Onkyo TX-SR706 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) Onkyo TX-SR706 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) Marketing description is not available.
Customer Review: Very pleased
I am completely pleased w this receiver. Set up was easy with no surprises. I was a little concerned about the microphone problems reported in other reviews, but that did not happen to me. The manual is complete if very technical. Thankfully, the defaults are entirely what I expected. It easily accommodated my slightly odd configuration. I only made the 2 changes recommended in the manual and 1 for the volume (db) display. I doubt I’ll ever fully understand it but it appears I don’t have to.
Customer Review: 706 vs 806/905. A nice receiver package in ~500$ range
It is hard to rate products like this. It is a super duper feature packed product. You get a lot of bells and whistles. Integrated amp has three main parts,

1) Power supply
2) Pre-amp, processor
3) AMP

1) Power Supply: 4/5 stars
It is quite noisy and doesn’t have very good isolation. There is no easy way to connect a external ground. Also the power rating for the entire unit is very deceiving. 100+ W while driving only the main two. In 7.1 it is probably 20 W per channel. 80x and 90x have far better power supply than this puppy. That is the main reason they are so heavy. There is also no easy way to replace the fuse to a noise free one.

2) Pre-amp, processor: 5/5 stars
Number of input connections, hdmi control, all the DSP and format support. Wow Wow… there is no other receiver in this price range that handle it all. Dolby True HD, DTS, LPCM, TOS Link any thing you ever want is available here.

One minor complaint is input impedance. It is quite low for a active pre-amp. It will require a nice sturdy analog source to provide the full punch. Be careful if you plan to use IPOD as AUX source. IPOD wants 100 ohm+ at all frequency range to provide linear output. You are better off using Onkyo dock. Phono inputs are OK at best.

If you are looking for 4 HDMI inputs, DSD processing, 1080 up-scaling you wont find another one in the ~500 range. This one is feature packed.

3) Amplifier: 3/5 stars

Amp gain relies of a big negative feedback circuit. The dynamic slam is very meager with fast music. Especially when you play SACD driving all the 5 channels. It does fare well when i connect only my two fronts. To get the best power, i just connect my two fronts in bi-amp mode. The bass seems lot clear and music flows more naturally. It is easy to hear the difference in clarity when you just hook only the front two, rather than all 7 channels. 706 is strictly for speakers with 8 ohm+ rating. If you have speakers with odd phase shifts, every thing will sound mushy.

Similar to the pre-amp, the amp is not linear. There is a lot of coloration going on. The sound is not natural. I use my creek audio and neutral NAD as comparison, sounds come very different with Onkyo. It is pleasant but you do hear other artifacts that the Amp has introduced.

Also the bass seems to vary a lot. For movies I have to turn the bass down. For music I have to increase it. I never had this problem with NAD integrated and other amps. The sound is very rounded, you loose some of the low and high end. It probably has a 60-16K range.

Negative feedback loop also affects the bass extension. On a large explosion that lasts for few seconds the feedback just builds upon itself and makes it too loud. In music bass is fast and tight, feedback is not fast enough to provide the punch.

Another big complaint is the channel isolation. It is less than 20 db. So stereo image seems to float. Sound transition from speaker to speaker is never crisp and clear. Sound always seems to leak to rest of the speakers in the system. It is not ideal for SACD or DVD-Audio.

Over all rating for the entire unit: 4.5/5 stars

For this price, you cant ask for more. It is a good unit, you are getting lot more than you pay. This amp is clearly meant for HT Movies. Dont try to use it for 2 channel music.

If you have more money to spare, I would suggest getting a 90x with toroidal transformer. It has much more smooth sound. Dont get fooled by numbers. Music is art, not technology. You need a amp that can be fast, responsive and color less. 905/80x also uses draws more power and they run quite hot. They isolate more nose, if you have other noisy sources connected to the main line.

A simple analogy is a automobile, dump truck and corvette both have 500 Hp. Just power rating and numbers are not enough. Dynamic slam, agility are also important for a amplifier. 905/806 is a huge difference in performance. If you are looking for stereo only amp, look at Creek Audio 5350SE. But if you have a strict <600$ budget there is nothing better than 706.

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