Onkyo TX-NR3010 Review
Onkyo have good a habit of producing award winning AV Receivers in the past few years and have a range to rival any of their competitors.

Onkyo TX-NR3010 internals Onkyo TX-NR3010 internals

In the high end series of AV Receivers you have 3 potential options, the TXNR1010, 3010 or 5010 - I chose the mid-range 3010 to trial for a few weeks and to see what performance you get for £2499.

Design & Construction
Now for the boring part - as you would expect the Onkyo TXNR3010 comes with a host of connections and no less than 9 HDMI inputs and two outputs, so you shouldn’t have problems wiring in your multiple high definition source devices. The speaker options are many with the main system being a 9.2 channel amp (& for all you people who don’t think that’s enough you have an 11.4 analogue output to fulfil your entire home cinema needs) & 160 watts per-channel will be more than ample to power your speakers.

Onkyo TXNR3010 rear panel Onkyo TXNR3010 rear panel

As with most AV receiver’s you have a range of networking options to make it the hub of your entertainment such as internet radio, last.fm & Spotify & with the ability to play all of your Flac & Apple lossless files quality music is just a fingertip away.

Performance
When it came to giving this a good I try out I decided to attack it on three fronts, 1-Bluray 2-Gaming & 3 music streaming.
BLU-RAY
On the blu-ray front I went with Star Trek and from the opening volley of shots I was blown away with the power, the bass was hard but but with no loss detail dealing exceptionally well with a difficult start. Where the amp really came into it’s on was the first warp jump the dynamics were mind blowing, I was expecting to lose a little of the detail but it was composed & controlled.
GAMING
On the gaming front I went with my favourite game Mass effect 3, this has the feel of summer blockbuster with massive movie sequences & intense game play , from the sharpness of the dialog in the attack on earth to the massive base drops of the reaper attack the Onkyo dealt with the dynamics beautifully. In solid game play the separation of gun fire & vocals was tight & clear with a layer of depth I hadn’t heard on my previous high-end Sony AV Receiver.
MUSIC/2 CHANNEL
When it came to music I listened to Linkin Parks ‘a thousand suns’  this was a little more experimental and cutting edge and used numerous genres but I find it really does test most systems. In the track ‘waiting for the end’ the receiver makes the most of the rip soaring ballad, the verses are subtle with great depth & explode with chester’s massive chorus. When it comes to the harsher ‘wretches & kings’ again the amp deals with harshness and power with confidence.

Conclusion
As I said in the beginning there are many high end AV Receivers on the market, and at this price point you would expect a lot for your money and I’m happy to say that the Onkyo delivers on almost everything. The amp has no problem with power, but it’s how it controls that power that really impresses, no matter what the input. Detail is not the sharpest out there but with the right speakers and set up its no issue.