Aug 6 Podcast #437: Onkyo TX-SR608 Review
Ever since we talked about Dolby Pro Logic IIz and Audyssey DSX in Episode 425, we've had a strong desire to experience them for ourselves. And what better excuse is there to buy a new receiver than the new "9.1" surround options? That brought us to the Onkyo TX-SR608 home theater receiver. It's a 7.1 receiver that will do just about everything you want, and a little more.
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Onkyo TX-SR608 Review
Ever since we talked about Dolby Pro Logic IIz and Audyssey DSX in Episode 425, we've had a strong desire to experience them for ourselves. And what better excuse is there to buy a new receiver than the new "9.1" surround options? That brought us to the Onkyo TX-SR608 home theater receiver. It's a 7.1 receiver that will do just about everything you want, and a little more.
MSRP: $599
Street: $430, buy now
Features
Onkyo bills the unit as a “7.2-Channel 3-D Ready Home Theater Receiver.” For specific features, it sports:
- Six 1080p capable HDMI inputs (V1.4a repeater) including 1 Front
- THX Select2 Plus Certification
- HDMI 1080p video upconversion (all sources) by Faroudja DCDi cinema
- WRAT (Wide Range Amp Technology) and discrete amp construction for cleaner sound
- TrueHD/DTS-HD decoding to support the latest Blu-ray technology
- Dolby ProLogic IIz and Audyssey DSX processing
- Audyssey 2EQ w/ Dynamic EQ & Dynamic Volume
- PC Input
- Optional iPod Dock / HDradio module via U.Port
- 4 DSP Gaming Modes: Rock, Sports, Action, and Role Playing
Setup
If you’ve already upgraded to a receiver and TV with HDMI, you know how easy it is to setup a home theater these days. If you haven’t, you’ll be amazed at the simplicity. Simply connect one HDMI cable from your television source (cable/satellite box) to the receiver, another from your Blu-ray player to the receiver, and one from the receiver to the TV. And you’re done. Of course if you have more sources, you’ll need a cable for each of those, and you need to connect speakers and a subwoofer. But all in all, you’re looking at about 5 to 10 minutes of wiring.
To setup this particular model, you can use the included microphone and allow it to run the Audyssey auto-calibration. It takes a while, so be patient. For most people, it’ll get things dialed in pretty well. For more advanced users you may want to tweak it after, or just skip it altogether. One really convenient feature is that all on-screen displays, including menus, are available on the HDMI output. That isn’t always true of the budget units, but it make setup much, much easier.
Performance
As a home theater receiver, this unit performs very, very well. We compared it with Braden’s older Denon 3806, which cost quite a bit more back in its day, and the Onkyo outperformed it in just about every aspect. You’d be surprised how much the newer electronics add to the experience. Dialog is crisp and very clear, effects are pronounced, not muddled like you sometimes hear, and the Onkyo really uses the subwoofer - so much we actually ended up turning the sub itself down. Is there such thing as too much sub?
But we didn’t really buy it to be just another run of the mill 5.1/7.1 receiver. We bought it for the so-called 9.1 channel options. Because the unit has built-in amplification for 7 channels, with the SR608 you have your choice of how you want to use the 2 extra speakers. You can go beyond 7.1, by connecting 9 speakers, but only 7 of them can be active at the same time. Using the remote, it is very easy to switch between traditional 7.1 and a Pro Logic IIz, DSX wide or DSX height mode. You can use an external amplifier to run Zone2 audio as well. Unfortunately, you can't use the external amplifier to create a real 9.1 system (all 9 speakers active). For whatever reason, the Zone2 line out doesn't send the front height or front wide audio. We aren't sure why Onkyo left this out.
We found all three modes, Pro Logic IIz, DSX wide and DSX height, to be extremely subtle. The wide speakers were tough to place in our room, so we listened to it, but didn’t find enough benefit from it to justify putting the extra speakers in. Watching HDTV there were very few scenes that actually seemed to take advantage of the two speakers. Blu-ray movies, which tend to have a better discrete mix, fared slightly better. Occasionally we’d hear something as if it was further off in the distance, but for the most part, the wide channels didn’t do much for us.
From the wide speakers, we tried to compare the two height modes, Pro Logic IIz vs. DSX. Again, both were very subtle. We found that with some content the Dolby processing was better, while with other content content the DSX seemed to do a better job. It’s very subjective, but it felt like Dolby did better with falling objects and like rain or falling rocks while the DSX did a better job with stuff flying overhead like airplanes and arrows. Again, this is really subjective and both effects were quite subtle. We struggled to hear anything when using basic HDTV content as the source.
