Onkyo TX-NR809 THX Certified 7.2-Channel Network A/V Receiver (Black)

Onkyo TX-NR809 THX Certified 7.2-Channel Network A/V Receiver (Black)

Ownership - Day 10
I upgraded from an Onkyo TX-SR606 which I owned for about 3 years. I loved my 606 so I figured why not stick with what I know/like (Onkyo). I know about all of the problems people had with the 808 and Onkyo has stood by their product and honoring repairs even though a product may be out of warranty.

I have now had an opportunity to check out all of the bells and whistles of this receiver.

Setup - 5/5, very easy if you have had any experience in the past with any receiver (highly suggest banana plugs and 14 or 12 gauge speaker wire). The included calibration microphone really makes things easy - plug in the mic and the receiver will automatically switch to the onscreen GUI for speaker setup and calibration. Once the setup detects which speakers you have hooked up you can then setup additional "spots" in your viewing area. (can take as little as 10-15 minutes). Network setup is very simple if you are using a direct connection to the ethernet (DHCP will assign an IP address for you-also suggest assigning a static IP for avoid conflicts).

Sound - 5/5, currently using a 5.1 setup with Polk Monitor speakers I am very happy with the results. While the 606 was no pushover I feel the newer Audyssey MultEQ found in the 809 made things sound more "clear" (tough to describe)- Prior to purchasing I had started watching Lord of the Rings trilogy on bluray and saw the first 2 films and half of the 3rd on the 606 - ended up finishing the 3rd film on the 809 - easily heard the difference in sound quality.

Video - 5/5*, I put the * in because I had very little use with the upscaling features as all of my sources were 1080p (not including HD cable which is 1080i and I switched the input to "through"). I did use it for my Wii which is only 480p and was impressed with the quality (still no where near HD but saw an obvious improvement on a 52" TV). I am curious to know how the 4K upscaling feature would work (since there are no retail TVs on the market that can accept a resolution that high) but for now the Vida processor should be good enough to upscale and source that is not 1080p already.

Features - 4.5/5, LOVE! the network features. Using Pandora is just as easy as using it on my phone or computer (maybe not the typing part with the remote) but the interface is very clean and easy to use. The most recent firmware update added Spotify but I have yet to check it out. The DLNA feature was key to me as it can connect directly to my NAS and play all of my MP3s from there, no need to stream from the NAS to my PS3 first. I also purchased a 3rd party Ipad app to use as a remote and LOVE it! Big feature for me was the ability to rename all my sources (which I could not do on my 606). I currently have a PS3(hdmi), HD STB(hdmi), Xbox 360(hdmi), Wii(component), Sony bluray player(hdmi), and a 2nd Xbox 360(component/optical) so renaming was key for me (mostly for my wife).

Overall - SUPER happy with my purchase and would recommend this to anyone in the market for an upgrade (the 609 and 709 from Onkyo are also great with a few less features then the 809 that everyone may not need). At the time the 809 was the best price so I pulled the trigger. I took off 1 star (I wish I could have made it a 1/2 star) because of Onkyo support. I had an issue with the Internet functions where I could not connect to Pandora and after waiting 10 minutes to speak to someone the only option was to do a factory reset (I had to rename all sources again as well as do the Audyssey speaker calibration again). I would have been ok with this option if they would have told me what caused it, instead I got a very unclear "possibility" to what caused it. Since then I have had no issues with connecting but the support is lacking.

EDIT - 8/24/11 now past the 30 days of use.
I am now upping my review to 5 stars after the most recent firmware update. They have added two more internet radio options (I believe one of them requires a paid subscription). I am also happy to report the locking up issue I had with Pandora seems to be resolved as I have used it daily since the update with no issues. Onkyo also added a remote control app for the Android OS (I have a Droid X) initially the remote app was only for the iphone/ipad/ipod. The controls are limited but for a free app its nice to have as an option. Since purchasing this receiver Onkyo has released 3 firmware updates and that shows support for their products and customers. While I was not thrilled with the customer service I encountered I think taking off a whole star for 1 persons actions should not drop the product to 4 stars.

