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The Short Form
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$899 / ONKYOUSA.COM / |
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Snapshot
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| Another fine A/V receiver from Onkyo that combines plenty of power, some potentially valuable new features, and top value |
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Plus
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| • Very solid audio power and performance • Accurate auto-setup, calibration, and useful room-EQ • Impressive new DSP compensations for low-volume listenings |
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Minus
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| • Nothing significant |
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Key Features
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• 7 x 100 watts (2 channels driven) • THX Select2 Plus certified • (4) HDMI 1.3 inputs, (1) output • Transcodes component-, composite-, and S-video to HDMI • Upconverts lower-rez video to 1080p • Decodes Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, and DSD (SACD) • Audyssey MultEQ auto-setup/equalization with supplied microphone • Audyssey Dynamic EQ and THX Loudness Plus level-correction • Graphical onscreen displays • AM/FM tuner with 40 presets • XM/Sirius satellite-radio-ready • 10-component preprogrammed/learning remote • IR in, 12-volt trigger, RS-232 serial port • 17 1⁄8 x 6 7⁄8 x 13 7⁄8 in; 17 lb |
Onkyo, you’re boring me. Seems like every other month, you or your sister brand Integra release another A/V receiver with more HDMI inputs, features, and power for the money than previous models. Give us a break and instead introduce a receiver that’s less powerful, less capable, and more expensive, okay?
Hyperbole aside, there is an element of “been there, done that” to the whole new-model A/V receiver thang — unless you happen to be shopping for one. In which case, every day is Christmas. Onkyo’s latest, the TX-SR706, is an upper-midpriced ($899) model that’s amply furnished with power and also offers four-input HDMI 1.3 switching and HD video upconversion.
SETUP
The newest Onkyo includes the basic implementation of Audyssey’s auto-calibration and room-equalization feature, so I plugged in the supplied microphone and hit the Go button. After moving the mike and repeating the process for five positions, I saved and reviewed the results. Speaker distances and crossover frequencies were spot-on, though the Audyssey-bot set my bookshelf-size front speakers to “full-range.” (Every auto-setup program I’ve used makes the same choice for these 40-Hz-capable models.)
The Audyssey system also dials up room-correction EQ, which is derived from the mike positions you select during setup. The TX-SR706 doesn’t display the results onscreen, but the sonic improvements were much as I expected given my previous experiences with Audyssey-equipped receivers: a bit deeper and less warm in the bottom end, with a subtle improvement in midrange clarity and articulation.
Onkyo’s new menu system is still mostly text-based, but it now has color and much nicer graphics, particularly in the setup pages. It comes up almost instantly, but the screen blanked for several seconds upon startup. Onkyo’s onscreen menus remain logical and easy to follow, so two thumbs up.
MUSIC & MOVIE PERFORMANCE
The SR706 is THX Select2 Plus certified, yet its weight and price are fairly modest. (I’m reminded of a classic Marshall Efron comedy bit on canned olives: The smallest grade is “jumbo.”) Just the same, the Onkyo proved to have plenty of power for serious listening. The DVD-Audio disc of the Big Phat Band’s XXL delivered dynamic, plexus-thumping accents and crisp, brassy horn-section articulations on “A Game of Inches,” even at realistic, front-table levels. In short, I had no complaints about the SR706’s audio performance when listening to music.
The Onkyo’s Faroudja DCDi video processing and HDMI upscaling will convert incoming video to 480p, 720p, or 1080i/p.
Tests made with my Oppo DV-980H DVD player sending standard-def 480i signals to the Onkyo showed clean, artifact-free 1080p video coming from the SR706’s HDMI output.
Ratatouille may not quite qualify as art cinema, but it’s fun just the same, and the reference-grade Blu-ray Disc version delivers a lot of video and audio bang for your buck. It looked great through the SR706 (which of course performs no video processing on incoming 1080p signals from Blu-ray), and the receiver had no difficulty delivering the busy soundtrack at real-cinema levels in my setup.
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This is the first component I’ve encountered that’s equipped with both THX Loudness Plus and Audyssey’s Dynamic EQ, two audio DSP options that address the same issue but with quite different spice packages. (It’s funny that Onkyo would opt to include both; they can’t be engaged simultaneously.)
The idea with both Loudness Plus and Dynamic EQ is to compensate for the perceptual changes we experience when listening to music, movies, or anything else at a volume significantly lower than that of the original recorded sounds. “Original” is a loaded phrase here (just how loud is a Wookiee’s roar, anyway?), so we generally use “mastering level” — what the producers heard in the studio control room or film-sound dubbing stage — as an equivalent reference point.
In any case, most everyone has noticed that when you play an action movie at a comfortable 11 p.m. apartment-complex level, much of the bass content wilts and (less obvious to most listeners) much of the surround envelopment and spatial excitement fades or disappears. The familiar Loudness buttons found on amps and receivers for decades are there to address the first issue, but these can only deliver a single, fixed level of correction for a single, arbitrary volume setting.
By using DSP, both THX and Audyssey can go worlds further. Each uses “smart” compensations that correct proportionately for subjective bass loss at any level below “reference,” and do so in convincing (and necessarily far more complex) ways. But that’s just the start, since Dynamic EQ and Loudness Plus can also make surround effects and ambience subjectively sound more like they do at reference level, though at lower volume settings. They do this by working dynamically on all 5, 6, or 7 main channels in a soundtrack, adjusting relative channel levels and equalizations as their algorithms react to the program content.
