Onkyo Or Denon

[Thornton Melon]

I can buy an Onkyo 606 for $1000,or a Denon AVR 789 for $1100.

Opinions please.

Question, why is Denon rated better than Onkyo ?

Cheers.

Thornton

[Nevyn72]

Onkyo and Denon AVRs have quite different sound characterisitics, one may suit your speakers or listening preferences better than the other. Unfortunately you won't know which without trying both in your home environment.....

Onkyo are considered a bright amp and if you have a lot of hard surfaces in your room may seem overly harsh.

Denons are more neutral which to some sound a bit flat.

What is going to be your listen range?

Biased more to HT, Music or both?

How will it be positioned? Onkyos are notorious for running warm and need good ventilation.

Will you need pre-outs? (to add a power amp down the track)

Onkyo 606 doesn't have them except for the sub, I don't know about the Denon.

Disclaimer: I have an Onkyo 705 driving Paradigm Monitors and love it!

[Thornton Melon]

Onkyo and Denon AVRs have quite different sound characterisitics, one may suit your speakers or listening preferences better than the other. Unfortunately you won't know which without trying both in your home environment.....

Onkyo are considered a bright amp and if you have a lot of hard surfaces in your room may seem overly harsh.

Denons are more neutral which to some sound a bit flat.

What is going to be your listen range?

Biased more to HT, Music or both?

How will it be positioned? Onkyos are notorious for running warm and need good ventilation.

Will you need pre-outs? (to add a power amp down the track)

Onkyo 606 doesn't have them except for the sub, I don't know about the Denon.

Disclaimer: I have an Onkyo 705 driving Paradigm Monitors and love it!

Having only owned Onkyo AVR's,I am biased towards them,but a lot of Denon owners claim them to be superior. I do like a bright sound

The specs of both AVR's are similar,well I will make a decision tomorrow and buy one of them,probably the Onkyo.

Thanks for your advice.

Cheers.

Thornton

[50mxe20]

Having only owned Onkyo AVR's,I am biased towards them,but a lot of Denon owners claim them to be superior. I do like a bright sound

The specs of both AVR's are similar,well I will make a decision tomorrow and buy one of them,probably the Onkyo.

Thanks for your advice.

Cheers.

Thornton

Based on bias or based on listening?

If you can't hear a difference go with your heart, or flip a coin.

[matt200sr]

heads / tails... you wont be able to tell the diffrence,,

both feature same video chip..

Id get the Onkyo cause ive got a 705

[-geejay-]

Having only owned Onkyo AVR's,I am biased towards them,but a lot of Denon owners claim them to be superior. I do like a bright sound

The specs of both AVR's are similar,well I will make a decision tomorrow and buy one of them,probably the Onkyo.

Thanks for your advice.

Cheers.

Thornton

Here’s my take on it…

Onkyo pretty much put the cat amongst the pigeons when they released their 605 model originally (and then the 606 model) at the particular price point they did –and especially so for the features that were included.

Denon, and possibly even Yamaha, appeared to have been caught a little off guard by this move by Onkyo at the time.

Now Denon are in catch up mode, and are offering a pair of receivers (1909 & 789) which, while overall have similar specs at close to a similar price to the Onkyo 606, are fitted with a superior Audyssey implementation. (The Onkyo 606 is fitted with the lowest-spec ‘2EQ’ version of Audyssey which does not do equalisation for the sub-woofer, and has less filter points for each channel; while Denon are providing the mid-level ‘MultEQ’ version of Audyssey on their comparable products -which is superior in these aspects

In the past I have recommended the Onkyo as a good choice for an amp priced at around the $1K point or so. But now the 1909 and 789 models have finally arrived from Denon the game has changed. I’d say that if choosing between Onkyo & Denon now; take the Denon and get slightly cooler running, a very bug-free product, and a more advanced version of Audyssey as well.

Note that neither of these two brands are providing pre-amp outputs in the models being discussed here; but while there are exceptions, the majority of people looking for receiver/amps at this particular price point usually state that they have no intention of using a separate power amp either now, or in the future.

PS: The Denon manual is a bit hard to interpret initially, and their remotes are not too brilliant either (but then, most people would be choosing to use a universal remote anyway). So I wouldn’t rate these two small points as severe handicaps –especially compared to the other advantages the Denon has over the Onkyo at this point in time.

Hope this find these thoughts useful

Cheers

[Thornton Melon]

Here’s my take on it…

Onkyo pretty much put the cat amongst the pigeons when they released their 605 model originally (and then the 606 model) at the particular price point they did –and especially so for the features that were included.

Denon, and possibly even Yamaha, appeared to have been caught a little off guard by this move by Onkyo at the time.

Now Denon are in catch up mode, and are offering a pair of receivers (1909 & 789) which, while overall have similar specs at close to a similar price to the Onkyo 606, are fitted with a superior Audyssey implementation. (The Onkyo 606 is fitted with the lowest-spec ‘2EQ’ version of Audyssey which does not do equalisation for the sub-woofer, and has less filter points for each channel; while Denon are providing the mid-level ‘MultEQ’ version of Audyssey on their comparable products -which is superior in these aspects

In the past I have recommended the Onkyo as a good choice for an amp priced at around the $1K point or so. But now the 1909 and 789 models have finally arrived from Denon the game has changed. I’d say that if choosing between Onkyo & Denon now; take the Denon and get slightly cooler running, a very bug-free product, and a more advanced version of Audyssey as well.

Note that neither of these two brands are providing pre-amp outputs in the models being discussed here; but while there are exceptions, the majority of people looking for receiver/amps at this particular price point usually state that they have no intention of using a separate power amp either now, or in the future.

PS: The Denon manual is a bit hard to interpret initially, and their remotes are not too brilliant either (but then, most people would be choosing to use a universal remote anyway). So I wouldn’t rate these two small points as severe handicaps –especially compared to the other advantages the Denon has over the Onkyo at this point in time.

Hope this find these thoughts useful

Cheers

Thanks Geejay,a very comprehensive report,it answers most of my questions,the only difference seems that the Onkyo has one more HDMI input and the Denon has an optical output.

I think I will buy one of them today.

Cheers.

Thornton