Onkyo continues its yearly rampage of home AV. The 818 is brilliant, and the best-sounding AVR we've ever heard from the company. We're a little weary of saying this, but we honestly think this £1.000 model outperforms Onkyo's own £2.000 receiver from a couple of years back. That's a remarkable achievement for the company, and it means that it's still trying to give value to people who can't afford the high end. ..

Obwohl der Onkyo mit einem Straßenpreis von 900 Euro der günstigste Receiver im Testfeld ist, spielt er klanglich auf praktisch gleichem Niveau wie die Konkurrenz. Dass es 'nur' für 86 Punkte reicht, liegt an seiner vergleichsweise geringen 7.1-Leistung und dem nicht perfekten Boxen-Setup.

If you already own a late-model receiver with a video processor you’re happy with, such as the aforementioned Onkyo TX-NR809, there aren’t many compelling reasons to move up to the TX-NR818. Many of the features and specs are identical in both models. But if you’re looking for a receiver that supports all of the latest goodies—3D video, audio return channel, video upscaling, HDMI through, Ethernet, speaker calibration with room correction, and more — the TX-NR818 is an exceptional value.

Make no mistake, the TX-NR818 is a very capable amp for the money, but the bar hasn’t been raised to quite the same new heights as last year. Rival machines are waiting in the wings, so we’ll be interested to see how they stack up against this Onkyo in the coming weeks. We can’t wait.