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
- 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…