It’s a slippery slope, but one worth scaling. While both systems worked well, Audyssey’s Dynamic EQ proved more effective at very low volume settings, and produced a more aggressive (and more dynamically responsive) ambience-protection program. But I should also point out that since Audyssey also performs setup calibration, it knows where the in-room reference level actually is — a potentially important advantage to its more adaptive system.
The swept-through-the-sewers sequence early in Ratatouille alternates between swirling, roaring, rushing waters and quiet, eerie ambience with occasional drips. At a master volume 25 dB below THX-reference (a quiet but perfectly plausible late-night “baby’s asleep” level), the soundtrack essentially collapsed into barely distinct mono without compensation. But with Dynamic EQ engaged, a good degree of ambience was restored, with the more prominent water effects regaining much of their body and (pardon!) depth. Considering the drastic reduction in loudness, the net result correlated surprisingly well with reference-level “feel.”
ERGONOMICS
Along with its full panoply of THX modes and enhancements, the SR706 boasts XM/Sirius readiness, powered-second-zone (or front-biamp) configurability, and iPod readiness with Onkyo’s optional accessory dock. Yet, I found it quite simple and pleasant to use overall. The remote is a more compact design that’s easier to use than the one it replaces — though a bit less able, due to a smaller layout and about a dozen fewer keys.
BOTTOM LINE
Onkyo’s latest receiver is a value monster. You can buy more power, a few more features, and more high-end sizzle by shooting more dollars higher up Onkyo’s receiver line (or that of one of its competitors). But the TX-SR706 appears ideally placed, smack astride the point of diminishing returns. If you can find a better $899 A/V receiver, buy it.
TEST BENCH
DOLBY DIGITAL PERFORMANCE
All data were obtained from various test DVDs using 16-bit dithered test signals, which set limits on measured distortion and noise performance. Reference input level is –20 dBFS, and reference output is 1 watt into 8 ohms. Volume setting for reference level was -8. All level trims at zero, except for subwoofer-related tests, all speakers were set to “large,” subwoofer on. All are worst-case figures where applicable.
Output at clipping (1 kHz into 8/4 ohms)
1 channel driven: 133/202 W (21.2/23.1 dBW)
5 channels driven (8 ohms): 75 W* (18.8 dBW)
Distortion at 1 watt (THD+N, 1 kHz)
8/4 ohms: 0.03/0.04%
Noise level (A-wtd): –75.4 dB
Excess noise (with sine tone)
16-bit (EN16): 0.5 dB
Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz +0, –0.1 dB
*Approximate result; with 5 or more channels driven the receiver protected, effectively shutting down, after approximately a half-second of drive at full output
MULTICHANNEL PERFORMANCE, ANALOG INPUT
Reference input and output level is 200 mV; volume setting for reference output level was -4.
Distortion (THD+N, 1 kHz, 8 ohms): 0.004%
Noise level (A-wtd.): –92.6
Frequency response: <10 Hz to 200 kHz +0, –3 dB
STEREO PERFORMANCE, DIGITAL INPUT
Reference level is –20 dBFS; all level trims at zero. Volume setting for reference level was -4.
Output at clipping (1 kHz, 8/4 ohms, both channels driven): 122/178 W (20.9/22.5 dBW)
Distortion at reference level: 0.02%
Linearity error (at –90 dBFS): 0.05 dB
Noise level (A-wtd): –75.6 dB
with 96-kHz/24-bit signals: –85.0 dB
Excess noise (with/without sine tone)
16-bit (EN16): 0.9/0.5 dB
quasi-20-bit (EN20): 10.3/9.8 dB
Noise modulation: 0.7 dB
Frequency response: <10 Hz to 20 kHz +0, –0.15 dB
with 96-kHz/24-bit signals: <10 Hz to 47 kHz +0, -0.8 dB
BASS-MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE
Measured results obtained with Dolby Digital test signals.
Subwoofer-output frequency response (crossover set to 80 Hz): 24 dB/octave (approx.) above –6-dB rolloff point of 81 Hz
High-pass-filter frequency response (crossover set to 80 Hz): 12 dB/octave below –3-dB rolloff point of 80 Hz
Maximum unclipped subwoofer output (trim at 0): 9.2v
Subwoofer distortion (from 6-channel, 30-Hz, 0-dBFS signal; subwoofer trim set to 0): 0.03%
Crossover consistency: bass crossover frequency and slope were consistent for all sources and formats
Signal-format consistency: consistent for all applicable formats
Speaker size selection: all channels can be set to “small”
Speaker-distance compensation: available for all main channels.
The TX-SR706’s lab results were almost without exception excellent, with near-reference noise, linearity, response, and distortion. The sole exception was power output: While the unit cheerfully produced around 80 watts with five channels driven into 8 ohms, like some other mid-priced receivers it would only do so for short periods (a few hundred milliseconds) before current-limiting to approximately one-fourth power. But this situation is very unlikely ever to occur in actual use with real program material, which is far less demanding than sine tones and which virtually never peaks more than one or two channels simultaneously. My listening tests (performed as always before lab measurements) never elicited any shortage of power or dynamic freedom. Note that the above results all reflect the Onkyo’s “6 ohms” software setup option. When set to the 4 ohms position, which presumably current-limits the power amps, results declined uniformly to about 35 watts maximum.