Onkyo TX-SR706B Home Theater Receiver (Black)

Comments about Onkyo TX-SR706B Home Theater Receiver (Black):

I have 4 HDMI Devices and this was the perfect solution. Cuts way down on the wires and the unit has a great self tuning for the speaker setup with the included mic. I;m very happy with this product.

Comments about Onkyo TX-SR706B Home Theater Receiver (Black):

I love this reciever!! I still can't believe I got this thing for [$]!The reciever was a breeze to set up and matched up with my 52" Samsung lcd, Samsung bluray player and Bose sat. speakers perfectly. I bought this to replace my 10 year old Onkyo reciever (which still works fine) I love Onkyo I always thought they gave you alot of bang for your buck, and to get this at your price was a no brainer!! I would highly reconmend both the reciever and B&H.

Comments about Onkyo TX-SR706B Home Theater Receiver (Black):

This receiver has it all. Great connectivity and sound. The only minor complaint is that zone 2 only seems to work with analog inputs.

Comments about Onkyo TX-SR706B Home Theater Receiver (Black):

I use this as a pre amp in a medium sized dedicated home theater room which has been very well acoustically treated (this ROOM sounds great). I use separate amps for my power hungry Magnepans. If you are already used to setting up home theater equipment, then you will find it pretty routine. It could be a bit daunting for a newbie but the same can be said for most receiver setups. Setup menu's are straight forward and easy to navigate. I was a bit worried about the audyssey eq but it really seemed to help out an upper bass hump that my room (99.9% of us will have at least some in-room acoustical problems, even with room treatments) has. I'm satisfied with the overall sound quality. In fact, surround sound and especially the new HD sound formats are very open and seamless and I perceive higher resolution compared to my old Denon 3805. If your speakers are 8 ohm and not very power hungry, this receivers amps should handle it just fine in a small to medium size room. Others have reported that this unit gets very hot but it does not run any hotter than my last two Denons. 4 hdmi inputs are at least one more than some of the other higher priced receivers I looked at. It decodes all the the new hd surround formats and they sound great btw. I bought this one on sale for [$]. If you are someone who thinks they can tell the difference between DACs, then you might want to look at some of the higher end stuff. I haven't been able to tell the difference between the Onkyo and my more expensive Anthem equipment in sound quality. These days, good sound is much less expensive than in days of yore. You get so much for so little these days from almost all of the major mid fi manufacturers that it's not making much sense to go hi end anymore (point of diminishing returns you know). My only nit pick is that the manual could be a little more informative and in depth about explaining the listening modes (but this is true of most of them these days). I'm very much enjoying this receiver and am very pleased overall. No real weaknesses for my particular application. 4 stars because nothing is perfect. ;-) A final note/tip to newbies: The equipment you choose is important but not more important than the room acoustics. Don't let snake oil salesmen hook you into believing that one companies copper wire sound better than another just because it is ridiculously expensive. And you would have to have super human hearing to tell the difference between digital-analog converters (DACs). Do you home work.

Comments about Onkyo TX-SR706B Home Theater Receiver (Black):

After much research and a few headaches I chose this receiver to be the center of my family room movie theater.

In 1991 I purchased a Yamaha A/V receiver when only a few AV receivers were available and it is still serving me well although outdated for my current wants/needs.

Because of the service my Yamaha has given to me, I considered a receiver from that manufacturer first. After some comparing and finding my choice much harder than in 1991, I came across the Onkyo.

I limited myself to a budget of $1000.00 It turns out I wouldn't need that much as this piece was well below but had features of those receivers costing sometimes hundreds more.

Onkyo has been around for some time and is a respected brand. For me the amount of HDMI inputs was a major consideration and this baby has 4! ...And easy set up. Just plug an HDMI from your satelite/cable box, blue ray/dvd, XBOX etc to the receiver and from the receiver out to your tv, follow the onscreen menus and in a few short minutes you are good to go...how simple. A 2nd zone and IR control as well as inputs for my satellite radio were added delights.

The Onkyo also impressed me with the amount of sound format support in this price point as well its video up-conversion.

For my application 100 watts of power is plenty to drive my definitive technology Mythos front, rear, center and sub. 2 more channels are available to me if/when I want them.

So far, (3 weeks) I am still learning it's settings and capabilities. The remote could be backlit although some buttons do illuminate. I also find the volume on the unit and through the remote control to be tedious. It takes many turns of the knob to dial in your desired volume which is just a bit annoying to me.

For me the price/features/performance/reputation made this a good choice.

Comments about Onkyo TX-SR706B Home Theater Receiver (Black):

I would recommend for a mid level HT.

Comments about Onkyo TX-SR706B Home Theater Receiver (Black):

great performance for the money. exceeds expectations in every way.

Comments about Onkyo TX-SR706B Home Theater Receiver (Black):

I just wanted a decent mid-range receiver that does all the latest lossless audio formats and has 7.1 channels so it's ready to take advantage of BluRay as that format evolves. So my primary focus is on a system that plays audio for movies and video games as it's primary function. Currently I have this receiver setup in a 5.1 configuration since that's the type of receiver it replaced.
I used the automated speaker calibration feature (Audyssey) to setup all the channels. This is where you place the provided mic at ear level at three different listener positions. The receiver then sends out tones which will drive you and your dog nuts for about 15 minutes while the entire process goes on. Once it was done however, I was/am very pleased with the results.