Any opinions on Onkyo Amplifiers

[Paul-H]

Hi all

Looks like my ageing Pioneer A-70 is going to need replacing, don't have much of a budget and don't have many Hifi suppliers around here.

Most stock Yamaha and Onkyo Amplifiers which are within my limited budget which is upto £500

Been reading a few reviews which although rate the Yamaha Amps seem to rate the Onkyo Amps even higher and they are about £200 less than the Yamaha Amps.

Don't need anything special as my hearing is not what it was but need something around 50wattes per channel with built in phono stage, which both the above makes do in there models at my price limit.

Anyone got any views on modern Yamaha an Onkyo Amps.

Thanks for any feedback on this.

Paul.

[RichB]

Hi all

Looks like my ageing Pioneer A-70 is going to need replacing, don't have much of a budget and don't have many Hifi suppliers around here.

Most stock Yamaha and Onkyo Amplifiers which are within my limited budget which is upto £500

Been reading a few reviews which although rate the Yamaha Amps seem to rate the Onkyo Amps even higher and they are about £200 less than the Yamaha Amps.

Don't need anything special as my hearing is not what it was but need something around 50wattes per channel with built in phono stage, which both the above makes do in there models at my price limit.

Anyone got any views on modern Yamaha an Onkyo Amps.

Thanks for any feedback on this.

Paul.

Soundwise great but I had issues with the reliability of their flagship integrated. If that was my budget and I was buying new I'd have a Rega, Denon or Marantz for an all round decent integrated.

Having said that, an ask on here for a nice integrated within your budget might turn up something rather more special. Worth a punt.

[RichB]

Soundwise great but I had issues with the reliability of their flagship integrated. If that was my budget and I was buying new I'd have a Rega, Denon or Marantz for an all round decent integrated.

Having said that, an ask on here for a nice integrated within your budget might turn up something rather more special. Worth a punt.

Indeed I think someone was selling an almost new Arcam A29 for that money. Great powerful amp.

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?49239-Arcam-FMJ-A29-integrated-amp&highlight=Arcam

[Macca]

Broadly speaking I would say Onkyo if you want to rock out, Yamaha if you want it a little sweeter and more polite. Both are competent and always have been. You could get more for your money buying a used item but understandable if you don't want to go that way.

[Rothchild]

My mate and I A/B'd the budget offerings from both Yamaha and Onkyo at Richer Sounds, he ended up buying (and is still really pleased with) the Yamaha, which to us was honest and un-fatiguing whereas the Onkyo was somewhat over-bright and tended to sibilance.

One top tip we walked out with was because they demmed them for us we were able to buy it as ex-dem (even through they'd just taken each of them out of the box to run the demo) and take a reasonable discount ;-)

[hifinutt]

not an amp but I am listening to an onkyo sacd player and its rather good for the money

[Stryder5]

I have an Onkyo A/V amp that is over 10 years old, I sometimes use this in direct mode for stereo, always amazes by its relative performance.

[Yomanze]

You can do much better for under £500 than from either brand IMO, like a decent Sony ES amp. Second hand will get you a lot for this money, new will sink it down the drain.

[Bigman80]

A mate of mine has an onkyo and it sounds very bright to me. Yamaha in my opinion have a very plain sound. I agree with going used and can vouch for the Sony ES range. 630es upwards will satisfy your needs.

Sent from my EVA-L09 using Tapatalk

[wee tee cee]

Richer sounds does a Marantz pm6005 for a couple of hundred. The built in Dac would let you listen to anything from a cheap lap top-just by adding a cheap usb to co-ax/optical convertor.

I havent heard one but it ticks all your boxes with a phono stage/headphone section.

Just a thought!!!

[pgarrish]

Budget Rotels were always good value with decent Phono Stages.

[struth]

Yup the big sony es or qs amps are excellent. Had a 940 and it was really good, well made unit. Think value wise the 940qs is one of the best buys out there. You can get good ones under £150 with remote, mm stage. Headphone stage and about 80/90 watts. The es is a little better machine but a fair bit dearer

[Pieoftheday]

I've recently swapped my quad 306 for a Yamaha as501, paired with tannoy 4dc t is great,not quite the clarity of the quad but big bold powerful and very easy to enjoy:) got mine new £219 ,and this pairing rocks! Decent DAC for telly too

[sumday]

the current Yamaha range are nice, polite. well built and good looking to boot.
I have a AS501 and cannot fault it.
besides a good spread of inputs it also sports a builtin DAC with coax and toslink.

I can run mine for many hours at quite high levels without fatigue or significant heat buildup. to be fair the dac is a bit basic but its enough for a sky/virgin box or tv optical.

FISH.