- 100 Watts per Channel at 8 Ohms, 20 Hz-20 kHz, 0.08%, 2 Channels Driven, FTC
- HDMI (Version 1.4a to Support 3D and Audio Return Channel
- HDMI Video Upscaling to 1080p with Faroudja DCDi Cinema
- Audyssey DSX and Dolby Pro Logic IIz for New Surround Channels
- Powered Zone 2 and Zone 2 Line-Out for Playback of Separate Source in Another Room
I want to start off by saying that i'm no audiophile and that i don't have super fantastic speakers so this review won't be commenting on the nuances of sound quality of this receiver. But lets face it, if you are only spending $350.00 on a receiver, you are looking for a good receiver, not one that is going to blow you out of the water. That being said...
The Onkyo was delivered in one day (thanks Amazon Prime) and came well packaged. There was a serious dent in one side of the box, but nothing was harmed inside. The receiver is quite heavy (which i hope indicates decent internals). Set up was VERY easy. The 5 HDMI ports on the rear (plus one on the front) are, of course, the easiest to hook equipment up to. The speaker terminals are clearly indicated and there are two subwoofer pre-outs. Additionally, if you don't want to run a true 7.1 set-up, you can run either an extra pair of fronts or bi-wire your front speakers (if you have that option). This was unexpected at this price point.
I have the following hooked up to the receiver. Sony PS3 slim, Xbox 360 (1st generation / component + toslink cables), WD TV (media player), and a comcast (motorala brand) cable box. Everything, other than the xbox 360, is hooked up via HDMI. The optical and coaxial audio inputs are assignable (once you get into the systems menu which is on-screen). I have everything running via a single 35 foot hdmi cable to my ceiling mounted Epson 8100 projector (which is a 1080p 3-lcd unit). I use a harmony remote, so i can't comment too much on the included onkyo one, but i did use it for setting up the receiver and it's fairly comfortable to hold and seems to have a complete set of function buttons on it.
Just a few random notes:
the display on the receiver is very bright, but the remote has a dimmer button on it which can dim the display until it is almost off.
the microphone set-up was VERY easy. Just place it in 3 locations and hit a few buttons. It does the rest of the calibration for you.
the sound (even through my old sony speakers) is better than what my old sony and denon receivers could produce.
hdmi pass-through is available, as is on board up-scaling and analog to digital up-converting to 1080p out via HDMI (a very nice feature at this price point)
Keep in mind that I'm no expert, but i have set up a number of systems (from cheap home-theaters-in-a-box up to $50,000 custom home theater rooms) and this product really impresses me on its feature set as well as its ease of set up. If anyone has any questions, please don't hesitate to ask via amazon.
Buy Onkyo HT-RC260 7.2-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) Now
I've had the past couple of days to enjoy my new receiver. It's what anyone would expect from an Onkyo. One item to note regarding the price is that the msrp is actually 499 and not 549, so that decreases the overall savings. The price of 349 is still great for what you are getting. The RC260 is essentially a slightly stripped down version of the SR608 offering from Onkyo. It lacks three items, the VGA 15-pin input, Sirius input and THX Select2 certification. For those that don't require those three features, you can save some money by opting for the RC260.
Unfortunately this unit because it's based off the SR608, it also has the 1080p video degradation because of the video processor that is built into the unit. This is used to perform up-conversion of your non 1080p sources. You can turn it off if you choose to, but you would lose the on screen display which is very useful. However, you can still configure everything through the one line display on the unit itself.
There are a total of 6 HDMI inputs, so there are plenty and I don't know if I will ever be able to consume them all. It helps to have it when you need it though.
It's audio/video processing options galore.
Read Best Reviews of Onkyo HT-RC260 7.2-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) Here
The world of home theater has come a long way in the last few years. It wasn't too long ago that $350 would get you only a bare-bones receiver. Now it will get you a unit that will cover most needs of a medium-sized setup.
Your basic 5.1 is easily covered, as long as you have a powered subwoofer. After that, there are two additional channels that may be put to work either as additional surrounds (your typical 7.1 configuration) or as height channels (new, but gaining popularity). You can actually even have both: additional surrounds AND height, but you'll have to come up with another two channels of amplification for that. All popular decoders are covered--the many flavors of Dolby and DTS--as well as a few additional modes that are unique to Onkyo. These decoders are implemented well.
I was also impressed with the 6 HDMI 1.4a inputs. Onkyo is ahead of the curve on this, since most devices out there still are only 1.3. The RC260 supports these older implementations well and provides support for 3D and for the interesting Audio Return Channel when it becomes more widely supported. The inputs are all easily nameable for what you really have connected. One important feature is that each input is configurable. If the incoming audio is DTS, for example, the receiver will support it by default. But in many cases, it may be only stereo. What does it do then? You can select the default decoder for that case, for each input individually. So perhaps you'll set your cable input to use Prologic Theater, and your CD input to a music mode. At the same time, you can elect to pass the video through unaffected, or to apply sharpening or upconversion. This is a very nice feature.
