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Older Onkyo vs new Onkyo or other receiver - sound quality

Jimmi

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Great forum! Here's a question I have not been able to answer in other forums:

I have a TX-DS595. It's around 22 years old. It's about 70 watts.

For my purposes, it sounds great. It powers Acoustic Research Hi-res Series AR11, AR17, and AR2C, and a Monster SL100 sub.
I also have older AR-5s with rebuilt tweeters that I use as A and B sets simultaneously. (I know, not optimal but I like it!) I use a Technics SL-23 with a Mofi Studiophono and Schitt Loki Mini. My room is medium - to small with plenty of room treatments.

However, due to an old capacitor or battery, it no longer holds settings. Speaker distance, volume levels, etc are all reset after I cycle the power. This is a PITA.

So my question is: how do the newer Onkyos (or Denons) sound compared to my current AVR? I would like to know if the DAC or anything else would be better with a newer AVR. I would also like to make the jump to Atmos / DTSx.

I have been gravitating towards the Denon AVR-X3700H, Onkyo TX-NR7100, TX-RZ50, Integra DRX 3.4, Yamaha RX-A4A (or even RX-V6A)

Would I be losing anything that the DS595 has by going with a new receiver?
Are the choices above comparable and or reasonable for my system?

Thank you for reading!
 
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DVDdoug

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There should be no difference in basic sound quality. An amplifier or receiver shouldn't have any sound of its own (assuming no EQ or surround processing effects, etc.).

If there's a difference it would be noise and that may be better or worse. Frequency response should be flat across the audio range and distortion should be inaudible as long as it's not over-driven into clipping.

It's been pretty-easy to make audibly-perfect electronics for decades, basically since the introduction of solid-state electronics.

With high-gain amplifiers (phono preamps and microphone preamps) noise can be an issue because you have a lower signal-to-noise ratio and any noise gets amplified. But most of us are no longer playing records.
 

Cote Dazur

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Would I be losing anything that the DS595 has by going with a new receiver?
Not as far as SQ is concerned, you probably will gain a few conveniences.
Try to keep the power spec similar and you will not hear anything different.
 

elvisizer

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I recently upgraded my older onkyo sr-tx805 receiver since I needed atmos support- I ended up with the Denon a110
definitely sounds better to me but even with the 805 being such a solid performer for it's time the denon is in a different price range so it's a bit apples to oranges. The 110 also runs about a million degrees cooler than the 805 did o_O
and of course it supports all the current surround formats that I was missing with the 805, like atmos.
Another area that's completely different these days is the software- the onkyo had some apps for remote control and everything but they were very basic- the a110's iOS app is amazing and lets me tweak almost any setting on the device. The process for setting up the room correction profile on the denon was faster and simpler, and having 2 profiles saved that I can switch between is really nice.
lots of quality of life improvements even if the hardware isn't going to measure significantly better.
 
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HarmonicTHD

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Great forum! Here's a question I have not been able to answer in other forums:

I have a TX-DS595. It's around 22 years old. It's about 70 watts.

For my purposes, it sounds great. It powers Acoustic Research Hi-res Series AR11, AR17, and AR2C, and a Monster SL100 sub.
I also have older AR-5s with rebuilt tweeters that I use as A and B sets simultaneously. (I know, not optimal but I like it!) I use a Technics SL-23 with a Mofi Studiophono and Schitt Loki Mini. My room is medium - to small with plenty of room treatments.

However, due to an old capacitor or battery, it no longer holds settings. Speaker distance, volume levels, etc are all reset after I cycle the power. This is a PITA.

So my question is: how do the newer Onkyos (or Denons) sound compared to my current AVR? I would like to know if the DAC or anything else would be better with a newer AVR. I would also like to make the jump to Atmos / DTSx.

I have been gravitating towards the Denon AVR-X3700H, Onkyo TX-NR7100, TX-RZ50, Integra DRX 3.4, Yamaha RX-A4A (or even RX-V6A)

Would I be losing anything that the DS595 has by going with a new receiver?
Are the choices above comparable and or reasonable for my system?

Thank you for reading!
Isn’t Onkyo bankrupt? See other thread. Or did they sell their AVR division and keep the brand alive under different ownership?
 

Golfx

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Like the others above said your Sound Quality should be the same or perhaps a little better. Denon appears on the top of the best SINAD AVRs tested on this website with kudos for “good engineering hygiene too.”

And yes Onkyo is going through an uncomfortable bad financial path now. If I worked for them I would likely start looking for my next job.
 

linger63

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Great forum! Here's a question I have not been able to answer in other forums:

I have a TX-DS595. It's around 22 years old. It's about 70 watts.

For my purposes, it sounds great. It powers Acoustic Research Hi-res Series AR11, AR17, and AR2C, and a Monster SL100 sub.
I also have older AR-5s with rebuilt tweeters that I use as A and B sets simultaneously. (I know, not optimal but I like it!) I use a Technics SL-23 with a Mofi Studiophono and Schitt Loki Mini. My room is medium - to small with plenty of room treatments.

