, Sony DVR, Sony 5 disc DVD changer and 47" Toshiba Regza HDTV). I was finally able to put away all those remotes whose functions could not be 100% mapped to a universal remote.
3. Once it was completely configured, the first bit of sound was deafening. This receiver can pump out some sound. And it's very high quality, crisp, clean sound. You definitely don't want to start at "+0 dB" when you turn on something loud.
4. Overall, a good looking product, great price and amazing functionality.

Cons:
1. Other people have said it, and hence the title of this post - the instructions are horrid. I hope you like messing with gadgets, because it's easier to set it up without the manual. If you insist on using the manual, skip the first two pages of the setup dealing with audio and go straight to video. Decide which output type for the TV. That'll get the setup menu ON the TV (which the manual assumes before it tells you how to do it) and then follow the manual. Don't expect explanations of any of the stuff - it just tells you how to set it.
2. Seems minor but if you're upgrading from a theater in a box type system, be ready to spend some more money. I upgraded from a Sony Bravia theater system and expected to just be able to wire everything and move on. Nope! This thing won't take a passive subwoofer. It has to be a powered subwoofer. So, at 9pm after everything was setup, I had to go back out to Best Buy (thankfully open til 10pm this week) and grab a subwoofer. Admittedly, the subwoofer sounds much better than the passive one, but knowing that ahead of time would have made the experience a little better. Not to mention, powered subs start at $100 and go from there.
3. She's big, she's heavy and she's hot. I moved her from inside my media console to the top of it. The TV is hanging, so the top surface had nothing on it which was a nice, clean look. Now the Onkyo is on top so there's no shelf above it to hold in the heat. I may still need to rethink ventilation for it, once I see how hot it gets in summer.

Overall, my cons are minor except the instructions and subwoofer. For those of you upgrading a real receiver, the sub problem won't apply. But it was enough for me to downgrade my rating to 4 stars. However, for all of you thinking about buying this - go for it. It's performance will not disappoint you at all.

The Onkyo TX-SR705 Receiver at this point is a significant step up from my previous Receiver. I have only had the receiver a short time and that is the only reason for the four star rating. The initial setup was easy and the sound quality is 30% better than the previous receiver. I would recommend this receive to anyone who wants to take the next step in their home theater.

For my second media room I selected step down verson of Onkyo and I am not disappointed. It can produce quality sound I say 95% of what I get from first Onkayo receiver model #875 I got last year for more than twice the price. I recommend it highly.

What a great device. I *stole* mine for $400 on a one-day sale. Unreal! I didn't want the silver face, but hey...I saved $300!!

That aside, lets talk about this unit. Most of the amazon reviews I read made me invest in this great device and let me tell you, it was worth it! I cannot rate this device as well as others who precede me, however I can say that this lived up to my standards of quality I was hoping for from a prosumer device like this one.

The sound from this unit is...unreal. I purchased all Polk speakers for the 7.1 surround and I am not sorry. It's a great unit. I'll do a quick PRO/CON list here:

PROS:

It sounds great. It delivers music quality in a stunning way. It switches all my HDMI videos flawlessly and decodes everything automatically. I love it! It's effortless for me to enjoy my entertainment system. I connected:

1) HDTV Samsung TV (HDMI)
2) Sony BluRay 350 player (HDMI)
3) TiVo HD XL (HDMI)
4) Computer/Karaoke (RCA)
5) Wii (RCA)
6) MythTV box (RCA)

So when the BluRay player downmixes to PCM bitstream, the Receiver decodes and displays properly (most make the mistake of decoding on the BluRay player so the amp never tells you what is really playing) The THX on this unit REALLY BRINGS IN the rear surround. WOW! My favorite setting is the THX Neural7.1 setting which takes a stereo input (Wii,Computer,etc) and converts to 7.1. HOLY COW WOW! It's VERY accurate too. Wii artifacts are BEHIND me and I know the Wii didn't do that. Nice!

It's LOUD. REALLY loud. But clean. I've heard better but...C'mon...My 100 year old house wasn't designed for audiophile sampling. Listening to a DTS disk at +2db BLOWS MY MIND. It is SO clear, so true...so LOUD...it's amazing. So amazing.

CONS (and why it didn't get 5 stars)

Ok...wow...where do I start? I will justify the header of this review by saying that ... english cannot be the first language of the people who made the manual. It is AWFUL! For instance, when setting up the amp in the "getting started" portion, it makes reference to visual guides to set up your speakers, etc...But ... the VIDEO help comes a few pages AFTER the audio help so...the entire audio help is useless without the video help....HELLOOOO? The instructions are out of order. Set the VIDEO FIRST then go to the audio setup where the instructions use visual aids to establish the connections.

The illustrations in the manual are WRECKLESS and tragic. One illustration has arrows pointing all over the place. I thought it was a joke like those signs you see in M.A.S.H. that point all over the world. Wow...Gimme a break. NO ONE UNDERSTANDS THAT!

Ok..with the documentation hazards out of the way, lets move to the audio CONS: Yeah...There are some. This amp has TOO MANY OPTIONS. Do people who purchase 7.1 receivers REALLY USE "Concert Hall" or "Orchestra" settings? NO, they DONT! That is a hold over from 1987. Onkyo needs to lose about 15 of these weak settings and make this thing less complex. Good grief!

I did not like the microphone Audyssey whatever...that was a joke. After it was done, I undid it all. The algorithm used to establish db ratings for each speaker ended up performing a negative on ALL speakers. Thats silly. It should have zeroed out the highest one then performed the negative adjustments from there. Instead, it started at -6 and went as deep as -18 on some speakers. Wow thats bad. I tried it multiple times (yes, I was quiet...I'm not an idiot) It did set the speaker distance right so I ended up keeping those variables but the rest was just crap. I ended up tuning it myself by ear and using a db meter from work. I figured this might be gimmicky so I didn't buy the amp because of this feature. It's pretty weak if you ask me. Others love it so don't use my review as gospel. It was just my opinion.

It gets HOT! Wow does this amp get HOT. I ended up having to move it 6" lower than it was. That helped a lot (so now there is 8" of space above it) I'm just used to the older amps and not having to give them so much space above. HEAT=DEATH to electronics so keeping this unit cool is very important. The internal fan is actually kinda quiet. It didn't bother me at all.

The remote is horrendous. Why? Hand it to a female of our species and learn some life lessons. When she hands it back to you and says "no...YOU DO IT" you will see. I easily remedied this by just getting the Harmony One remote from the beginning. Wow was that a good investment. The Onkyo remote is atrocious! There are WAAAYYYY too many buttons on it. The layout is bizarre and it just does too much. It's HUGE and it is fugly. Ohhh it lights up....*sigh* you cannot read the buttons as the text is too small. Phooey.

Bottom line, this receiver is everything I expected. It took some time to digest what it can do, how to route connections and how to get it to decode naively but once I did, it turned in to a DREAM.

One thing that really SAVED me from the bad manual is this BEAUTIFUL F.A.Q. that is custom tailored to 705 owners. Props to those who contributed to this beautiful document that teaches you EVERYTHING about this unit in words you can read and understand!

[..]

My Amazon friends: Enjoy this amp. It's amazing. The price is right and it sounds great. Go for it! You only live once!

When comparing to a pioneer vx27thx it does not have the sound quality you I would have expected for hdmi connections and 7.1 sound.The clarity was just not there even with a blue ray player.It did not have the crispness or bass for quality sound reproduction even with all klipsch speakers it was not good.The only good thing was the microphone that eases the speaker calibration.Thank God that amazons return policy is THE BEST!!!!!