Supurb Receiver, August 20, 2010

 

By Kenneth E. Timper (North Carolina)

Synopsis: The TX-NR708 is a great value in this price range. It has THX Select 2, three 7.2 sound fields; they include 7.2 discrete HD/EX, Dolby z, and Audyssey DSX wide. There are connections for up to 11 speakers (excluding the 2 subs. Note that the 7.2 specification means that there are 2 preamp outs for 2 powered subwoofers). There are more than 50 listening modes to obtain the perfect sound for your room and source. For video processing, there are a total of 7 HDMI inputs (along with 2 component, 4 S-Video, and 5 composite inputs) 6 in the back, 1 in the front. Digital audio inputs: 3 coax and 2 optical. The remote is easy to use and setup for your other components. Menus are relatively straight forward, though there is a learning curve, depending on complexity of your particular setup. This receiver also has network connectivity with Upnp, and a webpage interface, making it simple to change fields without your remote, enhancing the TX-NR708 network's usability. With the release of future firmware updates, one can envision Onkyo adding features that will keep your home theater cutting edge. The power rating is 110 watts per channel, 8 ohm, @ .08% harmonic distortion, providing this receiver with enough power and clean sound for a small to medium sized room.

Setup

If you have all HDMI inputs, setting up the TX-NR708 is a breeze, given you already have your speaker wires run, of course. The binding posts are high quality and have a smooth feeling and, unlike some other receivers, it's easy to tell when the wires are secured. Since this receiver has binding posts for 11 speakers, connecting the speakers would have been confusing if I had not first researched the new Audyssey DSX and Dolby z sound enhancements, which are simply awesome in my view (more on that later). The drawback is that you need 4 more speakers to enjoy them. I extended wires and labeled them for testing later. If you do this make sure that you do not allow the wires to short. Tape them until you are ready to connect your speakers.

My setup, speaker wise, is nothing special. I use 2 large generic 3-way speakers, placed on either side of a 6' entertainment center for my fronts (not sure who makes them, but they have good balance and frequency response). A Polk CSi3 center channel sits above my 50" LG plasma TV. I advise you not to skimp on the front and center speakers. For surrounds and Audyssey DSX wides, two pairs of Sony SS-B1000 speakers serve nicely. For the heights, I thought I'd try a pair of Pyramid 4080 budget speakers, with wall mounts included. It was a perfect solution for the z channels, and they go down to a solid 100 Hz after being broken in. A BIC America V-1220 12-Inch powered sub provides all the low end punch I'll ever need. Placement for the `wide' and the `high' speakers can be tricky. Perfect placement (according to this diagram: [...] is generally not an option. From the diagram I mathematically calculated placement for my room, and was able to place them pretty close to where their sweet spots were supposed to be. The heights (Dolby z speakers) are about 5 feet above and 3 feet wide of my fronts, while the wide speakers (Audyssey DSX) are placed at ear level, about 4 and a half feet toward the center of the room away and 3 feet wide of the fronts.
Listening and Watching

The first thing I noticed when I powered up the receiver was an improvement in my satellite TV picture, especially in the text at the top of the screen. Next, I ran the Audyssey speaker setup and it balanced out all the disparate speakers perfectly into a seamless sound field. I popped in "The Transporter" movie (DVD), and tested the new sound fields. They were both awesome. "IP Man" is a good movie to test the z channels, as well, especially the final fight scene. The Dolby z field makes your room seem bigger than it actually is, expanding the front sound stage, while the Audyssey DSX field seems to bring the front action closer to you with more detail. At least that is the best way I can describe it. No doubt others will describe their sound experience differently with respect to these new fields. Whatever the case, these new sound dimensions provide a definite enhancement, in my view. And the discrete 7-channel DTS-HD Master in "Shoot `Em Up" does justice to that new Blu-ray sound format, as does "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."

The Dolby z field works well with THX and gives you a lot of versatility when it comes to sound conditioning. Perhaps in a future firmware update, Onkyo will allow you to put the z and width channels together, like they already do with some of their high end receivers. If so, one might expect a net reduction in the power output, since more speakers will be running at once, and the power will have to be divided between them; thus, it would be equivalent to 9.2 or even 11.2 surround sound coming in the form of new listening modes.

Even though I only listened to Winamp radio and network radio, the sound quality was superb. I listen to jazz mostly, so I cannot comment on rock or other genres. Additionally, one would expect the sound quality of CD's and higher quality input sources to be even better.

Ease of Setup: Menus.

For the most part, I found the TX-NR708 menus to be pretty straight forward. I had no problem assigning components to my inputs of choice, with one exception. That exception being the sound input for an HDMI source when it does not come from the HDMI connector. For some reason the TX-NR708 does not let you do it from their main I/O Assign menu; you can only do it by using the "home' button on the remote while in that particular source mode. This might be necessary, for example, if you want to use computer motherboard digital coax sound with your HDMI video card output. Since Audyssey did such a good job setting up my speakers, I did not need to change any of those settings. Keep in mind that the Sub crossover frequency is set automatically in accordance with the rest of your speakers. You can, however, adjust the LFE crossover setting manually if you want. There are menus for THX and other sound conditioning (such as Audyssey EQ and Dynamic Volume), as well, and you'll need to experiment with those to find out what best suits your particular listening preferences. There is also a menu for programming your remote, eliminating the need to reference a manual for a code list.

