Onkyo TX-8255 Stereo Receiver (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

My 25-year-old Technics stereo receiver started cutting out at randomly, so I figured it was time for a replacement. This Onkyo TX-8255 Stereo Receiver is an affordable, old-school, no-frills stereo receiver amp that cranks out 50 watts RMS per channel into 8 ohm speakers. The upshot is that it provides plenty of power for a home environment.As expected, the sound is perfectly clean. Stereo tuner amps are a VERY mature technology that routinely surpass the range of human hearing; the speakers or your ears are the two weakest links.The Onkyo runs surprisingly cool. I put my hand on the top air vent after several hours and it was barely warm; my old Technics was so hot one of my cats would nap on it!It has tons of simple RCA-style inputs for your entire system, but no HDMI or optical feeds. You can connect six CD/DVD/tape decks/phono/television/mp3 player inputs into this single unit. And you can program in favorite radio stations, of course. It uses banana plug-style outputs for A and B speaker hookups. Volume, bass, treble and balance are controlled by simple knobs on the front plate.My gripes are minor. It's bigger than I prefer; about the size as my old Technics. There is only one readout panel telling you what is going on and no frequency response display. I wish Onkyo mounted LEDs in or near the power button and other major controls to make them easier to spot. Since it uses the standard black-on-black design with small type, I have to use a flashlight every time I do anything on the front panel. The standard-sized remote control works fine, but it does not light up like some remotes.But at this price, the Onkyo TX-8255 is a solid five star product.

I needed a basic receiver to power two sets of speakers, one set on my deck and one set in the garage. I had a similar onkyo receiver 20yrs ago that I gave to a family member, so I thought I'd try another one. I've had the receiver set up for 2-3 weeks now and it is performing nicely. Very basic easy to use receiver without alot of bells and whistles, just nice clean sound. Big volume knob and three smaller knobs on the front for balance, bass, and treble make sound adjustment easy. No menus to go through to change bass and treble. I have a bluetooth receiver hooked up to the onkyo and stream music from my phone via itunes or pandora. This is 90% of what I've used the receiver for, the other 10% being FM radio for music and some sports on am radio. The receiver has performed well in all of these functions. I am pushing a pair of polk atrium 4 outdoor speakers on my deck and a pair of BIC dv62si's in the garage. I set the volume around 3/4 on the onkyo and adjust the volume via bluetooth to desired listening level. The receiver has plenty of power to fill my garage, driveway, deck, lower patio, backyard, even clear out to the pool which sits about 100ft away at about 3/4 volume. I'm also impressed that even with the phone muted and the volume at 3/4 on the onkyo there is no hiss or hum or noise of any kind coming from the speaker!! Very clean receiver. The sound is very nice at any volume. I have had an occasional problem while using the bluetooth. The receiver has built in circuitry to protect it from surges, overheating etc., and sometimes if there is a sudden change of input from the bluetooth receiver(ie a phone call or text message, or me changing from itunes to pandora), the receiver's protection circuit kicks it into standby mode. It only does this while using the bluetooth. This doesn't happen all the time but it is frustrating if you're in the pool, changing a song and the receiver in the garage just kicks off. Overall I've been working this little onkyo pretty hard and so far its been up to the task.Pros:pricesound qualitysimplicityCons:sensitive protection circuitryHighly recommended

If, like me, you have been into stereo sound since the beginning, you will appreciate this solid, superbly built, two channel receiver. It has all the power and inputs you will need, plus terrific sound. In fact, it is a real throwback to when fairly large, all metal units with heavy power supplies were the norm, instead of the exception. It even has a phono preamp for moving magnet coil cartridges, bass and treble controls, tape monitor switch, an FM tuner with precets, and a real look of quality about it. It is hard to believe they can make such a unit for the current Amazon price. Recommended without reservation.11/22/2011 UpdateIn September I purchased another one of these incredibly nice stereo recievers and my love for them has not deminished. This second unit replaces an extremely complex digital everything, 6 channel surround amp for our home theater. Using the very straight forward Onkyo 8255 and two efficient rear speakers configured in a 1970's David Hafler "quadrafonic" manner, I get an absolutely wonderful, spaceous, yet accurate recreation of the ambient sound space from all two channel material, whether it be from CD, DVD, or BluRay, and with a much less intimidating setup. Any member of the family can operate this unit. The front speakers are Boston Accoustic tower speakers, and the Onkyo 8255 runs all four speakers effortlessly.This is a terrific reciever - check it out.5/4/12 UpdateRecently I replaced the phono cartridge in my Thorens TD-145 turntable with a Shure M97xE (see my review) and listened to some stereo LP's. Certainly some of the credit for the fantastic sound has to be given to the phono section of the Onkyo TX-8255 receiver, for I was impressed with it all over again. The sound is rich and full, transparent and well balanced. This receiver is currently handling not only LP's, but CD's, DVD's, Blu-ray discs, Sirius radio and anything else I connect to it, and acts as a very easy to use control center for all my audio needs. Frankly, I wouldn't trade it for anything else.

I bought this to use with my vintage Thorens turntable as it has a phono stage. The amp works fine but doesn't seem to have much power. I have to turn it half way to max to get a decent listening volume. My speakers are older JBL towers rated for 150watts/channel so the amp should drive them easily.