Finally got my Onkyo TX-SR706 surround amp/receiver. ?499
Because of the enormous amount of modes and options, it was pretty daunting at first, but the easiest bit was the audio levels and delays which it set up for me using the microphone placed in various seating positions.
It did admirably well and the surround sounds way better than my old Marantz SR5200, with much better balance from front to rear and even at low volume enough bass and voice channel.
Stereo sounds pretty much the same, i.e. excellent.
Before I turned it on, I plugged everything in to it and it was easy to read the various source sockets. It came with some labels to wrap around my speaker cables
very useful.
Once up and running, I'd got it all right and it was also easy to assign sound and video inputs to each other and. If only it had a scart and VGA socket! You can rename all the sources if you fancy, although I've left them standard so that it's easy to reprogram the Logitech Harmony (which was super easy to make the amp switch in).
I've set it up with just hdmi going to the TV and then component stuff into the back of the amp. It looks great and I can't for life of me see any change in quality from the conversion in the unit rather than the TV.
It runs a little hotter than my old one which I was warned about, but it's marginal.
The zone2 is a cool feature - I can listen to different stuff in my other room - it has extra speaker outputs for the 2nd room, but I've taken a line out to a separate dual amp because I have two sets of speakers. You can use the zone2 even when the main amp is in standby, with a source selector button. i.e. separate power led for zone2
Handy power saving there. If you aren't using the extra speaker posts for zone2, you can instead use them to biamp the front speakers if your speakers support it.
There's an oldschool blue light around the volume control, but thankfully this can be turned off.
There's a "pure" button which turns off all the video gubbins and display etc. Only useful for digital inputs (optical/hdmi/coax).
Adjustable startup volume is nice. No surprises with loud stuff when you turn it on. Additionally, you can match the volumes of different sources so that you don't have to keep mucking around with the volume so much when switching between sources.
Onscreen menu works well (only via hdmi), but all the same is visible on the unit - much improved over the old marantz which you had to use the onscreen at all times during setup.
So as I said, music is much the same, but surround is much better. Every detail is represented so much more distinctly. I always thought my center and surrounds, being Eltax, were just a bit rubbish, but they are now performing vastly better and my Mercury M3s sound like they match rather than being completely overpowering. Watching the scene in the Matrix where they storm the building to rescue morpheus, is now bright and vibrant, whereas it really was sounding a bit dull on the old amp in comparison.
Whether this was worth it over the 606 is dubious. I got sucked into the "upscales to 1080p" stuff (606 only does up to 1080i), but my TV does amazing scaling and is 720p anyway It's THX certified but none of my speakers are... so the crossover setup changed but sounds like it's got it right and I've yet to try the much hyped THX Loudness Plus feature which might be quite cool because I do a lot of film watching in the evening after the kids are asleep. I'll add more on that when I try it.
Because of the enormous amount of modes and options, it was pretty daunting at first, but the easiest bit was the audio levels and delays which it set up for me using the microphone placed in various seating positions.
It did admirably well and the surround sounds way better than my old Marantz SR5200, with much better balance from front to rear and even at low volume enough bass and voice channel.
Stereo sounds pretty much the same, i.e. excellent.
Before I turned it on, I plugged everything in to it and it was easy to read the various source sockets. It came with some labels to wrap around my speaker cables
very useful.Once up and running, I'd got it all right and it was also easy to assign sound and video inputs to each other and. If only it had a scart and VGA socket! You can rename all the sources if you fancy, although I've left them standard so that it's easy to reprogram the Logitech Harmony (which was super easy to make the amp switch in).
I've set it up with just hdmi going to the TV and then component stuff into the back of the amp. It looks great and I can't for life of me see any change in quality from the conversion in the unit rather than the TV.
It runs a little hotter than my old one which I was warned about, but it's marginal.
The zone2 is a cool feature - I can listen to different stuff in my other room - it has extra speaker outputs for the 2nd room, but I've taken a line out to a separate dual amp because I have two sets of speakers. You can use the zone2 even when the main amp is in standby, with a source selector button. i.e. separate power led for zone2
Handy power saving there. If you aren't using the extra speaker posts for zone2, you can instead use them to biamp the front speakers if your speakers support it.There's an oldschool blue light around the volume control, but thankfully this can be turned off.
There's a "pure" button which turns off all the video gubbins and display etc. Only useful for digital inputs (optical/hdmi/coax).
Adjustable startup volume is nice. No surprises with loud stuff when you turn it on. Additionally, you can match the volumes of different sources so that you don't have to keep mucking around with the volume so much when switching between sources.
Onscreen menu works well (only via hdmi), but all the same is visible on the unit - much improved over the old marantz which you had to use the onscreen at all times during setup.
So as I said, music is much the same, but surround is much better. Every detail is represented so much more distinctly. I always thought my center and surrounds, being Eltax, were just a bit rubbish, but they are now performing vastly better and my Mercury M3s sound like they match rather than being completely overpowering. Watching the scene in the Matrix where they storm the building to rescue morpheus, is now bright and vibrant, whereas it really was sounding a bit dull on the old amp in comparison.
Whether this was worth it over the 606 is dubious. I got sucked into the "upscales to 1080p" stuff (606 only does up to 1080i), but my TV does amazing scaling and is 720p anyway
It's THX certified but none of my speakers are... so the crossover setup changed but sounds like it's got it right and I've yet to try the much hyped THX Loudness Plus feature which might be quite cool because I do a lot of film watching in the evening after the kids are asleep. I'll add more on that when I try it.
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