Onkyo's TX-SR607 receiver stakes out the high ground with Dolby ProLogic IIz

by Steven Kim posted Mar 12th 2009 at 10:01AM

Sure, your 7.1-channel setup does a great job of swarming Maverick, Iceman and Jester's jets all around you, but imagine how much better it would be to get vertical surround effects as well. Pick up an Onkyo TX-SR607 receiver (available next month for $599) and you can find out, thanks to its Dolby ProLogic IIz (DPL IIz) processing. Just put a couple more speakers high and tight above your front channels, hook them up and enjoy. Onkyo is kicking off the DPL IIz craze with the midrange TX-SR607, and will be rolling the feature out across its higher-spec models over the summer. If you're not so interested in more channels, even the more modest TX-SR507 ($399) and TX-SR307 ($299) models have been refreshed with a sprinkling of more HDMI inputs and support for HD audio codecs. Hit that link for the full details.

Gallery: Onkyo TX-SRx07 receivers

Filed under: Receivers, Others

Tags: dolby prologic iiz, DolbyPrologicIiz, onkyo, tx-sr307, tx-sr507, tx-sr607

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Aaron Smith @ Mar 12th 2009 10:27AM

Now if I can just get the wife to agree that we need two more speakers , and we'll hang them from the ceiling in the front of the room or something...

Neutral

Samuel McConnell @ Mar 12th 2009 11:26AM

Aww, I'm sad. Your post made me think that Onkyo's low-end model would finally do HDMI audio processing...but sadly this is still not the case.

Neutral

Matt @ Mar 12th 2009 11:39AM

This is my biggest problem, what the hell is the point of HDMI when the audio passes through?

Highly Ranked

Rambo @ Mar 12th 2009 2:01PM

Agreed. So there's this thing called High Definition MULTIMEDIA Interface that was designed with the specific intention of using one cable to transmit audio and video, yet for some reason, Onkyo has managed to bypass the entire concept of this interface. It's as if they are taking the engineers who worked so hard on this medium, lined them up and pissed on them while shouting obscenities about their families. The only reason this is done, is to force people into buying their more expensive counterparts. I would assume that they had to pay the licensing fee to use HDMI or it wouldn't be on there in the first place. The audio data is already in the receiver, all they have to do is get the data to decoder, which is already there as well. One connection. No cost. What Losers.

Highly Ranked

squiggleslash @ Mar 12th 2009 2:39PM

I think for the most part they're recycling old designs, doing little but upgrading firmware and putting the designs in a new box. I think this is how virtually all of the receiver manufacturers are doing it. The obsession with "HDMI switching" on low end receivers is because you can make minimal changes to the design, grafting on an off-the-shelf HDMI switch.

Who's fault is this? Combination of the manufacturers and whatever the HDMI trade group is called. If it doesn't do HDMI properly, it shouldn't be allowed to carry an HDMI logo. At the very least, something with an HDMI out should output all video to that port, digitizing analog streams if necessary, and any HDMI inputs should be used as sources, if only for bare PCM audio.

The difference between a low end, medium end, and high end receiver should be based upon wattage, number of speakers, quality, and high end codecs supported, not whether the people sticking HDMI labels on it are actually telling the truth.

Neutral

Binoy @ Apr 7th 2009 1:37PM

TX-SR607 DOES support HDMI audio "repeater" functionality, meaning the HDMI inputs in the receiver transmits HD audio signals to the speakers without having the need for secondary digital connections like TOSLink or Coaxial cables.

I was excited at the launch of this model, but when I read the post regarding 'no HDMI audio capabilities' I was quite disappointed, until I checked out the Operations Manual and Speaker hookup Manual.

http://www.onkyousa.com/quickhookup.cfm?m=TX-SR607

Neutral

Ed @ Mar 12th 2009 11:39AM

So what's the verdict: The new 507 or the current 606? Because I'll be buying one of the two sometime in the next few months.

Neutral

Scott @ Mar 12th 2009 12:15PM

I still love my Onkyo...but I wish HDMI Pass through was there.

Neutral

Joseph @ Mar 12th 2009 4:33PM

What in this price range supports HDMI audio processing?

