Review on Onkyo TX-8255 Stereo Receiver: 🔊 Unavailable from Manufacturer, but Still in Demand by Michael Wilson

My first impression when buying the TX-8255 was that it was a solid 2-channel receiver. I bought it to replace the old Yamaha unit that died after more than 10 years of service, for 2 channel home acoustics where I have 4 speakers for one channel and 6 for another. Each pair of 8 ohm speakers has a volume control, so the range of impedance the receiver sees is clearly quite wide. The high build quality of the speakers was very impressive. When I was working on both channels at the same time, I first noticed that some functions (like balance, bass control) weren't working. I started playing at different volume levels on different speakers, causing the impedance to change, and noticed that the receiver doesn't always reproduce repeat characteristics at the same settings. With some settings, the device literally hung. After turning off, the receiver resumed its work, but it was not possible to repeat the lock with the same settings. I have not observed such a problem with my old Yamaha receiver with similar published specs. I assumed this block simply doesn't have full range impedance bandwidth compensation. After speaking to Onkyo tech support I decided to buy another 2 channel Onkyo TX-8050 which has slightly more power per channel and adjustable impedance levels. at the channel exits. Revain was fantastic - a new unit was delivered with free postage within 2 days of ordering ahead of Christmas. When I connected the TX-8050 and repeated the same settings as the TX-8255, I didn't notice the same issues with the two channels working together. Maybe with more power my speaker settings fall more in the middle range that the electronics can handle compared to the limit range of the TX-8255. So I decided to keep the TX-8050 and test it more to a limited extent. the next couple of weeks and sending back the TX-8255 which couldn't handle the settings of my home speaker system. I gave the TX-8255 a 4 star rating because I was actually impressed with its sound when running on channel A or B. These are just my speaker setups when running it on channels A and B together where I clearly saw some performance and marginal issues.