Audio Reviews

Well, not quite as cool as my iPod, but Bluetooth headphones people, c'mon, how cool is that?

A relative of mine bought this about 4-5 years back from Hong Kong.
It is very compact(smaller than the palm of your hand) and has a wired remote control. The voice recording/playback clarity is amazing. You can slip it into your shirt pocket and nobody will even suspect a thing. The best feature of this baby? When you set it to record- it records only when you speak. If you stop speaking, the tape stops recording and resumes automatically when you speak again.

Though I am looking at a digital voice recorder(Sony ICD-BP150) now, I would still give a preference to this Olympus.

I tried many different speaker stands for my Promedia speakers(mainly spending 3-4 hours in Circuit City hooking the speakers up to different stands and seeing how functional and nice-looking they were). I found these to be the best. I am not sure how well they work for other speakers, but for Klipsch's Promedia series, they are the best.

Can't beat the price for what you get: High class music and voice messages which are a great combination. Biggest problem with these is that after a year or so, the CD player wears out. The CD should be downloaded to an MP3 player for the long term.

I purchased my Onkyo TX-SR500 from J&R six weeks ago and I am delighted with it. I can't comment on it's attributes as a home theatre system since I am using it in stereo mode with only two speakers. My system also includes a 13 yr. old Onkyo cd player and 30 yr. old KLH model 5 speakers. As such, it sounds great, a very nice improvement over the 15 yr. old sony receiver it replaced (obviously, I don't upgrade components until they stop working). It provides strong, tight bass response as well as very clear, detailed mid and high end. I know it's a cliche, but I am hearing a lot of details in the music that I never heard before.
Regarding the refurbished aspect, there was an almost invisible cosmetic blemish on the edge of the faceplate. Otherwise, it appears as new. Consumer Reports called this model a "very good performer and a very good value" even without the steep discount as a refurbished item. I agree completely

I've had this unit for a month and have been very happy with it; very hard to beat in this price range. We only watch about 4 DVDs a month (at the most), and our home theater setup is in a fairly small room (13x15 ft.), so it didn't make sense to go for a higher end unit. This is the least expensive high-current power I could find.

Weaknesses:
- The remote is small, with lots of closely spaced buttons and tiny lettering. It provides a lot of control over the receiver, and does a 'better than expected' job controlling my JVC TV set, but does nothing for my Sony CD player, Phillips DVD player, or Panasonic VCR.
- May not be enough power for a large room (see strengths, below). If both of these are serious issues for you, you should definitely consider the next model up, an additional [price].

Strengths:
- Excellent for the price.
- Easy to set up & tweak.
- Full home theater alphabet soup support: Dolby Digital, DTS, Pro-Logic II
- 'Family friendly' design: no bass & treble knobs for your youngster to mess with, and it has one of those volume controls that is always where it was the last time you turned it off (so you won't blow your speakers upon power up because your kids cranked it when you weren't watching).
- High-current power supports the use of higher-end speakers, like Paradigm, PSB, NHT, etc.
- Lots of loud, clear sound. Don't let the 65 watts fool you. If this unit were a Sony, they'd probably tell you it was 80 watts. Here's the rub: for full, 5.1 channel DVD watching, I need to turn this unit up to about 80 (on a scale of 0-100) to get loud, theater-level sound, and I'm in a small, 13x15 foot room. If the room was much bigger, you could be hitting your head on the ceiling of what this receiver can produce. The good news is this: even turned up almost all the way, I'm hearing no noticable distortion. Also, what I consider "loud, theater-level sound", my wife considers "Oh my gosh, will you turn that thing down, you're going to deafen the baby". 'Loud' is all relative.

Overall, This is a good splurge unit for a home theater newbie who wants to expand beyond the 'home theater in a box' scene, and its also a good unit for 'budget audiophiles' who don't live in a barn, a loft, or a mansion.

I am totally satisfied with this receiver so far...The step up from just having Pro-Logic to this 6.1 system is considerable. It makes everything sound better... music, movies, and games. Contrary to the report I saw here,this receiver has (2)optical inputs with (1)coaxial input.(not the other way around)These are both assignable to the input that you want. The setup wasnt bad. Actually, if you follow the manual, it is quite easy. Dont be fooled by the seemingly low power rating compared to others. Onkyo measures their ratings in a different way than most. This receiver has plenty of power to rock the house. If you want a truly high quality receiver without breaking the bank, try one of these!

I am a huge audio file and a fan of Onkyo. I have had an Onkyo TXSV515ProII for a long time that was a super receiver until it died recently. With a new receiver I pretty much had my mind made up to get a new Onkyo but I compared others just to make sure I was getting the best choice. I looked at Dennon, Harmon Kardon and Yamaha and none of them compared to the Onkyo for features and sound quality. Unfortunately, Onkyo has also grown to be a little more expensive than these other choices. At the three stores I went to, to comparison shop the sales people seemed upset that I was even considering buying anything but an Onkyo. (Each sales person I talked to, personally owned an Onkyo also) The only thing I liked better about the others was the styling of the Onkyo is getting very dated. In fact, I took the feet off my old receiver and put them on the new one to jazz it up a bit. This receiver has connections for everything you have and will likely have, including phonograph input. I have mine connected with two VCRs, a cassette tape player, DVD/Laserdisc player through the component inputs, HDTV receiver connected to the fiberoptic input, digital recorder through the fiberoptic output, and also, phonograph player. This receiver is also THX 6.1 receiver and I have the full set up of speakers three surround speakers, two fronts, center and subwoofer. I also have rock speakers outside connected to the zone 2 speaker output. There are also pre-outs for the zone two speakers and a 12V DC control output to work with Niles Audio speaker switch. This way you could wire up your whole house with speakers. I have used every single feature on the receiver and am very pleased with the sound. Like my old Onkyo this handles all video switching and you can dub tapes from one source to another by selecting different inputs. I read some complaints on other sites about the volume knob. It is not linear like you would expect it to be. Between 0 and 50 on the volume knob it does not get very loud but after 60 it gets very loud quickly. This is done so that you have a wider range of control for low volume where you listen to it most. I would have bought the TXSR601 which has features more analogous to my old receiver but this one has a phonograph input. And now that I got it all the other features that this has over the 601 make me feel better about spending nearly twice as much.

This piece is advertised as a media tower, but it also makes an excellent bookcase! It is very deep and sturdy, so it holds a ton of books. I bought 2 of these with the 5-drawer media stand. I was going to place them on top of it, but they were heavy, and they look great standing alone, on either side of the media stand.

Great little shirtpocket recorders/players. Great sound and
quality. Interesting 3 LED battery indicator.