I recently bought a pair of aperion 6T's (they sent black when I ordered cherry, but wife likes black so they will stay), for use as the primary fronts for a theater room I'm building. The plan is to add a 5C or 6C for center, and a pair of 5DB for surrounds. Eventually, might add a pair of speakers in the back of the room as well, either 5B or 5T. (will make the sub myself) 

Question: Would someone please tell me what the primary difference is between the Onkyo 805 & 806, other than power rating? Why is the 805 soooo much heavier? Does one produce better sound quality? Is one better to combine with a 50" plasma (am leaning towards a Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ800U 50" 1080p) ? Any suggestions and guidance will be much appreciated.

Thanks! Rob

Cederstrand:

I recently bought a pair of aperion 6T's (they sent black when I ordered cherry, but wife likes black so they will stay), for use as the primary fronts for a theater room I'm building. The plan is to add a 5C or 6C for center, and a pair of 5DB for surrounds. Eventually, might add a pair of speakers in the back of the room as well, either 5B or 5T. (will make the sub myself) 

Question: Would someone please tell me what the primary difference is between the Onkyo 805 & 806, other than power rating? Why is the 805 soooo much heavier? Does one produce better sound quality? Is one better to combine with a 50" plasma (am leaning towards a Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ800U 50" 1080p) ? Any suggestions and guidance will be much appreciated.

Thanks! Rob

Well I don't have either so take the following with a grain of salt.  The 805 has an isolated power supply for the amp (extra weight) and the output DACs (digital to analog converters) are considerd the best in the industry.  I believe the 806 has better video processing and maybe some other I/O and codec improvements.

If you were primarily interested in music the 805 might be noticably better, for video it might not be as noticable.  Another thing to consider of course is  that tech and tech companies are always improving their products.  Onkyo may have found effective ways to address the few things I mentioned above.

The only way to know for sure is to listen to both, which may not be easy.

Cheers 

Thanks, Russ.

As I read through reviews, it seems more than a few folks have had trouble with the 806 frying and subsequent trouble with Onkyo customer service. The 805 apparently also gets very hot, but I have not seen many reports about them actually burning out. (plan on adding fans to any receiver I purchase)

If the 805 is better made and offers better sound, then I am inclined to go that route. A few other questions:

Is the 805 power rating substantial enough to play loud music using five or more  aperion 6 series speakers?

If I understand it correctly, you can bypass (or run) a video signal strait through to the HDTV? I'm not thrilled with the idea it down-converts to 720, so if there is a way around this with the 805, then it sounds like a good choice. 

Are there ANY other receivers out there in the same price range I should consider for my given setup?

Thank you for any additional suggestions. Out of my element when it comes to the latest tech stuff. Rob

I have the 805, so here is my input....

The 805 has plenty of power. The wattage rating is WPC for all channels, not for two channels. I have a large family room, and it fills it quite nicely.

for the 1080, 720 issue, HDMI passes the signal straight through in the same resolution. If you are running component cables, and you are willing to not have the sooooo nice "just one video cable" to the TV, you can run the component to the TV instead of the amp.

Many will tell you that you cannot really see a huge difference between 720 and 1080 unless your screen is larger than 50". I have a 50" Pioneer myself, and I cannot tell the difference. I used Y cables, and have my component cables going up to the TV, and through the amp. I sit at about 12 feet away. Others would disagree with me. Your eyes will have to be the judge.

If you google it, you can see the chart with screen size, resolution, and seating distance and base your opinions accordingly. My eyes agree with the chart.

One last thing....everybody here that has the 805 loves it. The Aperion Gurus know Onkyo very well. One of the many great things about them is that they not only help you with your speakers. The are always willing to help you dial in your electronics, whether you bought it from them or not. Their service is second to none.

Good luck!

Scottiemon:

I have the 805, so here is my input....

The 805 has plenty of power. The wattage rating is WPC for all channels, not for two channels. I have a large family room, and it fills it quite nicely.

for the 1080, 720 issue, HDMI passes the signal straight through in the same resolution. If you are running component cables, and you are willing to not have the sooooo nice "just one video cable" to the TV, you can run the component to the TV instead of the amp.

Many will tell you that you cannot really see a huge difference between 720 and 1080 unless your screen is larger than 50". I have a 50" Pioneer myself, and I cannot tell the difference. I used Y cables, and have my component cables going up to the TV, and through the amp. I sit at about 12 feet away. Others would disagree with me. Your eyes will have to be the judge.

If you google it, you can see the chart with screen size, resolution, and seating distance and base your opinions accordingly. My eyes agree with the chart.

One last thing....everybody here that has the 805 loves it. The Aperion Gurus know Onkyo very well. One of the many great things about them is that they not only help you with your speakers. The are always willing to help you dial in your electronics, whether you bought it from them or not. Their service is second to none.

Good luck!

Right the 805 will pass a 1080p source straight through as 1080p it just will only upscale a non-HD source up to 720p.  

And as Scottie also noted the 805 has plenty of power to drive any of our speakers cleanly at high volumes.  

As for the whole running hot thing I think it's been kind of overblown by some folks but if you are planning on using a fan then it's a moot point anyway. 

Finally some other brands that our customers have had good luck with and the comparable models to the 805 would be: Denon AVR-3909CI, Marantz SR6003 or 7002 and the Harman Kardon AVR 254.
 

i thought this would be a good place to post this.

The 805 has PCM1796 Burr Brown DAC's found in the $5,000 Yamaha RX-Z11 and Denon $5,500 5308CI, the 806 has Cirrus Logic DAC's.


The 805 will not process 24/192 Dolby TrueHD.
The 806 will process 24/192 Dolby TrueHD.


The 805 processes dts-ma 24/192 at 24/96
The 806 processes dts-ma 24/192 at 24/192


The 805 processes DSD directly to analog or to PCM for processing
The 806 processes DSD to PCM regardless of setting


The 805 has 60A High Instantaneous Current Capability
The 806 has 36A High Instantaneous Current Capability


The 805 doesn't have bridging for front speakers for 2.1 listening
The 806 does have bridging for front speakers to 210W/ch (8Ω) for 2.1

I found this info on the web. I bought the 806, Did i take a downgrade not getting the burr browns? How big of a difference is it? And what about the 36/60A, that seems like a whole lot. Does anybody actually pull 60 Amps?

Here are the specs for the 2008 Onkyo Lineup