Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2018
I'd give this receiver more stars, but I got a defective unit. It has 2 problems.
The first is the less serious one, but it is intermittent. When I go into the setup mode, I love the on-screen display of what's happening on my tv screen. More than half the time the on-screen display stays in sync with the one-line display on the front of the receiver. However about 1/4 of the time, it lags behind by as much as (longest delay timed by stopwatch) 67.4 seconds, and when this is going on the least delay is about 5 seconds. So that problem is a pain, but I supposed I could live with it if I were past the "return for refund and buy another unit" stage. (Thank goodness I'm not, and I'll be receiving my replacement this weekend.)
However, the other problem is a major show-stopper, and it's the reason why I'm returning the unit.
When I first set up wi-fi on the receiver, everything worked without a hitch. (BACKGROUND: I'm a computer geek for a living, and I am *extremely* familiar with tcp/ip networking both wired and wireless (going up to at lest the OC192 level anyway - "common" gigabit-and-lower speed networks I can do in my sleep ... it's a part of my job.) However about 2 days later the receiver lost it's network connection and couldn't reconnect.
So I tried going through the setup procedure again, but this time after I entered the password, the receiver couldn't connect. That is, it appeared to "hang" for at least a minute, then it display ed the connection failure message, and after that it put me back at the setup prompt menu option. (This is essentially the same problem that people have complained about with Onkyo receivers since at least 2016, and apparently Onkyo still hasn't figured out that there is a problem. Sigh.) Actually at this point I have been through that procedure over 20 times with the same results every time. I have tried every variation I could think of, including but not limited to the following (not in this order but close to it):
1) turning off and unplugging the receiver for 2 minutes, ditto for the wifi gateway, and then bringing up wifi and after it was up plugging the receiver back in and turning it on, letting it go through its startup process ;
2) moving the wifi gateway significantly closer to the receiver (5 feet instead of 35);
3) trying a second (and then a third) wifi gateway (different box, different private network);
4) turning off ALL electronics which do wifi EXCEPT the receiver and the tv, and then turning off wifi on the tv set;
5) downloading and installing new firmware for the receiver;
6) checking power quality/voltage/frequency going to the receiver (and all the electronics on that power circuit);
7) naturally I had already RTFM'ed, but I reread it and made sure that every instruction had been followed to the letter (boring);
8) searched on-line for possible solutions - including the Onkyo forum. I couldn't post there, though, because after several days of waiting I'm still waiting for permission to post. (sigh - a not-all-that-heartening experience);
9) contacted Amazon tech support [AND tried to contact onkyo tech support (which didn't work)];
10) contacted a former co-worker who now does high-end installations for home entertainment systems (he was the first one who told me to go ahead and return it).
Now before ordering this receiver I read literally ALL of its 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-star reviews. (why not read the 5-star? because one is not likely to find someone with the real problems there...).
Ignoring the wifi problem (which also made it impossible to use my phone as its remote), there was one other minor issue, but it could be cockpit error. My wife had downloaded an IR remote before I set up the wifi and got the wireless app for our phones. It worked fine at first but after the wifi went down, it's a little on the iffy side. While her phone is fairly new and she usually keeps it fully charged, I don't know what was going on, and while she has gone through multiple days of the IR remote (on her phone) working intermittently, when I tried it, it only failed to work twice (2 out of probably 100 button pushes - she gets maybe 10 out of 20 when it is acting "flaky" ), so I don't know whether it's her phone or the receiver. The same app installs fine on my galaxy S6, but it can't talk to the receiver at all... again it could be a problem with MY phone.
Sound-wise the receiver is excellent, and its array of sources and connections (a big reason I picked this receiver since we have a large vinyl collection of classical music and it actually has a decent phono input), and it's sound is EXCELLENT. (well excellent considering the speakers we have, and they're being replaced soon anyway).
Now this is NOT the same quality as the MacIntosh tube-type system I had used up until a couple of years ago, but then it cost less that 10% what that system cost (and I couldn't justify buying a replacement system at that price level), granted. BUT the sound is excellent, and for probably 99% of people who listen to their systems not more than a few hours a day, it will be far better than they could ever expect at this price.
I forgot to mention: my wife is a (professional) performing classical musician, and probably has better "ears" than I do, and she likes it better than the Mac system, so if she (who is usually VERY picky about such things) is satisfied, I will take her opinion as "fact". The sound of this thing is amazing. And the ability to run a second set of speakers with even a different source is an added bonus.
One more thing. We have an extensive library of recordings made from live performances (and on-air performances) going back more than 30 years. They're all on tape (10-1/2" and 7" reel-to-reel, cassette, and dat-audio recordings). But like most receivers in this price range (or even at significantly higher ones), it has no tape-out option. We solved that the easy way. The zone2 line out connections can be used to drive a recording device, so we got around that problem altogether. (I understand that most people don't know or care about such things, but if you're one of them, that's the easy solution. We have a separate pre-amp which we use to drive any of 4 different recording devices as needed, and its output can go to the separate zone2 receiver as well.)
So would I buy this receiver again? I can't say that until I get the replacement this weekend. If it's OK, I'll raise the review to 4 stars (not 5 - it has taken too much to find out that I had to replace the thing, and why did i come through with this problem in the first place?). Otherwise I'll add a note that the replacement was bad, too, and I may lower but won't raise the rating.
