|
||||||
|
The Magic Wand The remote control builds on previous
offerings from Onkyo. A problem that many receiver remotes have is that the volume buttons control either the receiver itself, or the TV, depending on which mode the remote is in. This is a huge problem because you cannot adjust the receiver volume when changing channels on the TV. Some remotes offer the option of "punch through" where the volume buttons always control the receiver no matter what, but Onkyo goes even farther by giving the TV its own dedicated volume buttons. The joystick cursor control is much improved from the 800, where it was too easy to get an Enter when you wanted a direction (Up, for example). The 803's is much more positive. There could be more distinction in terms of button size and shape, but the main ones (Play, Pause, FF, RW, etc.) are obvious enough. The buttons are backlit, and two macros can be defined. Auto Set-Up and Equalizer In the 803, Onkyo has included an Auto Set-up routine which attempts to do all the basic set-up for the consumer, including whether a speaker should be high-passed or not, which frequency to high pass it at if applicable, the distance/delay setting for each speaker, and of course the master calibration level for each one. At the user's option, it can also apply five bands of EQ independently to each channel. Like the majority of such systems, Onkyo supplies a microphone. You plug the mic in, the system cycles some noise around to the speakers while paying attention to what arrives at the mic, and sets everything based on that. Seem like a good idea? Think again. For a complete understanding of why you probably don't want to use this feature, we invite you to digest our essay on the subject. Suffice it to say here that the Onkyo, like the majority of pieces which incorporate such a feature, lacks a sufficiently intelligent implementation. Assuming room acoustics have been been physically addressed (because there is no such thing as Room Correction), even if used as a "final tweak" the Onkyo's auto routine provides that for one person and one person only: the one who sits with their head in a vice at the exact same position the mic was in during set-up. The people seated elsewhere can in many cases end up with WORSE sound! You can prove this to yourself by going through the auto-setup routine with the mic in different positions and then checking the settings: You'll see it chooses very different settings depending on which seat the microphone is at when you run the auto routine. Unfortunately, while electing to use the EQ in manual mode could have been a nice tool for the most serious person willing to put forth the time and effort (not to mention the acquisition of a 1/12 oct Real Time Analyzer) to tweak it, the 803's Manual EQ mode is too restrictive to be of any real use. Unlike the Auto routine, where the five bands used for each speaker are selectable by the computer, when doing it manually, the bands are fixed at 80 Hz, 250 Hz, 800 Hz, 2.5 kHz, and 8 kHz. For the subwoofer, the manual EQ bands are 40 Hz, 80 Hz, and 100 Hz. This is a real downer because the subwoofer is the one piece which can actually benefit from some straight EQ to address room modes, but if you can't choose the band to attenuate (and ideally the Q of that band), odds are it will be useless to you (my room has a hump at about 54 Hz which tragically falls between the 40 Hz and 80 Hz bands offered). Frankly, we would have been happy if Onkyo had included three manual bands of parametric EQ for the subwoofer and simply dropped everything else. Forgetting the EQ for a second, we found that even the basic set-up parameters end up questionable, as the software is "fooled" by what's going on in the room. I use three identical THX monitors as my front left, center, and right speakers, all in an acoustically symmetrical space, but the Onkyo wanted to use 150 Hz, 90 Hz, and 80 Hz high-passes respectively. The subwoofer was exactly 7.5 feet from the microphone, but the Onkyo wanted to set it as 6 feet with the mic in one position, or 4 feet with it in another (even though both positions were perfectly equidistant from the sub). Although the levels it chose for the fronts were correct, it left my dipole surrounds too high. Bottom line: Don't include the auto set-up feature when weighing the 803 against other candidates. There is plenty else here to recommend it. Note that this does not mean Auto EQ won't ever be a useful feature on receivers. We just feel it is too early in the game and needs lots of work. Listening (and Watching) At the risk of sounding like a broken record in my reviews, the DACs and the output devices in a receiver or surround sound processor are paramount. When connected via a digital audio cable, the CD or DVD player is no longer responsible for the quality of sound. The DACs in the receiver, quite literally, create the audio waveform: their interpretation of the digital data is what you hear! As we have come to expect from Onkyo, the resultant audio product is better than good. For much of the review period we had the 803 connected to external amplification which gives us the best sense of its raw audio prowess, uninfluenced by its own power amplifiers. The 803's frequency response is bang-on with negligible distortion and this comes through in the listening. It is extremely neutral, giving you exactly what is on the disc. It is free from the slight harshness which some people have come to associate with low cost receivers. Even after several straight hours of attentive music listening, I experienced no fatigue. The oh-so critical midrange is well served, giving such elements as female vocals and lower register string instruments a believable richness. Dialog especially gets a nod for remarkable intelligibility. We did find one quirk (a low level subwoofer hum when the processor was in certain digital modes), which we are assured is unique to our sample (which, unfortunately, due to limited supply was one which had already been to one too many trade shows). Taking the power amp out of the equation, the 803 continued to impress. Even with the more challenging 3.2 ohm load of my M&K monitors, the Onkyo did not audibly complain at any sane playback level. There is clearly a point where the internal amps start to struggle, the sound taking on a sharp quality that caused me to squint, but that only came at irresponsible playback levels of some pop music with compressed dynamic range. With properly balanced and recorded material, such as most movie soundtracks, the Onkyo has no problem delivering a lively, dynamic presentation. Where's the Beef? A curious omission in the 803 is Onkyo's NetTune feature. NetTune-enabled receivers have an Ethernet jack and can play MP3 and WMA music off your PC, as well as tune into Internet radio if your network is connected to the Internet. Onkyo was making a very big deal of it, including it in ever less expensive models such as the 801, but chose not to include it in the 803. Pity, as I was really looking forward to trying it out. My entire CD collection is upstairs on a hard drive, and it would have been nice to shuffle through it on the Onkyo. I suppose they might say that the XM Satellite capability makes up for it, but I wouldn't know: You need a "Connect-and-Play" antenna/receiver along with an account at XM, neither of which Onkyo supplied for our review. Conclusions The 80x series from Onkyo remains for me a solid recommendation at the critical $1,000 price point. Their continued adherence to THX standards bodes very well, and they distinguish themselves by paying attention to details which other more upscale products and brands still miss. There are more than enough hookups, plenty of power for the price point, and the receiver frankly just sounds great. The 800 series remains an incredible value in surround sound processors: It's like buying a decent $1,000 processor and getting a multi-channel amp to boot! I look forward to the next iteration.
|
||||||
It is still on the large and heavy side, but the
resultant abundance of buttons does make its use fairly intuitive. It
is of course pre-programmed with codes for virtually every brand and piece
of A/V equipment under the sun, including names I've never even heard of (yet,
curiously, there was no entry for Yamaha CD Players).
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Google+
InstagramMagazine Publishing Solutions by
Advontemedia