Onkyo RZ50

mrloren
mrloren Posts: 2,465
in Electronics
Hello,

Been a bit since I've posted.

I've been reading a lot of reviews on the Onkyo RZ50, just been waiting for the price to drop to affordable.
Last wee I was able to pick one up off Amazon for $1050usd. Not a bad price and with prime if I don't like it 30 days to return it.

Once dialed in I did like my Denon AVR-X4400H great on movies, music it was soso but good enough, not like my Sony 5800ES which was great on music.
The Marantz SR5010 is better on music (why it's staying in the bedroom) but I hate that darn porthole.

I received the Onkyo last week, installed it then started to calibrate it using the phone app. First time using 3 positions it was a little thin sounding but I could hear there might be potential. Next day I ran the 9 point calibration for the app. A little better but not worth the grand I paid. I messed with settings and watched Midway. Yes there's a lot of potential. Did some research finding the best way to calibrate is with a laptop. Cool install Dirac on my laptop now just need everyone gone for a few hours. Thanks to being seriously ill today I called out from work (yes chest congestion and low fever). After I woke up from my 12 hour sleep had a coffee and went to watch a flick. hmm no one home good time to calibrate. I did a 17 point calibration and went to listen. Sounded better but still not worth it. Then I read about Harmon house curve. Go in the app and install the 8db, ok better. I then loaded slot #2 with the 10db one, ok great good bass and I didn't have to turn anything up.

Just sitting in misery I put on Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Great piano on this CD. Yes I'm liking what I hear. I was toggling thru the DIRAC slots it sounded best on the 10db curve then I went to Dirac off. Hello! with DIRAC off I was like OMG this is great, good bass no bleed or localizing of the sub. OK Korn time, Yes, this sounds as good as my Sony on music, finally. I put on Rogue One, hit, slam, shake the house but still no localizing of the sub, My VTF-3 has come to life. I went thru a scene then toggled the Dirac slots watching it over, either Dirac off or 8db Harmon curve was the best for this movie. With Dirac off I got a more even sound, fuller slamming in the chest.

On plus side, my LG QNED80 TV even with passthrough on, I was only getting DD+ to the Denon. Now I'm getting ATMOS and DTS-X.

Don't think I'll be returning the Onkyo.

Cheers,

Lorenn
When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
Family Room:LG QNED80 75", Onkyo RZ50 Emotiva XPA3 GEN3 Oppo BDP-93,Sony UBP-X800BM. Main: Polk LsiM 705Center: Polk LSiM 704CFront High/Rear High In-Ceiling Polk 80F/X RT Surrounds: Polk S15 Sub: HSU VTF3-MK5
Bed Room; Marantz SR5010, BDP-S270Main: Polk Signature S20Center: Polk Signature S35Rear: Polk R15 Sub: SVS SB2000
Working Warehouse; Yamaha A-S301, Sony DVP-NS3100ES for disc Plok TSX550T SVS PB2000 Mini tower PC with 400GB of music
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Comments

  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,201
    Cool write up.
    I'm very familiar with Onkyo/Integra Lineup. The RZ50 is a great receiver and for $1k, it's fantastic.

    So lets talk about your calibration, most of the time when calibration sound worse then not calibrated is the fact your room is making a lot of changes to the way the system sounds. This is the case with most rooms.

    Room treatments, proper speaker placement and proper calibration all are important to getting good results. Not an easy task.

    Anyway , running a manual calibration isn't a bad idea. This is probably what your use to hearing in your room with your last AVR. This is probably why you like it more. You can also try out ACCU EQ which is like Pioneer's MCACC. Do it for 1 seat 1 position as this is where your going to sit. You don't need 2 3 5 10 different measurement points if your not constantly changing where you sit. So to fill you in on what these software programs do when you measure more than 1 seat is they start to average out the measurements they take and then you get an average calibration to satisfy more then 1 listening position. In my house, I only measure my seat and it's fine. I can move to different seats and no it's not exactly like my KING SEAT but no Theater ever has all KING SEATS. I'd much prefer one king seat over a bunch of average seats.

    Onkyo/Integra do amazingly well with music. In many ways , they are my overall favorite line of AVR's on the market today. I'm actually considering getting a Onkyo RZ70 or a Integra DRX8.4. I"m also looking at the Pioneer Elite VSX LX805. All 3 AVR's share a common Amp Design and preamp section. Very similar to each other with minor differences.

    The RV50 I would absolutely also own as that thing really sounds great.
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • mrloren
    mrloren Posts: 2,465
    My Sony AVR didn't EQ the room, all they did was distance and level match. I would then get out the DB meter and get a correct match. My friend who bought my 5800ES still loves it on his 7.1 system.


    Both my Marantz and Denon would not get these right had to manually change a lot. When I turned Audyssey off they sound real thin and lacking. It was a fun frustrating adventure to get Audyssey correct. Sit in my KING SEAT move the mic just inches for 5-6 point calibration then add 4-6db to the sub.

