Onkyo TX-NR5007 early review: The Top Gun of AV receivers
If consumer electronics could fly F14As, have a game of volleyball, shower and grease themselves up for some back slapping, the Onkyo TX-NR5007 would have the nickname 'Maverick'
Top Gun: a film men are bamboozled into thinking is really good by lots of exciting military hardware and Tom Cruise, before the aliens got to him. In fact, nothing happens at all of any note during the whole movie, except a lot of lubed-up men patting each other on the back. Well, the Onkyo TX-NR5007 AV receiver is the opposite. It's the real deal. The best of the best.
And so it should be, coming in at a staggering £2,000. But trust us when we say this thing goes as loud as an F14A Tomcat and it's sure to make your neighbours spill their coffee over their freshly pressed uniforms. Indeed, at 6 ohms, the 5007 can deliver 220W of power per channel -- you're going to have to be on very good terms with the people in your street. Just give them a ride on the back of your motorbike.
The THX Ultra 2 certified 5007 has support for every lossless codec imaginable and can handle the Dolby Pro Logic IIz system, which allows you to add an extra pair of front speakers to give extra 'height' to your audio. We've tested this feature previously, and honestly weren't blow away by it. We're told this is probably because the human ear isn't all that sensitive to the 'height' of sounds.
Video processing is elite too, with scaling hardware that uses HQV Reon-VX processing. You get a total of eight HDMI inputs, made up of seven rear connectors and a front auxiliary socket. There are also two HDMI outputs for feeding two screens. It's interesting to note that Onkyo isn't using HDMI 1.4 on this system, which means it won't necessarily be able to handle 3D. That said, anyone who cares about audio enough to part with two grand for this ballistic bad boy is probably old and sensible enough not to buy into the 3D hype machine.
The Onkyo TX-NR5007 is due to get a full testing by us in the very near future, so keep an eye out for a detailed look at the sound quality and performance of this superb machine. In the meantime, click through for more pics of the 5007 playin' with the boys.