Onkyo TX-NR5008 AV-receiver
It is time to take your face from the popcorn bucket and pay attention when the largest AVR brand in Europe unveils a fresh main.
It seems as if automobiles are being lobbed into each corner of my viewing room, as I write. Onkyo's latest heavyweight, the TX-NR5008, is in full flight.
With ordnance every which way, what follows is 360? of bedlam. The large NR5008 manages the DTS-HD Master Audio multichannel combination with preciseness that is thrilling.
The wife complains that it seems like the home has been demolished. Welcome to home cinema audio on a large scale that is devilishly.
You then will not find it here if you are buying extreme form factor to usher in 2011. The TX-NR5008 is a cookie cutter battleship, indistinguishable from the TX-NR5007 of last season. Unlike competing Marantz, which has implemented a totally new design aesthetic to its latest AV receiver range, there is no clean earth being trod here.
Also new is a PC VGA/minijack audio input signal that outputs over HDMI, and for people who would like to play a phonograph record without utilising the AVR, you get HDMI pass-through using a view to family friendly integration.
A couple of HDMI output signals is supplied to feed a projector as well as a screen, concurrently if you want. Essentially, in the event you are in need of a connection, it is likely there.
Room calibration is reached by means of a modest pyramid mic that was furnished, using 2EQ algorithms. Within my experience, these systems often get results that are unpredictable, but are generally worth a shot. The AVR beats evaluation tones outside so your room answer could be analysed. The number crunching used here is really excellent.
The Audyssey system ironed out some lumpy mid-bass added by my listening room to provide an improved overall equilibrium.
Codec support is class top. There's also plenty of DSP, plus additional height/width processing alternatives in the type of Dolby Pro and Audyssey DSX -logic IIz.
As for me, I can not get too het up around height channels - at least not hardwired ones. I guess for the vast bulk, they're just too difficult to execute; the front heights should be set about 100cm over the primary stereo pair to work. My listening room simply does not have that type of ceiling height (users of smaller stand-mount L/C/Rs might have more choices). I am not inclined to test unless it is potential to expand the soundfield basically.
The DSX width processing of Audyssey is intriguing. It is on the basis of the assumption that an exceptionally broad front soundstage with two bottoms is more immersive and realistic than you will get from a traditional 7.1 system with four encompasses.
Whatever setup you want, you'll find a lot of choices it is possible to set up.
The NR5008 is versatile. I am not convinced that too many UK enthusiasts have wanted multiroom sound from an AVR (our houses are simply much less large as those in the US) and looking forward, wireless options like Air Play appear a much more practical choice in the event the theory floats your boat. Oddly, Air Play isn't part of the toolbox of this Onkyo. When it comes to introducing technical inventions are we seeing the brand faux pas behind a number of its own competitors for the very first time in years?
Half the enjoyment of any listening session using the NR5008 includes juggling audio ways.
THX post-processing was once pretty clear-cut, but it comes in a bewildering variety of flavours.
Included within the Audyssey suite is Dynamic EQ with Dynamic Quantity. This evens out variability in source volume, and attempts to keep dialogue intelligibility and bass response at lower volume levels.
That is not a Nighttime mode. Unless you are really lucky and possess a theater that is totally disjunct, I'd wager it is not likely you will be listening at Benchmark degree too regularly, so it is worth changing this on as normal.
Among the big surprises provided by this Large Onk is Nervous post processing, of which there are two versions: Neural Surround and Nervous Digital Music. The former is made to take two channel sound that was compressed and enlarge it outside to whatever multichannel setup you are running. Neural Surround does substantially the same for sources that are uncompressed. Possessed by DTS and produced by THX, Neural Surround additionally enables broadcasters to transmit high quality multichannel via low- two station, bitrate.
Setting away its function as an encode/decode program, I found it astonishingly successful doing post-processing responsibilities on two channel source material.
A FLAC 970kbps 24bit/44.1kHz record, the needle-sharp electronica curled gorgeously around my listening location.
Clearly, not everything functions well. The AVR favored this FLAC (2496kbps 24bit/96kHz) record in its original stereo format, and that I concurred. Likewise, the name cut from Steve Steven's Flamenco.A.Go.Go. (DTS DVD Audio) ended up having half the group shed in the back channel.
Browsing the NR5008 isn't massively intuitive, yet to save you digging to the Set Up menu every five minutes (which snatches you apart from any source chosen), there's now an easy House overlay which offers basic video, sound and listening control.
The NR5008 provides an excellent variety of sound software that are networking. It's possible for you to pull at or stream audio from the web and your MP3s apart. A variety of music formats are supported, including MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, WMA and Ogg Vorbis.
The 'net radio choice comes pre-loaded with subscription services Last FM and Napster, while Japanese rockhouse is made Someya Junkie Station just a couple of clicks away by VTuner internet radio. It's possible for you to add other' radio aggregators that are net by getting the NR5008 via a browser.
Going across the web of the receiver/USB surroundings feels somewhat shoddy. You can not call the House overlay over the internet playback display up; it turns away to a blue screen. And sometimes, for no obvious motive, the transportation keys became non-open when playing a track back. However, the NR5008 to execute a neat trick was enabled by hooking up my iPod to the front USB: showing album art. But while the AVR located all my music servers that are networked it was not able to show album art.
It is a receiver that rewards high quality sources. The 24bit FLAC record, played from USB Flash drive, offers three dimensional vocals and raw, guitar that is nuanced.
A DSD stream will be also accepted by the NR5008. I hooked the AVR to Sony's BDP-S570 and was amazed at just how exact the imaging was.
A successful update on an already well-viewed AV receiver layout, the TX-NR5008 does nearly everything with elan. As a film machine, it is a West End theatre effective at throwing a sonic envelope loud and broad; but it is additionally a classy musician, at home with hires source content. It is well worth an audition while integration of new media sources might be a bit more seamless.
