Onkyo TX-RZ50 Review (Home Theater AVR)

[MbphotoX]

what do you mean "was way louder"?!?

Did you run the Onkyo at max volume and it couldn't go any louder?

 

[jonfitch]

The main heat issue on the AVR's over the last 15 years has been DSP and HDMI (video) chipsets.

The current Onkyo's have mini fans and heatsinks on the video and DSP chipsets, and the main fan on the power heatsinks.

Previous generations needed external fans to assist with cooling HDMI/DSP - which on most models didn't even have heatsinks

The internal main fan (on power amp heatsink) appears to activate at around 36 or 37 degrees C - which is just fine (I have never seen the heatsink get warm enough to move the fan above its lowest setting)

Given there is sufficient air space around the AVR, I doubt external fans will have any impact on the current generation.

What I find interesting is Yamaha has stuck to their guns with a fully passive approach even up to their flagship products, and I haven't heard anything about elevated failure rates on Yamaha receivers.

I wonder if this is kind of like when AMD X570 motherboards first debuted with chipset fans and everyone was saying its because of the extra heat generated so it has to have active cooling. But years later as production costs came down the motherboards all went fully passive because margins increased and manufacturers opted for installing larger heatsinks and the narrative of "active cooling was necessary" completely went away.

I suspect fully passive cooling is completely possible and not even much more expensive, it's just manufacturers are pinching pennies for profits. And since active cooling is an additional failure point because fans can and will fail, it's simply a short-term profit trade-off.

 

[dlaloum]

What I find interesting is Yamaha has stuck to their guns with a fully passive approach even up to their flagship products, and I haven't heard anything about elevated failure rates on Yamaha receivers.

I wonder if this is kind of like when AMD X570 motherboards first debuted with chipset fans and everyone was saying its because of the extra heat generated so it has to have active cooling. But years later as production costs came down the motherboards all went fully passive because margins increased and manufacturers opted for installing larger heatsinks and the narrative of "active cooling was necessary" completely went away.

I suspect fully passive cooling is completely possible and not even much more expensive, it's just manufacturers are pinching pennies for profits. And since active cooling is an additional failure point because fans can and will fail, it's simply a short-term profit trade-off.

I agree that passive cooling solutions are both possible and optimal.

But it requires different engineering, and the layout differences and additional metal involved in heatsinks and heatpipes, is likely a more expensive solution than active cooling.

The performance levels are now incredibly high at pricepoints that would once have been unheard of - in inflation adjusted terms, today's AV Receiver provides truly astounding value for performance, but to achieve that, we have given up on some of the engineering needed for long term reliability.

In any case, the current generation run very cool indeed... even under load, my Integra DRX3.4 is barely warm to the touch - and that bodes well for the long term.

 

[SlaughterX]

So this is a really weird issue... but it has happened twice with my unit so far and it really annoying. While fast forwarding a blu-ray at 120x on my PS5... the audio on my RZ50 stops working completely! Even after a factory reset. This happened once before and I had to take it to Chicago to get it repaired, but for the exact same thing to happen twice while simply fast forwarding a movie... how the hell is this even possible?

Happened the first time while watching Lost and last night while watching Shogun.

Just updated my firmware after the factory reset and everything is working again. Really scared me for a moment because I don't want to be beothered with sending it in again.

 

[vivid]

.....

After switching off with remote, try to unplug power cable from AVR /or power socket/ for a few seconds.

 

[SlaughterX]

Already fixed... but last time it happened that didn't work and I had to send it in. I should call them and ask exactly what needed to be repaired. I didn't worry about it because it was covered under warranty but, now I would like to know!

