Description
ONKYO A-9010 Award-Winning HiFi Integrated Stereo Amplifier Black This unit was sent by Onkyo directly to my friend Thom, an Audio Reviewer who ended up buying it and using several for years. Perhaps selected by Onkyo has one that met the highest quality standards for the reviewer? Very Good Looking - No signs of use at all - Very Good Sounding. Fully Tested!Includes Remote Control, Toslink Cable and ships in original box. 44Wpc into 8 ohms or 70Wpc into 4 ohms Thoms SoundStageAccess.com 2016 review includes: Serendipity is, by definition, a valuable thing. When I was to review Onkyo’s new direct-drive turntable, the CP-1050, the company rep suggested I try it with Onkyo’s A-9010 integrated amplifier-DAC ($349 USD). Lo and behold, the amp performed quite well. So while the A-9010 at first just came along for the ride, I felt it deserved its own review. “Money for Nothing,” from Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms (16/44.1 WAV, Warner Bros.), is a standby for me. This time, I played it at a ridiculously high level (wife was at work; neighbors too), but the A-9010 handled everything just fine. It delivered great bass punch on the opening drums, and reproduced the initial guitar riff with crisp detail. The entire recording was provided with a fabulous soundstage deeper than I’m accustomed to hearing from this track. Any amp that can pull so much from “Money for Nothing” is OK by me. Kim Carnes’s recording of “Bette Davis Eyes” is one of my favorite tracks, if only for the eerie mood set by the instrumental background. This mastering, from the compilation Like, Omigod! The ’80s Pop Culture Box (Totally) (16/44.1 WAV, Rhino), sounded great from the get-go through the Onkyo. The soundstage, in particular, was quite wide, though it could have been a bit deeper. Carnes’s smoky voice was clear, and the accompanying transients, of which there are many, were reproduced with crispness by the A-9010. While you can spend a whole lot more on an integrated amplifier -- especially one with a built-in DAC -- I wouldn’t overlook the Onkyo A-9010. It has a multitude of analog inputs, including a fine phono stage; it has two digital inputs; and it sounds great -- much smoother than I expected for $349. It can drive nearly any set of reasonably efficient speakers to adequate levels, and has all the inputs most people might want. I believe the Onkyo A-9010 is a screaming bargain for anyone looking for a flexible, affordable, moderately powered integrated amplifier that will offer a lifetime’s worth of music enjoyment. WhatHiFi.com 2020 Review exerts.... If you’re looking for a musically captivating budget amplifier you’re in luck – the Onkyo A-9010 is a real treat Pros+Entertaining and energetic+Driven and dynamic+Expressive midrangeCons-Nothing at this price It’s fair to say there has been a shortage of talented yet affordable amplification in recent years. This has left just a handful of products hogging the limelight. Onkyo A-9010 changed all that, arriving in 2015 and bagging itself three successive What Hi-Fi? Award gongs for delivering a wonderfully musical performance. Not that you’d be able to guess just by looking at it. On the surface this Onkyo looks pretty ordinary. It is neat in a wholly functional way, lacking anything in the way of overt design flourishes. It’s clear that pretty much all the effort has gone on optimizing the electronics. Like most offerings from established manufacturers, the A-9010 is well made and specified sensibly. There are defeatable tone controls, a decent array of line level inputs, a moving magnet phono stage and headphone output – all good, but nothing unusual for this price. It’s worth pressing the Source Direct button before you start any serious listening. This bypasses the tone controls and helps the amplifier sound that bit cleaner and crisper in the way it renders fine detail. We start off with Mountain Sound by Of Monsters and Men and are swept away by the amplifier’s energetic presentation. It sounds cohesive and well balanced, delivering a sense of drive and attack well beyond what we would expect. There’s composure too – the amp keeps the multitude of instrumental strands in check even when the music becomes demanding. Add the Onkyo’s superb timing and strong dynamic expression and you have an amplifier that makes listening to music fun. That’s a rare quality at any price. The A-9010 is happy across musical genres. It has enough refinement and insight to deliver John Williams’ Hymn to the Fallen (from the Saving Private Ryan OST) convincingly. A decent amount of scale is on show here, but it’s the way the amplifier deals with dynamic shifts that impresses us most. There’s a pleasing freedom to the way it hits peaks – and a surprisingly solidity too. Its tonality is nicely judged. The Onkyo sounds open and lively in the treble but never veers towards aggression. That’s a good thing considering budget equipment can often sound edgy or thin. VerdictThe A-9010’s breadth of ability means that you don’t need to stick with similarly priced partnering kit. It’s quite happy driving the Q Acoustics 3050i floorstanders and is transparent enough to show differences between Marantz’s CD6006 UK Edition and Audiolab’s 8200CD. You can build a system around this Onkyo and develop it strongly without the amplifier becoming the limiting factor. The Onkyo brand is best known for its AV amps, but the A-9010 is a great indicator of just how good its stereo products can be. We should expect new additions to this range in the next year or so, and while the A-9010 may have lost its Award trophy to the Marantz PM6006 UK Edition, this talented Onkyo amp proves you can have a terrifically musical performance on a budget. Rival manufacturers should take note.
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