Onkyo HTRC160 Home Theater Receiver review

The HT-RC160 has some missing connections, but it's mostly made up for by its five HDMI inputs.

New this year on Onkyo receivers is the "universal port," which is a proprietary connection used to connect Onkyo-branded accessories. Current universal port-compatible accessories include the UP-HT1 HD radio tuner ($160), DS-A3 iPod dock ($140), and UP-A1 iPhone dock ($110). The accessories certainly aren't cheap, but they have some advantages over buying separate components in that they'll work with your AV receiver remote and can interact with the onscreen display. Also new on the HT-RC160 are two subwoofer outputs, for those who want to run a dual subwoofer configuration.

Multiroom features
Line level 2nd zone outputs	Yes		Line level 3rd zone outputs	No
Speaker-level 2nd zone outputs	Yes		Speaker-level 3rd zone outputs	No
2nd zone video output	No		2nd zone remote	No

Multiroom functionality is standard on the HT-RC160, with second-zone functionality offered using line-level or speaker-level outputs. Note that using the second zone speaker-level outputs requires you to use the would-be surround-back channels of a 7.1 configuration; you can't have a 7.1 setup and a second zone.

Audio performance
With or without the Audyssey 2EQ equalization the basic sound of the HT-RC160 was agreeably sweet and smooth. The Beatles musical "Across the Universe" Blu-ray was pretty terrific sounding, and the Gospel choir that brings "Let It Be" to life was beautifully rendered. Rockers and ballads fared well, and the HT-RC160's poise remained steadfast throughout the film.

The ground-force battles depicted in the American siege of the Somali city of Mogadishu in the "Black Hawk Down" Blu-ray were more demanding tests of the HT-RC160's home theater skills. Surround immersion, with the high-pitched whine of the helicopter engines, and the fierce, percussive blasts of assault weapons amidst the chatter of radio communications were all clear and distinct.

But when a helicopter is hit and crashes onto city streets, the HT-RC160 couldn't convey the dynamics as well as some receivers we've heard of late. Turning the volume up didn't result in greater impact, the receiver doesn't seem as capable in that regard as Sony's STR-DN1000, which betters the HT-RC160 in the power oomph departments.

The HT-RC160 was no slouch with two-channel music. On its "Din of Inequity" CD, funk-jazz group Sex Mob laid down groove after groove, with thick meaty basslines that gave our subwoofer a nice workout. The band's boisterous brass section sounded realistic, without the nasty edge we sometimes get from midprice receivers. If anything, we would have preferred a bit more in the way of resolution; the HT-RC160 can sound a wee bit too laid back on some CDs and Blu-rays. Still, we'd opt for that over a receiver that goes the other way, to overly hyped detail and brightness.

Video performance
Editors' note: In our testing, we observed virtually identical performance from the HT-RC160 as we did from the Onkyo TX-SR607. Therefore, this section of the review is similar to that of the TX-SR607's.

The Onkyo HT-RC160 is capable of upconverting analog signals to its HDMI output, so we put it through our video testing suite. We connected the Oppo BDP-83 via component video to the HT-RC160, with the BDP-83 set to 480i output. The HT-RC160 was set to output at 1080i over its HDMI output, connected to the Samsung PN50B650.

We've complained about Onkyo's upconverted image quality on previous models and the HT-RC160 suffers from the exact same issues. First, we looked at test patterns from Silicon Optix's "HQV" test disc. The initial resolution pattern told the whole story, as the HT-RC160 was clearly not depicting the full resolution of DVD. On every image we saw, there appeared to be comblike artifacts on nearly everything, indicating how much resolution was actually missing. The HT-RC160 failed the other jaggies and 2:3 pull-down tests we looked at, as well, but the limited resolution was almost always the more obvious deficiency.

We switched over to program material, and the HT-RC160 continued to struggle. Generally we look at titles like "Star Trek: Insurrection" and "Seabiscuit" for issues like excessive jaggies or faulty 2:3 pull-down processing, but again the loss of resolution was visible in every scene and for many it would be considered unwatchable.

To be clear, the problems we saw were only on analog video signals upconverted to the other resolutions listed above over the HDMI output. If you're planning on using the HT-RC160 only for HDMI sources, you won't run into these issues at all.

Additionally, these issues only occur if you're trying to upconvert analog signals to 1080i. You can set the HT-RC160 to "through" mode, which means the HT-RC160 will convert the analog signals to HDMI, but leave it at 480i for your HDTV to do the upconversion. In nearly all cases, this will result in better image quality, as long your HDTV can accept a 480i signal over HDMI.

The main takeaway is that you shouldn't go with the HT-RC160 if you're looking for an AV receiver with excellent upconversion video quality, but with almost all new gadgets (except the Nintendo Wii) featuring HDMI, we expect fewer people actually need that capability.