Neutral

h0mi @ Mar 12th 2009 12:41PM

My patience has been rewarded. 6 HDMI inputs on the 607.

Neutral

MPGXSVCD @ Mar 12th 2009 1:02PM

Hasn't Yamaha had "Front presence" channels for about 5 years that do essentially the same thing? Just because it has the Dolby name on it now it is "NEW".

The real question is "will this receiver support 9.1 channel output or will it require you to replace the rear channels with the front channels"?

Neutral

Steven Kim @ Mar 12th 2009 1:02PM

I was wondering that, too -- which is why I included the back panel pic. There's a set of binding posts labeled "Surr Back/Front High" and a set of spring clips labeled "Front High/Zone 2", so it looks like this unit will actually do 9.2 duty (also has dual sub outs). I might consider the 607 myself, but it's missing preamp outputs -- guess I'll wait for the 707. Or an Emotiva UMC-1.

Neutral

smegleyshire @ Apr 2nd 2009 4:23PM

The 7.2 / 9.2 question had me wondering to.
Onkyo have just put up the owners manual (on the US site) today (2nd April 09):

http://www.us.onkyo.com/download/own_manuals.cfm?cat=Receiver

The connection diagrams in there show a full 9 full range speaker setup with no suggestion of any either/or options. Then I found page 43 (setting 6) - looks like the firmware sets the front highs driven or the rear surrounds driven but not both.

Not surprising really as all the literature does have 7.2 on it after all!

Wonder if the TBA high end models 807?/877?/907? will have 9.2 later in the year...

Neutral

MPGXSVCD @ Mar 12th 2009 1:13PM

I saw a few reports on avsforum that said it is just a 7.1 channel receiver. Just like Yamaha has had for several years. Why didn't people get all excited about the Yamaha RX-V663 that had this feature last year for around $400?

Neutral

MadMike @ Mar 12th 2009 1:33PM

Damn, and I just got an Onkyo 806!

Neutral

Multi-format-mayhem @ Mar 12th 2009 2:48PM

I wouldn't worry, the 8 series Onkyo is a good step up from the 6 series
(good entry level value and decent tho they are).

Forget the badges, baubles and beads for the natives who don't know
any better, the quality of the components inside is what counts.

You don't get THD numbers @ 130w in the 0.019% range with the cheaper
lightweight components
(which is why your 806 weighs just under 40lbs - count yourself lucky, my 875 weights 30kg = 66lbs! You really think twice about moving that lump.).

The 607 will most likely weigh around the same as the out-going 606 @ 11.4kg (25lb).

Neutral

MPGXSVCD @ Mar 12th 2009 1:40PM

According to the article below these also have Dolby Volume. Now that might be a great reason to upgrade as long as you can apply Dolby Volume to things like DTS-MA and PCM which you can currently do with Yamaha's Advanced Dynamic Range compression.

Does anyone get the feeling that receiver technology is going backwards instead of forwards?

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6643635.html?nid=2402

Neutral

Brian @ Mar 12th 2009 2:09PM

Ill stick with my Onkyo 906 bi-amped into my Paradigm Studio 100s.

Neutral

Kumar @ Mar 12th 2009 2:08PM

So is the Audissey thing new to the US market. I could swear my 606 says it's Euro only, so maybe that's a change?

Neutral

Ed @ Mar 12th 2009 2:12PM

Audyssey has been available for quite some time now on receivers in the states. Don't know about Europe.

Neutral

demon @ Mar 12th 2009 7:54PM

I have a TX-SR674, which included Audyssey 2EQ autocalibration, and I think it was in some prior iterations too. So yes, Onkyo's had it for awhile now.

Neutral

Video Master 2 @ Mar 12th 2009 2:32PM

Having a 9.2 speaker set-up is just a joke. No need to go beyond 5.1. What are they thinking?

Neutral

Multi-format-mayhem @ Mar 12th 2009 2:50PM

Those who cannot get past their number/spec-sheet obsession.

