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Onkyo TX-RZ50 Review (Home Theater AVR)

Rate this product:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 100 30.6%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 120 36.7%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 69 21.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 38 11.6%

  • Total voters
    327
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.


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.
 
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.


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.
 
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.
 
I'm going to try and recount the EXACT steps I tried and the outcome of each.

  • I get home from the airport, get everyone settled and go change my clothes.
  • I immediately turn the receiver on, and the list of NG error codes has grown. Before I had 2R2L (or the reverse..my brain hurts) and that was it. Now, the whole list takes a while to jump through. Yikes.
  • I tried to factory reset with the CBL + STANDBY method. Nothing. It won't respond at all to anything but turning it off and on. I had bookmarked a post that mentioned sometimes the factory reset procedure won't work and you have to use an alternate procedure. It involves holding down the ENTER button instead of CBL.
  • ENTER + STANDBY (I hope I have this combination correct, please correct me if I don't) works, BUT it goes straight into Amp DIag mode on the display. Up until this point, the words "Amp Diag" was *NOT* appearing on the display, just the error codes.
  • AMG DIAG mode tells me to "CH SPWIRE" or whatever slang it's using to tell me to check the speaker wire.
  • I tried just removing the suspect wires (from the trash can contact) and receiver still tells me to check the wire.
  • At this point, I am done trying to ignore the advice that I've read before....."Unplug EVERYTHING from the back", and I unplug JUST the channels that are powered by the receiver. I figured the channels that are pre out to an external amplifier would be less likely to be a culprit. This doesn't work.
  • I then unplug about 4 or 5 of the externally amplified channels and turn it back on.
  • SUCCESS!!! I run the initial setup and verify I can hear audio from the correct speakers.
  • I connect the remaining channels one at a time and verify correct sound. After doing 2 channels this way I reconnected everything back to the RZ50 just like it was before it imploded. Everything is still working. No diag mode.
  • I fired up Godzilla Minus One and proceeded to shake the house off of its foundation. No diag mode.

So the lesson here is just remove all of the damn cables from the back of the AVR, even if you think you know better.
 
I’ve been considering the RZ50 and Denon 4800H. At accessories4less.com I see the RZ50 at $799 and $999 (both listed as new w/3yr warranty, not sure the difference). Onkyo’s website shows a sale at $999 as well. The 4800H is $1699. Dirac Live is included with the Onkyo but adds $349 to the Denon. Is the version of Dirac that’s included with the RZ50 full bandwidth? I don’t see an upgrade or purchase option on the Dirac site. And at more than double the price, is the Denon worth it? I have no problem paying but if I’ll never realize the benefits then why? I’m running Revel M105, the corresponding center, Goldenear in-ceiling speakers and an SVS SB-1000. My listening for music and movies is casual. My old Marantz is currently powering this setup but the early Audyssey is lacking. Better room correction is the goal.
 
I’ve been considering the RZ50 and Denon 4800H. At accessories4less.com I see the RZ50 at $799 and $999 (both listed as new w/3yr warranty, not sure the difference). Onkyo’s website shows a sale at $999 as well. The 4800H is $1699. Dirac Live is included with the Onkyo but adds $349 to the Denon. Is the version of Dirac that’s included with the RZ50 full bandwidth? I don’t see an upgrade or purchase option on the Dirac site. And at more than double the price, is the Denon worth it? I have no problem paying but if I’ll never realize the benefits then why? I’m running Revel M105, the corresponding center, Goldenear in-ceiling speakers and an SVS SB-1000. My listening for music and movies is casual. My old Marantz is currently powering this setup but the early Audyssey is lacking. Better room correction is the goal.
1) accessories4less has the $999 price for both the "NEW" and "Open Box" RZ50. Guess which one you're getting?
2) Dirac Live Bass Management and DLBC is not available for the RZ50 (unlike on the Denon 3800/4800). Bass management is done in the AVR only!
3) 90% of the 4800's functionality can be found in the 3800 for much less.

