Not Your Daddy’s Onkyo: The D-302 E [review]

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Japanese audio manufacturer, Onkyo, has jumped back into the high-end audio ring with a stunning new loudspeaker that has them scratching their heads. Not bad, not bad at all.

For now, you’ll have to visit your local high-end audio store to get a peek at these. But you can find tons of great Onkyo products here.

On a personal note, I learned a great tip from Kari Nevalainen, the author of the review:

“Orchestral music from the middle ages performed with authentic instruments is the ultimate test material for choosing speakers. The timbres of the instruments are rich and often hard to reproduce. The sound in general can intensify up to nasty aggressiveness. No cottony-voiced crooners here. A speaker that passes the test must be revealing enough and retain the aggressiveness of the sound, and yet not make it unpleasant. Sufficiently competent all-round speakers frequently do well in this type of test, and so did Onkyo D-302 E.”

Based on that advice, we recommend testing ANY speaker with any of the following:

• Fischer-Dieskau Edition
• Limited Edition Beethoven Box Set
• Chopin: The Piano Works

American Wired’s Conclusion

“Is Onkyo D-302 E a musical speaker? If being a musical speaker means possessing sonic properties that help to carry the listener closer to music’s message what ever that is, and contribute to musical satisfaction, then yes, D-302 E is a musical speaker. But it’s not a euphonic speaker. Its strategy is more subtle. It serves music by being a quick-moving reproducer, by having a pure and distortionless sound, and by exhibiting certain sonic sophistication and class not common to this type of speaker.

Onkyo D-302 E may not be a fantastic speaker but in many ways it is a fabulously good one. Had the sound been more effortless and open, and less opaque, just a little bit, it would have been almost perfect.”