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Onkyo TX-NR808 – Best Value Home Theater Receiver

Meet Onkyo’s midrange powerhouse. The ONKYO TX-NR808 earns its prestigious THX® Select2 Plus™ certification by blending the latest connectivity and processing technology with Onkyo’s renowned amplification prowess.

As a network-capable receiver, the Onkyo 808 is your gateway to streaming audio from your PC or Internet radio. Other connection highlights include seven HDMI® 1.4a inputs with 3D and Audio Return Channel capability; 7.1-multichannel analog inputs for legacy components; a Universal port for Onkyo peripherals; a USB port for iPod® models and flash memory devices; and an analog RGB video input for your PC.

Employing two advanced 32-bit DSP chips and low-jitter 24-bit Burr-Brown DACs, the TX-NR808 effortlessly handles your audio-processing needs. Whether it’s lossless Dolby and DTs formats on Blu-ray Disc, or new-dimension surround formats from Audyssey and Dolby, your audio signals retain every lifelike nuance. All things considered, the TX-NR808 is a serious challenger for the middleweight crown.

The seven HDMI 1.4a inputs on the TX-NR808 let you simultaneously connect high-def sources such as a Blu-ray player, a gaming console, and a cable/satellite tuner. A single output then sends a pristine signal to your connected high-resolution display. As the latest version of this connector, HDMI 1.4a adds the exciting possibilities of 3D video and an Audio Return Channel. 3D video is the future in home entertainment, with movie, game, and broadcast content on the increase and 3D-compatible TVs coming to market. The ONKYO TX-NR808 also offers the convenience of an Audio Return Channel via HDMI. Audio content received directly by your HDTV’s tuner can be sent “upstream” to your A/V receiver, without the need for a separate S/PDIF audio cable.

As one of Onkyo’s new breed of receivers that can link directly to the Internet or to your home PC via a local network, the ONKYO TX-NR808 takes streaming audio and Internet radio to a whole new level. MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, FLAC, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, and LPCM audio files—whether on your PC or from the Internet—can now be played back with your main system with unprecedented power and fidelity. The ONKYO TX-NR808 brings to life a huge array of Internet radio channels from Pandora®, SIRIUS Internet Radio®, vTuner, and more*. As well as being compatible with earlier platforms, the receiver is compatible with Microsoft’s new Windows 7 platform, which includes the DLNA 1.5 specified “Play To” media-streaming feature. Another benefit of having the TX-NR808 connected to the Internet is that you can then easily update its firmware.

The ONKYO TX-NR808 handles two new surround-sound technologies from Audyssey and Dolby that offer exciting new ways to set up the speakers in your home theater system. Audyssey DSX lets you incorporate “front wide” speakers, in place of the usual surround back speakers, to expand the width of the soundstage. Set up at a recommended 60° off center, these channels help to produce a more realistic soundstage and a more immersive listening experience. Alternatively, Audyssey DSX can reconfigure the ONKYO TX-NR808’s surround back channels to deliver “front height” channels. These channels carry ambient, non-directional audio that adds a new vertical dimension to your movies and games. Dolby Pro Logic IIz provides a similar front height speaker option that likewise works to create a more enveloping home theater experience.

THX Select2 Plus certification is specified for rooms where the screen-to-seat viewing distance is 10 to 12 feet and the room volume is around 2000 cubic feet. To achieve THX Select2 Plus certification, the TX-NR808 had to meet the world’s most demanding standards for home theater audio quality and performance, and play at reference volume levels with minimal distortion

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