Onkyo HT-S5100 7.1 Channel Home Entertainment System (Set of Nine, Black)

HT-R560 110-Watt Receiver / HTP-560 Speakers / SKM-560 Full-Range Surround and SKB-560 Back Speaker / SKW-560 Bass Reflex Powered Subwoofer DTS and DTS-ES, DTS 96/24 and DTS Neo - 6 Processing Optimum Gain Volume Circuitry H.C.P.S. (High Current Power Supply) Massive High Power Transformer 192 kHz/24-bit D/A Converters Accurate 32-bit DSP Processing Color-Coded 7.1 Multichannel Inputs (Ready for Dolby Digital and DTS Formats for High-Definition Discs) and Pre Outs 4 Digital Inputs (2 Optical/ 2 Coaxial) HDTV-Ready Component Video Switching (2 Inputs/ 1 Output) 40 Sirius/AM/FM Presets Music Optimizer for Compressed Music Crossover Adjustment (40/50/60/80/100/120/150/200 Hz) Speaker A/ B Drive Color-Coded Speaker Terminals Preprogrammed RI-Compatible Remote HTP-560 - Speakers (SKF-560F 2-Way Front Speakers and SKC-560C 2-Way Center Speaker) 5 OMF Diaphragm Woofer (SKF-560F) 3-1/4กจ OMF Diaphragm Woofer x 2 (SKC-560C) 1 Balanced-Dome Tweeter Max Input Power - 130-Watts Magnetically Shielded Color-Coded Speaker Terminals and Speaker Cable 8-ohm Impedance SKM-560S/SKB-560 Full-Range Surround/Surround Back Speakers 3-1/4 Full-Range Speaker Max Input Power - 130-Watts 8-ohm Impedance Color-Coded Speaker Terminals and Speaker Cable SKW-560 Bass Reflex Powered Subwoofer 10 Cone Woofer Output Level Control Dynamic Power - 230-Watts

Having read so many positive reviews on Amazon, I decided to give this system a try. I was not disappointed! It sounds great and is perfect for my basement, which is not a very large sized room. The only issue I am experiencing is on occasion I hear a low crackling sound coming from the left front channel if I stand in front of the speaker and there is no audio playing through it; I hear it if the volume control on the receiver is above 40. I have checked my wiring and have found the problem is not in the speakers or wires but appears to be from the output of the left front channel of the receiver. And this does not occur all of the time. I wonder if anyone else is experiencing this problem? This is the only reason I have given this a four-star rating, otherwise it would have been a five.

This product "disappeared" from the UPS truck so there's no way to review it. Amazon was very little help; making and rescinding promises, claiming they were unable to do anything, and telling me to contact UPS instead of them.

I went to Circuit City instead.

Really nice sound.. Maybe need a little more volume... easy to install... everything is on the box... I recomend it.... the remote control is a little complex .. you need to read a little to get it clear...

The unit I recieved was bad in the box. After contacting their customer service department, I was told I had to pay to ship the unit to a repair facility. With all the electronics I've purchased on line, I've never had to pay to return items that were defective from the factory. I used the BBB to relay a complaint and receive a negative response from Onkyo. There are many brands from which to choose, therefore, I would recommmend choosing one that cared more for their customers.

This is a good system for people who want surround sound but don't care very much to know how it all works. The receiver (stereo/amp) it comes with is a true receiver with radio tuner, input switching, etc. The speakers actually have some heft to them and as a result put out good sound. The sub is sizeable and does a good job. It ships with wiring for the speakers that is color coded to match the speaker connectors which is great for those who don't know how to setup such a system. I got my dad to buy heavier gauge wire as it was a long run to each speaker, but I'm sure it would have been fine with the stock wire.

The manual is surprisingly readable for a home electronics device, but I'm not sure how helpful it would be for someone who didn't know what it was
they were looking for. Speaker setup is dead simple. Wire it up then plug in the microphone and place it near ear level (I used the back of the couch) at the center seating location and press "OK" on the remote. After a bit, it asks you to move it to location 2, the far right-most seating location, then finally location 3, the far left seating location. You need relative quiet for this as having kids/dogs in the background caused it to fail the first attempt.

The receiver also comes with an iPod dock that plugs in the back of the receiver. You set your iPod in the dock and it will charge it. A press of the DOCK button on the receiver allows you to play music through your sound system effortlessly. It does work with iPhone, though the iPhone will throw up a warning that you may need to switch on airplane mode to prevent noise from the phone antenna, but I left the phone on and it worked fine for me. I didn't notice whether it supported charging the iPhone or not. The iPhone and newer iPods no longer charge via the Firewire pins in the iPod connector but require that the USB pins be used. Lots of car adapters/interfaces used the Firewire pins because they were 12volts and no additional electronics were necessary to make it work. USB uses a lower voltage. Regardless, the iPhone did work just fine for music and that's all that matters.

The main downside is that it offers hdmi switching, and that should result in many fewer cables which is something people like my parents appreciate as they don't understand these things. However, if you try to use the system with hdmi alone, it will send the audio to the TV but not play it through the receiver which totally defeats the purpose in my opinion. A couple $15 optical cables from walmart solved the problem simply, but it wasn't very clear in the manual and while it was mentioned here, the review I saw first mentioned it in the context of high-end audio formats like TruHD so I thought it just didn't support those over hdmi.

Additionally, all the HDMI, component and digital audio connections are "assignable" meaning that you can decide you want HDMI #1 to be associated with dvd and HDMI #2 to be associated with your DVR or whatever. You configure the mapping of the video inputs via a menu displayed on the device that you access via the SETUP button on the remote. The digital audio inputs are not in this menu however, and must be accessed via the "DIGITAL INPUT" button on the receiver itself. That is not menu driven, but instead you select the video input and press that button until the proper digital input is selected.

Lastly, this receiver doesn't offer any sort of upconversion (translation between different input types) so if you have an old VCR you want to connect that uses the yellow/red/white connections and you want the audio to go to the receiver and the video to the TV, you have to run a yellow cable to the TV to get that video signal even if you use hdmi for all other devices. This again leads to additional cables and complexity. It also means the user needs to switch TV inputs as well as receiver inputs as they go between sources. I highly recommend getting a Harmony remote that you can program "activities" into so a single button press will make all those selections for you.

I know the 7100 model in this line (the 6100 may also) addresses many of these issues. It offers real HDMI support, as well as conversion of older video/audio inputs into the newer ones so there is less cabling and complexity. But it comes at a somewhat significant price premium. So as long as you understand the limitations of this and are willing to work around them, it's a great product and you can't beat the price for a complete system of this quality!