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Onkyo TX-SR606 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) | 
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| Brand: Onkyo
Category: CE
Buy New: See price in cart
New (6)
Rating:  150 reviews
Sales Rank: 28
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Batteries Included: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 24.9
Dimensions (in): 14.8 x 17.1 x 6.9
MPN: TXSR606B
Model: TXSR606B
UPC: 751398008092
EAN: 0751398008092
ASIN: B0015S8PGW
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Affordable 7.1-channel home theater receiver with full HD integration and video upscaling | | • | Power output: 90 watts x 7 channels (minimum) | | • | HDMI v1.3a Repeater (4 inputs, 1 output, 1080P compatible) | | • | 1080i Upscaling powered by Faroudja DCDi Edge | | • | TrueHD, DTS-HD Decoding |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
90 watts x 7 into 8 ohms (20-20,000 Hz) at 0.08% THD * Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES, Pro Logic IIx, and DTS Neo:6 decoding * SIRIUS satellite radio capable (requires SIRIUS subscription and optional SiriusConnect home tuner kit) * 1080p-compatible HDMI digital video switching (4 in, 1 out) * analog-to-HDMI video upconversion with scaling up to 1080i * no phono input *
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| Customer Reviews: Read 145 more reviews...
 Best Bang for the Buck in Next-Gen Home Theater Receivers August 30, 2008
133 out of 133 found this review helpful
I'll start by saying I'm not an Audiophile. I just wanted a decent mid-range receiver that does all the latest lossless audio formats and has 7.1 channels so it's ready to take advantage of BluRay as that format evolves. So my primary focus is on a system that plays audio for movies and video games as it's primary function. Currently I have this receiver setup in a 5.1 configuration since that's the type of receiver it replaced. I have more speakers on order to expand it out but to be honest, right now if you're building a home theater from scratch, you only need 5.1 . The 7.1 specs aren't really supported yet and DVDs and Playstation/Xbox are all 5.1, so if you're starting from scratch save some money and setup for 5.1 first and expand as support grows.
I used the automated speaker calibration feature to setup all the channels. This is where you place the provided mic at ear level at three different listener positions. The receiver then sends out tones which will drive you and your dog nuts for about 15 minutes while the entire process goes on. Once it was done however, I was/am very pleased with the results.
I've heard some people ask about humming, i can detect no humming. I have some WiFi equipment close by which is 2.5 ghz and so far have not heard any humming. Some other people have said the Receiver runs hot to which I would ask those people, is this your first receiver? They do run hot ! This one runs no hotter than the old one i replaced from a different manufacturer so as far as I'm concerned, the heat issue is normal. I have it in a small component rack that's enclosed on the sides and back with a door on the front, it's got maybe half an inch space around the sides and 2 inches of space on top and so far everything is good.
The back has tons of inputs, but the primary reason I waited for the 606 over the previous model is the number of HDMI ports, the next generation audio/video cable which is a requirement for full resolution BluRay playback. They're rev 1.3a to support all the latest audio formats as well (none of which are currently supported by the discs themselves yet though). The receiver will pass through a 1080p signal from a BluRay or other high def video source. If you feed it a standard def 480i video source, it will upscale it to 1080i or 720p. It does a decent job but i would say upscaling isn't the receivers strong point, it does an acceptable job though. But lets face it, Onkyo doesn't build TV's, their bread and butter isn't video, it's audio.
I'm pleased with the performance and the styling of the receiver, it's just very basic and sleek. No built in graphical user interface and all that other nonsense that receivers 3x this price but no more times the performance come equipped with. This receiver for a mid end system for movies and video games just really can't be matched in terms of performance per dollar spent.
I have matched this receiver with some Polk Audio speakers. Specifically i have a Polk CSi3 center channel and six Polk RTi4 bookshelf speakers (all of which you can find at great prices here on Amazon where I ordered them from) and I am very very happy with the results. The Polk speakers like the Onkyo 606 receiver are over achievers for their price point, so they match together extremely well.
The only thing I have left to say is buy it, I wouldn't hesitate recommending this receiver to anyone looking for a solid movie/video game home theater experience.
