TX-NR636 7.2-Ch Dolby Atmos Ready Network A/V Receiver w/HDMI 2.0

Personally I am in love with this unit. But then I was in love with my TX-NR509 until approx 2 years later when the HDMI board failed and I had to send it in for repair. Other than the few minor scratches the repair people put on the outside case, they seemed to fix it as if it were better than brand new. The only reason why I updated to this 636 was because of the built in Wi-fi and Bluetooth. I also updated because with the 509 I needed an extra small amp to amplify sound to send to the back surround speaker. This unit has both a right and left speaker output for the rear surround. I felt this to be a much improvement. Also, this unit's graphical interface for all the settings is real nice. The 509 had more text based menus and readouts. I love that it uses a mic to listen to the speakers as it sends white noise to each one to determine various settings. I read comments about someone was unhappy with the fact that the unit doesn't provide separate equalizer settings for the sound. It does provide a few different settings for bass control and one for treble. With the way that the unit sets up it's dynamic EQ sound settings, honestly, I don't see why you need anything else. The only real thing that I'm extremely worried about is, as I have had the unit in operation for only a few months now, it still is beginning to exhibit signs that the 509 did a short while before it died altogether. Items such as when the TV is turned off, the unit will usually detect that and it will automatically turn off but, a few times now, the TV has turned off but the unit has remained on and I have had to turn it off manually. Also, It is starting to stay on initializing for a minute or two when switching to the NET mode. When it was brand new, it used to hardly go to initializing at all. But I did find that after you give the unit complete time to "boot up" and then choose the NET mode, it seems to go there without much initializing time at all. So...here's hoping there are not HDMI issues. Also when it was new, it didn't take much time for the HDMI to initialize at all and now it takes a bit longer. So, all in all, the unit is wonderful as far as how ONKYO engineers how different items such as music and movies should truly sound. I have my unit in a small single wide manufactured home. But for the size of my living room and kitchen area and the 6 speakers attached, it really calculated for all that and it truly fills my room with sound and performs absolutely amazing! I'm going to hang on to the 509 at least for the next 6 months or so before I try to sell it just in case the 636 fails the HDMI board. I'm not so sure that ONKYO will be willing to do another HDMI repair program for free and I certainly don't want to go through that again. As far as the person that mentioned he felt there was too much remote control button pressing....I say...that's what remotes are for. You can't expect an electronic unit just to perform every task you want automatically and have it remember it all every time to turn on the system. I found you do have to use it alot while playing music but then, I switch around songs and the items I use to listen to music any way so it doesn't bother me. I feel, if you're just using it to go along for nice sound with your TV set and you're not playing with the volume or other settings all the time, I don't see where you have to mess with the remote at all. I switch between the receiver remote and the Dish remote for operating the TV depending on my viewing modes. But I love the fact that through the HDMI board, if I put a Blu ray disc in to watch, that is pretty much all I have to do, even if everything is completely turned off and shut down. I open the disc tray and put the disc in and as soon as I close the tray and the blu ray begins to load, the 636 turns itself on and my TV on without touching another button. I absolutely love that functionality. Honestly, the only other button I have to push after inserting the disc is the play movie button on the screen and maybe adjust the volume a bit after the movie starts. I don't touch either remotes after that. Then when the movie is done and I remove the disc and power down the blu ray player, the 636 powers itself down and the TV. Awesome in my book. I would definitely recommend this unit to a friend for all of it's outstanding features. But, I would warn them of the possible HDMI failure issues which I will be happy if after two years plus operation, that issue never shows up and the unit continues to function just as well as it has since it was new. Maybe I'll upgrade my review at that time.

I purchased the Onkyo TX-NR636 to replace an older Onkyo receiver that my family bought along with Bose Speakers around 15 years ago. The old Onkyo was still working, but it had no HDMI ports, and with the purchase of a new Apple TV2 we finally reached the point in which HDMI ports became a necessity.The TX-NR636 has a generous set of HDMI ports and overall was very easy to connect to my existing system. Sound calibration was a snap.Only two issues resulted in four stars instead of five:1. Although the receiver has connections for older, non-HDMI devices, we discovered that the receiver could not convert its HDMI input to communicate with our old SONY plasma TV through a component connection. This was not mentioned in the product description. We ultimately decided to replace the old SONY TV with another newer TV in the house that did support HDMI, but this resulted in a delay in setup and if we hadn't had another TV, we would either have had to return the receiver or buy a new TV.2. The iOS app for the receiver has been very handy. We have our equipment out of sight in a closet and so it would have been a hassle to use the IR remote control. I highly recommend that Onkyo spend time improving the app, though. It took a while to get it to connect to our receiver, and while it is good at turning the receiver on and off, switching between inputs, and managing volume, it doesn't do a good job with emulating the remotes of devices connected to the receiver. I trained the Onkyo IR remote to work with my TV and BlueRay player, and the IR remote can turn the TV on and off, but the app cannot do this. Fixing this would be high on my list.

A high end, good looking and good sounding receiver at a mid-price. But it comes with NO REMOTE! I finally determined thAt Onkyo advises you to download their remote app. Okay, I have two tablets, however neither my Nexus 7 (2nd gen) nor my iPad Air will act as such a remote. For my Android, the apparently Onkyo official app doesn't control this unit. In shopping for an iPad application, there is no apparent application. The free one which does not appear to be sponsored by Onkyo, states that a future version should control the NR636. The $15 version was tested on an earlier version. Therefore, Onkyo sold this unit for over a year with no apparent app and with no remote. FYI the rhapsody remote is no help in this regard. It doesn't have buttons for the functions you need. It will however operate the Onkyo for a visual remote, turning it on and off and selecting tha right input for your Directv/cable, smart TV apps and FM radio. For FM it will essentially just turn it on and switch to FM. I just hope you listen to one station.Bottom Line: Onkyo has a lot of nerve in marketing this receiver without a remote and without a rock solid manufacturers app in place. What were they thinking?Despite the above, I was particularly impressed by the fact that it is one of the only/few receivers to be two standards up when it comes to 4k Ultra HD TVs. In this regard, it already has the latest HDMI connections which allow for support of 4K TVs at 60Hz and 21:9 format, but it also is HDCP 2.2 copy-protection compatible. As I understand it, other 4k compatible receivers use HDCP 2.0 for their next level of compatability but not HDCP 2.2. This is important because it is not expected that the present connections will be useable with 4k TV in the near future and the 2.0 standard is supposed to have a short shelf life because the far superior 2.2 standard already has copy protection support. Therefore, when the 2.2 DVDs arrive (or some other storage means) which have super protection against copying "perfect" quality DVDs, only the 2.2 receivers will function and the older receivers will be of no use. This is projected based upon the fact that 2.2 compatibility is not a firmware upgrade, it is a hardware upgrade that will not have some form of adapter to use old connections. I assume this would be analogous to computer motherboards where the cpu socket changes and your high end motherboard becomes a throw away if you want to upgrade to a new cpu which is physically incompatible. There are some assumptions in this review but they are logical and likely correct so why not protect your investment. Very few other parts ot a receiver have changed over the recent years that affect sound or video (other than HDMI which can still be bypassed); so you should not throw away your money when an upgrade will render your "processing unit" obsolete.