style="font-weight: bold;">Onkyo USA Corporation
18 Park Way
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458
(800) 229-1687

Onkyo's TX-NR901 is an audiophile receiver with an A/V client built in. It includes network stream tuning and second-zone capabilities, a full complement of surround sound functionality and an on-screen menu-driven interface. In short, it could transform your home theater experience.

Going Out into the World
While we didn't spend much time with the receiver's AM/FM tuner, it seemed to work well. More interestingly, we had no problems at all tuning Internet radio stations through the receiver's 10BASE-T Ethernet jack. The receiver had no problem automatically getting the IP address from our DSL router's DHCP server.
    The TX-NR901 uses XiVA's Internet radio tuning service. While this holds a multitude of stations, carefully organized by genre, country or language, you can't directly enter the URL of an Internet radio station. This meant that we couldn't tune into a few of our favorites. However, we did find an interesting Danish station and a thickly-brogued news reader on a Scottish Station. There were hundreds more we could have listened to as well.
    You can also install Onkyo's Net-Tune Central software on any Windows PCs on your LAN to access your library of digital music. The software is free, but you must download it, at approximately six megabytes. We found Net-Tune Central to be elegant in its simplicity and very well-behaved compared with many other media-serving applications we've come across.
    After we installed the software, we had to specify the music server before it found our music. We pointed Net-Tune Central to a folder on our computer that had a few episodes of The Hour of Slack, which we chose for their large size. The receiver took advantage of any ID3 tags on the MP3 files and displayed the information. When playing music files over our network, the track's elapsed time appeared on the front panel display. The TV showed the track number in the current sequence of tracks, the elapsed time, track name, album name, artist, file format and bitrate of the currently-playing track. The Net-Tune Central software playlists were easy to set up and convenient to use.
    The TX-NR901's full complement of transport controls sets it apart from a lot of other media clients we've seen lately. You can even scan through audio tracks by holding down the fast-forward or fast-reverse buttons.

Careful with that Thing
We originally set out to review the TX-NR901's little brother, the TX-NR801 ($1,000). We connected the TX-NR801 receiver to our theater stack, which included a DishPVR satellite receiver, an Onkyo DVD player, a Mitsubishi S-VHS VCR, a Panasonic 32-inch direct-view TV and a 5.1 KLH speaker system. When we finished hooking up the 801, though, we got sound only out of the subwoofer, which was connected to the receiver using the receiver's preamp-level output.
    A call to Onkyo's technical support number quickly connected us to a very polite and helpful representative, who determined that the receiver was probably damaged sometime during shipment. The next unit Onkyo sent us was the TX-NR901, which worked flawlessly out of the box. Our long-term experience with Onkyo products in general is that they are very well-constructed, but if you need help (which you probably won't), they'll be there for you.

Hooking Up
Out of the box, the TX-NR901 is a big, burly receiver, tipping the scales at 42.5 lbs. The box cautions you that it would be a good idea to have someone else help you lift this receiver. This is good advice. With a reasonably strong back and convenient access to ice packs, we gingerly hoisted it up into our A/V rack sans-friend. The reason for the heft is the very large transformers and heat sinks (among other components) that Onkyo uses (and has been using for years) in their designs.
    The receiver, like the majority of higher-end receivers in the market these days, features multi-way binding posts for all speaker connections. This makes it simple to connect your speakers, whether you are using pins, banana plugs or bare wire to make your speaker connections. As an added benefit, Onkyo thoughtfully threw in a sheet of cable labels to assist in getting everything going again in case you have to move anything around in your listening room.
    One of the sets of speaker terminals is for surround back speakers (for 6.1 or 7.1 systems) or for sending pre-amplified sound to your second zone (configurable in the receiver's menu system.) Whether you choose surround back or second zone for your speakers, both surround back and second zone preamp-level jacks are provided. This is a very flexible receiver.
    Perhaps surprisingly, we really liked the well-written manual. The first 38 pages consist of receiver and remote reference, along with some guidance for connecting the receiver to other devices.

A Look at the Remote
The illuminated universal remote control with learning capabilities and macro-execution included with the receiver was very nice. The remote includes a small 4-character-by-2-line LCD that displays the current function and the current command mode of the remote control. The remote control includes a scroll wheel that allows you to choose the command mode and the current receiver function. To return to controlling the functions of the receiver, just click the scroll wheel. A button on the side of the remote lights everything up very nicely. The standby LED on the receiver blinks whenever a remote command arrives, which can also be a quick way to troubleshoot remote control-related issues.

