Onkyo TX-NR696 Home Audio Smart Audio and Video Receiver, Sonos Compatible and Dolby Atmos Enabled, 4K Ultra HD and AirPlay 2, Black

This Onkyo receiver is much better than I anticipated. Physical setup, connecting speakers and other devices, was simple but a little time consuming. That is just the nature of the beast. I was amazed that once all the connections were complete the setup microphone balanced my 5.1 surround speakers perfectly. It has more power than my previous Onkyo AV receiver (which I retired after 14 years) and sounds amazing. The zone 2 feature, along with the Bluetooth connectivity is great for my outdoor patio speakers and phone. And with the Onkyo phone app it's a breeze to manage the system from outside. This was also another feature that attracted me to this device. Once, by accident, I found that I was streaming music from my streaming service indoors and outside my iTunes app was playing, both from the same phone. Some advice about the setup: When following the setup guide and it says that if you want to ONLY use the zone 2 speakers and not the main speakers you need to set the main speakers to standby mode. It took me a while to understand that what they mean is that you select an unused/inactive HDMI port for the main speakers. There is not a "standby" feature/setting. Overall, this device exceeded my expectations and was an exceptionally good price. Last note: While extremely pleased with this AVR I will reserve final judgement until it dies or is retired, whichever comes first.

This connected to the klipsch bundle with tower speakers and 2 subwoofers both sold by adorama are fantastic for replacing a sound bar. Setup was pretty simple.

Today's receivers are loaded with tons of features and new format capabilities, and are placed in a package that is reasonably affordable. But at what cost? What typically suffers in this trade off between all the bells and whistles and, what is supposed to matter most on a piece of electronics like this, how the freakin' thing sounds? Well this Onkyo sounds typical of many affordable receivers that are available nowadays. Just decent enough to do the job, but under close scrutiny, it sounds somewhat harsh and grading in the upper midrange and highs. It's somewhat thin when pushed to higher volume levels. Older receivers had some of these same attributes, but not to this degree. In my opinion, cost cutting in AV receivers has hit hardest in the area of overall sound quality and, to some extent, materials used. Some wonder why the home theater market has shrunk to only hardcore hobbyists and wealthy audiophiles. Are average people clamoring to set up Dolby Atmos arrays of speaker set ups in their family room? Or would they just like something that sounds awesome when you crank to volume?

Unbeatable price on Amazon/Adorama on this very capable receiver. I’d recommend this for anyone looking for a capable and flexible AV Receiver. The remote control and the app are a little dated but functional. The description wants you to think that it’s a 210 watts per channel receiver. It’s really rated at 210W/Ch at 10%THD with a single channel driven! With 2 channels driven it’s 100W/Ch at 0.08% THD. Overall, driving 5 or 7 or 9 channels, it may be sufficient but could be under powered in a large room. The receiver is replacing a Sony receiver in a spare room and powering 5.1 system, mainly to add the Network capabilities. I also have a six year old Onkyo TX-NR646 that powers another 5.1 system along with 5 sets of stereo speakers on Zone 2, throughout the house and patio. And it does a great job powering all speakers. Overall, there’s very little difference between this and a six years older receiver. Unfortunately, each receiver uses a different app.

This is my forth Onkyo going into my third home theater, so not a novice. Previous receivers trouble free and worked to obsolescence. Had some set up problems with the 696 immediately as the receiver is extremely sensitive to speaker wire shorts. Had to rewire all the speaker wires on both ends 3 times w/ two sets of banana plugs before I could play a high volume w/out error. Very happy w/ sound quality and features while it worked, then the dreaded HDMI fault occurred after approx 2 months. Troubleshot for days on the forums and w/ Onkyo tech support to no avail. Was told to ship it across state to the nearest warranty center at own cost ($40) and waited a few months for it's return. Got it back, reinstalled it, and it played for 5 minutes before HDMI fault reoccurred. Another trip to UPS. Warranty center says they're awaiting parts (power supply) from the new Onkyo going on 5 months now. Bottom line, I've been without the use of the receiver for 7 months out of the first 10 I've owned it. Last Onkyo I will ever buy.

This is a nice replacement for my old Onkyo receiver. I don’t currently use the surround features or additional zone speakers, but no problem. I recommend using the setup menu. A full printed manual didn’t come in the box, but I used the online version for things that weren’t explained in the quick start guide. The system recognized my Klipsch speakers and subwoofer, and I set the sound nicely for our living room. We get plenty of volume with no distortion, from the tv or music sources. We are pleased.

First off let me start off with I bought this as open item got it and box was beat up bad ( like dropped off the back of a truck bad lol 😜) That said had two problems: 1 remote was crushed and non usable 2 back of receiver was dented but nothing loose just dented immediately left message with seller…Seller confirmed my problems and asked if I wanted to keep it and receive partial refund so I could purchase another remote and for dents I decided to keep it and except partial refund this is 350.00 + tax for new got it for a very reasonable price and customer service was outstanding got it up and running and could not be happier sounds awesome with my Klipsch speakers who cares about couple large dents you really don’t see anyway Thank you Amazon! 😎👍👍👍