Neutral

chuckdaly @ Mar 12th 2009 3:00PM

Who is encoding any movies in Dolby Pro Logic anymore? No one. At least DPL II and DPL IIx had real world benefits, such as the ability to use all 7 speakers (DPL IIx), or giving "discrete" and full range rears instead of mono limited range (DPL II). II and IIx didn't require newly encoded material. DPL IIz does require new encoding. Its clearly a stolen idea from Yamaha, but it hasn't helped Yamaha much.

So your brand new Receiver or Pre/Pro is now obsolete, go out and buy this new Onkyo, its got improved betterness...or something like that.

Neutral

squiggleslash @ Mar 13th 2009 8:55AM

Well, come on! Just because no content is being encoded in Pro-Logic doesn't mean that buyers of Receivers don't generally have substantial libraries of content with Pro-Logic encoding.

I'm glad nothing new is coming out in PL either, but I wouldn't buy a receiver without it.

Neutral

vhato @ Mar 30th 2009 8:29AM

Wrong, DPLIIz does not require encoding. It is applied to PCM, Dolby Digital/TrueHD like DPLIIx does. Its on Dolbys site.

Neutral

Guy Incognito @ Mar 12th 2009 5:07PM

Can someone explain to this noob what HDMI audio processing is? I thought HDMI did audio and video. Thanks.

Highly Ranked

Cornelius @ Mar 13th 2009 11:23AM

Audio processing is extracting the audio from the HDMI cable and decoding it and sending it to the speakers. So they essentially ignore the audio stream. A lot of the cheaper HDMI receivers don't do this- they simply serve as HDMI hubs and pass it through to the HDMI output (to your TV). It's pointless, really, since TVs usually only have weak stereo speakers.

Basically, having HDMI inputs on a receiver with no audio processing is useless.

Neutral

Mike @ Mar 12th 2009 5:19PM

Kinda like the front HDMI input. Wish my 706 had that. Would be great for impromptu HD home movie watching.

Neutral

Cornelius @ Mar 13th 2009 11:32AM

120mhz TVs? Don't you mean 120Hz?

Unlike monster cables and Bose speakers, 120Hz TVs actually do make a discernible difference, as they do a clean pulldown of 24 fps video (since 120 is a multiple of 24). Many also support interpolation between frames, but personally I'm not a fan of this feature.

You might actually want to do some research before you knock useful features.

Neutral

Cornelius @ Mar 13th 2009 11:33AM

Crap, this was supposed to be in response to Ron's comment...

Neutral

Ron @ Mar 12th 2009 5:29PM

Dolby ProLogic IIz : brought to you by Monster Cable, BOSE Speakers, and 120mhz tv's everywhere!

Neutral

peter f @ Mar 12th 2009 7:34PM

I dont under stand what people are complaining about that onkyos dont have hdmi audio passthrough, i was looking into getting a 606. before i saw 607. but anyways 606 and 607 process all hd audio codecs through hdmi, and if u want it not to process, cant u just have ur bluray player process it and send the sound out as pcm through hdmi to ur reciever, that basically is hdmi pass through cause the reciever isnt doing anything to the sound, and just sending the incoming processed pcm signal to the speakers. so if some one can please explain what is the gripe i would appreciate it since im kindof a newb but been doin hours of research about recievers.

Neutral

Cornelius @ Mar 13th 2009 11:39AM

Many BD players don't decode all of the formats into LPCM. Some only do DTS-MA. Others only do DolbyHD.

I guess the receivers that support all of the HD formats are for those who prefer to bitstream data.

Considering I use a PS3 for bluray, I'm content using my Samsung AS-720, which handles 7.1 LPCM just fine.

Neutral

Lazarus Dark @ Mar 12th 2009 10:23PM

They should have stopped with mono sound, no need to go any further from there, right?

Seriously, why are people dissing this? If you don't feel you need or want it fine, but I'm all for anything that improves the Home theater experience. D-Box, 3-D, 14 channel sound, whatever. Progress on.

I'm slightly dissappointed that they keep adding this stuff one by one. Why not skip 9.1 and go straight to 14 channels?

Neutral

kcgr @ Mar 12th 2009 11:05PM

looks like they're jumping on the "get rid of s-video" bandwagon also.

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