AV amp choices between Onkyo and Pioneer

Ok its been interesting, still weve gone WAY off the point of this thread for the OP and im sure by now hes ran for the hills.

btw i think its time you changed your sig writing to:
"mines is CONSIDERABLY louder than yours"

Untill again james, still a shame the Onkyo remote and styling is a little less desierable as its the two things that let it down prob the most. Chances are it will start seeing a bit more dsiount with all the other models becoming available. Hows your movie collection going btw?

Its amazing to believe you can have a 7.1 system a decent projector and nice speakers for approx £2000 these days.
 
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Mr Latte said:
The 4308 has a very nice spec:
Then again its approx £1800
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Retail is £1800 but I can get it trade price which brings it down to approx £1400

Im not sure its worth the extra money having USB and networking abilities as really a lot of people will use a PC or PS3 for such ways of delivering their media and of course these would already be connected to the AV amp.
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Agreed but the good thing about this amp is you can actually control it via pc instead of rs232 so from a av installer point of view it could be interesting

One things for sure though the £800 - £1000 AV amps really do offer great tech/specs for their price when you start comparing to the higher models
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Agreed again you are starting to see some cracking amps for the money now. I just wish Yamaha would drop the ugly orange coloured display
 
Right it is all getting dirty now, had a bit of a listen to a Onkyo 875 - OMG i love it !

Quick question, how does the 805 compare to the 875 in terms of video functions ? I think i have ruled out Yamaha as i had a play with a 2700 and i just do not like the sound musically ( i never have liked Yammys for music) I also think the Onkyo has far more punch than the Yammy and it certinally sings better on my Quads !
 
Shimmyhill said:
Right it is all getting dirty now, had a bit of a listen to a Onkyo 875 - OMG i love it !

Quick question, how does the 805 compare to the 875 in terms of video functions ? I think i have ruled out Yamaha as i had a play with a 2700 and i just do not like the sound musically ( i never have liked Yammys for music) I also think the Onkyo has far more punch than the Yammy and it certinally sings better on my Quads !
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Upscaling via a Reon VX chip (meant to be an amazing chip) as well as an extra HDMI inpu (4 instead of the 3 on the 805)

full comparison here

http://www.creative-audio.co.uk/hotsystemsHC_ONKYOAMPS.html

(cant see them being a competitor but if they are apologies)
 
Shimmyhill said:
Right it is all getting dirty now, had a bit of a listen to a Onkyo 875 - OMG i love it !

Quick question, how does the 805 compare to the 875 in terms of video functions ? I think i have ruled out Yamaha as i had a play with a 2700 and i just do not like the sound musically ( i never have liked Yammys for music) I also think the Onkyo has far more punch than the Yammy and it certinally sings better on my Quads !
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i knew you'd like it:D

as far as the 805 goes concerning video, its not as comprehensive. it doesnt upscale everything to 1080p which may or my not be an issue for you. you can force it to upscale sd to 720p however, though this apparently forces 1080i to be downscaled to 720p also. i chose the 805 over the 875 because sonically they are the same, and i didnt need the reon scaling at all. the scaler on my 40w2000 is sufficiant but more than that, everything i have plugged in to the amp bar my Wii is 1080i/p capable (my V+ box does a bloody good job with SD channels) so there was really no need for it. the 4th hdmi would be nice, but im not even using 3 of them so again, its not an issue:)

still, nice to hear it's far better than the yamaha;) immensely powerful and wonderfully detailed for an av amp about sum it up?
 
james.miller said:
immensely powerful and wonderfully detailed for an av amp about sum it up?
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Definitely concur (even though I have a PS3, Toshiba E1, Sony multiregion dvd player .....and a Hdtv freeview box lol , freeview goes direct to tv though as its no great shakes to loose surround on this)

875 just wasnt worth it for me either, and I hope there wont be a reason for me to upgrade for some time to come......even though maybe two hdmi outs would be REALLY useful - laughin
 
FrankJH said:
Definitely concur (even though I have a PS3, Toshiba E1, Sony multiregion dvd player .....and a Hdtv freeview box lol , freeview goes direct to tv though as its no great shakes to loose surround on this)

