In a world of earbuds, plastic pods, and itty-bitty phones, there's something reassuring about an A/V receiver. In appearance, at least, receivers are throwbacks to the olden days of stout components and heavy lifting. But receivers are dinosaurs in weight only. Case in point: The new Onkyo TX-SR804 A/V receiver, which, looks aside, is thoroughly modern.
Critically, the HDMI interfaces can pass video in all the key HDTV formats, including 720p, 1080i, and 1080p, so you can plug in a Blu-ray Disc player, for example, and convey its 1080p signal to a 1080p display. The SR804 will also reproduce multichannel PCM soundtracks from Blu-ray and HD DVD via its HDMI connector — another key, forward-looking feature. Composite-video is converted to S-video, S-video to component-video, and component-video to HDMI, so no matter how a video source is connected, its signal is available at the HDMI output.
On the downside, the receiver cannot scale video signals to 720p or 1080i. (It can deinterlace 480i to 480p for composite-, S-, or component-video inputs.) And there is no USB port to feed music digitally to the receiver from a PC or flash drive. But it does sport an RS-232 port for hookup to a home control system, and 7.1-channel multichannel ins and pre-outs as well. And it's XM-ready.
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The Short Form
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| Price $1,099 / onkyousa.com / 800-229-1687 |
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Snapshot
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| A no-nonsense receiver that provides the features you need and omits those you probably don't while delivering plenty of clean power. |
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Plus
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•Converts video to HDMI output •Effective auto-setup •Nicely integrated XM capabilities |
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Minus
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•No video upscaling •No USB port •Eisenhower-era video menus |
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Key Features
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•THX Select2-certified •105 watts x 7 channels •XM-ready satellite-radio compatibility •2 HDMI inputs, 1 HDMI output •1080p-compatible HDMI repeater switching with upconversion of video sources to HDMI (version 1.1) •Automatic setup and EQ •Surround-back channels assignable to Zone 2 (stereo) speakers •FM/AM tuner with 40 presets •Backlit learning remote with macros |
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Test Bench
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The Onkyo's bench performance was generally very good all around. With its impedance switch set to the 4-ohm position, output was strictly limited to about 65 watts, though at the 6-ohm setting the receiver drove 4-ohm loads to high power, in 1- and 2-channel operation, with no ill effects. Our difficult all-channels-driven test resulted in the Onkyo's protection circuits kicking in after 2-3 seconds and limiting output to about 56 watts, a not uncommon occurence in mid-priced receivers. Crossover settings remained in effect on the multichannel analog input for any/all channels unless the "Direct" mode was selected, and response at these inputs was "brickwall" low-pass filtered at about 21 kHz in all modes including Direct (or "Pure Audio") — something not mentioned anywhere in the manual. This means that any ultrasonic output from a connected SACD/DVD-Audio or HD DVD/Blu-ray Disc source is filtered out. — Daniel Kumin Full Lab Results |
SETUP Installing the receiver in my reference system, I ran HDMI from my DVD player and to my display, to provide the highest signal quality and simplify wiring. One installation downside: Only analog input sources are available at the Zone 2 output, and DSP listening modes aren't available at all. The TX-SR804 can provide speaker-level output for Zone 2 in addition to or instead of line-level, but this calls for reassigning the amps for the two back surround channels, reducing 7.1 playback in the main room to 5.1.
The receiver's automatic setup routine set speaker levels, delay/distance from listening position, bass crossover frequency, and five-band EQ settings. I placed the supplied microphone at my listening position and enjoyed a beverage while the test signals did their thing for 2 minutes. Most auto-calibration systems are good but not perfect. In this case, when I double-checked, the results were reasonably accurate. However, I manually nudged some speaker levels and EQ settings and adjusted some bass crossover frequencies down to 80 Hz. I was relieved to see that the bass crossover points are independently selectable for each loudspeaker pair.
AUDIO PERFORMANCE Given all the high-tech features in today's receivers, it's possible to forget that their raison d'être is still amplification. To make sure this Onkyo actually had some power amplifiers amid the software, I grabbed some discs and cranked it up. Auditioning a range of music from the Flaming Lips to the cool jazz of Fred Hersch, I listened at varying volume levels, and in stereo and surround, and was pleased with its accurate reproduction. The amplifiers remained dynamic-sounding at loud levels and started pinching only at very high volumes. Overall, the wattage is clean and more than sufficient for most situations.
To the horror of jazz purists everywhere, I ran some classic Ray Charles through a few of the Dolby, DTS, and THX programs, eventually settling on one of Onkyo's proprietary DSP modes ("Unplugged"), which added a nice sense of surround to the old stereo recording. Also, just for fun, I grabbed my XM mini-tuner antenna (not included) and jacked it into the receiver, and out came all those heavenly channels. I was happy to see that XM was completely integrated, allowing both channel and category searching, with all the transmitted metadata text appearing in the display. But, perhaps befitting its mid- but not lofty aspirations, the receiver lacked the Neural Audio software needed to deliver XM's relatively new surround channels in their full glory.
On the soundtrack side, the amplifiers pumped out plenty of movie clamor. On Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, they neatly accommodated the rich effects and punchy score. The movie has a great surround mix, but for a real crowd-pleasing experience, the THX Select2 Cinema mode created an even bigger ambient sound field that really showed off the seven satellites. When I left the house the next morning, my neighbor gave me The Look — a sure sign that my robust playback session the night before was sufficiently loud. So, the Onkyo gets a thumbs-up for sound.
VIDEO PERFORMANCE Scaling questions aside, a good receiver should be transparent to the video signals passing through it. Checking a number of movies, I wasn't surprised to see that the HDMI connection delivered excellent video quality on my native 720p Samsung DLP. I strained to see any glitches or noise in the bitstreams, but did not. It was clear that the receiver was delivering bit-accurate data to the display. I also tried switching between HDMI and component video to compare the two and, frankly, couldn't see a significant difference. Perhaps the weird computer-generated details in Tron were a bit softer, and the colors a little washed-out on the component-video throughput. But the component output was about as good as I've seen through any receiver. Either way, the convenience of HDMI, its immunity to interference, and its peace-of-mind digital provenance make it a winner for source and display interconnection, and this receiver's video quality demonstrates that.
BOTTOM LINE With all due respect to mega-receivers, with their 300-page manuals and stratospheric price tags, my credit card prefers more modest designs that focus on the relevant, providing features that directly expedite setup and improve daily performance. I don't need 43 hall surround modes — just a few that actually sound good. Throw in 100+ watts of power per channel (seven of 'em), and I'm sold. The Onkyo TX-SR804 A/V receiver fills this bill, and I appreciated its pragmatic design, straightforward operation, and good, clean sound and picture.
Full Lab Results
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