Edit - 6/28/12 - one last edit even though this product has been replaced by the 818 (so people may be picking this up at a nice discount. I need to chime in regarding a 3rd party app that has far exceeded my expectations. Its the Oremote for ipod, iphone & ipads. I am usually not keen on buying any apps for more than $1 but after buying Oremote I have ZERO regrets. Its about 100% more effective than the standard app that onkyo provides for free. I mainly use it on my ipad and love that while using Pandora I can switch songs, see artwork, thumbs up a song while not even being in the same room as the receiver.
Also recently upgraded all of my speakers and sub - re-ran the Audyssey calibration and again impressed with Onkyo's power for pushing even larger speakers. Ill be coming up on my 1 year since purchase of the 809 and still stand by my 5 star rating. Not once has this receiver let me down over the months of tv, movie and video games.

I've had the previous generation 808 for several months, but had the need for a second receiver and wanted one I was already familiar with. Quite simply, I'm amazed at the sound quality of the 809. All music and movies sound much, much better - and the 808 is no slouch. The sound is richer, fuller and more balanced for all audio files - hi def files on my server, but also streaming music at low bit rates. Surround sound decoding and balance for movies is much improved and really adds to the "you are there" experience. The 809 helped me greatly with one of my major problems - subwoofers that don't have a lot of bark when Bruce Willis blows away the bad guys. Subs now sound much deeper and finally shake the floor and the only difference in my system is the 809. Onkyo has obviously put a lot of work into improving the audio processing technologies. GUIs are better - especially for the net function/button. I literally couldn't pull myself away from the 809 for hours after I set it up - I had to see how much better everything sounded. Couldn't be happier and consider the purchase worth every penny.

Head this warring, it may look like a good deal, just be prepared for multiple tries to get a unit that works.

I bought this product during the "Cyber Monday" sales for a good price. Unfortunately the product I received was defective. This was confirmed through a brief phone call with a very nice support person, and this is where my experience went from bad to terrible. I had tried everything to get the center channel on the receiver to work, but to no avail, at the request of the phone tech support I tried resetting the receiver. It did not enable sound from the Center channel; it did however cause the loss of sound to the left surround port directly below the center channel ports. I also attempted to contact Onkyo through their email support, over 48hrs later I received a reply with the same information as the phone technical support.

The phone technician recommended I return the product as a defective unit. This was in lieu of performing a warranty repair for a 2 day old product which could take 2-3 weeks! After waiting on hold for over 40 mins for the warranty department I turned in the towel and shipped the received back at my expense. I am now awaiting a replacement product <fingers crossed this one will have been tested before it leaves the factory>

I would like to take a few moments and recommend some policy changes for Onkyo support (for paying customers with a Serial Numbered product). If there is no intention for responding within a timely manner (24hrs) to service requests, please send an automated message stating that a service request has been received and a response will be forthcoming in the next few days due to high volume. Please do not leave a customer questioning if the request was submitted properly or the web based submission form was working at all. Please enable tracking of all service requests (email or otherwise) and documenting of all service conversations to the Onkyo website user account by serial number of the products registered by the user. Please ensure that user accounts are protected with encryption for all sensitive information passing between the client and server, for example: user name, password, real name, email, phone number and address should be protected for privacy of users.

This experience is very disappointing I am beside myself that a $1,000 MSRP receiver can be shipped from the factory defective. (The box was in fine shape and no external shipping damage was observed). Based on this experience with support and how defective products are handled by Onkyo, I will no longer be recommending Onkyo receivers to friends, family and coworkers, and will continue to review Onkyo products negatively. When a support person identifies a defective product an immediate response would be "we will replace the product at no cost to you", followed by sending a new product with 2nd day air with a return label to send the defective product back using a credit card hold to cover the cost of the second unit until the defective unit is received by Onkyo for an autopsy. This does two things, shows respect for customer's time and money, as well as respect for Onkyo products and quantity. Defective unit should be few and far between and Onkyo's quality control should want defective products back as quickly as possible to perform root cause analysis in order to prevent further defective products from leaving the factory.