Great a/v receiver June 28, 2008
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
For what it is worth, I knew absolutely zero about home theater one month ago.
I recently bought a new TV, Samsung LN46A650, and was tired of the cables hanging off the back of it. I decided to by buy the Onkyo receiver after reading tons of reviews and talking to folks I know who are into the A/V scene. I am very happy with my purchase, and would recommend this product to anyone.
A couple of things I'd like to add:
1: I bought my home theater paycheck to paycheck. This means I bought my TV one week, the A/V receiver 2 weeks later, and my speakers 2 weeks later. While I just had my receiver hooked up, it passed audio from each of my inputs (Cable box, Apple TV, Wii, and PS3) straight through to my television. I had no clue it would do such a thing, and I even called Onkyo customer support to ask if it was possible. They said it was as long as the inputs were HDMI. Well, my Wii isn't HDMI, but it still passed the Component video and audio over the HDMI cable run through the wall to my TV. VERY NICE. Just thought that may be a selling point to anyone who is on a budget and can't afford speakers right away. Hope it made sense.
2: My speakers are in-ceiling Polk Audio RC80i's... The whole set up was easy and configuring on the receiver is not hard at all. I am now a huge fan of Onkyo. Setup was a breeze and now I have a home theater setup that may not be top of the line, but certainly impresses everyone who see's it. TV, speakers, subwoofer, and receiver for around $3k. Thank you Amazon!
Best AVR for the price! June 1, 2008
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
For its price, I believe this receiver is the best value out of all AVRs today.
The audyssey feature sets up everything for you and really improves the sound. The Dynamic EQ feature works very well for when you turn the volume down. You can still clearly hear dialog and everything even at low volume levels.
Listening to DTS-MA and TrueHD is also a huge jump over DTS and DD. Everything sounds crisp, clear, and more lifelike.
The 606 has 4 HDMI, does not run too hot, passes BTB/WTW, matrixes 5.1 audio to 7.1, passes 1080p/24, and even upscales and upconverts everything to 1080i. The upscaling is actually pretty decent too. It cleaned up the picture to my Wii quite a bit. It isn't the best upscaler/upconverter in the world, but its not bad either.
The music optimizer seems to be just like Creative's Sound Crystalizer on their X-Fi soundcards. It is supposed to make mp3s sound better, and it does, although it seems more like an advanced EQ setting than anything else.
I can also control all of my HDMI devices through the remote and my TV! Samsung's Anynet feature works very well with the Onkyo, and I can control my TV, cable box, and switch between all my devices with the Onkyo remote.
I am extremely impressed with this AVR, and highly recommend it.
Unexpected Surprises from Onkyo! September 10, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I love this receiver.
I bought it to replace an older receiver that did not have enough video inputs to handle all of the equipment I wanted to connect, so I had to use a 4 into 1 video switch box. Also, for Surround Sound, It could only do Dolby Pro Logic Enhanced. It had no support for anything digital, but it did have 6 discreet analog inputs for a standalone Dolby Digital processor which I don't have, and considered eBay'ing before I decided to just get a real receiver.
The Onkyo receiver has ALMOST enough video inputs for me to connect everything I have to it. I have a DVD player, Dish Network Receiver, a Linux video player, a VCR, a PS2, and a Wii that connects through the TV back to the receiver. That's 6 video sources. The Onkyo surprised me by allowing me to assign one of the Component video inputs to the CD or Tape input! That allowed me to turn an audio only input into a full A/V input. It brings this receiver's actual switchable A/V device count to SEVEN, so long as at least two of those are HD connections.
I've had my Cambridge SoundWorks speaker system for over 10 years. I've had it hooked up to a number of different receivers, and I've gotten used to what it sounds like. I hooked it all up to this Onkyo, and ran the automatic speaker setup routine. When I put in a DVD (into the same DVD player I've been using for months), and listened to it, It literally brought a tear to my eye. I had no idea my speakers were capable of sounding as good as they do now. The Audyssey system configured the level settings and several equalizer points to reshape what my speakers put out and now it's just incredible. I've never noticed my subwoofer before like I do now.
