NEW ONKYO RECEIVER!! Is Onkyo BACK? ONKYO TX-NR5100 Receiver Review

remember onkyo back in the day onkyo and their higher-end brand integra were my go-to picks when recommending av receivers to just about anyone it's what i use because they were great but then onkyo began to disappear and rumors started to circulate that they were going out of business last year sound united was in talks to even purchase them but that ultimately fell through and ankio once again seemed destined for extinction so why are we talking about them no that's because we have their newest entry level receiver the tx nr5100 so hit that like button like it's your job subscribe for your last chance to win in our 200 000 subscriber giveaway and let's find out if onkyo still has what it takes to [Music] compete ankio's first dive back into the avr scene is with the entry-level tx and r5100 a 7.2 channel av receiver with 4k 120 and 8k 60 support out of the box the 5100 has four hdmi inputs with 2.1 support along with two hdmi monitor outs one with earc capability this means that the 5100 supports dolby atmos as well as dtsx though you are limited to a 5.2.2 atmos setup despite the receiver boasting 7.2 channels as for amplification the specs on the 5100 are a little vague which isn't all that surprising on paper onkyo is claiming a power rating of 80 watts per channel into eight ohms with just two channels driven so as you add more channels ie speakers you can expect the power of this receiver to drop this is very common among some entry and not so entry level receivers so it's nothing to get too worked up over out of the box the 5100 aims to be as plug and play as possible which makes sense for a receiver geared towards first-time users everything on the receiver's back panel is clearly labeled making connections to your various components pretty straightforward with one exception the 5100 uses rather small pushpin style binding posts for most of its speaker connections this is an obvious cost saving measure while this does not affect performance if you have thicker gauge speaker cable say 12 gauge wire you may have just a little bit harder time getting the bare wire to fit it's doable just not ideal once connected there's very little you need to do to get up and running the on-screen menus are pretty comprehensive not to mention easy to follow for the majority of you simply following the manuals connection guide will give you a good home theater experience right out of the box if you are more experienced you can customize the 5100 like a professional installer easily with a laptop and a connection to your home network type in the receiver's ip address and enter ci user for both your username and password and you're going to be on your way getting into eq you can tune your speakers to your room using onkyo's accu eq calibration software similar to odyssey accueq sets the distance crossover points levels and apply some measure of room acoustic adjustment to ensure you're getting the best possible performance this is all done using the included calibration microphone accueq is not the most advanced auto eq solution on the market but it is effective and like most things from onkyo it just works as in the first time which is more than i can say about some of the competition apart from all that there really isn't much more to the 5100 once set up you can control the receiver using the included remote and in our case you can control volume using the tv remote control over hdmi worked flawlessly with the onkyo when connected to our vizio tv when we switched things up and went to our new 8k samsung the experience was hit or miss but we are fairly confident the fault here lies with the samsung and not with the onkyo jumping into sound quality whether the 5100 was charged with driving an atmos setup consisting of the polk audio reserves series and the svs 3000 micro sub or a more traditional 3.1 setup around our sonos fiber lumina 2s the experience was always thrilling taking a pit stop to discuss two-channel listening the onkyo sound is going to be more in line with yamaha or sony than it is denon and marantz it's definitely not nad or rotel quality when it comes to its stereo playback so what this means is you can expect a more forward presentation one that places a little extra emphasis on detail especially up top with good dynamics and speed but the onkyo is lacking somewhat in weight now if you have a more linear or neutral speaker like the polk audio reserves the slight forward nature of the onkyo might make for a good match and help breathe just a little bit of life into those speakers but if you have a leaner or more forward speaker already it may prove to be just too much of a good thing as was sometimes the case with the sonus fobbers again at least in stereo modes now if you feel as if your speakers are suddenly not producing any bass you're not imagining things here's what's happening 2-channel listening in onkyo's direct or pure audio mode rely on the crossover settings set by the auto eq if accu-eq set your main speakers to crossover at say 80 hertz no bass below 80 hertz is going to be audible in the 5100s more audiophile-centric stereo profiles potentially making your speakers sound thinner as a result getting into the menu and setting the right and left main speakers to their lowest crossover settings or better yet naming them as full range will bring the weight back to the party onkyo acknowledges that a fix for this is necessary and they assure me this can be done via firmware once they have had a chance to look into it diving back into full surround the 5100 in surround sound be it adobe atmos or dolby digital soundtrack is a ton of fun for being an entry-level receiver it certainly doesn't sound it now there were a few instances when i was being really liberal with the volume that i could detect some sonic strain specifically the receiver could distort as it ran out of seam during very complex passages and at volumes with peaks tickling around say 100 db or so which that's very loud probably louder than a lot of you listen so yes it is possible to tax this receiver especially with more inefficient speakers like the sonos fobbers or even the polk reserves though if you keep the volume set below insanity