Home > Consumer Reviews > Onkyo TX-SR705 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black)

The reason to get this receiver over the 605 is the step up to 3 hdmi inputs and THX certification.

The power consumption of this unit is more efficient then the 805 and 605. This unit was built after those 2 other models. This isn't the lonely middle child, it shines on its own.

There is also a slew of issues this receiver does not exhibit that the 805 has problems with (check AVS forums for details)

HDMI video looks great, 7.1 sound great! Price is great! :)

I've had this AV Receiver for 2 weeks now. It plays nicely with my Samsung LNT-4661 LCD TV, Playstation 3, Motorola DCT6412 cable DVR and PC. I have a 7.1 speaker setup (at the moment it's a jumble of brands - Polk RM8000T front, Infinity Alpha 25ES dipole/bipole surround, Acoustic Research AR303 rear surround and Infinity subwoofer).

I think one of the key reasons I chose to go with the SR705 over the SR605 is the fact that it has * 3 * HDMI inputs. It keeps the cabling a little better under control when there's only a single receiver to TV HDMI cable. Also it handles the upconversion of non-HD sources very well with Faroudjia DCDi.

I'd say I'd agree with the complexity of setup, but it's easier than it is on a lot of other AV Receivers. It comes with the Audyssey calibration equipment. I haven't done any fancy audiometry to evaluate the accuracy of the automatic calibration but I'm impressed as a listener.

It has all the power it needs to fill the room with sound, whether it's classical music, rock or movie soundtrack. I'm happy with my decision.

I totally agree with all previous reviews but I want to add one detail that totally boggles my mind. When I setup my outdoor speakers I could not get any sound out of them and tried everything. Until I read the trouble shooting section in the manual that states: NO Sound, Zone 2? ONLY COMPONENTS CONNECTED TO ANALOG INPUTS CAN BE PLAYED IN ZONE 2" so if by chance you want to use your XM/Serius MP3 digital player in multiple zones, you cant! IPOD connected? nope that wont work either. I ended up running RCA cables into the receiver from my MP3 player (weak sauce considering what i just paid for this thing). I just upgraded from an old Yamaha that did this just fine. I am not going to return it because i am pretty much invested in the thing now. If I had to do it over again I would like to have known this up front. I am still in shock...

This is a very solid AV receiver, with great sound, good front panel and remote controls, some nice touches and a couple of less-than-fatal flaws.

Cons
- It "only" connects up to 5 video input sources, even using the AUX input (which might require connectors in front, depending on cable choices). 5 sounds like a lot, but with DVRs, DVD players, games, recorders, AppleTV, etc. they go fast. Already, I could already use another! Of those 5, up to 3 can be HDMI, which is a big plus for this model. The other video sources must use Component (up to 3), S-video or Composite. (There are additional audio-only inputs as well.)
- Zone 2 is actually pretty handy (if you don't use all 7 channels for home theatre, you can re-purpose 2 audio channels - they get a separate input selection and volume control. Great for a remote speaker pair!). But it only supports analog audio. That means digital audio sources (e.g., those with Optical connectors) either won't work in Zone 2, or require additional cabling (using regular RCA-type stereo inputs as well).
- HDMI audio is slow to sync - for example, after resuming from a DVR Pause, video is rolling for 2-3 seconds before audio resumes - you can miss some dialog and have to jump back.
- OnScreen Display (e.g., volume bars and other visual feedback) is handy, but OSD doesn't work with HDMI inputs. (Understandable, since the signal passes through, but disappointing.)
- Setup wasn't completely intuitive, but was quite workable. (It's not rocket science, but it helps to understand the basic concepts in advance.)

Pros
- It really sounds great, and the digital video is flawless. The "Audisy" automatic speaker calibration feature gave a dramatic improvement in sound quality for my listening room.
- I think it's a great value, especially if you need 3 HDMI inputs.
- There are some nice small touches, like the ability to balance the volume levels on different input sources - to avoid a jarring change in volume when switching.

Disclaimers
- I use a Harmony remote ("one ring to rule them all"), so I can't comment much on the Onkyo remote.
- This isn't my first AV Receiver, and I'm somewhat into wires and pliers. "Your mileage may vary."

Conclusion
I really like the performance - sound and video are great, especially for the price. It's a very good product, not perfect but solid, convenient, and very good at what it does.

I went through SR605, SR705 and Yamaha RX-V1800. Both 605 and 705 are the greatest values on the market when HDMI and built-in HD decoders are a value.

HDMI implementation is the best I know of. It works well and support HDMI device control features, absent in other units, including the most expensive ones (although Pioneer Elite would come close, but it is not as flexible as Onkyo: you will get All or None features).

SACD/DSD decoder is weak (processes DSD as 41.4KHz PCM), but most players could convert DSD to PCM at 88.2KHz - it provides a better sound quality (in this case) and audio sounds comparable to DVD-Audio that sounds awesome.

Auto Setup is nice, but auto settings will make mid range more prominent. I like it otherwise, plus my speakers are very flat response (do not need much of EQ), so I disabled EQ settings and cranked Sub +10db. Tone could be used as well (to boost bass a little).

In general the received is very decent, just have a few quirks, but most are addressable. There are some forums dedicated to SR705 - you could get deeper info, hacks and advice. Unit is a little bit hot in the right-back quadrant (so is SR605), I put a 12V 120mm silent fan with thermistor on top of it, it keeps receiver internal fans from running on heavy load and self adjusts based on receiver load(temperature).

It decodes any audio (via HDMIv1.3) I have (BD,HD-DVD,SACD,DVD-Audio). There is some discrepancies between different audio options in the movies, but it is the way audio was mastered. I verified it with Yamaha (observed same thing), so receivers do not color audio. As other folks figured out movie's Uncompressed audio needs +5db boost in LFE to match TrueHD or DD.

Interface is not advanced GUI, but very easy to navigate, I could not say the same about Yamaha - it is very ugly and unintuitive. I do not want to get started on Yamaha and its useless sound fields and DSP messing up the audio to the degree even artists would not recognize his own original work. Apparently, you need to press "Straight" to disable DSP completely, so you can hear what audio should sound like. And finally in "Pure Audio" mode Yamaha will kill the HDMI circuit, that in turn will stop player and as a result you would not get anything... figures...Onkyo does it right and leaves hdmi powered. Some TV now have a power save option to power off LCD panel, but maintain HDMI link, so you could continue to enjoy audio only material and not waste your panel and energy.

I did not experience any LipSync issues from any source. It is possible, some TVs do not negotiate video/audio HDMI link parameters correctly. My Sony 52"W3000 is always in sync from three HDMI players: BD, HD-DVD and DVD.


Keep trying until you find what you like...
Good luck!