Setup Menus
While the receiver's On Screen Display (OSD) is user-friendly, you can also navigate through the menus via the receiver's easy-to-read dot-matrix front panel display. We primarily used our TV to put the unit through its paces, however.
    When you turn on the receiver for the first time, your television displays a blue screen and the volume level bar blinks on. We pressed the remote's scroll wheel and pushed the Setup key to begin configuring our system.
    First, a warning: beware of the speaker impedance menu setting. Out of the box, the receiver defaulted to four-ohm impedance. Since we tested the receiver with eight-ohm speakers, this could have been a problem. There is also an option for subwoofer crossover frequency (with a guide in the printed manual with speaker cone diameters to help you choose). We used 120Hz, since our main speakers had four-inch woofers.
    For surround sound settings, you can set your speaker distances in either feet or meters. The receiver's OSD makes it easy to set speaker levels. We set ours with a Radio Shack decibel meter, set to slow response and C-weighting.
    We mapped the digital audio inputs to match our video inputs via the OSD. You can also choose the types of audio formats that can be played through the input in question, but you'll almost certainly want to keep this set to All. Again: very flexible.

Sound
For our tests, we used demo DVDs from Dolby Laboratories and DTS, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and an audio CD of Luscious Jackson's Natural Ingredients. We found the sound (sent to the receiver via an optical digital audio cable) to be very clear and well defined. The aforementioned beefy components and unit's THX Select certification almost certainly contributed to the great sound that this receiver produces.
    The front panel display shows information on the incoming audio stream, if you're sending digital audio to the receiver. Our DISH Network receiver, for example, sends 48kHz PCM and Dolby Digital 5.1 from an HBO free preview that was running when we reviewed the receiver. The display also showed us whether the DVD we were listening to had its sound encoded as PCM, Dolby Digital or DTS. The receiver also switched listening modes automatically when the incoming audio signal changed


Unstacked
The TX-NR901 is a powerful receiver that runs warm. The sticker on top of most A/V receivers that says "Don't set anything on me" is there for a reason, especially when it comes to this receiver. You'd be very wise to give it its own shelf, or to set it on top of something that can support its bulk.
    In the end, all of these details are interesting, but our opinion is easy to summarize. The Onkyo's TX-NR901 is a truly outstanding receiver and media client, and we recommend it highly for its flexibility and magnificent performance.

Charles Fulton is an Associate Editor for Smart TV & Sound.

Smart Specs
Amplifier
Power Output: All channels driven: 110W/channel (8 ohms); stereo only: 140W/channel
Total Harmonic Distortion: 0.08% at rated power
Frequency Response: 10Hz-100kHz (+1dB/-3dB, direct mode)
S/N Ratio: 110dB (line-level, direct mode)
Speaker Impedance: 4-16 ohms

Tuner
FM Usable Sensitivity: Stereo: 17.2dBf; Mono: 11.2dBf
FM S/N Ratio: Stereo: 70dB; Mono: 76dB
FM Total Harmonic Distortion: Stereo: 0.3%; Mono: 0.2%
AM Usable Sensitivity: 30 microvolts
AM S/N Ratio: 40dB
AM Total Harmonic Distortion: 0.7%

Physical
Power Consumption: 9.0 amps peak; 2.5 watts standby
Dimensions (WxHxD in Inches): 17 1/8 x 6 7/8 x 18 1/16
Weight: 42.5 lbs.

Inputs
Component Video: 2
S-video: 5 rear, 1 front
Composite Video: 5 rear, 1 front
Optical Digital Audio: 4 rear, 1 front
Coaxial Digital Audio: 3 rear
Stereo Analog Audio: 7 rear, 1 front
Multichannel Analog Audio: Yes, 7.1 channels

Outputs
Component Video: 1
S-Video: 3
Composite Video: 4
Optical Digital Audio: 2
Stereo Analog Audio: 3
Second Zone (Preamp-level): Yes, stereo
Preamp-Level Main Program: Yes, 7.1 channels
Speakers: 7 channels
Headphone Jack: Yes

Other Connections
IR In/Out
12 Volt Trigger
Ethernet (10BASE-T)

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