Onkyo M 504

rocoz50

I recently purchased a Onkyo M504. I love it. The question is which pre amp to use? I currently have a Onkyo p 306rs preamp. Is the p 304 better and does anyone know the dates these two pre amp were manufactured. which one came out first? Any help will be greatly apprieciated. Thanks.

CURRENT SYSTEM:
Onkyo M-504 Amp
Onkyo P-306rs Pre
Onkyo T-4087 Tuner
Onkyo EQ 540 EQ
Onkyo DX 706 CD
Nakamichi RX 505 Cassette
Martin Logan Source Speakers

halo71

The P304 was the match. I have a P301 that I was running with my M504 until it took a dump. Which one to use you ask.....use the one you like. Right now I am using a Phase Linear preamp on my M504 and like it much better than the P301.

rocoz50

Thanks Gary, The big difference I noticed was the p304 has headphone jacks, where the p306rs does not. Just wondered if one performed better than the other. Thanks again.

halo71

I am not sure about the 304 and 306. I have never used them before. I would love to have another M504 someday!

You're welcome! Welcome to Club Polk btw....

rocoz50

Thank you!

rocoz50

Anybody else?

chandler9a

I love the M504, its a great amp. Not a fan of their preamps so I can't help you there.

Welcome to the club!

TroyD

The Oink pre's were solid, with VERY good phono stages....however, if you look past Oink, there are a lot of other great options.

BDT

NewHTguy

Rocoz, What do you think is a fair price for the M-504 assuming it looks to be in decent condition?

cnh

I'd say a M-504 is worth about 300 or so?

The P-306 is 1979 model. The P-304 may have been a little earlier but was still manufactured, overlapped with the 306. Can't tell you how they compare. But here are the stats.

http://audio-database.com/ONKYO/amp/integrap-306-e.html

http://www.nodevice.com/images/sm/big/2008_08_12_06_12_15/18860_2.jpg

I have a P-304 I sometime use with my Adcom GFA-555--it does a fine job and has, as noted above, a very nice phono stage!

The P-304 is the cosmetic match for the M-504 but that does not preclude using a higher model integra pre-amp with that unit.

cnh

chandler9a

I would definitely say an M-504 is worth $300, I think they usually go for 400 or more

flason

I run a M-508 with the P-308 Grand Integra. It's a great sound.

NewHTguy

Thanks for the advice. Saw one on CL for $480. Thought that seemed a little high. Sounds like they need to come down to make it worth trying.

rocoz50

I paid $550.00 for a M 504 amp, P306rs pre, T 4087 tuner, Dx 706 cd. Felt it was a good deal. I love them. Just purchased a P304 pre to match my 504. Have to sell the P 306rs pre. What would be a fair asking price? Excellant cond.

jdhorn1

Still liking your Onkyo set up? Picked up a Onkyo P-306RS, M-506RS & T-4087 2 weeks ago for $329. Missing the Servo Sensor cables. Wanted switched jacks to power on & off the amp, so I picked up a P-3060 off ebay. Only down side is I lost the dedicated CD input, have to run it to AUX, and it did not have the matching wood side panels.

naturallight

The P-304 was the "match" with the M-504, and it's a fine pre. Right now i use an Adcom pre on my 504. Works fine.

The prices on these amps "seems" to be going up. It "seems" the prices are in the 400-600 range. There are just not alot of these out there, as compared to Adcom 555 lets say.

naturallight

Is an M-504 worth the 400-600 price? That depends on how much you want one...LOL There are 2 on ebay, as compared to 14 Adcom 555's. The buy it now price on one is over 600, the other is on bids and up to almost 400, will probably end up at close to 500. There is 1 M-508 on there and the guy wants $1700 for it...LOL Those you almost never see.



Is the 504 a good amp? I would have to say yes. I've had mine since new, from the 90's whatever year it was. It has never failed to run any speaker. I think it's a pretty warm amp, as amps go. But thats just MY opinion. Is it better then an Adcom 555..don't know. I've never had both amps in a room to compare them. There is little info on the amp anymore, from Onkyo. Just very generic stuff.

All they say is the amp was rated at 165 watts@ 8 ohms. Not much else.

From what i know about the amp, that was very under rated..why they did that..I don't know. Could be it was too close to the 508, so they had to drop the power rating to justify the price on the 508. Who knows.

It is a true dual mono block design (but is a common ground amp). It is heavy as hell, it dose throw off alot of heat. Is it worth the probable 500 buck price used? I would say so..at least from my experience with it. I have had it for a good 20 years at this point. It never fails to turn on or work right. It has been played LOUD alot...LOL It has been moved a number of times. It's built like a tank. Would an Adcom 555 work this well for this long, being played that loud for many,many years..don't know.

halo71

naturallight wrote: »

it dose throw off alot of heat.

I agree pretty much with everything you said except this part. Mine does get warm but not as hot as many other power amps I've owned.

naturallight

Is the Onkyo M-504 a good amp? Well all the reviews i read back then...were very good from the mags. Altho that doesn't mean alot as they never say that an amp is bad....LOL All of them said the power rating of the amp was NOT 165watts...it was alot more.



But even Stereophile..back in 1989 reviewed the 508..which they didn't like doing. They were not of the feeling Japan could make a real good amp, unless it was really high dollar...LOL It would just be passable. That was not the case, they had to piss and moan about some stuff, but in the end had to say it was a really good amp. It had far more headroom then there reference Threshold SA-1 amp, as they were kicking up to 400 watts, and still could not make it sound bad. Were there reference amp would fall apart far below that. They were pushing 105 db..and the speakers and amp sounded fine.



Now granted this is the 508..but the 504 is just not that far behind. What the real watts output of this amp is..not sure, but i would "guess" it's closer to 200 then the 165. What i do know is the headroom is massive..just like the 508. The amps are just not that far apart or made that much different.



Is the used amp worth the 500-600 price...thats up to the buyer..but i think there worth at least pretty much close to that.



Do they sound better then say an Adcom 555..that i don't know..are they better built..maybe

naturallight

Halo...yeah my statemant about heat..is a little over the top...Let me just say it's warm....LOL

naturallight

Halo..dude your in GA..LOL what speakers are you running??? I don't know how far away you are from Douglasville..but would be cool if you were close....LOL

halo71

You live in Douglasville?? I lived there for 18 years before moving out here on the lake. I am running Infinity RSIIIa's for the most part right now. But have several other pairs of speakers. And the 504 has never balked at anything I've hooked to it.

I will be coming to D'ville in several weeks for a friends b'day party. Perhaps we could meet up or something. Or trade some gear? I'll PM you.

cnh

I've never actually heard the Onkyo M-504, only know it by reputation. But I will say that the P-304 makes a "better" pre for an Adcom GFA-555 than most Adcom pres excepting the TOTL GFP-750.

It probably sounds great with its match too?

cnh

KLapinas

rocoz50 wrote: »

I recently purchased a Onkyo M504. I love it. The question is which pre amp to use? I currently have a Onkyo p 306rs preamp. Is the p 304 better and does anyone know the dates these two pre amp were manufactured. which one came out first? Any help will be greatly apprieciated. Thanks.

CURRENT SYSTEM:
Onkyo M-504 Amp
Onkyo P-306rs Pre
Onkyo T-4087 Tuner
Onkyo EQ 540 EQ
Onkyo DX 706 CD
Nakamichi RX 505 Cassette
Martin Logan Source Speakers

Let's see a pic!