The question I get asked the most often: "Which speakers should I buy?" My answer is frustratingly subjective: Buy whatever sounds best to you. The second most asked question is: "Which receiver should I buy?" My answer is purely objective: It's all about bang for the buck. Research the field, list the features you need now and the features you think you'll need in the future, then find the best deal on the cheapest model that covers your list.

Which brings us to Onkyo's TX-SR605 A/V receiver. I have tested numerous Onkyo receivers, and been impressed by their build quality and value. The company seems to have perfected the art of identifying the features that are important, and then creating economical designs around them. Thus I was not surprised when buzz started building for the TX-SR605. It follows that bang/buck business plan, offering 7.1-channel playback, HDMI 1.3a, Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio decoding, and is XM and Sirius ready, all in a mid-priced ($600 list, $499 street) box. Not surprisingly, it's a big seller for Onkyo. Another example of finely tuned engineering, or just a product of viral marketing? Inquiring minds wanted to know.

Setup
Before I start flinging wires around a new receiver, I always take a moment (or several hours) to look over the hardware at hand. It helps to know what you're dealing with. The short list: The TX-SR605 is rated at 90 watts per channel (2 channels driven), performs upconversion to HDMI, provides powered Zone 2 stereo (reducing the main room to 5.1), has Audyssey 2EQ room acoustics correction, is bi-amp connectable (to 5.1) using front L/R and surround-back L/R, has 40 XM/Sirius/AM/FM presets, and sports the usual plethora of processing modes. As noted, it will also decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD lossless digital audio bitstreams on an HDMI input from a compatible HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc player.

As with many new receivers, this one lets you add optional satellite radio playback (subscription fees apply). But unlike many receivers (and car makers) that make the choice for you, the TX-SR605 has ports for both XM (with XMHD Surround) and Sirius. Satellite metadata appears in the receiver's front panel display, and you can run playback from the front panel and remote. Unfortunately, HD Radio is not supported.

While we're talking about add-ons, I'll give a shout-out for the RI (Remote Interactive) port. This generally unheralded Onkyo feature has long been available for connecting peripherals, but its time has truly come with the iPod boom. Using the optional DS-A2 accessory dock, the RI is an efficient way to integrate an iPod with this receiver. It keeps your iPod charged, routes audio through the system, and displays all iPod track information on your video screen.

The 605 has two assignable HDMI 1.3a inputs (the bare minimum in my opinion) and one HDMI output. The 1.3a standard accommodates both uncompressed HD video and uncompressed multichannel audio in all the HD formats including 720p, 1080i and 1080p. Of course, the receiver also sports all the soon-to-be-legacy I/O: three component video, five S-video, and five composite video inputs. There are five digital audio inputs, as well. The receiver upconverts composite and S-video inputs to either HDMI or component video (when the HDMI connection is not engaged). Onboard Faroudja DCDi de-interlacing converts 480i signals to progressive scan.

The 605 also features RIHD (Remote Interactive over HDMI), Onkyo's version of HDMI-CEC (consumer electronics control), a protocol that allows the receiver to send commands to other compatible HDMI-connected components like TVs or disc players. For example, one button could operate system on/standby, and the system could automatically select the correct receiver input and begin playback of source components.

Okay, so much for familiarization. It was time to fling some wires. With HDMI, that doesn't take long. I ran an HDMI cable from my DVD recorder to the receiver, and another from the receiver to my DLP display. With 1.3a, digital audio received at the inputs is output by speakers (and headphones). I connected my satellite receiver via RCA cables. Satellites and sub followed the usual 7.1-channel routine.

For the heck of it, I later switched to 5.1 in the main room, and connected stereo speakers to Zone 2. The receiver can simultaneously process separate multichannel and stereo sources for the main room and Zone 2 (I guess that's like patting your head and rubbing your tummy) or process a single source for both.

