The new audio visual products for 2015 have now well and truly arrived, it’s time to see the newest receivers from one of our favourite suppliers, Onkyo. Over the years they have been one of the corner-stone manufacturers of AV receivers, this year is indeed no exception so let’s jump right into what’s new!
Onkyo amplifiers have generally tended to offer stacks of features and impressive sound whilst maintaining their territory in the so called ‘more affordable’ price brackets. We’re taking a look at two new models that fit the bill in this respect, the TXSR444 and the TXNR646.
As most are now aware, there has been a huge breakthrough in surround sound technology thanks to Dolby Atmos. The benefit of this incredible new system is that rather than listening to your surround sound system “sweep” audio from left to right or vice versa, it will physically travel over you and around you. This positions the listener in a 360° “bubble” of audio with a vastly improved directionality of where the sound is coming from and travelling to. The idea being you will feel totally immersed within the content or gameplay you are enjoying on your screen. This is being heralded as the biggest advancement in surround sound for 20 years and both the TXSR444 and the TXNR646 are equipped with Atmos capabilities. Simply hook a set of Atmos enabled upfiring speakers or ceiling speakers to your setup and you can enjoy this brilliant phenomenon in your home.
Both the TXNR646 (above) and the TXSR444 (right) deliver incredible Dolby Atmos surround sound.
They both also feature a huge host of connectivity options including Bluetooth.
Massive Connectivity:
Onkyo are generally well known for having many different forms of connection available. These amps are both fully equipped for almost any kind of external device to be attached to them. The TXSR444 is versed with 4 HDMI inputs as well as being equipped with 2 optical inputs and 7 audio inputs (phono). The TXNR646 has a massive 8 HDMI inputs and 2 outputs which means you can run a secondary HDMI screen or projector to replicate the main imagery. Again many other connections include (but not limited to) 2 optical inputs, coax input, 8 phono connections and Wi-Fi all built in!
Both of these receivers also come with APT-X Bluetooth for simplistic streaming from most smart devices. Also, within the 646, there is a fantastic 384Khz/32 BIT DAC to upsample your music and boost low quality digital music to beyond CD quality. Very impressive.
Both amps also facilitate the new standard of HDMi for 4K Ultra HD devices so they are future proofed against any TV or projector upgrades you may wish to treat yourself with in the future too. This also means that you could enjoy a cinematic experience that’s closer to the real thing as ever before when you hook it up to a quality 4K model TV.
Bumper Sound:
The TXSR444 is able to pump out 65w per channel at 8 ohms to a 7.1 speaker setup giving you more than enough positioning if you weren’t using the Atmos speaker, while the TXNR646 gives off a monstrous 100w per channel and will even accept a second subwoofer to give even more bottom end bass.
I’ve always liked how much you can squeeze out of an Onkyo unit without having to empty your bank account and the fact you get the Atmos capability with both of these amps gives them a leg over the nearest Sony equivalent or indeed any RXV Yamaha receiver in my opinion.
Author: Andrew, Weybridge store
