Onkyo TX-NR7100 9.2-Channel AV Receiver - 100 Watts Per Channel, Dirac Live Out of Box, Works with Sonos Certified, THX Certified and More

We decided it was finally time to upgrade our older Denon AVR-1913. After some research we chose this Onkyo 7100. It sounds great, when it's working. Unfortunately the back right surround channel scratches, pops and then goes silent after what seems like a somewhat random period of time. Unfortunately, we bought it when we got a good sale price on Amazon, but had to go out of town just after it was delivered, so were unable to install it for a couple weeks, and after that it was a week before we noticed the speaker going out. By the time we realized the problem, it was too late to return it to Amazon.All that said, what we are really upset about is Onkyo's support. They have no live chat or phone support. NONE. A modern AVR is a complicated set up, and expensive, some form a live support is a MUST. We've contacted Onkyo via email, and they are responding, but it's a slow tedious task of them sending one more test they want done, and so far no offer to replace it. The first thing they wanted of course was for us to factory reset the entire system. The thing is, we tested everything we could think of before we even wrote them. Cutting and installing new wires, swapping back left and right speakers, swapping back left and right speaker wires. Everything came to the same conclusion, there is an issue with the back right channel. We are still waiting to hear back from them after the factory reset. Maybe they will replace it, frankly, we just want to return it, but in the end, we just want a working AVR.1 star for having no live support, and slow unresponsive email support.Update: They asked for our Amazon receipt, which we provided, and then responded:"If your device is under warranty, please send a copy of the purchase receipt for verification. If you're unable to provide a copy of the purchase receipt or you are no longer covered under the warranty umbrella, you will be responsible for the cost of the repair as well as the shipping costs. "AND then... provided zero information on how to get service other than a list of shops we can send it to for repairs, shipping at our expense. It's possible they will reimburse return shipping and the repair, but they provide no details on how to set that up. I guess we are suppose to ask the repair shop?