 

[SDMatt]

I thought my Onkyo TX-RZ50 crapped out last night. I turned it on and got a message that said, "AMP Diag Mode" before it immediately shut off. I unplugged it and waited a few before trying again and the same thing happened. The manual says it may be overheating but my receiver is in an open area where its always been and never an issue. This afternoon I did a factory reset and that got it running again. All my calibrations were erased and I had to reconfigure my input settings. Strangely enough my crossovers and speaker levels were the same as before and the firmware number was also the same. So I re-ran Dirac and double checked my speaker levels afterwards. Everything sounds great. Watching the Batmobile haul ass after the Penguin in The Batman movie is one of my go-to demos. Bumped up the bass a bit and I was back in heaven. Hopefully that was a one off event and not a sign of things to come. If anyone has this issue the factory reset works but you gotta set everything up again. Enjoy!

 

[anphex]

I thought my Onkyo TX-RZ50 crapped out last night. I turned it on and got a message that said, "AMP Diag Mode" before it immediately shut off. I unplugged it and waited a few before trying again and the same thing happened. The manual says it may be overheating but my receiver is in an open area where its always been and never an issue. This afternoon I did a factory reset and that got it running again. All my calibrations were erased and I had to reconfigure my input settings. Strangely enough my crossovers and speaker levels were the same as before and the firmware number was also the same. So I re-ran Dirac and double checked my speaker levels afterwards. Everything sounds great. Watching the Batmobile haul ass after the Penguin in The Batman movie is one of my go-to demos. Bumped up the bass a bit and I was back in heaven. Hopefully that was a one off event and not a sign of things to come. If anyone has this issue the factory reset works but you gotta set everything up again. Enjoy!

Maybe extremely high, persistent air humidity in the last days in your area? Some solders and connections dislike that a lot.

 

[Dougey_Jones]

To be completely honest, I got rid of my RZ50 because it was overheating in my media cabinet. Onkyo has a long history of using cheap capacitors on their HDMI switching boards and the RZ50 is no different. They could easily use caps with higher heat tolerance, but for some reason they just fucking refuse.

I personally took apart an Integra DTR-30.6 and recapped the HDMI board and it was bulletproof from there on out, but was not willing to perform surgery on a brand new RZ50, so I sold it and got a Denon x3700.

No regrets.

 

[dlaloum]

To be completely honest, I got rid of my RZ50 because it was overheating in my media cabinet. Onkyo has a long history of using cheap capacitors on their HDMI switching boards and the RZ50 is no different. They could easily use caps with higher heat tolerance, but for some reason they just fucking refuse.

I personally took apart an Integra DTR-30.6 and recapped the HDMI board and it was bulletproof from there on out, but was not willing to perform surgery on a brand new RZ50, so I sold it and got a Denon x3700.

No regrets.

My integra 3.4 (which should have a HDMI board well nigh identical to the RZ50) - runs very very cool - cooler than any other AVR's I've seen in the last 20 years!

I wonder whether certain HDMI signals and settings run hotter than others?

 

[Agapetos]

My integra 3.4 (which should have a HDMI board well nigh identical to the RZ50) - runs very very cool - cooler than any other AVR's I've seen in the last 20 years!

I wonder whether certain HDMI signals and settings run hotter than others?

I got rid of my rz50 for other reasons, but for the 6 months I had it, it ran really cool no matter how hard I pushed it....that's in a cabinet as well.

The arcam is a different story, and according to my meter, the heat is by far from the HDMI chipset, although it's not pushing temps that is of any concern.

 

[uh2]

I thought my Onkyo TX-RZ50 crapped out last night. I turned it on and got a message that said, "AMP Diag Mode" before it immediately shut off. I unplugged it and waited a few before trying again and the same thing happened. The manual says it may be overheating but my receiver is in an open area where its always been and never an issue. This afternoon I did a factory reset and that got it running again. All my calibrations were erased and I had to reconfigure my input settings. Strangely enough my crossovers and speaker levels were the same as before and the firmware number was also the same. So I re-ran Dirac and double checked my speaker levels afterwards. Everything sounds great. Watching the Batmobile haul ass after the Penguin in The Batman movie is one of my go-to demos. Bumped up the bass a bit and I was back in heaven. Hopefully that was a one off event and not a sign of things to come. If anyone has this issue the factory reset works but you gotta set everything up again. Enjoy!

