Onkyo TX-SR805 (any members have one, or had one??)

tophatjohnny

Just snapped one up over on Audiogon over the weekend and am checking to see if anyone here has had one, or has one and get some feedback from the community. The search for the right 2 channel receiver was driving me crazy and the wife asked me why are you looking for just a 2 channel when you know that down the line you will be wanting to add more speakers, and she was right. I then switched gears and got to looking for a receiver with some kick to it and found the SR805. This will be number 2 of the Onk family powering my Polks and really looking forward to hearing the SDA 2B's with some real juice pumping them. Anyone else owning this receiver???

halo71

No experience with that AVR. Personally I would be looking for a tubed preamp to run with the M504 and the SDA's.

MillerLiteScott

I have one and a set of SDA 2B's. It is a beast of an AVR. Plenty of power and head room. I only briefly listened to it with my 2B's and was not to thrilled. YMMV. But for watching TV and Movies it is pretty impressive.

They are known for over heating the HDMI board which is a very expensive fix. I have a fan that sits on top of my unit to cool the HDMI board and it drives me crazy when I can hear it when there is no sound during whatever I am watching. I am looking to make it so the fan is not so audible as soon as I can.

PolkieMan

I have a tx- nr808, It gets ran in pure audio mode (2ch) most of the time

codyc1ark

I think the x05 series of the Onkyo's are supposed to be one of the best modern AVR's that they have released. Fairly heavy units, simple to use, and if I'm correct you'll be fine. Good luck, hope you enjoy it!

tophatjohnny

PolkieMan wrote: »

I have a tx- nr808, It gets ran in pure audio mode (2ch) most of the time

I'll be running 2 channel mode as well. I don't think one can make a good call using this amp briefly on any set of speakers, as I was running the SDA 2B's with an older Onk 70 Watts per channel, and the sound was awesome...just not enough kick for these beat up ears, so I'm betting this amp will rock the bedroom just fine.......if it doesn't.....I will!!:idea:

teekay0007

johnny - I've had the TX-SR805 since new and just love it. Great sound, very dependable, easy to setup and use. Mine doesn't run hot and I use it nearly daily to power my setup in either 5.1 mode (Monitor 10Bs, CS20, Monitor 5jr+s, and DSW PRO550wi) or 2-channel with just the 10Bs. It certainly seems to be truer to its power ratings than just about any other receiver I've owned, except maybe my Harman Kardon. And like cnh said (in your other thread, I think), I see myself owning it 'til it's dead! At that time, I'll probably use it as a boat anchor (unplugged, of course!) it's a beast! It even weighs nearly 15 lbs. MORE than their next-released unit, the TX-SR806!

tophatjohnny

teekay0007 wrote: »

johnny - I've had the TX-SR805 since new and just love it. Great sound, very dependable, easy to setup and use. Mine doesn't run hot and I use it nearly daily to power my setup in either 5.1 mode (Monitor 10Bs, CS20, Monitor 5jr+s, and DSW PRO550wi) or 2-channel with just the 10Bs. It certainly seems to be truer to its power ratings than just about any other receiver I've owned, except maybe my Harman Kardon. And like cnh said (in your other thread, I think), I see myself owning it 'til it's dead! At that time, I'll probably use it as a boat anchor (unplugged, of course!) it's a beast! It even weighs nearly 15 lbs. MORE than their next-released unit, the TX-SR806!

