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Onkyo Digital 85 Watt Stereo Receiver
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By Christopher B. Cutter (Louisiana)
I bought this to replace an old hybrid tube preamp with two mono amos from Mustech pricy stuff, butcouldnt survive the unstable electicity in Louisiana (despite a a surge/ power protector.) I am driving some old, but sweet NHT speakers and I have a Rega turntable and an old high-end Marantz CD player. The sound is wonderful sweet and full of well-defined low bass even with the vinyl.
Only one negative thing. I bought the Onkyo and had trouble connecting the spade lugs into the speaker connectors in the back and so I cut the expensive Tara speaker cables to bare wire and got them in there. It worked fine for a couple of days and then would not power up (after we had a Louisiana lightning storm folowed by a brief power outage. I don't know if I shorted out the amp with bad speaker connection or if the power was the cause or something else, but they mailed me a new one with no hassle and I bought some new high -end speaker cables with banana plugs the are quite secure and even I cannot screw them up. All is well
By Marek Materka (Brooklyn, NY)
There is no need to repeat all the raves already mentioned. Frankly, you will not find anything better in this price range ($450 at J&R) and the sound quality can easily match brands costing 3-4 times more. Combined with the DX7555 player it takes the cd listening experience to an audiophile level.
Recommended additions:
1) Belkin PF60 Home Theater Power Console (~$200) - stabilizes the voltage, cleans the audio/video and protects your system
2) Blue Jeans BJC LC-1 cables ($31 3 foot pair) - great interconnects.
3) Cambridge 640 Stage ($180) - an absolute must for a good turntable (Technics 1200MK2 or 1210MG5) as the phono input included with the amp is not that impressive.
4) Klipsch RB-81 Bookshelf Loudspeaker ($550 a pair at J&R) - excellent match for Onkyo gear.
By Ji Shen (Tallahassee, FL)
It is my first integrated amp so I don't have much to compare with.
I read many reviews including some amp competition held in 2008. It seems this amp is very impressive at this price range. I got the refurbished version for 450 dollars only. So I would say it is 5 star for this price.
I own Onkyo 605 and 606, Wharfedale 9.5 and 9.6. This amp obviously produce better and clearer sound. You will definately hear more details than before. A good cable is a must buy. I used Monsters M850i(about 40 dollars). It substantially improved the sound quality comparing to a normal cable.
I still doubt why the amp doesn't provide a digital input since CD is already digitalized. Or these companies just want to get more money from selling over priced CD palyer and audio cables!!
By Ramon 'manito (NYC)
I had been looking for an amplifier for a couple of months to satisfied my reborn
interest in vinyl which was sparked with the Audio-Technica AT-PL120 I purchased earlier this year. I had originally bought the AT to digitize my old albums many of which were not available on CD but most importantly, the cost of replacing so many records (..so little time). On my way to all digital, something funny happened. I was suddenly reminded of how pleasant analog is/was. I began to play all my old records and after putting a couple to cd I stopped and just started listening to them. Like I use to do back in paleolithic times.
Of course after hearing what was I soon wanted what could be. An analog lovers plight. Black Hole would actually be more apt. First step replace the OEM cartridge to a Shure M97xE. Next upgrade to the Music Hall P1.2 phono preamplifier. Next a new turntable mat-I made my own out of cork and Sorbothane. Much better, for about three months. Something was missing. I needed a new amp.
I was getting ready to spend about $1500 for a power amplifier. I looked up the usual suspects; Adcom, NAD, Parasound, Rotel and newcomer Vincent. I would use the amp in conjunction with my A/V receiver, the Yamaha RX-V663 which I would use as a preamp. It has pre-outs for its main and surround channels.
But then I read Stereophiles Recommended Components for 2009. And there amongst $150,0000 turntables,$17,000 tonearms, $5,000 cartridges and $30,000 mono block power amplifiers was the Onkyo A-9555, list price:$800. What's up with this? I did some more research. And then some more research. I was about to go down to J@R Music World to listen to it, but when they put it on sale for just over $400, I pounced on it like Kirstie Alley on a Big Mac. I figured I could always return it and I could listen to it in my listening room with my own speakers!
I know from experience that any audio gear needs time to break in, but if what I heard is a sign 'Of Things To Come', punch my ticket and beam me up Scotty. How sweet it is!(Now I'm getting carried away, sorry about that). But seriously (Airplane anyone?), This amp is fantastic. The overall sound is rich, warm and tube like. Not really tube but tube-like. Almost like my old Fisher 500-C all-tube tube receiver, yet with a more robust powerful bass. The bass is not as tight as as more expensive amps but tight bass and a tight wallet never did go well together. But considering its price point it is full and bloomy yet you can here the individual strings as they are plucked.
As others have mentioned the highs do roll of a bit so system matching is a must.
If your system leans towards the lush already adding more greenery will only make
it harder to tell the forest from the trees. I found that the Audio-Technica AT-440MLa, a bright-some say overly bright-cartridge works for me. As for digiatl audio the Onkyo takes away some of the high frequency shrill I find so annoying in many (most?) CDs. All-in-all a sweet heart of an amplifier with a fairly deep and wide soundstage and excellent imaging. Highly recommended! Two thumbs up and a bag of chips.
By-the-way I've always found Ms. Alley to be and extremely beautiful women. No matter what size.
By Kofi Anim-Appiah (Allen, TX United States)
For those who don't already know, this is an excellent integrated amp. I first read about it in Stereophile magazine. Now I can't give it five stars, of course, because I'm an audiophile and every piece of audio equipment can be improved. The sound is much better than you will get from just about any receiver - clear uncluttered sound that's essentially free of any stridency (some say it sounds "tube-like" which I would liken to what you often hear from an amplifier with MOSFET output devices.) Due to its high output impedance it does not like to be paired with speakers with absurdly low impedance (like, ahem, Infinity 8 Kappa) with which the bass is unfocused. The amplifier is well built, quite heavy and has a somewhat understated elegance about its front panel (I have the black version.)
Yes, I don't like the fact that it has no balance control (which is probably why it sounds so good) and cannot be brought out of "standby" mode without the remote control. Yes, if the remote fails (or is misplaced) while the amplifier is in standby mode it cannot be turned back on. Period. Not even by unplugging the amplifier from the mains and then plugging it back in. In such a situation your main recourse is to find another functioning remote control! Hmmm.
Maybe I should give it four-and-half stars. Highly recommended.
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