The competition
I must say the Denon avr-x6700h & avr-x8500ha check almost every box for me except two. First I don't know what DAC's I will get with the chip shortage. Second Denon uses Audyssey XT32, not a bad solution but I am satisfied with Dirac.
I prefer Dirac too after years of using XT32... - but it is unfair to compare the X6700 and X8500 to the RZ50 - the former are TOTL Flagship models costing substantially more, the latter is the upper end of the mid / mass market segment... Onkyo don't currently have a competitor to the 6700/8500 (that will be the RZ70/RZ90)
Why I'm wary of Onkyo (Constructive criticism)
The Onkyo TX-RZ50 when tested by Amirm left me unenthusiastic. The DAC suffered from jitter and the THD performance was significantly worse than the Denon. But what really concerned me was amplifier performance. THD issues aside the 4 ohm performance is unacceptable, especially when even 8-ohm speakers dip down to 4-ohms. Then throw nominally rated 4 to 6 ohm speakers into the mix with various crossover design shortcomings and it's a disaster.
The X3700 rated 97.5/97.4db Sinad (rounded to 98db on the chart) - note that this was with the earlier better chipset, it is expected to drop by between 3db and 6db or more with the later replacement chipset...
This is a review and detailed measurements of Denon AVR-X3700H 9.2 channel 8K Home Theater AV Receiver (AVR). It is kindly loaned to me by a local member and costs US $1,199. Visually, if you have seen one AVR, you have seen the look of the AVR-X3700H: The input selector is plastic and...
www.audiosciencereview.com
The RZ50 rated 98/96.9db SINAD (rounded to 97 db on the chart)
The above incorporate jitter and THD obviously...
Signal/Noise had them as
Denon 109/108db
Onkyo 105/104db
(again note that on the Denon this is with the early chipset... the later ones would be expected to have reduced S/N specs)
IF you look at the Jitter / Noise spectra on those two pages - Noise is slightly better on the Denon (showing the S/N results... keepin mind the later chips are expected to be worse in this specific area) - Toslink/Coax are much of a muchness
So in actual fact - with the no longer available AKM chipset fitted, the Denon X3700, was ahead by only circa 4db on noise
The 6500/6700/8500 models are all flagship models using higher spec chips.... and costing more than twice as much - but even then the gains in SINAD are not enormous (X8500 103db, X6700 100db...)
I have seen enough used B&W tweeters with crumpled up tweeters to know that I would not trust my Accuton Cell loudspeakers on the Onkyo TX-RZ50. And the pre-out performance doesn't leave me enthralled. If the RZ70/RZ90 don't step it up you've lost me as a customer.
Fix this and I'm your customer
What is it about the measured performance of the Onkyo that you believe would damage your speakers? (not obvious to me?)
What I'm really looking forward to and hoping from Onkyo/Pioneer
- Dirac Live - Bass Management support. Hopefully with enough processing power to pull of 96khz internal processing instead of the usual 48khz with DSP.
- Dirac Live - Dirac Live Unison (Spatial Room), hopefully when released it will be compatible with existing Onkyo Dirac receivers.
- Good DAC/pre-out performance. Whether by using cheaper DAC's in a balanced configuration for greater noise resistance or a more premium chip performance should be a whole lot better. The $100 Topping D10 should not be annihilating you Onkyo. Especially not when you can order chips by the tens of thousands.
- Better amplifiers with solid 4 ohm performance and less heat.
- Preferably with Class D if possible, heat kills components and receivers rarely have enough heatsink. I find it hard to believe that a manufacturer like Hypex or Purifi would not jump at a chance to put their products in a product that sells by the tens of thousands. Perhaps a deal could be struck as a major manufacturer for some variant.
- As the RZ70/90 would be a more premium product I would like to see more polymer capacitors and high temp/grade aluminum electrolytics. I want to know my investment will last.
A good bonus
A built in 10 band EQ just for the headphones. Filter type, gain, q-factor, and bandwidth settings should be easy enough to implement with the on-screen GUI.
I doubt we will get a retrofit of something like Dirac Unison to existing models - at a guess, it will take substantially more processing power, and ram
DAC's and Price... to be fair, a Topping D10, only has 2 channels... you would need at least 4 of the Topping D10's - and then you would need to add a processor/decoder, and a 9 Channel power amp....
A basic 7 channel power amp will alread set you back the price of the RZ50.... before you then add your 4 Topping D10's, and your processor. - so you would end up somewhere around double what it currently is in the market for... or close to where the 6700 and 8500 are!
So yes, I would love to see improved performance from the DAC's - but I expect to see that at a substantially higher pricepoint... (RZ90?)
ClassD - well the RZ50 uses the same chassis as the previous (non Dirac) Onkyo generation.... If the RZ70/90 follow the same trend, then they will have the Class D amplification that comes with that chassis.... (we don't know, but it seems likely!) - I am not expecting a Hypex/Purifi type deal, as that would raise the costs to a level where the competition would no longer be Denon, but more JBL / Trinnov.
BUT - All the indications are that there will be prepro versions - which you could then combine with an appropriate Hypex/Purifi or whatever amp floats your boat.
I think one has to keep in mind Onkyo's market sector... It walks a fine line between value and performance - the Midrange and TOTL models have traditionally provided massive value for money, and would duke it out with highly regarded luxury brands costing twice as much - but that also means they stick very closely to feature and functions that are mass market, and where great performance can be achieved leveraging that mass market to maintain value.
If they invest in software development, it is quite possible that they could deploy features such as headphone EQ... without impacting the value equation. Dirac Upgrades with new features on the other hand will require more CPU/DSP power and ram.
I too await the launch with great interest