Home > Consumer Reviews > Onkyo A-9555 Integrated Digital Stereo Amplifier (Black)

I replaced my old Yamaha receiver with this Onkyo amp, and also got the related tuner and single-disk cd player. I used them with my old speakers while my new ones (Aperion) were arriving, and my reaction was "Wow!" All of a sudden the sound was bigger, clearer, and brighter.

If you're looking for a stereo amp in the $5-900 price range, and care about sound, you won't regret buying this component. It's all it promises to be.

My old separates amp died (again) so it was time to upgrade. I was using the NAD 1600 preamp with the NAD 2400 THX for 17 years. Also using Klipsch KD-5.5 speakers and a Paradigm PDR-12 subwoofer.

The sound using the Onkyo A-9555 is a giant improvement over the NAD separates in most reagards. The sound detail is lush especially in the midrange frequencies. I was surprised to hear how well I could pick out individual tracks in a dense rock mix that otherwise seem to wash out. The clarity is great for hearing subtle EQ and compression effects in the mix. The treble is a bit bright depending upon your hearing and taste for crash cymbol at high SPL with very slight distotion. Treble perfect for classical music. This issue with treble may be an artifacte of some rock mixes being pushed too close to digital over. It sounds stellar! I hope it's rugged - I can't comment on that. A strong buy in this price range in my opinion.

Strengths: Detail, clarity, beautiful midrange, smooth remote volume control. Beautiful build and finish.

Weaknesses: treble can be a bit brittle at high SPL for crash cymbol; remote only controls Onkyo brand CD players via RI link. NAD separates had smoother sound.

One thing I wish it had: RCA plug for subwoofer (must run A+B outs with sub).

When my denon system died after over 25 years of service, I sadly discovered that good two channel systems for under $1,000 had almost completely disappeared. Then I found this Onkyo. Owning it for over a year now, I am continually and more deeply impressed every day with its quality and performance. When I purchased a pair of $1,500 B&W 3 way speakers, the speaker retailer cautioned me that this Onkyo might not be powerful enough for the speakers. Never had a problem. The Onkyo dekivers more than enough power evenly and easily "powers up" to the speakers' capabilties. This amp will reward you over and over again. If you are serious music lover, you can't go wrong here,

If you are a music lover and/or an audiophile on a budget, this is a great little integrated amp for you. It is well built and good looking, it has most of the features people really want or need, it sounds great and it is a raging bargain! That's a pretty tough combination to beat. Oh, I could complain that it doesn't have remote tone controls, but those are very hard to come by in any two-channel audio product that aspires to audiophile credibility.

My only kick so far, is that my high-efficiency horn speakers do reveal some unwelcome switching noise from the input selector and also a mild turn-on pop. Otherwise it is quiet in operation. And to be fair, if your loudspeaker's sensitivity are in the average range (87-92dB), you'll probably never hear what I'm talking about.

Another caveat to be aware of: There are no pre outs / main ins, so you can't add an external power amp or any kind of processor (EQ, etc.). What you see is what you get!

Sound quality though, in my opinion, is superb . Maybe not the last word in bass control, but otherwise excellent...very quiet, with airy highs and lightning-fast response. The power rating is conservative, and dynamic power is excellent. It is also quite capable of driving 4 Ohm speakers; something most affordable receivers can't do well these days.

All in all, I would strongly recommend this amp for it's solid performance, good feature set and very good build quality.

I bought this amp from Amazon to replace a vintage Sansui AU717 that was purchased in the late 1970's. The Sansui was amazing, but lacked a remote control. I paired the Onkyo A-9555 with M&K bookshelf speakers and an Onkyo DX-7555 CD player. The Onkyo sound is truely incredible and the details of the music are beyond my expectations. I waited much too long to upgrade the old Sansui, but I am glad I waited to purchase the Onkyo A-9555. The build quality is excellent, the features are complete. If I could knock anything, it would be the cheap appearance of the remote control (however, it works well and supports all the features of the amp).