In addition to the "9.1" surround options, the SR608 also includes Audyssey’s volume levelling technology. You can combine Dynamic EQ, which is intended to level out the EQ at lower volume levels so you don’t lose subtle effects, and Dynamic Volume, the one that actually keeps volume levels consistent from scene to scene in a movie. Dynamic Volume automatically includes dynamic EQ, so you don’t have to dial them both in. You can run Dynamic Volume in 3 different modes: Light, Medium and Heavy. Light worked well to keep things level and not change the mix too much. In some cases Medium was perfect, in others it emphasized surround effects too much and we lost the dialog in the noise. The Heavy setting seemed too aggressive for us and we didn’t enjoy it.
Odds and ends
The remote included with the SR608 is fine. Use a universal remote and put it in a drawer. Having the on screen display over HDMI is awesome. It doesn’t have a network interface, so you can’t stream music with it directly, you need an external source, like a Squeezebox, for that. It can control an iPod and do Sirius and HD Radio, but only if you buy extra parts or adapters for them. It doesn’t have bluetooth support, nor can you buy an extra bluetooth module to add it.
Conclusion
Overall, the Onkyo will meet or exceed most expectations. It has enough power to fill just about any average sized home theater, and has the features you need for serious home theater entertainment. If you want the option to use front height or front wide surround, just to say you have it, the SR608 can make it happen. It lacks some of the newer network/digital audio features were starting to see on receivers, but as a dedicated home theater receiver, it’s a great choice for the money.
Reader Comments (6)
The 608 sounded like a perfect match for my HT (price/performance ratio) replacing my aging but solid Marantz SR-5001. Good review.
Unfortunately it doesn't have pre-outs for external amps. My mains are Magnepan...I don't think they would behave with the Onkyo Amp. I think I'm going to head towards the Yamaha RX-V667 (recently reviewed by Gene DellaSala over at Tom's site)
Ara, I have to pull you up on your HDMI knowledge and the fact that you keep on saying that, the 1.4 spec is 3D capable.
The bandwidth between 1.3 and 1.4 has not changed, therefore 1.3 spec is capable of doing 3D, the PS3 is 1.3 spec afterall, and has had a firmware update to make it 3D capable.
The main thing that changed between 1.3 and 1.4 was the audio return path and the networking ability.
We all know that HDMI is confusing enough, but please stop saying that HDMI 1.4 is the only way to get 3D.
Great show as always.
Dave.
Hi Dave,
You are correct. It is possible to do 3D with HDMI 1.3. With HDMI 1.4 3D support is defined and mandated. From the HDMI website:
3D
The latest version of the HDMI standard establishes critical infrastructure for implementing 3D video in the home, defining input/output protocols that will allow 3D displays and source devices to communicate through an HDMI link. It’s a major milestone on the path to bringing true 3D gaming and 3D home theater to the mass market, supporting resolutions up to 1080p in 3D.
3D technology is evolving rapidly, with several competing approaches under development, so the HDMI 1.4 specification establishes protocols for a number of popular 3D display methods, including:
Frame, line, or field alternative methods
Side by side methods (full and half)
2D plus depth methods
A complete list of the supported 3D formats can be found in the HDMI 1.4 specification.
How to Ensure 3D in your Home Theater System
Look for devices that include 3D functionality.
All High Speed HDMI cables will support 3D when connected to 3D devices. You can use your existing High Speed HDMI cables or choose a different cable type.
Well its not that simple with HDMI 1.3..As far as 3D goes IF you are using a AV Reciever with 1.3 and try to pass a 3d signal through it, it will not work. If you are using your av Reciever it has to be 1.4 to pass a 3d signal through. Onlly speaking with my experience. I bought a Samsung UNC-46 7000 and a not to old sony av reciever using hdmi 1.3 and it will not pass the 3d sigal through the reciever and it would only work if I ran the samsung Bdp 6900 player straight to the tv. I went out and bought a pioneer VSX-1020K with HDMI 1.4 and it will pass 3d just fine with no trouble. If you plan on using a AV reciever with 3D it needs to be HDMI 1.4 to pass a 3D signal.
So I screwed up. We'll get into more detail on how I did it in our next episode. You can have all 9 speakers connected, but can only use 7 at a time. It's really easy to swap from traditional 7.1 to front height or front wide, but you can't do them at the same time. For whatever reason (lame if you ask me) you can only get Zone2 from the line out, even if you have the Zone2 speakers assigned to be front height or front wide.
I'm going to amend the text of this article to reflect that, but obviously we can't re-record the episode. I'll explain everything in #438.
Sorry for the mixup. My quest for a budget 9.1 receiver continues.
Great article.
I was wondering why I could not haev all my speakers in my "9.2" configuration working at once, perhaps I need to reread the manual.
Cheers, Mike