Onkyo shakes up the AVR market with new models, debuts Pro-Logic IIz tech & other treats

Market leading AV receiver specialist Onkyo has revealed the first four models in its highly anticipated 2009 AV receiver range, and the headline news is the debut of Dolby’s radical new Pro-logic IIz processing mode, which adds two front height channels to the usual 5.1 multichannel mix.
But it’s not the only improvement Onkyo is promising this year. The new models offer jazzed up feature sets and claim better audio fidelity than previous iterations.

The cheapest model out the gate is the 5.1 TX-SR307. It comes with a tempting sub-£250 price point and three HDMI inputs. However, its lack of support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA will doubtless have cinephiles moving up to its sibling: the TX-SR507. This £350 5.1 alternative offers four HDMI inputs, plus a swanky new programmable remote control.

Pro-Logic IIz decoding makes its debut on the £400 TX-SR577. This also offers 7.1 channel support and four HDMI inputs. If you don’t want to festoon your living room with more speakers, you can use the extra amplification to bi-amp your stereo fronts.
The hottest model though is likely to be the £500 replacement for the best-selling TX-SR606, aptly named the TX-SR607 (pictured above). This Pro-logic IIz, hi-rez audio AV receiver sports five backside HDMI inputs, plus one front-facing HDMI and video up-conversion to HDMI out for all sources. Video clean-up is provided by Faroudja DCDi Edge silicon. The front-mounted HDMI input will be welcomed by those looking for a quick hook-up of games consoles, laptops and cameras. Both the SR507 and SR607 come with Audyssey 2EQ acoustic room correction, Dynamic Volume and Dynamic EQ.

There are cosmetic changes to this year’s range, too. All the ‘7’ series models feature a less cluttered fascia, bigger volume knob and wider display window.
Another interesting new addition this season is a proprietary universal port. Not only can this be used with the company’s ubiquitous UP-A1 iPod dock, it can also be hooked up to a DAB Plus tuner box (pictured left). The DAB UP-DT1 is due in July and will sell for around £129.

Marty Kashiwai, from Onkyo Europe, says of the universal port: ‘We’re still looking at possible applications for the interface; we don’t know just how far we can go with it, but we're also thinking of adding an internet radio module at some point.’

Game for better sound
Reflecting Onkyo’s growing interest in the higher-end of the games market, the receivers also offer a bunch of new surround sound game-specific DSP audio modes: RPG is designed for use on role-playing games and enhances background music; Action delivers a bass boost at around 40hz; Music uses DSP to create a live music venue ambiance for Guitar Hero-type games, while Sports delivers extra reverb to create a virtual stadium environment.

One of the lead designers of the team, Norimasa Kitagawa from Onkyo’s Circuit Design group (right), insists this years models also sound better than previous Onkyo receivers. Kitagawa says the new 2009 chassis has been substantially shortened, which offers a number of benefits: ‘There’s more rigidity in the casing and the signal path has been reduced to improve audio delivered via HDMI,’ he confided.

Impressive demos of Pro-LogicIIz
Dolby’s marketing director Sally Ockwell-Page,says the new Pro-Logic IIZ system has been designed to offer a more immersive audio experience than conventional multi-channel systems.
‘With this new technology, we can pick out spatial cues in a soundtrack, and move them higher in the soundfield. Low-level, non directional, uncorrelated elements can be taken from the mix and used to create a more believable soundstage.

‘It's particularly effective for games and we're supplying Pro-Logic IIZ encoders to game developers, who are keen to exploit the technology.’ Don’t expect your favourite movies to sudden come with height information pre-encoded. Interest is very much with the next-gen games creators Sally confirms that as yet, the movie industry has not taken any encoders.

Dolby dismisses similarities to the front-height sound processing offered on Yamaha receivers for years. ‘Yamaha’s Cinema DSP approach was to create a presence channel from DSP which added room ambiance. It was about the creating a listening environment. Unlike Yamaha we are creating new audio channels from existing information in the soundtrack. We always want to be true to the source.’

Certainly demonstrations of Pro-Logic IIZ are very effective, a help create a wall of sound that is very beguiling. A specially coded games sequence showed the potential of the system, with a helicopter being panned left-right and up-down. But even non-encoded material sounded surprisingly engaging. HCC was given effective demonstrations of Pro-Logic IIZ using the Pixar movie Ratatouille on Blu-ray and two channel music (both compressed and from CD) as sources; the processing can be applied to any signal, even DTS variants. But while there are demonstrably sonic benefits to be had from the technology, it remains to be seen just how many home owners are prepared to add yet more speakers their multi-channel sound systems.

Future plans revealed
Looking to the future, Marty Kashiwai (right) says the company is now focused on expanding networking functionality in its AVRs. ‘We want to offer support for the kind of audio file formats appreciated by music lovers,' he said. 'AAC, 0GG and Flac.’ However, the Osaka-based company has no plans to offer video streaming. It’s just too much of a minefield,' explains Kashiwai. ‘There are too many video formats and variations; it would be very difficult to support them all. I would fear that we’d be doing a hundred firmware updates in a year.’

Conspicuous by their absence were the replacements for the brand’s current high-end models. ‘We will announce these soon enough,’ teased the man from Onkyo.

HCC expects five more AVRs to be confirmed later this year. Onkyo says it will release product details and specifications around the time of the Munich High-end Hi-Fi show, which runs 21-24 May.

In related news, the company is also entering the two channel hi-fi market, with a slim-line all-digital amplifier, A-5VL, and an SACD player, the C-S5VL (pictured right). It's clear Onkyo aims to replicate the success it's had in the home theatre market with the new stereo kit. Prices have yet to be fixed, although each component will cost less than £500.