Return of Onkyo stereo components

Danny Tse

From the Home Entertainment 2006 show report at Stereophile.com....

Onkyo held a press conference that really made us smile. It was all about stereo.

The $699.99 A-9555 employs Onkyo's vector linear technology to correct the high distortion that plagues most PWM designs. VL technology modulates the signal with an integration circuit rather than a comparator, which, Onkyo says,"cancels" the positive and negative pulses of transient distortion. Onkyo claims this effectively smoothes the analog modulation and "removes" the error.

The A-9555 puts out 100Wpc into an 8 ohm load and 200Wpc into 4 ohms.

And did we mention that it has a phono input with discrete phono equalization? Onkyo says this gives the A-9555's RIAA section excellect S/N performance and dynamic range without sacrificing transient response.

The matching DX-7555 CD player (price tbd) also employs vector Linear technology, this time in a shaping circuit that "smoothes out" the jagged edges left between the sampling point of D-to-A conversion.

The DX-7555 uses a 192kHz/24-bit Wolfson Microelectronics DAC and features controllable settings for digital filter, polarity, and clock frequency.

Did we mention that theA-555 and DX-7555 look like a million bucks?

So the integrated amp is actually a digital amp. I have been seeing Onkyo market a very similar integrated amp, the A-1VL, in Hong Kong and in Europe as an add-on 2 channel amp for music reproduction when mated to its home theater receivers with pre-outs. I wonder how this new Onkyo amp will stack on against offering from NAD, Cambridge Audio, etc....

The Onkyo A-1VL is the 4th component down in the below pic....

ohskigod

glad to see it, I allways liked onkyo. it was my dad's brand of choice for a while.

aaharvel

shouldn't this deserve to be a part of their "Integra" line?

Polkersince85

The old 70/80 era Onkyo had some of the best phono inputs around. Maybe they can duplicate it.

audiobliss

That new unit looks pretty nice. If it's of a solid metal, I'll bet it feels like a tank, too.

Home Theatre

Has anyone heard the new onyko htib the 790?

heiney9

IMO, one one hand it's great to see someone supporting 2-channel but, I'm not overly thrilled (not really thrilled at all) about it being a class D amplifier. All those circuits (gimmicks ?) to offset many of the downfalls of class D amplification.

I guess in this day and age cost consiousness is a big factor. What happened to pure 2-channel design without all the tricks that seem to be used all over in the HT set.

Give me a very simple straight forward design, no tone controls, big **** caps, dual toroids, some beefy binding posts, robust circuit design using robust output trannys, heavy biased to class A and I'd be happy. .

Wait!!!!! I guess the vintage electronics market has that covered.

I guess I just have to accept we are moving into a different era.

H9

Demiurge

Still can't stand the silver, even if it is supposed to be vintage. Do they come in other flavors?

ohskigod

aaharvel wrote:

shouldn't this deserve to be a part of their "Integra" line?

they ctually split Onkyo and Integra as 2 seperate brand names now. Doesnt seem like much success because I dont hear much from the Integra line. Onkyo does have the more recognizable name as a brand name over Integra. now if it was branded Onkyo Integra, like in the past, then that would work. but just branding it Integra would shoot themselves in the foot.

Danny Tse

Demiurge wrote:

Still can't stand the silver, even if it is supposed to be vintage. Do they come in other flavors?

Onkyo Europe has 4 stereo integrated amp in its line there, including the one in the original post. There are all available in silver or black.

Danny Tse

ohskigod wrote:

they ctually split Onkyo and Integra as 2 seperate brand names now. Doesnt seem like much success because I dont hear much from the Integra line. Onkyo does have the more recognizable name as a brand name over Integra. now if it was branded Onkyo Integra, like in the past, then that would work. but just branding it Integra would shoot themselves in the foot.

Integra is Onkyo's upmarket line, much like Pioneer's Elite or Sony's ES. While I think Integra packs Onkyo's best stuff, it is more focused with the custom installation market rather than high performance.

organ

Looks like a great int. amp. The power rating doubled at 4 ohms. Many amps only comes close to doubling. Thanks for the info, Danny.

Danny Tse

More info....from enjoythemusic.com's 06/09/2006 news item

Onkyo has introduced their high-end stereo A-9555 integrated amplifier and DX-7555 compact disc player ($699.99 and $599.99 respectively).

The integrated amplifier showcases Onkyo's 4th generation VL Digital power hybrid 'Class D' amplifier technology that will soon be within many other Onkyo products. Features in the A-9555 include 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms (200 watts into 4 ohms), seven stereo inputs including two tape/MD record loops, and a high quality phono preamplifier circuit with discrete RIAA equalization. The Onkyo DX-7555 CD player is compatible with CD, CD-R/RW, and MP3-encoded discs and includes a "super-precision clock circuit," which has a tolerance of just +/- 1.5 ppm for low jitter. Other features include a Wolfson Microelectronics DAC circuit with user-selectable profiles for either "sharp" (flat up to 20 kHz) or "slow" (gradual) high frequency rolloff.