Onkyo TX-8270 2 Channel Network Stereo Receiver with 4k HDMI

Update. I noticed when I switched from listening to Pandora on the Net to playing vinyl on the turntable that there was a big difference in the volume coming out of the receiver. I even sold a very nice Denon cartridge thinking that it was the problem. I assumed it was the built in preamp contacted another dealer looking for a separate preamp to boost the sound up. The Crutchfield customer service agent informed me that you can adjust the volume of each component on this receiver. Something that I didn't notice in the manual. Now the volume from the turntable, Pandora and CD player are the same.I will always love my vintage receiver, but it was missing some modern options. After reading many reviews I decided on the Onkyo TX-8270. It is a bit smaller and lighter then I imagined it would be. However, it was a breeze to set up, the multi channel WiFi works great. The receiver fills a large great room with beautiful music. I paired it with Klipsch RB-61 II bookshelf speakers and a Klipsch R-10SWI wireless subwoofer.What I love about this receiver, it has HDMI options so you can use it as a home theatre system (no center channel), it has a full size remote(so when the girlfriend enters the room I can easily lower the volume), it has a preamp for a turntable, and ports for my CD player and IPOD cradle. One of the best features is that you can stream music services with it after downloading the Onkyo Controller app. So I can use my tablet and turn on the receiver (through wood cabinet doors), choose a Pandora station, and adjust the volume, treble, base, subwoofer volume, etc.This receiver is a beautiful high tech piece of electronics, it has lots of power, the sound is great and it is very cool to play around with.

Really nice 2 channel amp that fit my needs exactly. Quality device. Some really clever features. It has multiple HDMI inputs and one HDMI output to the TV. What is neat is that even if the amp is turned off (Actually just in "standby" mode) it passes all the HDMI devices through it and to the TV. In other words, your TV acts as normal and you can just turn it on and hear the sound through the TV speakers. Of course when you turn on the amp, you get the sound through your good speakers, and just turn down the TV speaker volume to zero. So I use HDMI cables from my cable box and blu ray DVD player into the amp, and thence to the TV. Ideal! Many other features too numerous to mention here, but one is the excellent on-screen menus where you can adjust anything imaginable for the audio + other functions of the amp. Highly recommended if it fits your setup as it did mine. One caution--there is no tape in or tape out. It does have a phono (low level) input. All in all a good buy.

Update 6/9/17: After searching the Android Play Store for the advertised Onkyo control app I found several. Confusing. I downloaded 3, none of which work with the receiver. Looking through the Play Store for reviews I found that most people were finding it impossible to connect with the receiver. The receiver is connected to my wi-fi network. Airplay and TuneIn both work fine. Then looking the app up in the iTunes store I found the same thing. Come on, Onkyo, if you can't make an app that works don't advertise it. Since the problems connecting go back to last year, there has been plenty of time to fix this problem if Onkyo really wanted to do so. If I hadn't already gotten rid of the packaging, I'd return the receiver. Crappy software and sloppy interface design mar an otherwise good product.Original ReviewI've been listening to this for 10 days now and and am very happy with the sound. I'm serving music from an old Macbook Pro through the optical out port. That lets the receiver run the signal through the built in DAC. I've read that Macs have good enough sound cards built in that there's no need for a digital audio converter (DAC) to improve the sound. Not true. I switched between a standard cable and the optical one and the difference is immediate and clear. If you mostly have compressed music, MP3 or AAC, the DAC will show you the loss of quality from the compression. With CDs , Apple Lossless or FLAC audio, the DAC will bring out clarity that you would miss without the extra circuit.The receiver will also handle signals from AirPlay and bluetooth. That's handy and the music sounds good, though not as good as the audio through the digital input. The receiver will also handle music directly through wi-fi from several streaming services like Pandora, and Tidal. That also works well. With a decent pair of speakers (Wharfedale Diamond 225s) it's possible to tell the difference between Pandora's highest quality MP3 music and Tidal's FLAC. The difference is small but it's there. It's also possible to stream music via Chromecast. That works for music or you could use the HDMI to pass a TV signal through the receiver to your TV for better sound. There are 4 HDMI ports for input from multiple sources. There's a USB in on the front of the unit that will play from my phone or a memory stick, however the signal doesn't run through the DAC.That HDMI out port is my only problem with the Onkyo. You will need it to do some of the wi-fi setup. It also greatly simplifies FM station setting The menu is displayed through the video out HDMI port. That means it's necessary to have a TV or monitor to see the menu in some circumstances. As my stereo is in a separate room from my TV that means I had to dig out an old computer monitor to hook up to the stereo for setup. Since I am mostly using the computer as input, that's not a real problem, but it shouldn't be *necessary* to hook a TV up to a receiver to use some of its features. My cheap all-in-one inkjet printer/scanner includes a simple LCD panel for settings. This receiver should too.I expected a more clinical sound out of the receiver. I was wrong. It has a tiny bit of warmth. It also has more than enough power to run a pair of bookshelf speakers. I recently picked up a pair of Q Acoustics 3050 speakers. They are sounding good. I expect them to be excellent once they burn in. I can run those on the A channel and still have enough power to the B channel to run my Wharfedales in the den. Sweet. The headphone sound is nice but not as nice as I get from my hundred buck Schiit Magni 2. I'm listening on a pair of Sennheiser HD 700 headphones, which are better than my speakers.I'm not going to go through the specs. They're in the product description. They are very good for a receiver in this price range.