However, due to an old capacitor or battery, it no longer holds settings. Speaker distance, volume levels, etc are all reset after I cycle the power. This is a PITA.

So my question is: how do the newer Onkyos (or Denons) sound compared to my current AVR? I would like to know if the DAC or anything else would be better with a newer AVR. I would also like to make the jump to Atmos / DTSx.

I have been gravitating towards the Denon AVR-X3700H, Onkyo TX-NR7100, TX-RZ50, Integra DRX 3.4, Yamaha RX-A4A (or even RX-V6A)

Would I be losing anything that the DS595 has by going with a new receiver?
Are the choices above comparable and or reasonable for my system?

Thank you for reading!

There will be HUGE differences in sound with an equivalent current model...........even more so higher up.

In the 22 years following your model there is now much better DSP for a start........(just like how PC processors have improved)
Add room EQ and superior Bass management plus the benefits of HDMI ( hi res etc) and higher quality DACS and analog output stages and power supplies.

ALL this BEFORE adding ATMOS capability.

ABSOLUTELY NO CONTEST...............IME and IMHO

Shocked at some of the earlier posts.........:facepalm:
 

Vacceo

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The most important difference will be in equalization and room correction. The amp itself should not make a big difference outside of outputting more watts. They are more efficient too, particularly class D amps.

Dirac, Audyssey and so on have indeed improved a lot in the last decades.

That aside, inputs (HDMI, to be fair) have changed quite a bit, but that is a feature you may or may not need.
 
OP
Jimmi

Jimmi

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Thanks all, really great advice. Still wondering about Onkyo, as for some reason I have an illogical affinity to them. I also am looking at the Denon and Yamaha. Seems like the Denon 3700 may be the winner, although I am curious about Yamaha. All I need is 5.1.2 (with 2 height speakers) and the ability to play A and B at same time with control for speaker levels.
 

Head_Unit

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Still wondering about Onkyo, as for some reason I have an illogical affinity to them.
Most people on audio forums have illogical affinities ;)
I've long liked Onkyo but kept to Denon due to satisfaction, and lately because Audyssey is more sophisticated than MCACC or AccuEQ. However at least some new Onkyo have Dirac Live which should also be very good. Also be sure to get AirPlay or Spotify Connect or whatever is relevant to you. SO SO SO convenient, aaaaahhhhhhh.
 
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Jimmi

Jimmi

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I am interested in Dirac too, although not sure how much effect it will have as my room is pretty well-treated. Maybe some bass management would help. The Denon 3700 might be a bit much for me as I use the receiver for HT, vinyl, and the occasional CD. For example, the Onkyo 7100 can do the same or the Yamaha A2A but I think they did not fare as well as the Denon in the tech reviews…
 

Vacceo

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I am interested in Dirac too, although not sure how much effect it will have as my room is pretty well-treated. Maybe some bass management would help. The Denon 3700 might be a bit much for me as I use the receiver for HT, vinyl, and the occasional CD. For example, the Onkyo 7100 can do the same or the Yamaha A2A but I think they did not fare as well as the Denon in the tech reviews…
Think of Dirac as the great sauce you put on top of an already great steak grilled by a great chef.

If your listening space is well tamed and you have good speakers, room EQ will be the final touch to get a very rounded system.
 

Chrispy

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As far as the A/B thing goes, most avrs don't have that feature, but rather zones....and that may not work as well for what you've been doing (and if typical A/B sharing the same amp channels, that may not be ideal at all). As far as sound differences, with my various avrs (including Onkyo and Denon models) the differences will primarily be in the dsp/eq, in pure direct mode they shouldn't have a flavor of their own. Onkyo's financial position is a bit bothersome; Onkyo Japan filed bankruptcy altho their partners Voxx/Premium Audio Company and Sharp says that manufacturing/distribution of Onkyo/Integra/Pioneer avrs will go forward.
 
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Jimmi

Jimmi

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If I can both zones silmultaneously that would be similar to A/B. Anyone do this?

I do realize Onkyo kind of went belly-up. If their products are good the hope is once purchased it will last many years.
 

Head_Unit

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although not sure how much effect [room correction] will have as my room is pretty well-treated.
Room treatments are not effective at low frequencies because the wavelengths are too long, hence the need for bass correction. Which if you like the upper sound, I'm pretty sure Dirac can be set to only correct up to 300 Hz or whatever.
 
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Jimmi

Jimmi

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If you use a power amp for mains, would Audessey or Dirac still be useful?
 

Vacceo

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Depends on receiver. On some, you can re-adress power output while on others, the power of the receiver's amp goes to whatever channel you wire your speakers to.
 
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Jimmi

Jimmi

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Some say the Marantz above isn't that great for music. But if you add a power amp for mains, would you say that would be improved?
 
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