2021 Onkyo and Pioneer AV Receivers: 8K with HDMI 2.1, Dual Bluetooth and Streaming Technologies
CES 2021 served as a platform for Pioneer and Onkyo to present their 2021 AV receivers. New products support video resolutions up to 8K — for this they are equipped with HDMI 2.1 ports.
Among their features are also listed streaming protocols Apple AirPlay 2 and Chromecast, compatibility with Sonos products, support for DTS Play-Fi, which, by the way, practically provides the functionality of FireConnect (its manufacturers did not mention). You can add support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa voice assistants to the set of common features.
Onkyo and Pioneer AV receivers also support variable VRR video refresh rates. In addition, they received an improved set of functions of the return audio channel eARC when working with compatible TVs.
In the two older models, Onkyo’s new products, which appeared after a two-year break, are equipped with Dirac Live room correction. The same can be said about the two older Pioneer products. On board all these receivers — two-way Bluetooth, which in addition to streaming music from the gadget is ready to provide and listening via Bluetooth headphones.
All presented receivers have configurations 5.2.2 for the younger and 7.2.2 for the two older models of each brand and power from 80 to 120 watts in the channel. All of them will be available in the summer.
This applies to the Onkyo TX-NR5100 ($500), TX-NR6100 ($700), TX-NR7100 ($900), TX-RZ50 ($1,100), and Pioneer VSX-LX105 ($700) and VSX-LX305 ($1,000) models. Information about the cost and timing of the release of the older model Pioneer VSX-LX505, also announced at the exhibition, has not yet appeared.
