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Onkyo is never a company to take a product line refresh lightly, so the announcement that the TX-SR875 and TX-NR905 home cinema receivers have been updated to the TX-SR876 and TX-SR906 should mean a decent set of improvements all round. Hopefully at a more compelling price, too.

The spec listing Onkyo's latest systems boast is pretty impressive, if just in length, but a condensed view looks like this:

TX-SR876

• Seven 200W channels
• Four HDMI v.1.3a inputs/two outputs
• Built-in 1080p video up-scaling and up-conversion with HQV Reon-VX
• ISF-certified Video Calibration
• THX Ultra2 Plus certified performance (including THX Loudness)
• Onboard decoder for Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD
• Three Texas Instruments Aureus 32-bit DSP chips for processing
• Music Optimiser for MP3/AAC tracks
• Audyssey Dynamic EQ
• RIHD (Remote Interactive over HDMI) control system

TX-NR906 (as above plus:)

• Seven 220w channels
• Massive Toroidal Power Transformer
• Separate transformers for audio and video stages for audio purity
• Network Audio-capable, Certified for Windows Vista
• Front-panel USB for portable audio devices
• Streaming audio via Ethernet

The most important features of both the TX-SR876 and TX-NR906 comes in the form of their THX Ultra2 Plus certification and ISF-calibration capability. In layman's terms, both systems should be tweakable to as close to the cinema end of a home cinema setup as humanly possible.

As sported by their predecessors, both systems feature Audyssey MultiEQ XT - basically auto-calibration of each channels sound output to suit the installed room. Going one step futher, though, the TX-SR876 and TX-SR906 also boast Audyssey's Dynamic EQ technology, for balancing the sound output and Dynamic Volume Technology, ensuring a consistent output volume.

The TX-NR906 boasts a USB port, allowing MP3 players to be connected, and an Ethernet port allowing both the streaming of media files from a PC and also internet media. Support for MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, FLAC, and OGG files covers just about every manufacturer of players

Unsurprisingly, neither system is cheap. The TX-SR876 will cost around £1,000 when it becomes available in the middle of this month, while the TX-NR906 will sit at around £1,400. And that's before buying a set of speakers, players and TV to go with the receiver…

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