Thanks teekay0007 , the seller says the receiver is like new and I am excited to get it. I will have it placed on the dresser in the bedroom in the open, but plan on putting a real small fan on top to keep it as cool as possible. Just hooking up the SDA 2B's and will probably just stay with that for a good long time. I will report in after I get it all set up next week.

polkfarmboy

That 805 at $250 was a total steal, I was thinking about buying it but at that price it had to have something wrong I thought

tophatjohnny

polkfarmboy wrote: »

That 805 at $250 was a total steal, I was thinking about buying it but at that price it had to have something wrong I thought

Yeah, and if it is too much receiver for the SDA 2B's, I can always sell it to you for 300.00:razz: Shipping ain't cheap!!

polkfarmboy

You could own that for years to come and when you sell it you wont loose a penny on it. The 805 is a classic and the last of the real power house receivers that went for affordable prices before manufacturers got gready or realised they were undercharging

tophatjohnny

polkfarmboy wrote: »

You could own that for years to come and when you sell it you wont loose a penny on it. The 805 is a classic and the last of the real power house receivers that went for affordable prices before manufacturers got gready or realised they were undercharging

Thanks, I did some reading on the receiver and the seller has great communicating practices and assures that the receiver is perfect and never once gave him a problem, so I feel pretty good about the great deal I got. I doubt it will blow up my SDA's and I love the tone of Onkyo gear. I keep in mind that everyone hears things differently, so hearing different takes on this is great!! Where the Receiver is going, I doubt I'll ever get rid of it, until it dies. It just may outlive me!!

jon s

couple of things to note:

1. The Onkyo x05 series used cheap capacitors on the HDMI board. They are rated for 85 degrees centigrade and due to the heat the graphics processor generates, the caps tend to dry out. The fix is to replace the 85 degree caps with 105 degree caps. You can send the unit to Onkyo for repair ($400+) or replace the HDMI board ($800+) or replace the caps yourself....

2. The Onkyo DTS HD Master decoder DSP had a bug in the programming. If you playback Star Wars on Blu-Ray you can get an occasional LOUD "bomb" which at normal speaker volumes can be loud enough to blow out your speakers or amps or both. There were a couple of other titles which have the same issue but I can't remember what they were. To fix the problem, you must contact Onkyo support and get the DSP firmware (not the system firmware) update. This update is done by connecting a CD player (DVD players will NOT work) to the receiver via TOSLink cable. Note that there were two DSP updates, one released in 2008 and the newer one was released the beginning of 2012. You just need the latest one, you do not need the 2008 update in order to install the 2012 update.

I have a 905 and a 906 receiver. Both receivers had issues with the HDMI board and the DTS DSP decoder chip. I know that the x007 and x008 models also have their own headaches (more bad HDMI boards and also faulty IDE connectors, bad electrical shorts) which required you send the units in to Onkyo for repairs. Although Onkyos do provide a great value, their quality control has been miserable. Contacting their customer service does not give you much confidence in their knowledge either. There is no communication amongst them, some acknowledging issues and others denying them.

cnh

That's good info there Jon s. I've had mine for at least 4 or 5 years now. I've never encountered the bomb? It has performed flawlessly even though it gets hot enough back there to cook eggs in the summer. HDMI boards, no problems. Firmware? Haven't the faintest which version I have but it's problem free.

Fingers crossed of course. But for full disclosure, my unit was bought as a refurb from Onkyo so it's possible all your worries above "do not" apply here? All I can say is that the 805 kicks A$$ for the money I spent; same amp sections as the 300X above it? At a fraction of the price!

Plus you can get your weekly exercise by using its 51 lbs as free weights. lol

cnh

tophatjohnny

jon s wrote: »

couple of things to note:

1. The Onkyo x05 series used cheap capacitors on the HDMI board. They are rated for 85 degrees centigrade and due to the heat the graphics processor generates, the caps tend to dry out. The fix is to replace the 85 degree caps with 105 degree caps. You can send the unit to Onkyo for repair ($400+) or replace the HDMI board ($800+) or replace the caps yourself....

2. The Onkyo DTS HD Master decoder DSP had a bug in the programming. If you playback Star Wars on Blu-Ray you can get an occasional LOUD "bomb" which at normal speaker volumes can be loud enough to blow out your speakers or amps or both. There were a couple of other titles which have the same issue but I can't remember what they were. To fix the problem, you must contact Onkyo support and get the DSP firmware (not the system firmware) update. This update is done by connecting a CD player (DVD players will NOT work) to the receiver via TOSLink cable. Note that there were two DSP updates, one released in 2008 and the newer one was released the beginning of 2012. You just need the latest one, you do not need the 2008 update in order to install the 2012 update.

