IT’S BEEN a few years since I’ve had a big Onkyo AV receiver under the operating lights. And the brand’s new flagship model, the TX-RZ70, certainly qualifies: nearly 8 inches tall and some 19 inches deep, and tipping the beam at almost 50 lb, the TX-RZ70 is no lightweight. As a line-topping design it incorporates all the lead features you’d expect: 11 channels of on-board power, Atmos, dts:X, and Auro 3D object-oriented surround decoding, 8K HDMI 2.1 all around, and THX Reference certification, plus Dirac Live full-range room-correction EQ included with Dirac’s Bass Control.
That’s a lot to pile into one box, but the TX-RZ70’s exterior is surprisingly uncluttered, with just a single big knob, two small ones, a dozen-plus small pushbuttons, and a big, green dot-matrix display. The overall design language (and the display) is mostly unchanged from the last few years, but it’s a clean look that I’ve liked, then and now, made possible in part by the large drop-down panel revealing a dozen or so additional buttons, a 4-way/enter rocker panel, and jacks for a convenience HDMI input and the Dirac setup mic.
Around back you’ll find 6 HDMI inputs and three — count ‘em — outputs including one dedicated to a Zone 2 system, and no fewer than 13 speaker-out multi-way pairs. Only