Room calibration is an important feature that's not always understood by the innocent consumer. Real rooms have all sorts of problems. The placement of your seat, the relation between speakers and walls, and the size and shape of the room can make a good system sound bad. A good receiver will have a way of compensating for this by measuring the room and the applying EQ (fancy term for tone controls) that corrects the problem. Onkyo has done a very good job with this. Simply place the provided microphone right about where your head would be and then plug it in to the front of the unit. The onscreen display will automatically walk you through the process. It only takes a few minutes, and the difference in sound is really striking. I've dealt with this process with many different pieces of equipment, and I think Onkyo does as good a job of making it simple as can be done.
The remote is a fairly typical programmable remote. You can provide codes (Onkyo walks you through suggested codes) to control most of the other devices in your system. As you might expect this sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. It controls my Toshiba HD-DVD (yes, I actually have one) perfectly well, but is a few buttons short of controlling my satellite box. On the other hand, I was able to program my DirectTV remote to control the mute and volume of the Onkyo, so most of my bases are covered. Be prepared to spend an evening with a lapful of remotes, seeing what you can do.
The manual is fair, but not outstanding. There are a lot of undefined terms that only have meaning to experienced audio/video people. And there are others that even I--with decades in the field--scratch my head over. This raises an important issue. It's easy to find complaints about the complexity of a unit like this. That's true--there are features in here that were only recently restricted to professionally-installed systems. Any person who's not confident about their knowledge would be advised to get schooled. There must be "Home Theater for Dummies" or something like it. Once you understand how this unit works, you will be quite happy with it. A few nights of setting it up, and it will easily support whatever you throw at it.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: There appears to be a flaw in this product. After a few weeks of operation, the 5 HDMI inputs on the rear of the unit failed suddenly. The only video signal coming out was a blue screen. The auxiliary HDMI on the front continued to work. Amazon replaced the unit. After a couple of months, this second unit has just failed in the same way. It's clear there's some sort of problem--either a bad lot of parts or a design flaw. I'll report back to this review when and if I get an answer directly from Onkyo. I really like the sound and functionality of the unit, but I'm afraid that I must knock off a few stars until there's a satisfactory resolution.
CLOSURE: After another couple of months, the HDMI board failed completely. It was replaced under warranty, and has performed quite well since that time. It appears that there was either a faulty lot of boards or the design has been corrected. I'm happy with the warranty service and I'm happy with the receiver.
Want Onkyo HT-RC260 7.2-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) Discount?
I was pleased to get a chance to review this product as I already have an Onkyo receiver to compare this to.
My other receiver is a Onkyo TX-SR705. I paid significantly more for it. When I look down the amplifier spec sheets they look almost identical. To look at the units they look almost identical with the 260 being 2 inches shallower. To me connectivity is now more about HDMI with the others being secondary. The 705 has 3 rear HDMI 1.3 inputs and 1 output and this was limiting me. The 260 has 5 rear and 1 front HDMI 1.4a inputs and 1 output which allows me to hook up everything I want at this time with 1 extra rear port. I have a PS3, XBOX360, PC, and Scientific Atlanta HD3800 cable box connected to the rear HDMI ports. The front HDMI input is really convenient allowing my wife to quickly connect her Kodak Playsport and play or review videos before messing with them on her PC. As far as the other ports the 260 has one less coax digital and component inputs, lacks the multi-channel inputs and surround pre-outs, and is totally missing any S-Video or phono connections. None of those missing ports are a problem for me.
I run my system with a 5.1 speaker setup from Aperion Audio. Hooking everything up was a snap. I use banana plugs on my speaker wire so it was literally plug and play to replace my old receiver. Once everything was connected I turned the system on and made sure it seemed to be working. I turned it onto a TV channel with DD sound and let it run for a few hours without adjusting anything. Once I was satisfied that it seemed to be working properly I connected the Audyssey mic and ran the setup. The mic setup was painless using 3 test points and was over quickly. My 705 has Audyssey MultiEQ XT and it took forever to run through the complete setup so I was happy with the quicker setup but wondered how it would sound because it used fewer test points. Well I don't consider myself an audiophile but I can hear the difference in a DD vs DTS vs the new HD audio codecs and to me this new receiver sounds better than my slightly older and more expensive unit. I think dialog from the center and the sub sounds better on the new unit. I would recommend that you do the quick and dirty setup like I did with the mic and then spend some time and sit down with the manual and see if there is anything you want to change. Sitting there with the book to guide you through the menus will help you understand the settings and what your options are.
