(…)Take an Award-winning bargain, bolt on lots more features without affecting the sound, and keep the price the same: the ‘606 is a steal.
(...)The new stuff is almost all hidden under the skin, but the obvious changes are the four HDMI 1.3a inputs on the newcomer, against the two HDMI sockets on the old model, and a much more ergonomic remote control in place of the somewhat ‘bricky’ old one.
(...)All of that should make the new model easier to use and more flexible, especially in a world where there are increasing numbers of products with HDMI outputs, all needing to be switched and fed to a TV or projector.
(...)The good news is that the engineers haven’t left well alone – for those obsessed with specification, they’ve thrown a whole load more new ‘stuff’ onto the product.
(...)There’s still the Onkyo Wide-Range Amplifier Technology, a feature of the company’s products for many years, and Audyssey 2EQ automatic set-up and calibration, meaning you need only plug in a microphone and press a button to have the receiver run a set of test-tones and adjust speaker delay and level to suit your room and speaker positioning.
(...)What’s new in the improved version of 2EQ found here, however, is another bit of Audyssey technology, Dynamic EQ: this adjusts the equalisation, and thus the frequency response, and the surround level, so you get more convincing results when playing the system at low levels without having to set the rear channels so high that they’re obtrusive when playing much louder
(...)Also added on the audio side is a new Music Optimiser, designed to make more of compressed music played into the receiver from an MP3 player, or from an iPod via Onkyo’s DS-A1x or DS-A2x docks. This works by enhancing the higher frequencies usually lost in compression, thus giving a more open balance.
(...)But the main event on the new receiver is the introduction of video upscaling, even though the specification freaks will moan that it's only to 720p/1080i. The receiver will pass a 1080p signal, for example from Blu-ray players and the like, though ‘as is’, but will also upconvert and upscale lesser formats and resolutions.
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