THX Certified!

Okay, I know the title is very cheeeeeeeesy! But I could not think of anything better.. or I just was not trying hard enough! But in any case the fact remains I did buy the Onkyo HT-RC270, the equivalent to Onkyo TX-NR708 to replace my aging 10 year old Onkyo HT-S580S amp. I figured that after 10 years I could use a audio update even though the old Onkyo is still a amazing piece of equipment but at the same time I didn't want to spend $$$.

I wanted a receiver that had all of the newer DTS and Dolby surround formats and could power the 4 ohm Onkyo and Jensen speakers. I use/d the new and old amplifier to drive 4 ohms speakers. Most audiophiles will tell you to get external amplification to drive them. I am usually skeptical of these claims. (FYI- if you are gonna use this post as a review please use your own judgement for the speakers ;) And I also wanted to clean up the wiring mess by substituing all the digital in/out, component in/out, composite in/out and coax to a single ( maybe two or three ) HDMI!!!! Being able to use the HDMI really cleans up the cabling since it can also send the audio over the same cable. Same thing goes for my HD cable box (just upgraded too), HDMI no seperate audio cable needed... This new reciver some with an ethernet in, enabling though me to stream music via my in home server!!!

The Onkyo RC270 is a huge beast (comparetively) with a very hefty heat sink with dual fans. It has every single high-end adjustable settings you can think of. The only thing I discovered is that the noise correction caused my Netflix stream to ghost. However, that may be due to the noise correction algorithm coupled with the 120hz mode on my TV. Turning off the noise correction fixed the ghosting for me. The quality of the up conversion is good but perhaps a little soft for SD. But on the other hand it woks out well for my online streaming of Tamil Movies! LOL!

PROS:
135 Watts
Drive 4ohms speakers well
OSD for volume
Excellent Internet radio functionality
Regular cable for IPOD (I don't use one..will never use one)
Dual fans to cool heat sink
Per input level gain
Per speakers cross-over
Dual subwoofer output
Trigger
Firmware upgradeable (make sure you update right away **MUST MUST MUST)

CONS:
Warmer than the older Onkyo
Update 1/11/11: No dialogue enhancement

All in all, I'm very happy with this receiver. I originally wanted a Onkyo TX-NR808 as a replacement but as it is not budging on MSRP right now which means it would have cost me almost twice as much as this one. And also because there are currently no other receivers on the market that has the comparable features as this one at this price range!!