As far as the whole video processing thing goes I don't see a degradation like some people say they see. I am using a Sony Bravia 60hz LCD TV with the receiver and I haven't noticed anything so far in the few weeks that I have been using the unit. Maybe 120Hz and up TV users experience it and 60Hz doesn't; I'm not sure but it looks OK to me and I haven't noticed anything strange. I set all the game consoles to through with game mode enabled and the cable box to custom which I think was the default.
The remote is OK you just have to keep in mind that this is considered an entry level unit so taking that into account it is pretty good. It runs my TV and cable box lacking only a button or two. Setup was really easy, they actually put the codes in the receiver and tell you how to program it through the receivers on screen display, I thought that was pretty cool. It only uses codes and does not learn like the remote with my 705 does. It also lacks button illumination like the 705 remote had but I never used that anyway. I like the direction pad on the 260 remote over the joystick on the 705 remote.
One thing that I wish was improved with both units is some way to easily upgrade the firmware. With things as complicated as these are sometimes problems get through and sometimes they could be corrected with a firmware update. This receiver lacks a USB port that could be used to easily upgrade the firmware. I am not sure if upgrading the firmware is possible with this unit but with the 705 I had there was a problem with certain DTS HD audio tracks. You could get a firmware updatee by sending or taking the unit to an authorized dealer. I don't have any of those around here so I got the firmware from a forum and had to burn it to a audio cd and set my PS3 to play it a certain way to a certain optical port after pressing certain buttons on the receiver and then hoping it worked. Well it worked but it was pretty crazy making it all happen. It could have all been avoided with a simple USB port and updates released via the Onkyo website.
Overall I think that this is a great unit for the price and am impressed with how they have moved features and improvements down the line.
This is my third receiver in 5 years. My previous two were Yamaha receivers, one at about this price point and one about $200 more. They will be my basis for comparison.
PROS
The HUGE selling point to me on this receiver is the number of HDMI inputs and all of them are assignable through an on screen interface (as are the other inputs). My 50" Sony 1080p TV only had two HDMI inputs and I was having to use component input + optical audio for one of my devices. Moving to this receiver now allows all of them to go through HDMI to the receiver and then a single HDMI to the TV, leaving one HDMI open on the TV. This also helped to clean up my mess of cables.
I think the overall sound quality is very good from this device. I have been very happy with the sound quality.
The device is very slick looking. It is smaller than my Yamahas. It is also reasonably easy to use for everyday use once setup.
I don't have a 3D TV, but apparently it requires the newer HDMI version which this receiver CAN handle.
CONS
The real downside I've had with the device is that it has taken me quite a bit of tinkering to take care of a few issues. This may be somewhat to be expected for a device with so many options, but it is the things that I've had to mess with that bother me:
I don't know what I need to do to change it, but right now whenever the sound input type (Dolby Digital vs Dolby Stereo, etc) changes the receiver does a small clicking and the sound goes silent for a tiny little instant (maybe half a second). It happens sometimes as I change channels and often happens if the show I'm watching goes to commercial and then again when it comes back from commercial. My Yamahas did this when I changed input selection (switch from cable box to Blu Ray), but they didn't do it as often as this device.
The video quality got worse when going through the device. I had to figure out how to disable video processing and just let the signal pass through, because although this device has upconversion built-in, I saw a noticeable degradation in picture quality than when going straight from my devices to the TV. I'll assume this is due to my TV having a much better video signal processor than the A/V receiver. At any rate, you have to hold the VCR button and press the return button (both on the front of the receiver) a few times to toggle it off. Even now, I sometimes feel like things don't look as good as they used to when I had HDMI going straight to the TV.
Secondly, the sync between sound and the lips on the TVs was very bad and I had to mess with the A/V sync to get it to be more acceptable. I thought this was a little annoying since audio and video all travel on the same wire (HDMI).
CONCLUSION:
I know the CONS section looks big, but really this is a very good receiver. The sound quality is very good. My three year old Yamaha that cost closer to $600 seemed to have similar sound quality, but didn't have all the HDMI ports as this receiver. I just wish they wouldn't have thrown it what seems to be a pretty bad video processor. The bonus features like an iPod port / HD Radio connector are really nice. If I were in the market I would definitely consider this receiver as a very strong contender in this price range.
This little recorder really surprised me a bit. I expected that it would record and play but I really didn't expect it to sound as good as it does. It has a very slight hiss level but this isn't really as bad as a lot I've used. I was really impressed by how well it worked in a large room and in smaller areas. In a recorder in this price range, I really didn't expect much but this recorder was far better than I expected. For a general purpose use recorder, this should serve most people well.