875 just wasnt worth it for me either, and I hope there wont be a reason for me to upgrade for some time to come......even though maybe two hdmi outs would be REALLY useful - laughin
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:D

i wouldnt worry, even on the 905 only one of the hdmi output's can be used at a time. i think they missed the boat on this one:p
 
james.miller said:
:D

i wouldnt worry, even on the 905 only one of the hdmi output's can be used at a time. i think they missed the boat on this one:p
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I would only want to use it like this anyway, just thinking about a projector and screen is all (even though I can appreciate some need a 2nd unique zone)
 
james.miller said:
:)

still, nice to hear it's far better than the yamaha;) immensely powerful and wonderfully detailed for an av amp about sum it up?
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Yes, what i do not understand is how poor the 805 sounded - something must have been wrong it :s

Really tempted with the 875 and i think the upscaling would be worth it, the Reon would do a much better job than the Sony scaler and even tho i am 720p it is tempting (having said that i have skyHD, PS3, HD-DVD - would be interesting to see how the onkyo handles the auto setting from skyHD)

Just the heat issue - mind a friend was telling me how he can fry eggs on his poweramp ;)

What speakers do you guys run with the Onkyo ?
 
Simple solution go to hi fi shop and listen to your chosen wo plus any others selected then choose the one you like the sound of most!

Choosing Hi Fi is not about reviews or other peoles opinions, they are useful for narrowing down the field but after that only your ears can tell you what is best for you.
 
james.miller said:
the heat was too much? was it causing problems? :(
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Making the ps3 fans kick in more on the shelf above, the heat it pumps out is outrageous. In a comparison it was not far off the heat generated by my m8's old classe poweramp - this makes the onkyo seem like a £100 alba stereo in terms of power and quality so while i think the onkyo's sound lovely the way they get to that sound seems very inefficient due to the heat produced. Had a play with an AX4 Pioneer and obv not in same gen but loads of power with nowhere near the same heat.

Not sure if you do but my amp is on all the time as my screen has no built in speakers, even doing basic PLII stuff it heats the glass rack quite a lot, combine this with many Reon problems as noted in the AVF thread and i think i will just blanket rule Onkyo out - shame but my room gets like an oven already in the summer and with this much heat in the cold current climate i can see it being a problem in the summer.
 
my onko generates heat like any other 805/875 but it doesnt all come from the amp section, its also generated in the back section where the video and audio processing components. onkyo's arent inefficient with output power at all,not any less efficient than any other comparable amp using dual push-pull / inverted darlinton design. it's a common misconception that they are monstrously inefficiant.. i have a fully spec'd pc sitting under my 805, which is sitting under my tv. i have no problems with heat of any kind, though my cabinet is open-backed:) i dont have reaon problems either, because i dont have or need a reon in my 805:)


its a shame you dont get on with it though.
 
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I don't doubt the sound quality - they are all very good, well i wasnt impressed with the 605 as it sounded 'muddy' and not as clear as the bigger boys.

My speakers are 6ohm and the chap in the shop thought that the heat would always be higher with these than some 8ohm speakers but even just doing some PLII the heat from the top and esp at the rear was quite hot.

If i didn't have small children i would stick with it and put the amp on the top shelf of my rack but i really want to keep it on the bottom shelf.
 
Shimmyhill said:
Onkyo idea is gone, too hot for me.

What Amp do you use MrLatte - i am looking at a Yamaha again and may be after some advice !
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My amp is the V4600 yamaha its not the newest gen model. Ive been tempted to upgrade but with PCM audio sounding so great dont feel the need really. Personally ive always been pleased with over 12 years of yamaha av hardware with not one letting me down. In fairness ive probably got used to how they sound and work, still being a happy and brand loyal consumer should count for something. Competition in the approx 1000 region is imense.

Yamaha benifits are 2yr warrenty with good build quality. Easy to use, good remotes, simple menus with on most models decent performance.
As for advice, keep researching forums, get a demo of a V1800 and V3800.

theirs a v3800 thread on avf with many saying its great
 
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