Which is better quality Yamaha or the more expensice Onkyo receivers?
wellthmaker
Unregistered guest
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Which is better quality Yamaha or the more expensice Onkyo receivers?
I am lookig at the Yam HTR 5860 or 5890 and the Onkyo Tx SR 702a cabinet with high quality midrange and tweeters so I need real power. My ear is not so sophisticated that I need NAD or HKand I like the features on the rice burners more anyway. I was just surprised to see Yamaha price so low and wondered if they dropped their quality.
I have always been happy with Onkyo receivers you just have to over buy them, get more watts; but the surround sound just went out on mine. Only works on bypass now, So Im looking.
If you want to go with a big box store HTR then also try out a Denon as they usually put out more umph then the two listed. Onkyo and Yami seem to inflate numbers a bit(as do many out there). Pioneer may also provide another alternative. My current HTR is a Pioneer and for the money I found it to be the best pick from my price point 5 years ago. For home theater it was the best bang for the buck in 2000.
This is all in total opinion but my current choice at your price point is different then mine was 5 years ago. So of HTR's found at the local CC and BB at this price point would be in this order. 1. HK 2. Denon 3. Pioneer 4. Yamaha 5. Onkyo
The Onkyo 901 when tested only could produce a total of 50 WPC which is the bare minimum for some loudspeakers out there. Not enough umph for the $$$. HK is not to be considered as in your post so try out the Denon. If you can get a good deal on a 3805 then go with that one as it has plenty of power to drive anything.
In support of Yamaha though. They make a great piano for the money!
I think that is a great summary of big box store receivers. Yamaha makes good sounding receivers at their upper end but they are still shy of their advertised power. Both Pioneer and Yamaha are still great innovators and have products in their ranges that are very good.
What is sad to me is that I really used to like Onkyo back in the 80's. To me they were just the best thing to come out of Japan but something happened somewhere and that "Onkyo sound" that used to be NAD on the cheap was lost. Ahhh I digress.....
What did happen to Onkyo over the years? A friend of mine has a 15 year old or so receiver (I think it was their professional series) that sounds better than most of the stuff available today. He was thinking about upgrading - 'for some stupid reason' as he said - and the stuff they have today is garbage compared to what they used to make. Have they been bought out by another company or something?
It has allot to do with quality parts but the Onkyo I had the pleasure of owning fell victim to a direct hit lightning strike. The power strip that was in place to protect it did not hold up. Weird thing is that my horrible TV that was also on the strip was not hurt at all. It actually had a "better" picture from that date forth. It melted the top plastic of the TV and for some unknown reason it had a better picture. Really weird stuff. (The TV died about a year after the stike) That warranty took about a year to get anything for the destroyed stereo and when I did I just put it towards the Pioneer. Needless to say when going from the Onkyo to the Pioneer I could immediatly tell a difference in performance in my home and was let down a bit. I don't know what happened to them but a change did happen in the 90's of some sort and since then you could get the same Onkyo quality from the Integra line. Now from folks on this site Integra is basically another front for Onkyo and the "guts" of each unit are exactly the same. Oh well. Maybe Onkyo will be great again one day. But right now they are riding on their good name to sell the units that they do.