Onkyo TX-NR609 Pro Reviews

Internet services were a little flawed but this is a great surround-sound amp with plenty of connections nonetheless.

Onkyo hasn’t become the grand poo-bah of AV receivers for nothing. It offers so much tech for such reasonable outlay that it leaves rival manufacturers lagging behind. Each generation grows in stature, performance and feature-set too, with sometimes jaw-dropping additions being crammed into increasingly powerful boxes.

With new receivers also due from Denon, Pioneer, Sony, Yamaha and more, it’s too soon to be talking about 2011’s likely Award winners – but the Onkyo TX-NR609 is a strong early contender.

It’s great when used as a basic amplifier, but the NR609’s extra features make it practically unbeatable.

The Onkyo TX-NR690 has six HDMI inputs and lots of built-in streaming music services, but it lacks AirPlay and doesn't sound quite as good to our ears as some competitors.

Its performance is magnificent, handling Blu-ray soundtracks with consummate control, roof-raising power and the same deftness of touch as its predecessor. But as the dream starts to fall apart, the Onkyo handles the epic-scale action with thunderous power, swift, decisive steering and terrific effects placement. Debris crashes to the floor with a chandelier-shaking thump, while the wave of water cascading into the room mixes frightening low-frequency presence with clean top-end detail. It's a top-drawer movie performer, and although you'll get even greater power and subtlety from more expensive models, we doubt you'll hear many better £500 amps this year. The TX-NR609 is a force to be reckoned with.

We didn’t think it was possible for Onkyo to improve on the superb TX-SR608 but incredibly it has. Everything we loved about last year’s model can be found on the TX-NR609 but mixed in with a bunch of new features that feel like so much more than mere gimmickry – network functionality is enormously useful, and there’s real longevity and value in having Spotify on board. And don’t forget that it’s THX Select2 Plus certified, supports iPods, plays a wide range of audio formats from USB devices and offers loads of connections and processing modes – not to mention automatic setup, terrific onscreen menus and 3840 x 2160 upscaling, which may not be useful now but might be when 4K TVs inevitably become the norm. With this sort of spec sheet you’d expect it to cost a lot more, so at around £500 the TX-NR609 feels like a real bargain.