First, I bought my receiver new from this page but it was clearly a repack/open box. (Box had been retaped, manual pouch tape was cut, protective wrap around the receiver was cut.) That's ok given the price - this receiver was really being sold for $1,300 when it first came out, and still goes for close to $1,000 everywhere else. I just wish that had been advertised. I'd have still bought it. But caveat emptor if you buy from this page. It's still clearly new or at least mint, but the box and manuals, at least, had definitely been opened. I did not get a printed full manual at all and I'm not sure if Onkyo didn't include one or it was taken out of my box.As for the receiver, it has pretty much everything you could want including a couple "retro" inputs like component and phono. I personally have a separate stereo receiver since I also have a tape deck (which requires an audio out in addition to an audio in, and I don't know of any AV receiver that has that), but you can hook up pretty much anything an average person would have in 2024 to this receiver. It has HDMI 2.1, supports HDR 10 , Dolby Vision and HLG, VRR, ALLM, basically all the big acronyms. And it's THX certified, which is nice.I was trying to choose between the 6100 and 7100 and there are some subtle differences beyond the extra speaker support (7.2 vs. 9.2) that pushed me to the 7100 even though I only have a 5.1 system. The first is that the 7100's HDMI inputs are all high bandwidth; the 6100 only has 3 high bandwidth ports. The second is that the 7100 has a removable power cord - I wouldn't pay a huge amount extra for that but I'd pay a little. It's just more convenient, and of course you can just replace the cord if anything happens to it. And lastly, I do have some older components so having component input is a plus - the 6100 doesn't have that.But the thing that pushed me over the edge into buying the 7100 was the Dirac room correction. The 7100 has both AccuEQ and Dirac; the 6100 only has the former. Dirac is supposed to be a lot better. I tried it and it will actually show you a real measurement of your room's tone curve both before and after setup. Mine was basically a mess before setup and totally flat afterwards.Pretty much all AV receivers these days are going to perform as specified, which is why you don't ever see actual performance tests much even on big review sites anymore (I still wish they did them, though). THX certification is also supposed to guarantee a certain level of performance. So it basically comes down to features and livability. In terms of the former, this receiver basically has everything.In terms of the latter, there are a couple of little things that I remember from older Onkyo receivers I've had that are still issues. The most annoying is that there is a momentary pause in the audio basically whenever selecting *any* new piece of content. I don't just mean when switching inputs or something. I mean if you're already in YouTube and you start watching a video, the audio will start, drop out for a second, then restart. It does this *every* time. This was a thing but wasn't quite so annoying back when we were all just watching one DVD at a time on our home theater systems. Now that we're watching TV and streaming and everything else, going in and out of content on a whim, it's pretty irritating.I'm still experimenting to see if I can stop this without compromising too much; it may be possible to just lock it in to one audio format and then manually change it when necessary. But so much content uses different audio formats, it'd be nice to be able to leave it on auto. My old Denon, which I replaced with this Onkyo because the center channel on it died, would detect the audio in about half a second and then start playing it uninterrupted. I think what makes the Onkyo so irritating is that it will start playing about 2 seconds of audio, *then* drop out for a second, then come back. And it does this when playing anything. The Denon I had would stick with the last format unless it actually changed.There is an Onkyo app that you can download to control pretty much all of the receiver's functions (more than you can on the remote), even the Dirac curves. But the receiver seems to have trouble staying connected to wifi. This may just be something in my setup, but I've logged in and gotten it to work initially several times; it just doesn't seem to reconnect when turning on the receiver. It thinks it's connected but then when I run the connection test, it fails. If I manually re-log in again, then it works. Again, could be a router thing or something like that; I'm not going to blame the receiver. When the wifi works, the app on the phone actually works well. When the wifi doesn't work, well then the app doesn't either. But then you just use the remote like we all did before smartphones ever existed.One thing I will compliment Onkyo on is the on-screen menu. My Denon receiver had a really rudimentary and ugly menu. This Onkyo has a nicely designed menu with a lot of options. It also has a separate quick menu that will overlay on top of whatever you're watching and that has the most common functions. My Denon receiver's overlay never seemed to quite work right, and just wouldn't show up half the time; the Onkyo's seems to work on everything but the ARC output. If I have it set to the TV input/output, then I don't get the menus. But on all the regular HDMI inputs, it works.The 7100 is a large receiver - I upgraded from a Denon AVR-X1300W and the Onkyo is quite a bit larger. The Denon fit fine in my low profile TV stand; the Onkyo hangs out in front by just a bit (the feet are still on the platform; the front just hangs over) and I had to raise the shelf above it as well.I was disappointed to find that even in a receiver with a $1,300 list price, Onkyo still puts a plastic faceplate and knobs on their receivers. It may look like metal in their pictures, but it is 100% textured plastic. They didn't used to do that - I still have an older 5.1 receiver from them that was kind of a budget receiver at the time (it only has HDMI 1.4, which is why I replaced it long ago) and it has a metal faceplate and knobs - and it's even a curved piece of metal! Then again, that was a "real" Onkyo, before the company went bankrupt and then got bought out. This faceplate it just totally flat - it couldn't have cost them that much more to make it out of metal. It makes me wonder what other corners they're cutting internally these days, if they're willing to save just a few bucks on something so easily noticeable to the consumer. It does not feel like the Onkyo of old, which made upper mid-range components even under their main brand. This receiver feels mid mid, not upper mid.That said, for the price this is actually selling for at the moment, I still think it's worth it. It has the features and probably the real-world performance of a high-end AV receiver. It just has some annoying little issues that I feel like the original Onkyo would have fixed by now, and some cheapening out on the construction despite the high list price. (And hey, maybe that's why the price has had to drop so much - take a hint, Voxx!)

Paired with Klipsch RP600M-II Speakers, Klipsch SW12 Subwoofer, and Klipsch RP504C-II Center Channel Speaker this receiver ROARS! Fantastic audio, simple menus, and feature packed, you won’t go wrong with this receiver!

The feature to use a microphone to setup the room's delay is worth the price alone. I won't go on a long rant, but I've been a "poor" audiophile for years. This receiver is a pleasure. I can't wait to hook up the ceiling speakers to make use of all 9 channels.