Next up was speaker setup. The Audyssey 2EQ is a useful tool for configuring the receiver and more importantly, blinding your friends with science. I placed the supplied microphone at the first listening spot (the system averages three different locations — a big improvement from single-point systems) and stepped back as the receiver did its sweep-tone thing. I ended up with settings for speaker crossover frequencies, distance, level, and equalization. I could review and accept the settings, or modify them over a wide range of values; however, you cannot view or modify the EQ settings. In this case, I was completely happy with the system's level and distance settings, but dared to rage against the machine and tweaked some of the crossover points (from a menu offering nine selections); I know from experience what sat/sub blends work best for me in particular channels. I was also not completely happy with the equalization; I used the menu to manually enter some nips and tucks in the five-band equalizer. It probably won't matter in most playback systems, but your EQ choices are limited to front, center, surround and surround back; you can't individually nudge the left and right channel sides. Another small limitation: you can only adjust bass and treble in the front speakers.

It's worth noting that the auto set-up does not set the low-pass filter cutoff for the LFE channel; you need to do this manually. The set-up includes an interesting feature called Double Bass; you can manually configure the system to simultaneously apply low-frequency content from the front left and right channels to the subwoofer. And as with other Onkyo receivers, this one lets you trim individual channel levels; changes automatically revert to the calibrated defaults when you power down.

I didn't require its services, but I was happy to see that the receiver has an option that lets you add an audio time delay to avoid perceptible sync problems between sound and picture. You can adjust it manually (0 to 100 milliseconds in 10-millisecond increments) or use the HDMI Lip Sync feature (another 1.3a feature), if your display supports it, to automatically adjust the delay.

The Short Form

Price $499 (black and silver finishes available) / us.onkyo.com / 800-229-1687

Snapshot

This mid-priced receiver hits the sweet spot with robust audio performance, useful audio/video processing features, and HDMI 1.3a for the masses.

Plus

•Impressive 7.1-channel audio performance •HDMI 1.3a inputs/output •Auto room-tuning EQ from three mike locations •Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD decoding

Minus

•Another HDMI input would have been nice •No frills remote

Key Features

•7 x 90 watts •2 HDMI 1.3a (1080p-capable) inputs, 1 output •Transcodes composite, S-video and component video to HDMI •Decodes Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD from HDMI/bitstream input •Audyssey Auto 2EQ speaker set-up with a supplied calibration microphone •Zone 2 audio pre out (7.1 in main room), and powered out (5.1 in main room) •FM/AM tuner with 40 presets •XM/Sirius-ready with presets •iPod-expansion via optional dock •Time delay for adjusting lip-sync •17.1 x 6.9 x 14.8 in; 25.1 lb

Music & Movie Performance
When evaluating a receiver's sonic performance, there are two things of paramount importance to me: its ability to reproduce signals at moderate levels with inaudibly low noise and distortion, and its ability to reproduce signals at very loud levels with acceptable distortion. With that in mind, I turned to R.E.M.

Automatic for the People is a DVD-Audio disc everyone should have in their collection. Songs like "Everybody Hurts" are perfect showcases for surround audio, with mixes that enhance the mood and meaning of the music in ways stereo can't. "Everybody Hurts" is a simple, emotional song, and spreading out the sparse instrumentation over 5.1 channels emphasizes the loneliness and despair of the lyrics. By panning the electric keyboards hard left and the guitars hard right, there is space left for the lead vocal to be planted firmly in the center. The TX-SR605 was quite transparent, reproducing each musical line clearly, and giving each instrument clarity and air in its channel. The highlight of this song is the harmony vocals that ring out distinctly from the surround channels when 'everyone sings along' in the second verse. The effect was wonderfully enveloping.

The experience continues with the orchestral strings also featured in the surround channels (arranged by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones). The receiver's level-setting controls let me optimize the surround levels, so the front/rear balance was absolutely perfect. For a mix like this, with so many of the main components of the song in the surrounds, that kind of precise balance and setup is essential. Needless to say, I was pleased with audio performance, and features.

