Onkyo TX-SR333 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver with Bluetooth

I did quite a lot of reading before making this purchase because of all the noise on the web about Onkyo's HDMI issues. It seems that they have finally upgraded the chip and supposedly this is no longer an issue. Let's hope so.On with the review: I'm no audiophile and I don't want to spend hours fine tuning a sound system since neither I nor the others in my family would likely be able to tell the difference in subtle settings. So, I was happy that the set up for this AVR was pretty straightforward and simple. It has plenty of power for our little living room space. We have paired it with a set of Pioneer SP-FS52-LR floor standing speakers and the Pioneer SW-8MK2 Andrew Jones Designed 100-Watt Powered Subwoofer. If you price these speakers here on Amazon, you can probably guess that I was going just about as cheap as you can go and still have real components. That said, there are no complaints with any of these components. (We spent just about $500 for all 4 components. I kept the center speaker and the two surrounds from our previous system and there has been no issue with that set up.) The settings available on the Onkyo AVR make it possible to listen to true stereo music when we want (that was not possible with the old AVR, which was really designed just for surround), and then get the full theater experience for movies and TV shows. It works great with our LG TV and DVD player and our Roku. I have not set up second region yet, but I plan to put some speakers in our back yard. Bottom line: after about a month we are very happy with this purchase, for now, at least.

Why put 2x stars and then a "do not purchase" statement? I found that many of the 1 start reviews somebody did something wrong or the product was a complete rip off. In my opinion this is just a terrible product.This is my 7th Onkyo Amp and apparently my last. Called Onkyo with a terrible buzzing sound through the speakers every time my Tivo fast forwarded or went on mute, the buzz lasted about 5 seconds every time. After LOTS of trial and error realized it does it even when I switch inputs. Spoke to Onkyo and quickly realized that it wasnt going anywhere when they told me to disconnect all the speakers and see if that fixes the problem...HUH? Finally drove the 20 miles to get it fixed (so much for Amazon order convenience). 2 months later and no surprise they can reproduce "nothing wrong". Un Believable.If you are thinking it must be something in the configuration. It only manifests with all speakers attached it will do it when switching any digital input even if there is NOTHING but power and speakers hooked up to the system. It does it on two separate sets of 5.1 set ups and the older Onkyo that doesn't have the HDMI switching (main reason I purchased) has no problem at all. The other Onkyo on the other 5.1 also no problem at all. Support is terrible will NEVER buy another Onkyo again!!!!!!If you are still thinking about buying this keep in mind you need a separate amp for speakers B, where as many of the older amps would just switch the 5.1 to stereo and then play speakers B not a big deal as I have other amps but could be a pain for someone. Also no switched outlets, kind of annoying if you use lets say a fan to cool the amp or some other device that doesn't have a remote or you don't want to use a remote.

I purchased this receiver as an upgrade to an old Sony system. I am very impressed with this product. I paired it with 5.1 channel Yamaha speakers. The sound is great and I am completely happy with my purchase.Before I made the purchase I read through many of the less than 5 star ratings. Several complaints I noticed seem to be more related to user error. I think some buyers thought this was a simple plug it in and play device. However, like most quality receivers it does take some manual setting adjustments to get the best performance. The Onkyo website has fairly clear instructions on how to do so. Also there are many videos online that can explain how to calibrate the best settings for a 5.1 channel setup. I suggest anyone setting up a receiver of any brand view them if you don't want to pay an AV tech to calibrate your system. Also don't scrimp on the speaker wire. 16-Gauge works great with my system.Additionally Onkyo USA has a support forum. I had a question about my receiver and in less than 12 hours I had an answer from Onkyo support.Pros:Great sound for the price. It is on par with higher end receivers if you take the time to set it up properly.Bluetooth works awesome. I can stream music from my MacBook iTunes. I love this.6 HDMI in ports.Support for the product seems excellent.Cons:Spring-loaded inputs for speakers.The packaged instruction manual does not get too much into advanced settings. However more information is easily found online.It is fairly large so don't expect to put it in a compact space.

This information would have been most helpful before I bought this: "This unit supports HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) (＊2), so it can display picture only on HDCP-compatible components." Apparently my TV does not support this (and has only DVI input, kinda old by a few years). AND, it does not provide any video processing, so no video DAC. The component outs do not put out what is coming in on the HDMIs. Lame! My BD only puts out HDMI and composite. So I have to do a manual HDMI switch to watch any blue-rays. I'm ordering an HDCP stripping splitter to see if that helps. But come on, Onkyo. How hard is it to output to the component as well as the HDMI?

After months of research and shopping, I decided that this receiver has the best bang for your buck. To me, it has the latest and most important features that I would actually use; this includes, 4K 2.0 HDMI ports (6 of them which is a big plus), wireless Bluetooth connectivity, all the Hi-Res audio processing chips (for the most natural lossless audio playback) , ample enough amount of watts (don't really need much if you have high quality efficient speakers), USB connectivity, and Advanced Music Optimizer (which enhances lossy audio to lossless quality). Personally that is a lot of features for the price and well worth it to have, compared to other less important bells and whistles that it might not have.The only two things that it does not have is an auto calibration mic and network capabilities, which is absolutely NOT a problem considering that almost every other device that will most likely be hooked up to this receiver is a smart device anyways. For me I have a smart Lg plasma TV, PS4, PS3, and of course a smart phone that can also be hooked up to it when I want. So not having network capabilities is actually a plus because it makes everything else more simple, because having ten devices all trying to do the same thing is overrated and confusing. A receiver should primarily be a simple audio/video transmitter, not a computer. The less bells and whistles it has the cheaper it costs and the more emphasis there is on sound quality.The performance of this receiver is outstanding compared to its price range and market rating being "entry level". I found the sound quality is phenomenal, it has a very nice warm natural sound with clean and clear highs and deep defined lows; nothing is overpowered at all just very well balanced. It is extremely pure and clean with out any distortion. I would say that Onkyo receivers are capable of reproducing accurate and realistic sound.The functionality is very simple and straight forward. The menu interface is very bare bones (which is good) and easy to understand. The remote is pretty simple as well and buttons on the actual receiver are simple. Switching between inputs, changing sound settings, adjusting speaker levels, as well as controlling other devices through the remote is very easy. And six HDMI ports is more than generous.There are a few SHORT COMINGS. There can sometimes be a lag between switching through HDMI inputs, the audio and/or video can sometimes drop out, but this is only due to the "handshake" between certain devices (a simple tweak in settings of the connected device could fix this issue, so its not necessary a problem with the receiver), it doesn't have a dynamic range control (DRC) feature or dialogue enhancement which means low vocals and high effects sounds can be irritating but again your external device might have this feature to compensate, and the lack of the auto calibration mic means you wont get as fine tuned of a sound as you would with the mic. But again, you can just calibrate everything manually and according to your OWN tastes and preferences which might be better for some.Overall I wouldn't overlook this receiver at all. It does everything you would want, and performs way better than what you would expect, indeed a very very high quality entry level receiver on par with the more expensive ones.