The 1972 live shows were recorded at the L.A.
Led Zeppelin's How the West Was Won DVD-A disc sounds far better than the CD of the same title-at least we thought so when we played the DVD over the SR602. The virtuoso performances, both by the actors and by the SR602, made for a thrilling home-theater experience. Later on, the clashing metal-against-metal swordplay sounded realistic, and at one point, Lau's sword set a shimmering curtain of glass beads clinking from all around us. The Onkyo TX-SR602 precisely rendered each drum thwack and the solidity of their thundering impacts. We loved the scene where Zhang Ziyi dances within a circle of massive drums, and when Andy Lau flicks a bean over to one of the drums, it ricochets from drum to drum. The House of Flying Daggers DVD is loaded with sonic delights. There's also a set of Zone 2 pre-out jacks for use with a remote power amplifier.Īs we were working on this review in early May, Onkyo announced its entry-level TX-SR503, a 75-watt-times-7-channel receiver. Don't worry, you can still send the same signal to both zones, and you can separately control the volume level for each zone. The arrangement is similar to A/B speaker switching, but it's actually better because the SR602 can deliver sound from separate stereo sources to each zone-for instance, the CD in the main room and the radio in Zone 2.
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Onkyo also included a set of SACD/DVD-Audio inputs two stereo sources plus tape output and a total of six digital inputs-four optical (one on the front) and two coaxial inputs, plus one optical digital output.Ī flexible second-zone feature allows the SR602 to power stereo speakers in a second room if you're content listening to "only" 5.1-channel sound in your home theater. While the TX-SR602 can upconvert composite-video sources to S-Video, it can't output composite-video or S-Video sources via its component-video output as units such as Denon's AVR-1705 can. The Onkyo TX-SR602's power section includes 7 85-watt channels and all of the standard Dolby and DTS 7.1-channel surround processing schemes.Ĭonnectivity provisions run to five separate A/V sources, all with S-Video and composite video-one set of inputs is on the front panel-and three of which can utilize component-video inputs.
#Onkyo tx sr602 review manual#
In any case, we strongly recommend avoiding the autosetup-you'll have better results if you stick with the manual routine. He suggested we turn our subwoofer's volume control all the way up and clued us into the receiver's secret reset routine (press the Video 1 button while powering down the SR602) so that we could go in and manually turn the subwoofer output back on-too bad Onkyo didn't include those tips in the owner's manual. We eventually spoke with an Onkyo engineer who shed a little light on the SR602's eccentricities. We next tried to get the sub back in the game with the SR602's manual setup, but the receiver steadfastly refused our best efforts to access the setup menu (it had worked normally before we engaged the autosetup system). We ran the autotest sequence a few more times without success, even after we manually raised its volume level and repositioned the setup microphone. Well, that's what it's supposed to do, but in our tests, it failed to detect the presence of our subwoofer. The system gauges how many speakers you have hooked up, determines whether they're large or small in terms of their ability to handle bass, measures their distances from the listening position, and balances the volume levels of the speakers and the subwoofer.
The SR602's automatic setup routine fell short of our expectations.
Bass and treble controls are conveniently located on the receiver's front panel. Onkyo's remotes are among the most logically laid out and easiest to use, and it offers a full-size set of DVD player controls. The large, partially backlit remote will be familiar to anyone who has used an Onkyo receiver over the past few years, and that's all right with us. But if you can handle doing the setup manually, the Onkyo TX-SR602 represents a solid value among midline receivers. The price remains the same as last year's model's, so what's the catch? The company's attempt at autocalibration falls short of other methods we've tested in models such as the Pioneer VSX-D914K and the Yamaha RX-V1500.
#Onkyo tx sr602 review pro#
The new TX-SR602 retains all the SR601's goodies and loads on another channel of amplification for full-blown 7.1 operation, not to mention a new automatic calibration feature and Dolby Pro Logic IIx processing. We wouldn't blame Onkyo if it didn't want to trifle with last year's excellent $500 A/V 6.1-channel receiver, the.