For movie fare, I started with The Illusionist, a magically intriguing film with a memorably haunting Philip Glass score. Set in Vienna in the 1900s, the film's soundtrack is very sparse, and not afraid of complete silence (check out the theater's creaking floorboards in the opening scene, or the croaking frogs after the love scene). This gave me the opportunity to keenly listen for any undue noise from the Onkyo. But, it was clean. Even when I cranked up the softly recorded room tone on the DVD tracks, I could not hear any electronics noise. The orchestral score sounded wonderful, with lots of dark, eerie instrumentation wandering back and forth between my woofers and subwoofer. The occasional orchestral climax was cleanly reproduced, even when pushed to loud levels. The sound was as transparent as the dove that vanished from the magician's hands.

To explore the upper limits of the receiver's output transistors, I turned to a DVD of T3 and its extremely high explosion-per-capita quotient. Just to harass the receiver and tax it a bit more, I turned down the powered sub and let the woofers do the work. Although not earth-shaking, the amplifiers did play loud, and even some fast peaks were cleanly reproduced. I prefer more watts for my large listening room, but this receiver will more than suffice for small and medium sized rooms.

Overall, I was satisfied with the receiver's video performance. The HDMI-output picture was sharp, with good detail and no apparent noise. The Illusionist has a distinctive sepia tint, and the DVD looked as warm as analog film. As I expected, the 1080p signal of HD DVD films like U-571 looked spectacular passing through the receiver.

With HDMI input, the receiver passes the signal unprocessed at its native resolution: what goes in is what comes out (for example, 480i in, 480i out; 1080p in, 1080p out). Meanwhile, analog video sources coming in via component-video or lesser inputs appear on the HDMI output as 720p irrespective of their input resolution. That means 480i/p inputs will be upscaled to an HDTV-format signal, but don't expect magical improvements. Still, these upscaled pictures did look pretty good, albeit not as good as I've seen on some pricier receivers. (If you want more sophisticated upscaling, and scaling up to 1080p, Onkyo will be happy to sell you a pricier receiver, such as the TX-SR875 we reviewed in October). One note: This one-rez-fits-all approach also means 1080i component-video inputs are output on HDMI as 720p, a downconversion that can yield mixed results. Whether you should send a separate component signal from the receiver to your display, or rely on the scaled HDMI signal, is a question of convenience (switching TV inputs) and how the two signals compare on your particular display.

Ergonomics
Nothing is worse than overly complicated hardware and undecipherable menus. Thankfully, setting up and operating the TX-SR605 is quite straightforward. The TX-SR605 resides in the mid-price receiver sweet spot, somewhere between low-price frustrating lack of flexibility, and flagship bells and whistles bewilderment.

The front panel is easy to use with enough, but not too many, buttons to get the job done. The onscreen menus are standard fare: black background, white characters, and blue highlight. Nothing to write home about, but at least navigation is stone-cold simple, and set-up menus are output on the HDMI port.

The supplied RC-682M multi-component learning remote lacks a joystick, a display, and backlighting (potentially an issue in a darkened home theater). But, at least the principal remote mode buttons (receiver, DVD, CD, TV, etc) light up when accessed. The other button fields are color coded, and layout is logical. An awesomely wonderful remote? No. Serviceable? Yes. Incidentally, as with much electronic gear, this one has some hidden menus. For example, when the unit is powered, press and hold the Aux button, and press the Power button; you'll get some video tweaks.

Bottom Line
Though I'll occassionally splurge big on speakers, the truth is I'm generally not a flagship kind of guy. Rather, I usually shop for gear that does the job at an affordable price and, bearing in mind the rapid rate of obsolescence of everything silicon, I pay careful attention to features that will prolong the product's lifetime. Of course, I demand strong performance. The Onkyo TX-SR605 fits all my criteria. I like its performance (particularly audio); I like its connectivity (especially HDMI 1.3a); I like its features (the triple-location auto-room tuning is great); I like its future-proofing (such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD decoding); and I like its price. What's not to like? Any more questions?

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