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Onkyo TX-NR7100 AVR Review

Rate this AVR:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 154 73.7%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 44 21.1%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 8 3.8%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 3 1.4%

  • Total voters
    209

amirm

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Onkyo TX-NR7100 8K 9.2 Channel THX certified Audio/Video Receiver (AVR). It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $1,099.
Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k CD Input Review.jpg

Not much departure from the classic look of AVRs in the last 30 years. The on screen interface has been enhanced to be high resolution and is responsive. While some parts of it are intuitive, others are not. Options are grayed out at times with no indication as to why. For example I wanted to turn on Zone 2 audio but the option was gray. Reading the manual revealed that you have to first enable Multizone option to get access to that. I updated the firmware over the air and that went well. But when finished, it just told me on the AVR that the update was completed but then sat there locked up requiring a power cycle.

Back panel shows the puzzling inclusion of analog composite and component video:

Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k CD Input back panel 8k Review.jpg

I guess it is for folks who still pay their original Nintendo game console.

Onkyo TX-NR1700 Measurements
There is no pre-out so I could not test the performance of the main DACs. There is zone 2 so I went ahead and tested that:

Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k Zone 2 Measurement.png


The high level of distortion is embracingly poor if it is any indication of how the main DACs operate. For the rest of the tests, I went for full end to end performance starting with HDMI input:

Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k HDMI Input Analog Measurement.png


This lands the unit next to its sister models from both Onkyo and Pioneer:
Best AVR Home Theater Review 2024.png

With most of its competitors in the "Green" category, this stagnant performance is not good. Performance is naturally similar with Toslink input (used for later tests):

Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k Toslink Input Measurement.png


Notice the noise variations to the left of our main tone which is absent when we use analog input:
Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k CD Input Analog Measurement.png


Noise performance is in the same "fair" category, not reaching the target of 16 bits at 5 watts:
Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k Toslink Input SNR Measurement.png


If you use direct/pure direct, system bandwidth is wide and flat as you expect:
Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k Toslink Input Frequency Response M...png

If you do not, response truncates down to just 20 kHz (not shown) indicating everything is resampled down for processing.

Multitone has high noise floor and same ho-hum performance.
Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k CD Input Analog Multitone Measurem...png


Same with 19 and 20 kHz intermodulation test:
Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k Toslink Input 19 20 kHz intermodul...png


Power testing is what got my blood pressure to shoot way up. Ran the sweep and got just 40 watts or so! I remembered the power limiting I had seen in previous units from Onkyo/Pioneer but had forgetting the cause. I updated the firmware and power cycled the unit as mentioned in introduction. I got full power then, remembering that if these units ever clip, they will stay in ECO mode of some sort until you remove the AC cable! I didn't recall the unit clipping however in this case. Here is 4 ohm test:
Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k CD Input Analog Power 4 ohm Measur...png


The 1% THD test pushes the amp into clipping often which meant it took a lot of effort to get the right measurement data:
Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k CD Input Analog Max Power Power 4 ...png


Here is 8 ohm:
Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k CD Input Analog Power 8 ohm Measur...png


I let the power sweeps vs frequency clip and there, you can see the sudden power limiting as sweeps go from 15 kHz down to 20 Hz:
Onkyo TX-NR7100 Home Theater AV Receiver AVR Dolby Atmos 8k CD Input Analog Power 4 ohm vs fre...png


Note that there is no indication whatsoever that this mode is activated! The amp simply stays in this mode producing only 15% of its rated power until you power cycle it (it does NOT reset with power switch).

Conclusions
The TX-NR7100 delivers "OK" performance across my tests. The problem as I have noted in previous reviews of this shared platform between Onkyo/Pioneer is this severe power limiting mode. I have to think it is there to pass UL regulatory tests and hence the reason it doesn't even tell you that it has gone into this "limp" mode. Naturally there is no mention of it and even searching online won't clue you in this problem.

Based on this testing, I suspect many users are experiencing a fraction of the power this AVR is capable of without knowing it. Detecting/proving that it is doing this requires power sweep measurements which is outside of the abilities of almost every user of this AVR.

For above reason, I cannot recommend Onkyo TX-NR7100 AVR or frankly, any AVR from Onkyo/Pioneer until they address this power problem.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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Reserved for @AdamG to kindly post the specs.

Manufacturer Specifications:

This is one of those devices that has pages of Features and functions thereby having a very long and complicated list of Specifications. Thus requiring providing a link to the Product information webpage as opposed to a short and brief list of Specifications. We provide the Hyperlink to facilitate Member access to the full and complete Product Specifications and information. This is not an endorsement or any form of sponsorship by ASR as none exists.


 
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Thanks for this review
I suspect many users are experiencing a fraction of the power this AVR is capable of without knowing it. Detecting/proving that it is doing this requires power sweep measurements which is outside of the abilities of almost every user of this AVR.

For above reason, I cannot recommend Onkyo TX-NR7100 AVR
And all it would take to fix it would be to display a warning on screen when it happens.
Something they could easily do with a firmware update.
 