    RZ50 did a perfect level match and distance. I didn't have to add any DB to the sub or make any changes. just added them Harmon curves.

    Apparently if I run ACCU EQ that will wipe out my saved DIRAC calibration kind of don't want to do that.

    When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
    Family Room:LG QNED80 75", Onkyo RZ50 Emotiva XPA3 GEN3 Oppo BDP-93,Sony UBP-X800BM. Main: Polk LsiM 705Center: Polk LSiM 704CFront High/Rear High In-Ceiling Polk 80F/X RT Surrounds: Polk S15 Sub: HSU VTF3-MK5
    Bed Room; Marantz SR5010, BDP-S270Main: Polk Signature S20Center: Polk Signature S35Rear: Polk R15 Sub: SVS SB2000
    Working Warehouse; Yamaha A-S301, Sony DVP-NS3100ES for disc Plok TSX550T SVS PB2000 Mini tower PC with 400GB of music
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  • rooftop59
    rooftop59 Posts: 8,121
    mrloren wrote: »
    Apparently if I run ACCU EQ that will wipe out my saved DIRAC calibration kind of don't want to do that.

    I love Dirac for my two channel. In my large, open, untreated living room with lots of hard surfaces and not much negotiation on where the speakers sit, it works wonders.

    Congrats on the avr! I've been eying that one, but my demon is for tv and movies only and it sounds wonderful for that and does everything I need, so I won't change it till it breaks knock on wood...
    Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es
    Game Room 5.1.4:     Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra
    Bedroom 2.1     Harmon Kardon HK3490; Bluesounds Node N130; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer
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  • mrloren
    mrloren Posts: 2,465
    Update on the Onkyo.

    I'm still digging this AVR. Great on movies and music. Been going thru my SACD's when I can. Just great on these as well. It does seem to like my Oppo better than my Sony for SACD for some reason.
    When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
    Family Room:LG QNED80 75", Onkyo RZ50 Emotiva XPA3 GEN3 Oppo BDP-93,Sony UBP-X800BM. Main: Polk LsiM 705Center: Polk LSiM 704CFront High/Rear High In-Ceiling Polk 80F/X RT Surrounds: Polk S15 Sub: HSU VTF3-MK5
    Bed Room; Marantz SR5010, BDP-S270Main: Polk Signature S20Center: Polk Signature S35Rear: Polk R15 Sub: SVS SB2000
    Working Warehouse; Yamaha A-S301, Sony DVP-NS3100ES for disc Plok TSX550T SVS PB2000 Mini tower PC with 400GB of music
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,201
    mrloren wrote: »
    Update on the Onkyo.

    I'm still digging this AVR. Great on movies and music. Been going thru my SACD's when I can. Just great on these as well. It does seem to like my Oppo better than my Sony for SACD for some reason.

    For the money, it's a really good unit. I'm on the other side of the Spectrum, I went Integra DRX8.4.
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • John_Lohmann
    John_Lohmann Posts: 92
    Was a huge Onkyo fan before they made the dumb decision to leave off the sound mode illumination along with the input name on the front panel; I would have purchased a newer Onk in a heartbeat to replace my old 605 had it not been for this drawback (along with the removal of the incredibly helpful IntelliVolume feature from the amps).
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  • Clipdat
    Clipdat Posts: 12,953
    Thank you John for your insight.
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  • John_Lohmann
    John_Lohmann Posts: 92
    Clipdat wrote: »
    Thank you John for your insight.

    I apologize if what I stated was not appropriate...unless you were genuinely thanking me for the thoughts I have on Onkyo AVRs (it's difficult to discern via online forums, LOL).
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  • Clipdat
    Clipdat Posts: 12,953
    It was appropriate, I’m just a sarcastic dick.
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  • John_Lohmann
    John_Lohmann Posts: 92
    edited August 15
    Clipdat wrote: »
    It was appropriate, I’m just a sarcastic dick.

    Ahhhhh....thanks for the heads up!

    But in retrospect, I don't think what you said was so sarcastic if it was genuine...
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,201
    John_Lohmann wrote: »
    Clipdat wrote: »
    It was appropriate, I’m just a sarcastic dick.

    Ahhhhh....thanks for the heads up!

    But in retrospect, I don't think what you said was so sarcastic if it was genuine...

    You will learn quickly we have sarcastic but friendly crowd in here. Bunch of good people with some run edges
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,678
    Rough edges Dan, rough edges.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,201
    F1nut wrote: »
    Rough edges Dan, rough edges.

    I gotta blame in on auto correct
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • John_Lohmann
    John_Lohmann Posts: 92
    mantis wrote: »
    John_Lohmann wrote: »
    Clipdat wrote: »
    It was appropriate, I’m just a sarcastic dick.

    Ahhhhh....thanks for the heads up!

    But in retrospect, I don't think what you said was so sarcastic if it was genuine...

    You will learn quickly we have sarcastic but friendly crowd in here. Bunch of good people with some run edges

    Yeah, I'm getting the vibe... ;)
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