There are a lot of receivers to choose from, and this can definitely be intimidating for the layperson, especially so when some of them can get very expensive – needing to buy an additional piece of equipment after already investing money into a good pair of speakers can feel like a tough pill to swallow.
You do for the most part get what you pay for – that’s a generally unavoidable maxim in the audio world. But, there are good deals to be found, and the other way to save money is to avoid paying for things you don’t actually need. This is why we like the Onkyo TX-8140 – for the price, it’s got great specs for a two channel stereo receiver.
If you want to power an entire home theater or more than one pair of speakers, or at least have the option to in the future, then you’ll need a unit with more channels. But, for many people, a single pair of speakers and maybe an additional subwoofer is all that’s needed for an optimal set up, especially so if that means you get to dedicate more of your budget to really good speakers.
The key specs (link to spec sheet) are where the TX-8140 distinguishes itself. 80 Watts per channel might sound rather middle of the road, but it comes with an excellent total harmonic distortion (THD) rating of .08%. For the current price, that’s hard to beat, which is probably why despite being nearly three years old as of the time of this writing, it’s still one of the top sellers on Amazon.
The features are pretty all inclusive for what this product is trying to be – it has just about all the connections you’d possibly want out of a stereo receiver, and it has Bluetooth for direct pairing of a wireless source. Or you can use the included remote control. This is definitely a great choice for powering a pair of high end outdoor speakers.