Thank you for reviewing it! The good news is I got it for only $550 from Adorama to go into my little bedroom setup. Thought it'd be fun to have a cheap AVR with Dirac to compare to my bigger Dirac system. Luckily I don't need much power in there so I shouldn't send it into protection. I did update it before I sent it, so I'm surprised the power issue wasn't already fixed, but it did hang up on me after updating too.
 
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I don't understand those legacy video connectors. Much be cheaper to just put them in there instead of designing the system without them.
 
I don't understand those legacy video connectors. Much be cheaper to just put them in there instead of designing the system without them.
People who still get and enjoy legacy video devices for whatever reasons that suit them understand the legacy video connectors!
 
Conclusions
[...] The problem as I have noted in previous reviews of this shared platform between Onkyo/Pioneer is this severe power limiting mode. I have to think it is there to pass UL regulatory tests and hence the reason it doesn't even tell you that it has gone into this "limp" mode. Naturally there is no mention of it and even searching online won't clue you in this problem.

Based on this testing, I suspect many users are experiencing a fraction of the power this AVR is capable of without knowing it. Detecting/proving that it is doing this requires power sweep measurements which is outside of the abilities of almost every user of this AVR.

Absolutely unacceptable!
 
The problem as I have noted in previous reviews of this shared platform between Onkyo/Pioneer is this severe power limiting mode. I have to think it is there to pass UL regulatory tests and hence the reason it doesn't even tell you that it has gone into this "limp" mode. Naturally there is no mention of it and even searching online won't clue you in this problem.
Yeah this is not good... even worse when the issue falls on deaf ears and isn't addressed. Thanks for the time spent testing this anyway.

This is the updated 8K model;

1723534745949.png



JSmith
 
I don't understand those legacy video connectors. Much be cheaper to just put them in there instead of designing the system without them.
People still have old video cameras, retro gaming consoles, and movie players. Why do people think it’s crazy for AVRs to include a converter when Abalog devices are still used today? I had to buy an external converter (RetroTink 5X-Pro $300) to play my retro consoles because my JBL SDP-55 and OLED didn’t have any.
 
This "limp home", low power mode is an abomination and frankly atrocious design.

Are we talking about a set of low secondary main amp rails switched in like some of the other models out there?

Basically, it's a 40wpc unit, with only two channels driven. It'll be funny to see how "Onkyo" dares to rate this in accordance with FTC requirements. It might even fail the preconditioning at 1/8 rated power. LOL.
 
Thanks for the review Amir.

When you consider the cost vs performance ratio for AVRs in general I can't see myself ever buying one again.

If I want multi channel there are plenty of high performing DACs such as the 8 channel Topping DM7 or a minidsp flex 8 (or HT with HDMI), combined with say Buckeye assembled Hypex modules that will do the job very well at much less cost.


 
Thanks for measurements, very interesting as usual :)

Could you please explain the notice "In (-18.3dB)"? Is it dBFS of test signal? I would expect, that full capability of DAC are shown at nearly 0 dBFS input. Probably not much hindering power amp measurement, but still looks weird. Or this is the best condition you could find?

What about DAC test, what was input level? Zone is probably handled by PCM5101, it should be at 90dB SINAD with -1dBFS input.
 
is it acceptable these days to have 'hi feature' devices like this with no full channel pre-outs?

pre-outs would at least give onkyo pioneer an.... "out"

isnt this the 3rd onkyo pioneer device that displays this engineered behavior?
 
People still have old video cameras, retro gaming consoles, and movie players. Why do people think it’s crazy for AVRs to include a converter when Abalog devices are still used today? I had to buy an external converter (RetroTink 5X-Pro $300) to play my retro consoles because my JBL SDP-55 and OLED didn’t have any.
People who still get and enjoy legacy video devices for whatever reasons that suit them understand the legacy video connectors!
That is such a small audience. It offers no functionality for 99% of users. Rather see them scrap it and offer upgrade cards to put in there like seen on more high-end equipment. Besides, your RetroTink will give you MUCH better image quality than this AVR will ever give you.

But like I said, its more likely just that it costs more to remove it and to redesign the rest. These AVRs probably have just been endless revisions of a model they designed 10+ years ago.
 
i kind of feel like these boxes of rapid obsolescence have kind of had their day

like do people out there care too much about 7.2 home theater any more? in a streaming world?
 
A shame its the NR7100 and not the Integra twin DRX3.4 - it would be interesting to seperate the pre-outs from the power outs...

In terms of the "protection mode" - it can be identified easily from the web interface -where the status screen shows whether protection mode is on or not, and the speed setting of the fan (among a plethora of other stuff).

As discussed with other models in the series from Onkyo, Integra and Pioneer - I have yet to see anyone report the protection mode in actual use...

It does not do well with my 4 ohm speakers (with dips down to 1.6ohm) - but once I have the front L/R on an external power amp, it handles center, surrounds and heights without any issue, and with what I find to be excellent sound quality.

In all honesty this series should be rated for 8ohm to 6ohm nominal speakers.

In my own subective tests using my 86db/wm 4 ohm speakers, it never went into protection mode - but it also didn't sound great - midrange/vocals were confused, imaging was poor - but when using the pre-outs into a power amp, all the issues cleared up, and the setup sounded the way it should.
 
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