This has just happened to me a few days ago. My setup is 7.1.4 with KEF speakers all around. The AVR has plenty of air and I wasn't driving it hard..hell I wasn't really even driving it. I was watching something at barely audible levels and I got the Amp Diag warning. I tried the reset procedure on the front panel about 6 times and nothing worked. I rechecked all my wires....they were all fine and the hardware hasn't been touched in 2+ years that I've owned it. I finally got the AVR to reset and of course lost all my settings. What I noticed though was when you go through the speaker audio check during the initial setup (not in Dirac or the speaker level settings, this is just an audio test to make sure all the channels are working). I noticed one channel was audibly lower than the others. I went behind the receiver and checked the wires. They were fine. I power cycled the AVR and got it working again and the audio level of that channel was back to normal. BTW the suspect channel is being driven by the AVR. I have most of the channel being driven by an external McIntosh amp.

I *thought* I had worked whatever it was out, but then I started to watch Godzilla Minus One at "shake the room" levels and as soon as the audio got loud, the receiver shut down. I almost threw it out the window.

It had given me the Amp Diag warning many months ago before this latest round. I have a second RZ50 in another room but I'm only using it in 3.1. That one has not given me any problems but I don't drive it at movie levels at all.

I found a service center about 2 hours drive away, and I still have a few months of warranty left. I think I'll drop it off (I don't want to deal with shipping it) and probably get rid of it afterwards. I love Dirac Live and the feature that it gave me at the price range, but having it die on me days before a family reunion and the night before I had to fly across the country for 10 days...well...I'm just taking it personal at this point.

/rant over

 

[SorenTyson]

I wonder if what you guys are experiencing is the safety shutdown that Amir found in testing?

 

[uh2]

I wonder if what you guys are experiencing is the safety shutdown that Amir found in testing?

I've lightly followed Amir's discovery. I'm not sure if this is the same thing or not. The thing is, it's been *almost* working flawlessly for 2+ years and trust me, I've pushed it when trying to demo certain scenes. And now "something" has changed and I'm positive it's not the wires and the speakers haven't been touched at all. I don't know..it's more frustrating for me now because it decided to act up right before I had to leave the state for 10 days so I only had less than 48 hours to troubleshoot. I am absolutely positive that the AVR was not overheating and it has PLENTY of airflow in an in-wall cabinet.

As I'm sitting here fuming about this, IF I had more time on my hands it would make sense to try and swap the receivers temporarily and see if the problem continues. Unfortunately when I get back into town, my whole family will be flying in at the same time and the working receiver is the main TV upstairs that everyone will be watching for the most part. I won't have any time to make the swap and even if I did and the problem followed the receiver, I now have a defective receiver that will most likely compromise everyone's TV watching and music listening. I think what I'll do is move the working RZ50 downstairs to replace the other one and then just get a different receiver for the main room. The RZ50 is absolute overkill for upstairs. I didn't even bother setting up Dirac because it wasn't worth the effort. I mainly wanted to have the same experience between the two AVRs (remote, GUI, setup, etc).

First world problems...I know.


EDIT: I went back an re-read those posts and the power protection Amir is talking about seems to be a reduction in power output. What I'm experiencing is an Amp Diag error and it loops through diagnostic tests when you power cycle it. The only way to stop it is to factory reset it, and sometimes the factory reset doesn't work.

 

[SDMatt]

This has just happened to me a few days ago. My setup is 7.1.4 with KEF speakers all around. The AVR has plenty of air and I wasn't driving it hard..hell I wasn't really even driving it. I was watching something at barely audible levels and I got the Amp Diag warning. I tried the reset procedure on the front panel about 6 times and nothing worked. I rechecked all my wires....they were all fine and the hardware hasn't been touched in 2+ years that I've owned it. I finally got the AVR to reset and of course lost all my settings. What I noticed though was when you go through the speaker audio check during the initial setup (not in Dirac or the speaker level settings, this is just an audio test to make sure all the channels are working). I noticed one channel was audibly lower than the others. I went behind the receiver and checked the wires. They were fine. I power cycled the AVR and got it working again and the audio level of that channel was back to normal. BTW the suspect channel is being driven by the AVR. I have most of the channel being driven by an external McIntosh amp.

