Onkyo TX-RZ30

This is one amazing unit. It replaces a Denon I had and also a Yamaha V6 which was quite a disappointment. In the past I have had most brands, a Marantz, a NAD, Rotel, 2 Yamahas, Sony, and Onkyo, yes, I have had a few over the years. I was wanting some real Atmos sound and realised after much pain and suffering and fumbling in the dark I really needed to go all out with a 9-channel receiver to support my 7.2.2 set up.

I ran Dirac Live to setup my speakers and it immediately recognised I had a 9 speakers and 2 subwoofers. I used a 9 point setup which was going to take about 25 minutes but found it took me longer because the program was complaining about the volume being to high, so I had to keep back tracking to get it right. In the end, the sound was superb, still though, I made a couple of adjustments to my subwoofers and checked to see what Dirac had done to my settings. For some reason it had left the speaker virtualisation on and after some reading and some testing I stayed with that setting.

Sound was clear and with punch, vocals were precise, instruments were well separated and well defined on a broad sound stage. The unit was selecting the correct format for me and I checked this on the Connection app to see what it was doing and have included 3 screenshots to show what it did with the sound it was presented with. To have all my speakers working with each other all the time was a joy to behold, finally a unit that delivered.

I can't speak highly enough of this unit. Sure, it cost me twice as much as the Yamaha but then it delivered at that higher price point something the 7 channels (with fake rear and high surrounds) could not. I got a fair discount on this unit as ONKYO will be releasing a Z31 sometime at the end of the year, still though, this one has only been around since late 2024. I won't be using my Firestick plugged into this unit as I don't need it any longer, but I will be running my Blu-ray player through it. You can use the app on your smartphone to control this unit which is probably better than fumbling in a dark room with a non-backlit controller. All in all, if you have the money and want to spend it on a decent AV/receiver this one is hard to beat at this price point.