A Review of the Onkyo TX-SR605 7.1 Receiver

Onkyo is a leader in home audio. The Onkyo TX-SR605 7.1 Receiver is one of their entry level receivers and has recently seen a considerable price drop. As a result I’ve seen plenty of them flying off of the shelves. I’m going to take this opportunity to educate you on what you can expect out of this receiver by give you a rundown on its inputs and outputs as well as ease of setup, and features.

Having a receiver is a great feature of any home entertainment center. It offers you the ability to manage all of your peripherals by having the plugged into a single device. This way when you add and remove products you won’t have to break out the machete to fight through a jungle of cords going all over the place – they’ll all be heading to the receiver. You’ll be able to run your speakers off of this receiver (it is a 7.1) as well as your next generation video input device, up converter DVD player, video game system as well as your HD television.

This Onkyo receiver is HD ready with a number of HDMI inputs and an output which is crucial for any modern receiver. It offers 1080p up conversion as well as dynamic sound controls allowing you to really customize your experience. I really like the fact it comes included with a microphone allowing you to customize speaker placement to give you the perfect setup of those 8 speakers.

This recivier is also satilite radio ready, as well as digital media ready (think iPod connectivity etc.).

Input output details:
90w x 7 channels
HDMI Level: upto 1080p
Satelite radio: Yes
MP3 ready: Yes
HDMI: 2 inputs / 1 output
Optical Audio inputs: 3
Component Jacks: 3 inputs
Digital coaxial (cable): 2 inputs
Standard Audio Jacks: 7 inputs / 2 outputs
Composite video: 5 inputs / 1 output
S-video : 5 inputs, 1 output
Formats supported: Tape, CD, Satilite
Color-coded speaker terminals
Auto speaker calibration (with included microphone)
Radio: AM/FM presets
Dimensions: 6.8″ x 17.1″ x 14.8″
Weight: 25lbs.

While the Onkyo TX-SR605 7.1 Receiver has some nice features there are a few things missing. You need to buy an adapter if you want to connect your iPod. These aren’t cheap and if you’re already paying a pretty penny for the receiver you want to have all of the adapters you’ll need. Second it is satellite radio “ready”… but doesn’t have an antenna; you’ll need your own. Also it doesn’t have enough radio presets. The setup is easy and everything is well labeled, it won’t take long to set up even for the novice electronics user. They best thing about this Onkyo is its price. At its normal retail of $499 it is a good deal, but recently sites have had it listed as low as the high $300’s. So keep an eye on this one an pounce when the price is right.