Onkyo TX-NR696 Home Audio Smart Audio and Video Receiver, Sonos Compatible and Dolby Atmos Enabled, 4K Ultra HD and AirPlay 2, Black

This product was a refurbished unit from an authorized Onkyo company, I spent 30 plus years in the electronics refurb industry and am well versed in how early life failures get rectified, and had confidence in purchasing this unit, also saved me $300 and upgraded me from a 636 and what a difference, the new setup is more in depth on the speaker and spatial sound side as well as subwoofer performance, very happy, I've owned Onkyo home theater products for over 25 years, always have been satisfied.

This Onkyo receiver is much better than I anticipated. Physical setup, connecting speakers and other devices, was simple but a little time consuming. That is just the nature of the beast. I was amazed that once all the connections were complete the setup microphone balanced my 5.1 surround speakers perfectly. It has more power than my previous Onkyo AV receiver (which I retired after 14 years) and sounds amazing. The zone 2 feature, along with the Bluetooth connectivity is great for my outdoor patio speakers and phone. And with the Onkyo phone app it's a breeze to manage the system from outside. This was also another feature that attracted me to this device. Once, by accident, I found that I was streaming music from my streaming service indoors and outside my iTunes app was playing, both from the same phone. Some advice about the setup: When following the setup guide and it says that if you want to ONLY use the zone 2 speakers and not the main speakers you need to set the main speakers to standby mode. It took me a while to understand that what they mean is that you select an unused/inactive HDMI port for the main speakers. There is not a "standby" feature/setting. Overall, this device exceeded my expectations and was an exceptionally good price. Last note: While extremely pleased with this AVR I will reserve final judgement until it dies or is retired, whichever comes first.

I was recommended a Denon X2600H and gave it a shot. Coming from an older Onkyo, I didn't feel like the Denon packed enough punch. Dialogue wasn't quite as clear as what I was used to and music felt more flat.I hooked up the NR696 when it arrived and ran the speaker calibration. I instantly noticed the difference in sound between the two receivers. Everything sounds much more crisp and clear on the Onkyo. Much like the sound I was used to from my old faithful Onkyo that still works after 15 years, but updated with HDMI for a more convenient setup. Onkyo NR696 is also THX certified unlike the mid range Denon receivers, and THX Cinema mode sounds awesome. Pretty much every THX mode seems to produce the best sound.Apparently Onkyo addressed past HDMI issues with "refined HDMI grounds". I haven't had any issues with it yet. Dolby Vision (HDR) passes through it fine and the picture looks great. So far I have a 4k blu ray player and PC going through it and all's well. I also prefer the Onkyo remote. The ability to adjust tone and boost voice with the touch of a button is nice. I do wish it was back-lit though. It seems remote back-lighting is becoming less common for whatever reason. Maybe to keep prices more competitive.Aside from that there's really nothing I don't like about this receiver as of now. I'll update if any issues come up.UPDATE 11/10/19. 2 stars removed:I'm noticing video blackouts on multiple HDMI ports. So far I've only used stream box, PC, and BD/DVD HDMI ports and all three have the same issue with different devices. The screen will randomly go black for a few seconds, but the audio will continue playing. Sometimes (rarely) I'll lose the signal completely and have to unplug the receiver and plug it back in. I'm using quality HDMI cables, and the 4K Fire Stick plugs directly into the port so there's no cable at all to question. It's not a constant problem, but if it happens once a day it's still a problem. I'll be contacting customer service and hoping to find a fix rather than sending it in for repair.UPDATE 6/24/20. One star restored:I'm happy to say that after a few firmware updates (not sure which one did the trick), I'm no longer losing signal with HDMI. I haven't had to unplug and replug the receiver when switching devices for weeks. No cable or device changes were made, just firmware updates from Onkyo. Sometimes there is still a bit of a handshake issue, like it'll switch to stream box when a device initially starts up in game, but that's easily fixed with the remote. I gave it one more star for their efforts, but still not a solid 5 star because of the initial issues I had and minor problems that still exist.I love the sound and features and don't regret my purchase. A shaky start but for the price I'm happy.

Is awesome

Don't buy this! I bought mine because I also have a 25yr old Onkyo receiver that has never had any problems with daily use. This one worked for 6 months and then one morning when I turned it on there was a sharp POP! and my subwoofer and Front Left output were dead - everything else working fine. So, it is under Onkyo warranty - but it cost me $71 to ship by UPS to be repaired by a factory approved repair shop and does NOT cover the cost of shipping! I would not be so annoyed if they would have given me a prepaid shipping label. (Onkyo will cover the cost of return shipping). From other things I've read I think Onkyo may be cutting costs and using cheaper components (I think the pop I heard was an electrolytic capacitor). Onkyo has lost this customer for good.