I need to start this post by officially thanking Onkyo for the great customer service they gave me after my initial receiver arrived with a major issue, either due to a bad unit or to transport from the online retailer I purchased it from. On a late Friday night, the social media people on the Onkyo team replied to me through Twitter and helped me confirm the issue and start the replacement process.
Onkyo then went over the usual level of service as they did accept to replace my unit instead of sending it for repair as my retailer did not have any in stock to help me. Instead of being stuck without my home theater for weeks, the replacement unit was shipped on the next business day. This is tremendous support and it is definitively a good way to keep customers with the brand.
Having said that, I’ve been using the receiver for a week now and I can say that I’m very happy with the experience. To start, I picked the Onkyo TX-NR1030 because of its support of 11 channels. The receiver includes amplification for 9 channels and you can connect an additional stereo amplifier to go up to a reference Atmos implementation of 7.1.4. To do this, I added a AudioSource AMP-100 stereo power amplifier, simple but efficient and because it’s used for the height back speaker, it can provide the required power for a good price.
The switch from my previous system at 5.1.2 (with an Onkyo TX-NR737) is noticeable and a great improvement. Not only does the two additional height channels add a more dimensional effect to the height layer, but the addition of two surround speakers also support better the 360 degrees effect, even better with Atmos movies and object positioning. The TX-NR1030 has enough power to drive the 9 channels in a very efficient way and the sound quality is very good.
The Atmos demos (available as downloadable on Demo World) are impressive in 7.1.4 and the thing that surprises me is that different the trailers are now my favorite ones from when I tried in 5.1.2, mainly because of the added dimension and sense of movement.
The receiver configuration tools is quite well done and the AccuEQ calibration works well. I have a read a lot about it being inferior to Audyssey that was used before by Onkyo, but I cannot judge as I did not use it before. I played multiple sources with and without AccuEQ room correct enabled and my final selection is to keep it on as it improves the dynamics and the clarity of movies.
I also appreciate the net functionalities of the receiver, including DLNA and Spotify Connect. My only grudge with the feature is with the file server mode as it only support some shares and not the ones my router and NAS provide, it seems too tied to typical Windows file servers.
In a nutshell, I can say I’m very happy with the receiver and with the new 7.1.4 setup it can support. My only hope is that Onkyo will confirm an upgrade path for the receiver to DTS:X when it’s officially announced next month, I’ll keep you updated on this.
Steve, hi. Great review. I just got a TX-NR1030. I have set it up as 5.1.4 Atmos.
Like you I am coming from a TX-NR737 with a 5.1.2 setup.
In the speaker initial set up, I set levels manualy on the speakers. The setup shows surround speakers which I do not have. I have tried running Atmos on the 1030 with the heights set to top front and top rear. I have tried with front Dolby enabled and rear Dolby enabled.
The only sound that I have gotten out of the rear speakers is on the level calibration. This running the Dolby Atmos demo disk and John Wick, full Atmos. The receiver shows the incoming signal as Dolby Atmos.
Any ideas? I am about 2 days away from sending it back.
Thanks. Bill Cook
As we discussed this on AVSForum, I wanted to document the answer here, the Surround speakers were connected to Back Surround instead, thus creating the equivalent of a 7.2.4 connection and not powering the height 2 channel during listening. Bringing them back to normal Surround and disabling Back Surrounds fixed the issue.
Hi Steve, I continue to love your site! I have a question for you regarding the payback of non-dolby atmos source material. My Onkyo indicates that it will up-mix legacy audio material in order to take advantage of the Atmos set-up. I am wondering what your thoughts are on this? When watching a movie in either Dolby TrueHD or DTS MasterAudio, do you use the Dolby Surround up-mix? If so, what have been the results? I am anticipating my 1030 soon!
Hi Brian,
I am using Dolby Surround for most of my viewing now. It does add an enveloping effect to the audio experience. I’m always wondering if I should use it or not because it’s not representing the initial soundtrack 1:1 anymore, but it does sound good so I keep it 🙂
Thanks for the good comments on the site.
Steve
Hi Steve — I might have a similar question to one of your earlier posts. I am about 20 days into owning the 1030 and am a little frustrated that I cannot get the receiver to power the height 2 channel during listening. I have all of the channels hooked up properly and it shows in the diagrams when going through the speaker configuration. I can hear it when I go through the level calibration, but I cannot get them to playback anything outside of that. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, the diagram on the front of the receiver that shows which speakers are powered only will show 7 speakers max.
