I know I should be used to this after over twenty years in the IT industry but sometimes technology runs too fast, I should explain that I purchased an Onkyo TX-SR806 in November. Don’t get me wrong it’s a great sounding receiver but I held off until the second generation of receivers with the new high resolution audio codec’s where out and now Dolby Pro-Logic IIz is out adding two more speakers for front height information (actually I’m not sure I could get away with two more speakers in my current 7.1 setup).
Onkyo have announced April availability of the TX-SR307 (£250), TX-SR507 (£350), TX-SR577 (£400) and TX SR607 ( £500). All these new receivers feature Dolby Prologic Iiz which as explained above adds two ambient height speakers to the front soundstage. I know other manufacturers (mostly Yamaha) have had this in DSP modes in the past but as it’s a Dolby development we should see it from most receiver and processor manufacturers soon in their next range revisions.
These new receivers also feature new surround modes for playing games. I have to say I’m an advocate of surround gaming as a Warcraft player (yes I admit I have another habit other than AV) I run a Creative Extreme gamer card in 7.1 mode (even though you have to buy the special cable direct from Creative). But there’s nothing like doing a 25 person dungeon run in full 7.1 surround cranked high, most of the time I leave the receiver in THX Game mode. However it would be interesting to see what these new game modes can do with the Dolby Digital from an XBOX 360 or PS3.
All these receivers also feature lots of HDMI inputs as well as compatibility with the new DS-A3 iPOD/iPHONE dock.
More details visit Onlyo here or Dolby here