I have a 905 and a 906 receiver. Both receivers had issues with the HDMI board and the DTS DSP decoder chip. I know that the x007 and x008 models also have their own headaches (more bad HDMI boards and also faulty IDE connectors, bad electrical shorts) which required you send the units in to Onkyo for repairs. Although Onkyos do provide a great value, their quality control has been miserable. Contacting their customer service does not give you much confidence in their knowledge either. There is no communication amongst them, some acknowledging issues and others denying them.

O will ask the seller if he has had the updated done. How about this, just bypass the HMDI all together (as this is the bedroom set up) and just connect with regular cables?? I'm nit that picky!! If that will work I'll be fine????

cincycat13

I've got the 876 which I think has the same amp section with a different video chip. I used it with some rt3000p and it was fine. I have it in 4 ohm mode for some lsi7s which restricts the output and I still get plenty of power for music and HT. The pure audio mode with the LSI7s is very nice so I think it will be fine as long as you avoid ear splitting levels. I look forward to your review on the combination because I considered doing the same in the past. Now that I have a 5007 model to slide in I thought about using the 876 with some RTA15TL and simplify from the pre / carver tfm-45 setup.

zane77

I have a SR7xx series that the HDMI board went out in and also have a NR series receiver that is working fine. I did order a USB powered Thermaltake fan from Amazon that has a pot on it for speed control that I velcroed to the vents just above the HDMI board, have used this with no problems. The speed of the fan can be adjusted to the point where you can't hear it from a foot away with everything turned down with no sound. When I got the new AVR I wanted some insurance that I wouldn't cook the new HDMI board. You can actually remove the pot from the fan and it still spins fast enough for air circulation and is still very quiet.

unc2701

+1 on the HDMI & heat issues- my friend owns one and he had it die on him. Since it's in a closet, he keeps a small fan on the new one, just a little air movement does a lot.

Other than that, it's really impressive. Sounds great and has more options than you can begin to imagine. Solid video upscaling, too.

tophatjohnny

unc2701 wrote: »

+1 on the HDMI & heat issues- my friend owns one and he had it die on him. Since it's in a closet, he keeps a small fan on the new one, just a little air movement does a lot.

Other than that, it's really impressive. Sounds great and has more options than you can begin to imagine. Solid video upscaling, too.

Thanks and I will be picking up the new little fan on Friday. Receiver will be here by Tuesday and I am excited to hear these SDA's sing baby..........SING......after the "Burn in Session" of course!!

jon s

buy a 120mm PC fan... You can run it slower because it moves more air than a smaller fan. You can attach the fan to a 12V power supply with adjustable voltage... you can then control the fan speed by using a lower voltage. make sure the fan sucks the air up, not blowing the air down.

tophatjohnny

jon s wrote: »

buy a 120mm PC fan... You can run it slower because it moves more air than a smaller fan. You can attach the fan to a 12V power supply with adjustable voltage... you can then control the fan speed by using a lower voltage. make sure the fan sucks the air up, not blowing the air down.

I had my little fans blowing down on my existing Receiver and 5 channel amp, but now I turned them so they are blowing up. I did not know not to blow air down on my gear. I hope this is correct???

jon s

Yes... blowing air down will accumulate dust in the receiver which impedes cooling, extracting air still circulates the air without accumulating dust.

tophatjohnny

jon s wrote: »

Yes... blowing air down will accumulate dust in the receiver which impedes cooling, extracting air still circulates the air without accumulating dust.

Thanks Jon.

tophatjohnny

On FedEx vehicle for delivery!! Can't wait!!:biggrin: