Well then your branch is sending them all to the branch I buy them from.  Come to think of it, you haven't gotten any of mine back either because they're stacked up 6 deep in my warehouse +1 in the back of my van.  

That's 7.  Just from me bringing receivers back should be a reason for Onkyo to look at the problem.  

As a manufacturer, if you have 1 unit in 1000 go bad, you've got a serious issue. I doubt my local branch has even received 1000 since you guys started carrying the brand.   

As far as the D brand goes, I can't comment because I haven't used enough of them to justify an opinion. 

But Onkyo has a serious problem.

Lastly, I only buy Onkyo from A#I.  Because you guys are the only ones who sell it in my area.  I don't think you guys have been carrying the line for even a year, in that year, I've probably bought 30-40.  I've got 7 bad receivers.  That's a high percentage.

Not hating A#I.  I literallly begged them to bring the line in for me.....so it's nobody's fault but my own, and errrrr....onkyo's

I have sold both Onkyo and Denon. Now Onkyo is on my "do not sell" list. Never had a single Denon go bad, yet. When I did have problems it was the HDMI cables that were bad.

I'm reading all this thread and i can't understand how the stories are so different about Onkyo...

On my side, Onkyo is our 2nd option when Integra or Sherbourn do not fit the budget (mostly 5xx & 6xx ; and HT-RC's) and I just cannot remember any defective units in all those years...

I never had a problem with them either...I loved them (didn't you see my love letter at the beginning?)  

These are all TXSR 608 Models and TXNR 609 Models. Everyone one of them.  I've got 800 and 700 series out there too. No problems with them except an occasional firmware update.  No biggy.  

I've also got plenty of older 600 700 and 800 models out in the field...still going strong.  It's specifically the 608 and 609's.

I've got one in my van.  I should take a video of it.  

So far we've had bad luck over the past 5+ years with Harman Kardon (at least a 33% failure rate), recent Onkyo (feels like every one we've installed in the past 2 years has had HDMI failures), and low-end Denon (3 digit models, the Chinese-built ones).

Marantz was perfect except for a single SR7001 that has failed twice in 2 years. I think Yamaha was perfect, even the low end stuff (but I hated it...), and so far Pioneer Elite has been perfect.

And Arcam has been 1 for 2. But it sounds freakin amazing. :) and the manufacturer helped us out of a jam when we were having issues.

I wonder if it's all the AVR manufacturer's problem when HDMI fails? I for one in earlier HDMI days did component to the AVR and let it upconvert to HDMI, and had no issues. I am doing more HDMI cable boxes and sat receivers and they seem to be reasonably reliable now.

With all the possible weak links in the chain (source component, display, cable brands, cable lengths, baluns) I just wonder how many AVRs are bad boys.

Great point to make! Every item added into the chain from Source to Sync can change impedance, resistance, timing and or voltage.

All to often the unknowing will point the finger at the AVR when the problem probably lays elsewhere. Distributors are taking back good products that have been improperly diagnosed as faulty by the integrator only to place another perfectly good product into a failing system.

That's not the case with the Onkyo's.  We're not asking them to do anything out of the ordinary.  These are typical systems, AVR, Cable box, BluRay. In each of these cases the AVR's have been replaced with a Denon product and in each case, once the swap out is complete, we've never have another issue.  Not one time.  

In the latest incident, customer called and said "The picture is very small" and "When I switch it to HD the small picture shifts to the right so that we can only see 1/2 of the picture".  I immediately said, it's probably the cable box.  

This system is very basic, no baluns, the HDMI from the AVR to the TV is only 15'.  Couldn't be easier.  Anyway, I get to the home after the new cable box didn't fix the issue, and see what they're talking about.  On a 55" Sony TV, the picture is the size of a 27" television, and the color has a pink tint to it.  

swapped the AVR.  Problem solved.  That specific AVR had been installed for less than 4 months.

The reason I "used" to like the Onkyo's is because I know them like the back of my hand.  I know about HDMI "through" and Deep color for the BluRay, etc. etc. etc.  I know all of it's little quirks.  I'm not a guy trying out a new AVR and struggling with it because I'm unfamiliar, this is/was "MY" receiver.  

I wonder if some of it is the number of installations in the field, if some people have 10 times more installs than others (a lot bigger operations) the numbers are going to be a lot different.

Only receiver line I have ever had any kind of Reliability issues with was about 8 years ago with Harmon Kardon. Have not worked with a lot of Yamaha or Denon but have put in a ton of Pioneer Elite and Integra pieces with a very low instance of receiver failure. Last one I remember was an Onkyo 508 that was running 3 zones of speakers through customers speaker selector and something happened internally on the speaker selector so the Receiver was seeing like 1.5 ohms with all zones playing and protection button in and it just got hot and fried itself. Then talked to the customer who said (yeah it would shut off after like 45 min of playing it loudly but it would turn right back on after 15 min or so) so he just kept using it that way lol.

It probably has more to do with product lines utilized.

Dealer A does 99% business with Models A, B, C

Dealer B does 99% business with Models X, Y, Z

Problems with HDMI chipset used in Models Q, T, X, Y, Z

Dealer B saying WTF? and Dealer A is saying No Problems Here.

I know for a fact that Integra (and likely Onkyo) had a bad run of HDMI problems. They also had a bad run of AVR's with a defective ribbon cable assembly.  I'm not sure of which specific models had each issue, but probability is high these problems resulted in bad AVR's for both brands.

...I'm just wondering why anyone would want to bring Onkyo on as their primary receiver brand (I understand the Integra choice for limited distribution and extra year warranty, but have yet to see a decent product from them in that time - compared to the big 2 - Denon/Yamaha). Since '97 when I first got into the industry Onkyo has never been anything but a subpar brand with a long list of quirks and ALWAYS plagued with 'issues'. Harman Kardon used to be a pretty and great sounding option but have become irrelevant the past 5+ years and quirky as can be.

I've never had good luck with Pioneer/Pioneer Elite but its been a while since I needed to make one work and maybe they've fixed their configuration issues over the past 2 years.

Marantz is like your best friends sister, She's 'nice' and 'cute', but just a bit to young/behind the times to be able to publicly date.

And anthem Sounds great, but seems to have an untolerable HDMI failure rate.

Matt will like this coming form me, Denon has been one of the most consistent brands out there (other then a string of video problems from a few years ago, and a defective one fixed under warranty that I had installed for my parents) since I've been in business and are a really great receiver...and Matts the best Electronics brand rep I've ever known. I just wished they didn't use audyssey...and instead found something that actually made the majority of systems/rooms sound better.

My personal preference is still Yamaha as it has the largest most flexible code database I'm aware of (IR/232/IP), a room eq that sounds(works) significantly better then anything out there (save for maybe Anthem and/or JBL Synthesis/Lexicon) has always had bulletproof HDMI and for me, has been the most reliable and consistantly innovative product/brand out there.

Hence, my recommendation would still be Yamaha over Denon but you can't go wrong with either.

Marantz has some fine AVRs which run pretty cool and have low failure rates as far as I go. I use it myself and really like the new 6006. It's funny though how every single receiver in the mid range mark always has a single pain in the ass problem or feature left out. Can't someone make the perfect receiver?

My sample size is small for the returns and no doubt there is probably some field install issues that may not be a faulty receiver. I have had 2-3 dealers go completely away from Denon and choose Onkyo. These are dealers that are typically buying 75+ AVR's a year so not really a big sample size either.

All in all I sell what the dealer prefers but I am leanign towards Onkyo at the moment.

Not to worry, there's a new kid on the block with a processor called a TSP-2000. It'll even stream your phono!