Home > Consumer Reviews > Onkyo TX-SR803B Home Theater Receiver ( Black )

I was on the market for a budget receiver, but I still wanted it to have many features and HDMI connections was a must for me. This baby has 2 HDMI in and 1 out, wich is just what I needed.
The set up of the speakers is very easy and fast but the connections are not. The manual is kind of confusing. Looks easy the first time you read it but then you realize that you can't follow exactly the instructions. Some times they lead you to make conecctions you've already made with other components.
The remote is too big, but useful.
Once you have solved all the problems connecting you stuff, you noticed you have just what you 've paid for: a great receiver, with a wonderful sound for music and movies. I have it working with 3 KEF speakers (front and central) and 4 sattelite Samsung speakers, wich I am about to change sooner than later. The result is excelent.
All that said, I am completelly satisfied since I was expecting some kind of problems with the always complicated (at least for me) connnections.

Just got the Onkyo TX-SR803B for Christmas to replace (actually) send my older Onkyo SR-727 to the Master Bedroom. Did a lot of research into this unit and as before, though I would have loved to and could afford to buy the next two "upper end" Onkyo units, I did not see a need to spend the extra money. The TX-SR803B does about the same as the other two, but has a few less bells and whistles. I consider myself an experienced audiophile and as I did when I bought the aforementioned SR-727, did not consider the additional few items as needed. Dollar for Dollar, the Onkyo TX-SR803B does everything I need and more. Lastly, regarding the set up of the unit, if the folk purchasing this unit follow the directions closely, it is a snap.

This is a good moderately-priced receiver. I'm really picky about electronics, so this review is for other folks who are also very picky.

Good: lots of power, auto speaker configuration, video switching (with some limitations), ability to map different digital inputs to various video inputs, pure audio mode, intelligent input information

Annoyances: The on-screen display is kind of retro (it's text-based and very simple). Most of the functionality is there, although I'd like to see more bands and a graphical display of the EQ settings. The remote is pretty good, but it needs more macros, and it would be nice if picking a remote mode (DVD, V1, etc) would also automatically switch the video input mode. Important note: there is no on-screen display for HDMI out, and there is no volume display on the component out when a component input is switched in, but the OSD does work with component out. This unit uses relays to switch the surround and surround back channels on and off. There is some kind of timeout on the back channels in which they automatically turn off (click!) when there's no back-channel signal. When a movie you are watching suddenly has a back-channel signal, they turn back on (click!). It's kind of annoying, but the timeout is pretty long (maybe 15 minutes?). Finally, there is no way to update to new HDMI versions or new Audio encodings, but what moderately-priced receiver has that?

Love the receiver. Easy to use and auto speaker set up is great. I did have a problem with the initial set up, but I called Onkyo and they helped me reset the unit (very easy). The HDMI setting wouldn't show the picture until I did the reset. It worked perfectly seconds after doing the reset. Highly recommend this unit.