Interestingly, when I first did the setup, I didn't connect the center speaker correctly. When Audyssey couldn't hear it, it assumed I didn't have one and automatically setup my left and right speakers to create a phantom center channel. Wow.
I wanted to mention, since one previous reviewer says "manual controls of the levels would be nice" - you DO have the ability to manually fine tune or adjust the levels in the setup menu. You just can't adjust the equalizer settings without turning off Audyssey.
Another surprise I wasn't expecting is the Zone 2 system! if you're only going to use 5.1 speakers, you should know that this receiver sports a "Zone 2" that allows you to connect an extra set of speakers to use the extra two amplified channels. Sure, my previous receiver had a A and B speaker system, but what surprised me about the Onkyo is that Zone 2 can play a different input source! My wife is listening to her favorite radio station in her office while I watch a movie in 5.1 in the den, all from the same receiver. Amazing!
I will admit, I will miss the environmental DSP sounds like stadium mode and rock concert mode that my old receiver had, but I will also admit I hardly EVER used any of them. That's probably why they aren't a feature on new receivers. Instead, it has "Listening Modes" that are all about trying to squeeze every little bit of surround sound detail out of whatever kind of signal the receiver receives.
Initially, I had a problem with the receiver refusing to use any of its "Listening Modes". It seemed that no matter what source I gave it (except HDMI), it would run in "Direct" mode, playing just stereo. The solution turned out to be simple - go into hardware setup and turn off the audio output to the TV over HDMI. Once I turned that off, the whole system woke up and sang :)
I guess one complaint I have is that for some reason, the on-screen display, which is only displayed on a TV connected via HDMI is not displayed when the source is HDMI. Composite sources show volume and other information on screen, such as when changing listening mode. But my DVD player and Sat receiver seem to override that display, and I don't know why. Perhaps it's another setting I just haven't found yet. I hope so :P
I have no complains about the thing running hot. If it is hot, I haven't noticed. I also have no humming noises to complain about. Amazon got it into my hands rather quickly and I have no complaints about shipping.
All in all, I think my FAVORITE feature is the fact that no matter how I connect a video device to this receiver, it sends the picture to the TV over the HDMI cable. I'm not using the "upscale to 1080i" feature, but it's still very nice to not have to connect a composite, an SVideo, a set of component AND HDMI cables to the TV when it really only needs one link. My other devices make enough of a mess already
Feature-PACKED for the price! December 30, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
It wasn't until I purchased a Blu-ray player (Sony PS3) and Epson Cinelite 1080P projector when I realized I needed to purchase a new receiver. I was looking for something I could connect all my game consoles (PS3, XBox360, Wii), my Mac Pro, and my Karaoke system.
I first bought the lower-model Onkyo TX-SR506 (then later returned... keep reading to find out why), thinking it had all the inputs I needed and HDMI output for my requirements. Since this review is for the TX-SR606, I won't go into too much detail on the features of the TX-SR506. However, since I'm sure some of you will be comparing the SR506 to the SR606, I will quickly tell you what the TX-SR506 LACKS that may help you determine whether or not these missing features are necessary for your application. The SR506's HDMI ports are video pass-through only, meaning it does not carry Audio signals with it. Next, the SR506 will only output video to the same medium as the video signal it receives so if you have equipment using different types of connections, it has to use that same type of connection as an output from the receiver (e.g. component video input can only be displayed using the component video output, composite in to composite out, hdmi in to hdmi out, etc...). No coversion of video inputs to another type of output will be performed. So expect to have multiple cables output to your LCD/plasma/TV/projector's video inputs. Finally, only 4 total video devices can be plugged into the SR506 at any given time... yes, I know the photo of the SR506 shows an abundance of inputs but you can only program one input type (HDMI, component, S-Video, or composite) for each of the four video inputs (DVD, CBL/SAT, AUX, VCR/DVR).