you're likely going to be fine and if you have martin logan's or magnapans don't use this receiver don't ask me about it you need something beefier more expensive and that's not the 5100s fault it's your speakers when watching disney's jungle cruise and spielberg's ready player 1 the 5100 dished out an incredibly cinematic experience detail dynamics and in-room presence are its three biggest strengths high frequency information is rendered with terrific focus which lends a hand to the receiver's sense of detail i found dialog intelligibility to be excellent though you can dial it up or down via the remote to even greater effect the mid-range on a whole is going to seem a little leaner given the receiver's slightly more forward nature though without having an nad or a denim to directly compare it to i think few of you would notice and if you did you're likely going to adjust to the onkyo sound rather quickly now bass from the svs3000 micro subwoofer was deep and agile blending seamlessly with both the polk and sonos fobber speakers after running accueq i even placed the sub in locations i know to be problematic for bass in my room and still accueq and the onkyo made it all work in terms of soundstage that's largely going to be up to your speakers and your setup the onkyo never got in the way of my speaker's soundstage or surround sound capabilities one bit now the balance between all the speakers was fantastic and absolutely seamless with the onkyo dynamics were incredibly impressive and i say impressive because i doubt the onkyo produces more than say 40 watts per channel all channels driven and yet in an explosive little monster up into a point if you have a large room or a desire to take everything to 11 then you may manage to tax the 5100 and find that at its limits lies some distortion but i'll maintain keep it below 100 and the 5100 more than holds its own if you need to throttle or you need more power there is the more powerful onkyo 7100 ready and waiting and as for the onkyo's hdmi compatibility we were able to test the onkyo using two different tvs we have the new 8k tv from samsung which is an 85 inch neoq led and connected to the onkyo we did have a few issues when it came to passing an hdmi signal specifically those coming from our ps5 in 4k 60 with games in the highest setting like spiderman i believe these issues specifically seeing the pink screen of death every few minutes or so to be the fault of the samsung because when the onkyo was connected to our vizio p series quantum x using the exact same setup and settings it worked fine it might be that the onkyo samsung partnership isn't a good one or that our qn800a is buggy i don't know yet obviously i am unable to test every permutation between every single tv and the onkyo so here is your disclaimer your mileage may vary now did we get 4k 60 and higher frame rates to work with the onkyo in the chain yes since there are no readily available ak titles or content that i can pass from the ps5 to the onkyo on through to the samsung true 8k testing is still incomplete those of you looking to just play back 4k 30 content will have zero issues with the onkyo so the onkyo really is one of the first av receivers to market with an upgraded hdmi board that appears to have addressed and in some instances outright solve the issues that plagued all denon marantz and yamaha receivers last year so when it comes to its video performance it doesn't appear to have an equal at least not one we have been able to get our hands on now looking beyond its hdmi capability there are a few comparable receivers in and around the onkyo's price starting with the yamaha v6a which many of you know has been my budget av receiver of choice despite its quirks now the yamaha is better built compared to the 50 100 and with respect to its connection to our particular samsung display it did prove to be more reliable mainly because the yamaha is incapable of handling those higher resolutions and frame rates in terms of overall sound quality these two receivers are very evenly matched while the onkyo has more going for it out of the box in terms of being future proof as of this review the two receivers have roughly the same capability given what's readily available to consumers with respect to source material so my takeaway is this if you haven't yet bought a receiver and you want one that is known to work with the latest display tech i.e it doesn't have one of those buggy hdmi boards in it then go ahead and get the onkyo but knowing the limitations with content at the moment if you already own the yamaha v6a i would stick with it the 5100 just isn't a big enough of an upgrade right now obviously as more 4k 120 and 8k titles come online the conversation is going to change as for the s960h we reviewed in 2020 i would still skip it i think you are just better off buying a 2021 or 2022 av receiver if you are trying to avoid hdmi headaches for a little bit more money you can get the numerance nr1711 which is part of their popular slim series that you know i love i believe it has the new fixed boards i honestly cannot wait to test this receiver out for myself because if it's anything like the older morant slimline receivers i'm sure it is a budget beast not unlike the ankio so the only question that remains is does onkyo still have what it takes to compete given that the group behind resurrecting ankio and integra has ties to clips i'd say their future is bright while it's uncommon for a brand to come to market with an entry level piece like the tx and r5100 first especially when trying to make a splash i actually think it's a pretty smart move a lot of people want to enjoy their music in movies at a high level but don't necessarily have the ability to spend a ton of money doing so to that end the onkyo more than delivers keeping it at 100 i really like this thing my gripes about its budget build quality and soso 2 2-channel performance aside the 5100 totally delivers the cinematic goods if you're looking to build a solid 5.1 or basic 5.1.2 atmos setup for your apartment or home the 5100 is a solid choice so that's it that is now my review of the onkyo txnr 5100 but now it's time to find out what christy thought of it um you know i'll keep it pretty quick okay