Hello and sorry for the delay in responding !
The 1030 will power 9 speakers by itself but it will depend on your configuration if height 2 are powered or not. Can you tell me more about your setup ? Are you running 5.1.4 or 7.1.4 ?
If you are running 5.1.4, did you disable Surround Back speakers in the config ?
This will help me help you 🙂
Mike Wilson, i have same problem as you with onkyo 1030.
Height 2(and height 1) Works in calibration i have sound.
In movie no sound!
Using height 1 as front height
Usling height 2 as middle top.
In the “setup q” there is no way to get height 1+2 without disable surround back. The reason to buy 1 030 was “back surround” + atmos. 7.1 plus 4 channel Atmos.
There must be a way, using separate amp for hight 2.
Did try with amp on height 1.
Did reset, put out power over night.
Can anyone please help?
Hi Carl.
You do need to setup a external amp for the height 2 channel. You need to connect it to the preamps for the height 2 channels. To do so on the 1030, you need to activate the 11ch mode on the receiver.
More details in the Onkyo online manual here : http://www.onkyo.com/manual/txnr1030/adv/en/048.html
Steve
Hi Steve. Hoping you can help here. I have the 1030 receiver and 7 Jamo in-ceiling speakers. What is your recommendation on speaker set-up? Is there any benefit in connecting anything to the height speakers selection , since all my speakers are in-ceiling? Or just a normal 7.1 set-up?
Thanks so much
Hi MAK.
Sadly, if all of your traditional 7 channels are in the ceiling, there is not much to do for Atmos.
Steve
Thanks Steve. So my best bet for sound would be to set the system up as 7.1?
Sadly, if you cannot do anything to lower your main channels, I would stick with 7.1.
Steve
Thanks Steve. I will set this as 7.1. Whats your opinion on the settings for the cross-over levels? Also the db levels of each speaker. It looks like they go up to 12db each. After using the calibration, it set the speakers to 50 Hz but the sound is awful. It sounds really muffled.
Thanks for your help.
I usually set my crossovers around 80hz with the exception of my fronts which are capable of better results, but it really depends on your speakers. I would recommend trying it at 80Hz and see if you like the difference ? For the DBs, I recommend purchasing a SPL meter and confirming manually the result as I’ve not got great results with Onkyo’s calibration system for that…
Hi Steve,
I have the Onkyo TX-NR1030 receiver which I’m trying to connect to my new NHT Media Series speakers as a 5.1.4 setup which include front left, front right, center, subwoofer, surround left, surround right and then the upfiring atmos speakers for front left and right and rear left and right. Could you help me understand which terminals on the receiver to hook up the 4 atmos speakers to and what the settings should then be? Onkyo doesn’t do a very good job of explaining this in either the manual or through the setup. Thank you!
Hi John.
The speaker posts would be Height 1 L/R and Height 2 L/R. You would plug in your front atmos modules in the Height 1 posts and the rear ones in Height 2.
The config would be Dolby Enabled Speaker (Front) for Height 1 and Dolby Enabled Speaker (Back) for Height 2.
I hope this helps.
Thanks.
Steve
My room dimensions are 21 foot long and 16 foot wide.Which set up should I go with.5.1.4 or 7.1.2?
Any way you can go all the way for 7.1.4 ?
Does that 2 extra speakers for atmos make difference? Price gap between 9 ch amplifier and 11 channel amplifier is wide.
SALVE HO LO STESSO PROBLEMA DELL’ASCOLTO NON PRESENTE IN ALTEZZA 2 HO ACQUISTATO UN AMPLIFICATORE CAMBRIDGE CX A 81 PER COLLEGARLO AL MIO NR 1030 PER CAPIRE SE SIA POSSIBILE FAR SUONARE SIA I CANALI ALTEZZA 1 E 2 SIA I BACK SURROUND,E PER FINIRE HO ANCHE ISTALLATO I SURROUND QUELLI LATERALI POTREI SAPERE COME CONFIGURARE IL TUTTO? GRAZIE…… ENZO
Hello Enzo! Your 2 channel amplifier should be connected to the Height 2 posts of the preamps, and then you need to tell the Onkyo you are using 11 channels in the settings. Is this how you have it connected right now ?