I *thought* I had worked whatever it was out, but then I started to watch Godzilla Minus One at "shake the room" levels and as soon as the audio got loud, the receiver shut down. I almost threw it out the window.

It had given me the Amp Diag warning many months ago before this latest round. I have a second RZ50 in another room but I'm only using it in 3.1. That one has not given me any problems but I don't drive it at movie levels at all.

I found a service center about 2 hours drive away, and I still have a few months of warranty left. I think I'll drop it off (I don't want to deal with shipping it) and probably get rid of it afterwards. I love Dirac Live and the feature that it gave me at the price range, but having it die on me days before a family reunion and the night before I had to fly across the country for 10 days...well...I'm just taking it personal at this point.

/rant over

I hear you man, frustrating. I have owned my Onkyo TX-RZ50 exactly 2 and a half years and never experienced anything even remotely like this. I am running a D-Sonic external power amp for all my speakers. So the Onkyo really isn't carrying any of the load all the hard work is done by the external power amp. Now that you mention it I need to research my warranty haha.

 

[uh2]

UPDATE

Ok so this may be the Onkyo actually trying to do its job. I've been sitting here stewing about this...and I reached out to my son who is still at the house and asked him to take a picture of where the speaker wiring connects to the wall plate. I had a hunch...and sure as shit..we have a wet bar down there and theres an aluminum (?) garbage can right in front of the wall plate. I asked him to send me a picture without moving the can...and sure as shit, the can is pressed up against both banana plugs. Someone apparently pushed it against the wall as far as it would go, and it's normally not there.

I have another 9 days before I go back home but I'm feeling better about not having to toss the receiver in the pool.

I'll update the thread when I get back home and get the AVR up and running again.

 

[uh2]

Update:
I had my son test it...it still goes into amp diag mode.

 

[GXAlan]

Update:
I had my son test it...it still goes into amp diag mode.

Does it go into amp diag mode consistently? Maybe it had a short, and then needs to be reset before it gets out of that mode.

How to Reset Onkyo Protect Mode | Techwalla

The Onkyo protection circuit is activated when the sensor in the receiver detects excessive heat or voltage irregularities. Using speakers with the incorrect impedance and running the receiver at excessive volumes for a prolonged period will trigger the protection circuit.

www.techwalla.com

This is what I found in a Google search, and cannot vouch for it, but step 3 is interesting if that is needed to trigger some sort of counter to reset.

 

[uh2]

Does it go into amp diag mode consistently? Maybe it had a short, and then needs to be reset before it gets out of that mode.

How to Reset Onkyo Protect Mode | Techwalla

The Onkyo protection circuit is activated when the sensor in the receiver detects excessive heat or voltage irregularities. Using speakers with the incorrect impedance and running the receiver at excessive volumes for a prolonged period will trigger the protection circuit.

www.techwalla.com

This is what I found in a Google search, and cannot vouch for it, but step 3 is interesting if that is needed to trigger some sort of counter to reset.

I'm not sure that applies in my situation. My standby light doesn't blink. The AVR just shuts down totally.

He was able to factory reset it and get back to what appeared to be a normal state of being, but as soon as he tried to play any audio (vs just sitting at a menu) it went into the Amp diag mode again.

I'll most likely cut my losses on this. I'll send it to the service center and plan on moving on to a different brand.

 

[uh2]

UPDATE: I FLEW BACK HOME TODAY AND FIXED IT!!!

I'm collecting my thoughts on the exact steps i followed. I'll update this thread in about 10 minutes after I type everything in.