you know i for me i don't hear a huge distinction between the onkyo and the sound of the yamaha that we have the rx v6a i do believe that the yamaha is far better built yeah and i know because i watched you set the onkyo up um and there was a lot of cursing involved that the um the pushpin binding post yeah i hate those on the onkyo it seems to be an issue and i while i i understand that it's uh was done as a way to save cost or cost cutting measure i my personal opinion about it in 2021 for a six hundred dollar receiver that's just it's unacceptable yeah so i i i hear i hear you onkyo that you you had a reason behind it i just think it wasn't a good enough reason um you know as far as what should somebody buy now i mean honestly i i don't know how anybody buys something that was put out in 2020 knowing what we know today yeah and that's just and you know obviously hindsight it's beneficial to the one that has it yeah um if we had known back when we reviewed the yamaha what we knew what we know about what we know now about the problems that the hdmi boards have um would we have given that particular receiver as big of a recommendation you know i don't know i mean it's it's it's tough look if if there were if the content available to consumers was had has if it had caught up to some of the new um features that some of these uh av receivers are are pushing meaning like the 8k capabilities and stuff like that i think there would be a lot more pushback against something like the yamaha 6a right but the fact is there have been problems with a lot of things it's not just the receivers the freaking sony playstation that we've spent almost a thousand dollars on to get the new ps5 what the hell i mean that thing is why are why are we all rushing to buy that i don't i have questions for the people and i know this isn't a playstation review but i'm sorry i've i i have a lot of questions for the people that were involved in that roll out what the hell were you playing yeah that thing is a mess yeah um so you can't blame all of the issues on the new um the nuance you can't blame it on any of the new receivers entirely because yeah it's the playstation especially it's like it's another example of uh what did on the sony review where you said um you're tired of being everyone's r d or like i'm not your beta tester i'm not your beta tester and that and and now that we have the ps5 and living with the ps5 for a couple weeks now that console i don't i don't see the point i don't see the point of it at all and it is more frustrating than enjoyable to you and it's ugly sorry it's that's i know that's got nothing to do with it but yeah i feel like this stuff like when i go back and watch mk i always forget his abbreviation mk bhd when i mark when i watch marquez's video of the playstation i'm like i'm sorry i don't think we got the same thing but anyway i digress look if if you are if you don't have a receiver and you want to get into home theater i highly encourage you to take a look at the onkyo or or at them at a minimum wait for the newer batches to come out in this year and the coming the year to come yeah um buying tech that is we already know has issues seems like a waste of money yeah now if you're the type that isn't into gaming you're never going to get an 8k tv then then it's a different conversation i think and i think andrew made that pretty clear in the review so yeah i mean if you're if you're just gonna stick with a solid really good 4k tv blu-ray and 4k streaming hdr streaming as your bag and you've never had a gaming console since you were a child you can get away with a receiver that's four and five years old you know to this day i mean you can still have a sony 1080. you could be rocking that um but yeah if you're trying to stay on the bleeding edge or you're trying to park your your money and home entertainment in a place that is potentially going to give you those two three four years of future longevity then i'm i'm with you don't buy anything that came out in 2020 get something that is 20 21 or even 2022 model that may be coming out in 2021 but the 5100 would be a good place to start but you know spoiler alert uh if you have flexibility in your budget um i would wait for our upcoming review of the onkyo what is it called ours oh the rz model yeah yeah just won't say anything more than that just a little little nugget yeah yeah because that one interesting so anything else uh nope nope we are good to go i think good to go so that's it that is now our review of the new onkyo receiver what did you guys think let us know down in the comments below while you're down there my question of the day for you is what do you guys or how do you feel about ankio coming back to the scene and what would you like to see from the brand going forward let's get the discussion going if you like this video please do give it a thumbs up like and subscribe and you're going to want to subscribe because today is the last day to enter our 200 000 subscriber giveaway links are in the description if you haven't yet done that go do that right now and ring the bell so that you are notified so that you are aware when we announce the winner uh if you use any of the links that christy left for you down below know that that is a great way that you have continued to show your support for this channel and the work that we do here and we both thank you all for doing that follow me on instagram at recovering audiophile and that is it for us today so remember the only person who has to like the sound of your system is you so happy listening everybody thank you so much for watching and we will see you on the next video bye

Channel: Andrew Robinson

Views: 148,953

Keywords: onkyo receiver, budget receiver, which av receiver is better, onkyo home theater system, new onkyo receiver, onkyo home theater receiver, 7.2 channel av receiver, receiver that works with playstation 5, best onkyo home theater receiver, is onkyo better than yamaha, new onkyo av receivers, onkyo or yamaha receiver, onkyo nr5100 review, onkyo nr5100 receiver, onkyo tx-nr5100 receiver, onkyo tx-nr5100 review, ONKYO TX-NR5100 Receiver Review, onkyo 5100 review, tx-nr5100 review

Id: XwtBzjJ1PUA

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 08 2021