My advice: wait for the $999 3800 flash sale and pull the trigger! Then purchase Dirac licenses on Black Friday for 30% off!
 
1) accessories4less has the $999 price for both the "NEW" and "Open Box" RZ50. Guess which one you're getting?
2) Dirac Live Bass Management and DLBC is not available for the RZ50 (unlike on the Denon 3800/4800). Bass management is done in the AVR only!
3) 90% of the 4800's functionality can be found in the 3800 for much less.

My advice: wait for the $999 3800 flash sale and pull the trigger! Then purchase Dirac licenses on Black Friday for 30% off!
I have Dirac Live full range (not limited to bass) on another system. Just don’t want anything that’s frequency limited but you make a good point on future flexibility if I add another sub to the 4800H.
 
I’ve been considering the RZ50 and Denon 4800H. At accessories4less.com I see the RZ50 at $799 and $999 (both listed as new w/3yr warranty, not sure the difference). Onkyo’s website shows a sale at $999 as well. The 4800H is $1699. Dirac Live is included with the Onkyo but adds $349 to the Denon. Is the version of Dirac that’s included with the RZ50 full bandwidth? I don’t see an upgrade or purchase option on the Dirac site. And at more than double the price, is the Denon worth it? I have no problem paying but if I’ll never realize the benefits then why? I’m running Revel M105, the corresponding center, Goldenear in-ceiling speakers and an SVS SB-1000. My listening for music and movies is casual. My old Marantz is currently powering this setup but the early Audyssey is lacking. Better room correction is the goal.

If looking at the RZ50, the equivalent Denon is the X3800....
If your budget stretches to the X4800, you perhaps should consider the RZ70 as well...

The Onkyo's come with full frequency range Dirac, but only the RZ70 (and LX805 / DRX 8.4), have the ability to optionally add DLBC and run dual subs.

The Denon's have 4 sub capabilities... so if that is in the near future plan, the additional cost of the Denon's+DLBC for multisub is probably worthwhile.

If the plan is single sub, then the RZ50 is a great deal, especially with its built in Dirac licence, and if dual sub, then the RZ70 is certainly the value/performance leader in the market at the moment. (and with the RZ70, even with hard to drive speakers, you are highly unlikely to need external amps... it's a beast)
 
Pioneer LX805 seems to be the direct equivalent, but have more features like XLR in/out. Price looks better too, at least in my region.
That's why I mentioned all 3 siblings - depending on where you are and what discounts are going, one or the other may be cheaper!
 
If looking at the RZ50, the equivalent Denon is the X3800....
If your budget stretches to the X4800, you perhaps should consider the RZ70 as well...

The Onkyo's come with full frequency range Dirac, but only the RZ70 (and LX805 / DRX 8.4), have the ability to optionally add DLBC and run dual subs.

The Denon's have 4 sub capabilities... so if that is in the near future plan, the additional cost of the Denon's+DLBC for multisub is probably worthwhile.

If the plan is single sub, then the RZ50 is a great deal, especially with its built in Dirac licence, and if dual sub, then the RZ70 is certainly the value/performance leader in the market at the moment. (and with the RZ70, even with hard to drive speakers, you are highly unlikely to need external amps... it's a beast)
When you consider the RZ70 includes full bandwidth Dirac, it really makes a good value alternative to the 4800H. The RZ70 is available for $1899 at accessories4less.
 
Just ordered the RZ50 direct from Onkyo. On sale for $999. Prices went up from retailers yesterday so I decided to get freshest stock possible. Key was realizing that the included Dirac is full bandwidth.
 
Just ordered the RZ50 direct from Onkyo. On sale for $999. Prices went up from retailers yesterday so I decided to get freshest stock possible. Key was realizing that the included Dirac is full bandwidth.
As long as you know that you can only do bass management in the RZ50 and not w/Dirac, then you're fine!
 
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