Customer Ratings & Reviews

My stereo never sounded so good love the dolby atmos and the bass is crazy

I’m very excited love it easy to use I will buy it again

Easy to install. Simple connections? Great dynamic sound production.

This receiver is a piece of garbage. Literally. I threw mine in the trash. I bought this unit from a reputable stereo equipment dealer (not Best Buy). I paid $349 for this on sale. I was aware that this was an entry level surround sound amp, but it was trouble from the start. It would randomly shut off. Sometimes it would click loudly as if it were going to shut down, but then it wouldn’t. This is terribly distracting when you’re watching a movie. It is virtually impossible to download software updates as it doesn’t connect to the internet. You are expected to download updates to a flash drive and plug it into the unit to update software. Ridiculous in this day and age, but I figured it’ll do for a bit with the existing software until i can upgrade to something more advanced in the future. After 5 months the unit shut down altogether one day and wouldn’t start again. It felt really hot and I assumed it had shut down as a safety precaution despite the fact that I hadn’t pushed it particularly hard. I finally managed to restart it long enough to get an error code that essentially said something in the unit had fried. I contacted Onkyo and they told me they’d repair it under warranty, but that I’d have to pay shipping to do so. I went back and forth with them via email for a week, but they refused to replace or refund. I couldn’t even get them to cover shipping costs to send their faulty unit out. After reading countless reviews regarding this receiver, it appears that many people have had exactly the same experience with the unit and the company. Some people paid to send theirs out, only to have it returned with the diagnosis of nothing found wrong. Others put their newly repaired unit back into service, only to have it do the same thing again. I refuse to incur the cost of repair only to find myself in the same situation down the road, so I’m out of luck. Onkyo’s customer service leaves a lot to be desired and frankly, this receiver sounds mediocre to begin with, so I learned an expensive lesson here. I’m writing this review in hopes that I can save others from having a similar experience. Have a look at the dozens of negative reviews on Amazon, all with the same symptoms and customer service experiences. Onkyo knows this unit is junk but they won’t stop selling it, nor will they do the right thing by their customers. I will never buy anything from this company again after this. Shame on you Onkyo! You are unapologetic crooks.

This is ok but not as good as the one that are replaying. Need more connections.

The TX-SR494 is mostly as described. One of the negative points is that the advertisement described the unit as having a pass through when in stand-by mode which is not true. If I had known the truth, I would not have purchased this unit.

A very good receiver, It enables me to keep up with the morning news.

Works great! Almost looks just like the one I had before.

I had one just like this but it was a six speaker This one’s eight speaker but bad news about this one and the other one kept breaking down didn’t had it for one year yet three times and broke down I don’t recommend this brand

Drove 60 miles last night and bought this to replace my 20 year old onkyo, that just died. Hooked it up this morning and didn't make it through halfway through one song and clicked off with a puff of smoke. Now have to waste another trip to return it. Hopefully best buy is helpful. Will never buy onkyo again!

The unit did not turn on or work. Was assured by reps that I had the option of exchanging it for a new one that they would ship to me or I could exchange it for a new one at the store. I opted for the store where I was told I would have to pay significantly more to complete the exchange. Thanks but no thanks.

It would be nice to see Power Output specs on this receiver... to make it easier to compare to other receivers.