Onkyo TX-NR636 Review

What´s Up With Dolby Atmos?

Dolby Atmos is since 2012 used by major Hollywood studios. The special feature of the format is that the sound is no longer bound to the front, side and rear speaker channels, but instead up to 64 loudspeakers can be driven individually. The sound mixer can thus distribute the sound to the room in a 3D matrix. Any coordinate can be assigned for each sound effect and a whole new sound experience can be created.

64 speakers? In the living room? Seriously? No, of course not. Don´t worry, the Atmos sound can be utilized with a 5.1 or 7.1 setup in the living room. The only condition is that a pair of overhead speakers or special upward-firing Dolby Atmos speakers are used.

Ready For The Future - Even Without Atmos

The Onkyo TX-NR 636 is a 7.2 receiver with 160 watts of power per channel and also has a second 32-bit DSP, making it a good choice for the future. All HDMI ports support HDMI 2.0 and can thus process video signals up to 4K at 60 frames per second while also supporting the 21:9 format. Unfortunately, there´s so far not too many source devices and not much content available to make full use of these capabilities, but the integrated Qdeo™ Upscaler from Marvell scales normal HD material to 4K, and the quality is surprisingly good.

Still with the future in mind, the Onkyo TX-NR-636 supports the latest copy protection standard, HDCP 2.2. In connection with the playback of 4K material via HDMI 2.0 this is an important point - if the source material has copy protection on it, the whole HDMI HDCP chain must support 2.2, otherwise there´s a risk that the screen remains blank.

In addition to the latest features, the TX-NR636 also carries a variety of proven Onkyo technologies on board. It uses the three-stage Darlington circuit (WRAT), which should mean minimal interference in the amplified audio signal, and PLL technology (Phase Locked Loop).

Same Same But Different

Even with the connectivity of the unit, Onkyo does not hold back. Seven HDMI inputs (including a MHL compatible one on the front), 3 digital audio inputs (1 optical, 2 coaxial), as well as several component and analog video inputs provide full connectivity.

On the audio side, it´s also worth mentioning the MMC (Moving Magnet) phono input as such are no longer found very often in devices like this. A big plus if you´re a fan of vinyl.

In contrast to the phono input you´ll find a USB port on the front panel that can be used to play audio saved on a USB stick or MP3 player, and be used as a network connection which supports DLNA 1.5. In addition to standard formats such as MP3, WMA, FLAC, etc. it can also play high-resolution formats such as WMA Lossless, Apple Lossless, DSD 5.6 Mhz, LPCM and Dolby TrueHD.

In addition to these connectors the Onkyo TX-NR636 has integrated WLAN and Bluetooth for wireless playback of music. Also, the streaming services TuneIn Radio, Pandora, Spotify, AUPEO! and Deezer are all preinstalled.

Powerful and Expressive

We tested how good of a job the Marvell Upscaler would do with a standard definition DVD, in this case the movie The Matrix as it has a good variety between dark and light scenes and different color grading depending on whether you´re in the Matrix or the Real World, as well as an awesome sound mix.

Also the sound is powerful and weighty. With 160 watts of power per channel it can easily fill a larger living room with sound. With music, both in stereo and multi-channel, the Onkyo sounded surprisingly exciting with a lively and energetic tonality, and painted an extremely precise sonic picture.

In movie mode, the center speaker caused some issues as voices often sounded a bit phasy - and that was probably due to the speaker system being calibrated by using the Room EQ system AccuEQ. If this was down to the speaker or the room we cannot say, but a manual adjustment and calibration of the speaker setup in the menu corrected the issue with a few simple steps. After the adjustment it sounded awesome again.

Overall, the TX-NR636 performed well over our expectations with an airy and powerful sound quality that you´d normally expect at a much higher price point.