Buy Onkyo TX-SR706 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black)

Pros:

Has all of the sound decoding choices that you can possibly need for a very long time to come. It has four HDMI inputs. Can be fully operated with or without the remote control...all buttons are on the front of the receiver. You don't even need to turn on the TV to view the internal menu. It can be viewed through the display panel window on the front of the receiver. Just press receiver button and then set up button. This receiver delivers incredibly big, clean, beautiful full sound. Smart, easy, intuitive remote control. Beautifully, well thought out menu. Thoughtful back panel that makes putting in speaker wires way less painful. Un-selfish, non-proprietary inner-workings that allow you to play well with the other components that you are using. Has function to take max volume off internally (in menu) and thus gives you plenty of sound while you are still in the negative volume numbers. Let's you start your receiver with a low volume of your choice so that you won't blow your speakers. Sweet. I can use receiver with the TV on or off. That's just real smart.

Other Thoughts:

I hope that you don't mind me sharing the benefits of my experience with the receiver and I hope that it will be a great help to you.
This is my second Onkyo receiver. I had the TX-SR606 a little under a year but sold it so that I could get the extra ten watts that the 706 receiver affords. I have JBL speakers from a previous 5.1 system that are 100 watts so I always wanted This 100 watt receiver but couldn't afford it at the time. My point is that the previous receiver, the 606, had the same abilities (Except THX and the extra 10 watts) but I couldn't get the benefits of it until I had the PROPER blue ray player to compliment it. These receivers were tremendously built to supply you with the very latest that technology has to offer.
I just purchased two back speakers (enery speakers sold at New Egg) and the new Play Station3 Slim SPECIFICALLY to compliment THIS receiver. I also have the original Play Station 3 but the new PS3 SLIM is the one that sells for 300.00 and has the new chipset that decodes the DTS HD Master Audio and True HD sounds. I'm mentioning the PS3 so that all are who are reading this understands just how to get all that this receiver has to offer and understand how it all works together.
So, here are the mistakes that I made and the things that I learned.

The Onkyo technicians stepped me through the following settings and helped me to understand why and how everything worked (various components with one another) and all of the things needed to get the most out of the receiver. So here goes.

No matter what anyone tells you, you won't see your receiver flash across the words DTS Master HD or True HD without a blue ray player that has a chipset in it that plays Master HD or True HD. Also remember that DTS is not the same as DTS Master Audio. DTS Master Audio is the one that will allow you to hear sounds through all seven speakers and some sounds are only available using an HDMI connection so just play it safe and always use HDMI.
I hope that you can appreciate what it means to have a 1080P TV, the Play Station 3 that puts out every music and movie sound (DTS HD Master audio, True HD, and many others) and then to have this receiver that allows it all to play through it's circuitry.
I put in a movie called "The Punisher" and saw the receiver display say MASTER HD. You see, the movie must have an audio track that says 7.1 DTS Master Audio on it before your receiver can decode that particular sound. This movie has such an audio track (always check the back of the box on all blue ray discs to see what the audio will be. It sounded so incredible that I wanted to cry.
It's important to understand this because I looked for this on my Onkyo 606 front panel display window for all of that time without the knowledge that my play station 3 had not, at the time, have these decoding and, therefore, my receiver couldn't play it. I thought that there was something wrong with the receiver. The music sounds so wonderful on this receiver that I've become an audiofile.
Regarding various sound decoding, you MUST let your blue ray player select the various decoding settings, DTS, True HD, etc. You do this by going into the BLUE RAY player's menu and choosing them. Only then, can the 706 receiver play those great sounds. By choosing bit stream instead of linear in the blue ray player settings, the Onkyo 706 will play all of the sounds. You will never want to go to a movie again. Onkyo was very helpful in helping me understand how these things work and I feel very much like an expert.
Now I'll comment on the topic of up scaling. I don't upscale. I don't like a picture to appear stretched. Be sure to make sure that your cable box is properly formatted. I just spent the last month thinking that there was something wrong with the 706 receiver. I called Onkyo at least four times and the cable company even more than that. For whatever reason, even thought my cable settings read as if it was formatted, it wasn't and caused me to think that the "pass through" function on the receiver wasn't functioning properly. Once again, there was nothing wrong with the receiver. Instead, the cable box was frozen internally. I took it back and got a new one and now I'm in seventh heaven.
Also, be sure to unplug the receiver each and every time you want to make any changes to the wires or cables. The receiver protects itself so that you CAN'T blow it out. Be very sure to go into the menu and make sure that the Zone 2 setting is set to "Not Act" if you are not using the receiver in 2 different rooms. Again, if you have all 7 speakers set up but you are using them all in one room, zone 2 should NOT be active. If you see the red indicator light on and then right under that light, you see the green light on, and you are not using the system in 2 rooms, you need to press the zone 2 button on FRONT OF THE RECEIVER to "off ". A lot of folks think that the receiver isn't working but it's fine. Heck, more then fine. Just unplug the receiver, wait a bit, and try again. You can also use the display panel on the front of the receiver to manually go to the set up menu and get to whatever part of the menu that you need to in order to make any changes that you need to. These new Hi-Def receivers have different rules.
All of the new receivers get hot. Let it breathe. It's normal. It is supposed to make a clicking sound when you switch from CD to DVD or Cable. It's called switching and it's a beautiful sound. The click let's you know that it switched. I think that I am an expert now and have helped at least two other people set their systems up. I'm just a grandmother that was forced to learn how to work this stuff just because I couldn't hear my TV dialog well.
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