Remote Control

The remote control that comes with the TX-NR708 is very good. The buttons are well organized and, unlike my last receiver, it is the only one I need for the basic listening functions of all my components. Programming this remote for other components, such as your TV, satellite/cable, and Blu-ray player is made simple by an onscreen menu. And once you're all set up, the pre-programmed macro buttons simplify operation even more. Moreover, this remote is a great improvement over the one that came with my Dish Network receiver; the TX-NR708 remote is more powerful than the Dish remote, eliminating the need to aim and press a button multiple times to get the receiver to respond.

Network

The network features that come with this receiver are sweet. Being a computer technician by trade, I appreciate the added functionality. Most users probably will use the default DHCP setting for assigning IP addresses, but you have the option to set them manually as well. Be aware that it is a wired connection, so you'll need an access point, or a bridged computer and a switch to make use of it, unless you already have an available network cable wired to your entertainment center. In many cases, the v-tuner feature will make it unnecessary to use an external FM antenna to listen to local stations. Add Pandora, audio streaming from your computer, and other services, and you have just about everything you could ever want from a network connection for playing music. One thing I really love is the web page interface for accessing network fields on the TX-NR708. This makes it easy to change network settings via a computer keyboard, rather than the remote, which can make setup much quicker and simpler.

Heat and Power Consumption

The receiver runs cooler than any other receiver I have ever owned. Nevertheless, I placed a small 12V computer fan atop for additional cooling. With that extra small fan my TX-NR708 runs as cool as a cucumber. One thing I did notice, though, is that the receiver stays warm, even when turned off, or when in the standby mode, indicating that it is consuming power (probably because the network is still active in the standby mode). So in order to conserve energy, I have it plugged in to a surge protector strip along with my TV, and turn them both off at night.

Summary

I believe you would be hard-pressed to find a better receiver at this price anywhere. It is packed with features that even many higher priced receivers do not have. Whether you like listening to music or watching movies, the TX-NR708 has most everything the home theater owner will ever need--and then some. I highly recommend it and give it a solid 4.5 stars.

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Nice mid-level AVR, July 20, 2010

I've really been enjoying my 708. It runs cool enough to be fine inside my tv console with the door closed. Another thing I like is it comes with RIHD (disabled by default) which basically means it talks to my Samsung TV that also has RIHD. I can control the AVR volume with my tv remote. The TV automatically turns off it's own speakers and outputs sound to the 708 if the 708 is on. Otherwise, it just uses it's own speakers. Also, if I turn off my tv it automatically turns off the 708 for me.

Networking with Windows 7 was a breeze as well. All I had to do was make sure Windows Media Player allowed the 708 to use it and I was good to go.

Getting internet radio was also easy. I didn't have to do anything special to get it to work. It's nice to be able to listen to net radio without having my computer turned on. vTuner is nice since it has several local stations. I've always loved Pandora and this makes it that much better.

Switching inputs does take a few seconds but that's not really something I care about and wouldn't have really noticed if people hadn't asked about it due to issues with previous Onkyo models.

I use my fat PS3 to watch Blu-Ray movies and they look the same as they did before which is great. It seems to do surround sound just fine through the PS3 as well using Linear PCM. The analog tv signal also looks the same as it did before.

I haven't hooked up my PC through this yet but will get around to it and update my review.

Edit: RIHD has started causing problems. With it enabled I've had times when I would turn on the receiver and get no sound from the speakers. The only things that worked to get sound from the receiver again was to either A)unplug it B) turn off RIHD.

I've also had Pandora lock up the NET/USB input. It would get stuck at 100% buffering. With RIHD on, the only way to get use of the input back was to unplug the receiver and plug it back in. I now have RIHD permanently disable because it's just not worth the hassle.

I've now hooked up my PC through the optical input and it sounds great. The HDMI input is worthless though. My video card outputs to the 16 x 9 resolution my HDTV uses but the 708 is still scaling it to a 16 x 10 ratio which makes the tv cut off some of the top and bottom of the screen. I just went ahead and plugged the computer video back into the tv and only use the 708 for the sound and that works fine.

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I'm a novice and I love this receiver, September 5, 2010

I won't go into details; I actually have not gone into much of what this receiver can do.

I set this up in one evening with 5 HDMI sources and 1 Component source as well as set up the internet radio, AM/FM radio, DLNA connection to media on a home server, and the automatic tuning. All of this goes to a single HDMI (upconverted) out to a 46" TV. My set up is a 5.1 system at the moment.

I almost had no problems installing the above and have connections to spare. I have not messed with any settings yet (so all is at the 'default' setting) and the sound is amazing. I previously had a Sony entry level receiver (fried by lightning) and had spent hours trying to set that up to get a decent sound; never understood why it was so hard to just turn it on, play a movie, and listen.

The On Screen Display is a God-send, although this also has my one complaint so far, it is weird that it only seems to come on intermittently - can't figure this out, I think it only is available with certain inputs or something? One other small complaint is that the Harmony Remote I have does not have some of the keys mapped correctly and so I am having to program this manually (but this isn't Onkyo's fault).

Anyway, I highly recommend, if this is in your price range (I paid $550), you'll have a ton of connections, lots of features (ie ethernet connectivity and OSD), and the sound is great without much fussing.