Now enter the TX-SR606, full of the features that the TX-SR506 lacks! Both the SR506 and SR606 do an impressive job in ease of setup and sound output quality but that's pretty much where the similarities end. The FOUR HDMI inputs (yes, an impressive FOUR inputs over the SR506's TWO) of the TX-SR606 also carries digital audio signals. This keeps the optical/TOSLink/digital-coax digital audio inputs free for devices you may have that do not have HDMI audio -- another major flaw I found with the TX-SR506 when I had it (since it didn't carry audio through HDMI, I had to resort to using up both optical audio inputs for my PS3 and XBox 360 and had none left for the optical audio output from my Mac Pro and my Karaoke system).
Next must have feature about the SR606 is that all non-HD video inputs (going into the component, s-video, or composite inputs) are automatically upconverted so you can view everything using the HDMI output. The upconversion of these non-HD devices is upconverted to 1080i. 1080P upconversion would have been nicer but look at the affordable price on this unit! If you really need the 1080P upconversion, consider the Onkyo TX-SR706 model -- which will set you back another $200+ but is THX-Certified. And quite honestly, when you take a 480i/480p signal and upconvert it, you won't see too much of a difference between upconverting it to 1080i or 1080P (alright I know that statement is open for the screen size vs. viewing distance debate but remember your source signal is 480i/480p to begin with). Even if the upconversion feature isn't really a necessary feature for the size of your screen, the fact it processes and converts non-HDMI video inputs to be displayed with the HDMI output means you only need one cable going to your LCD/plasma/TV/projector and you can keep the TV on just one of its input modes (no more switching from Input1 to Input2 to Input3 when going from DVD to game console to Tivo/DVR).
With the SR606, you can customize all the video source inputs and audio source inputs to suit just about any setup needs you may have. For example, I have the video and audio for my PS3 and XBox 360 going into the HDMI input ports on this receiver (this unit has an impressive 4 HDMI 1.3a input ports) so I set up the receiver so that it knows to process video and audio signals for my first two devices through the HDMI port. My Mac Pro's secondary video (primary video is plugged into my 30" computer LCD screen) is plugged into the 3rd HDMI input on the SR606 receiver using a DVI-to-HDMI cable to provide full 1080P output and the audio is plugged into the SR606's optical/TOSLink digital audio input. I then have it programmed in the receiver so that it knows to process video from the HDMI3 input and audio from the optical1 input for the third device. Finally, the video for my Wii is plugged in to the component 1 input and my Karaoke machine is plugged in to the component 2 input while audio for the Wii is plugged into the standard 2-channel RCA-style input and optical 2 input for the Karaoke machine. Again, you can mix and match your audio and video any way you like and just tell the SR606 how you have it set up. It's very flexible. And the Wii and Karaoke gets upconverted to 1080i through the HDMI output while the PS3, XBox 360, and Mac Pro maintains its 1080P resolution via the HDMI inputs.
Since it's upconverting the video signal from your non-HDMI video devices (component, s-video, composite), you will see the volume level on your screen when adjusting volume for these devices. This leads me to the only gripe I really have about the SR606. If your device uses one of the HDMI video inputs, the receiver will not display the volume level on your tv/lcd/plasma/projector so you'll have to just look at the LCD display on the receiver itself for that information. This, however, does not warrant any deductions in my rating for this feature-filled receiver.
Another thing worth mentioning about this receiver (that you may have already gathered from reading the product's technical details section here on Amazon) is that it has a TrueHD and DTS-HD decoder for the ultimate in 7.1 HD surround sound quality offered in many of today's Blu-ray movies! Isn't Blu-ray one of the reasons you're looking at this receiver in the first place? :) Impressive feature to have in a receiver at this price point! Now is the price difference between the TX-SR506 and this TX-SR606 really starting to look more and more worth your while!? Go ahead and close that TX-SR506 product window/tab now and add this TX-SR606 to your shopping cart. You won't regret it.
Overall, at its attractive price point and the rich-list of features it offers, the Onkyo TX-SR606 easily deserves the full 5 stars! Check out my other reviews and you'll see that I don't just easily give out five stars to stuff I own!
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