Onkyo 5.1CH 3D-Ready Home Theater System

Very good reviews (4.3 out of 5.0) over at amazon

Bought this one the last time it was on Tech.Woot. It won’t be here until Wednesday, but I have found some useful information that I wanted to share.

-The receiver is wireless capable, but the adapter is not included. The Onkyo brand adapter is $25-30 on Amazon, but it uses the Atheros AR9271 chipset. Theoretically, ANY USB 2.0 wifi adapter with that chipset should work. Some more affordable examples are the TP-Link WN722N ($15-20) and the Rosewill rnx-n150hg ($10 on Newegg right now!). Both of these have been confirmed to work on Onkyo receivers. Also, to use an adapter, you will probably have to update the firmware (newest can be found on Onkyo’s site), either through ethernet or a USB drive.

-The system comes with 24 gauge wire for the speakers. For a system as powerful as this one, 24 gauge is pretty thin. For best results, a lower gauge (thicker) wire would be best. I am heading to my local hardware store tomorrow to pick up 100 ft of 14 gauge wire for mine.

Woot!

24Gauge?
That’s like the size of my neural synaptic connections!
obviously, they weren’t thinking ahead!

I’ve got a serious beef with whoever set up the photograph. Sure, all 6 of the speakers are visible in it, but but but they’re all in the same plane. The two surround speakers should be off to the sides of the listeners, or even to the rear.

I’m right there with ya. I was just going to post that as well. I thought this was new gimmick for those of us that can’t run wires all over the place!

I bought this on Woot in January. I can easily say its the best woot purchase I’ve made.

The system sounds amazing and is easy to setup. I love it! You can immerse yourself in the movies, music sounds amazing, and my son and I are having great fun playing MarioKart in surround sound.

The included microphone and “room tuning” software actually worked very well.

Two things to remember. It doesn’t come with wall/ceiling mounting brackets so plan ahead and order some.

And as noted above the speaker wire is pretty thin. To get the most out of your system, especially if you have long wire runs, you should get a heavier gauge.

Finally, friends don’t let friends do wireless surround sound. Avoid the temptation to get the most out of your system.

I’m not saying this is an issue with this model, but pay attention to the receiver. I looked into buying the 5.1 version of this set and the only complaints I read mentioned the receiver becoming too hot and melting, destroying the entire setup.

Hopefully this system doesn’t suffer from that problem, but be warned.

I’ve got the 7.1 version of this and it works great. HOWEVER, make sure you turn the system off when not in use, my stereo cabinet isn’t enclosed (open in both the back & front), but it still fried 2 different HDMI ports.

I was looking to purchase the Onkyo TX-NR414 receiver this week on Amazon (http://amzn.com/B0077V88YU) so this deal is a welcome surprise. Excited to get it and set it up.

Vendor art. Obviously, they went for cool looks over accuracy

I’m really not impressed with the specs. The rating is for 1 channel driven. Who listens to 1 channel?
This is a much better deal (if you don’t need speakers) and package speakers usually suck.
http://dealnews.com/Yamaha-7.2-665-W-3-D-Ready-Receiver-w-Wi-Fi-Adapter-for-480-free-shipping/688940.html
Just sayin!

Just thought I’d add, there are 7 discrete amplifiers here. Each amp gets a channel, not so with the Onkyo. That is why the Onkyos overheat. they are working too hard!

I’m not sure in an environment like this it really matters. There would be so much reverb off the floor and walls that everything will sound muddy.

I had this system. It’s a decent setup, but you have a 50% chance of getting “the hum” that people complain about in the amazon reviews.

I ended up purchasing a NEW onkyo receiver specifically to get rid of this hum. Turns out, the onkyo home theater packages have different specs than their stand-alone receivers and amps. The subwoofer which ships with this setup is a weak, unpowered piece of garbage. If you buy a new receiver, expect to buy a new sub as well.

Buying the pieces separately or going with one of the links provided above will give you a better long-term value.

If it were a 7.1 system, I would say it was for the Dolby Pro Logic IIz where you have extra front channels up high like that.See video here.
I’ve never seen this done with a 5.1 system.

Not to mention the poor seating/viewing locations.

Not sure - the heat issue or humming could be a deal breaker for me…but I wouldn’t mind working with Onkyo support - the price is a bit too good to pass up for my 12 x 13 room.

Very happy with this purchase during the last Woot! off.

Had a little confusion setting up the receiver to work with the televisions ARC (audio return channel) with the hdmi. The instructions are very thin on helpful information and the tv instructions equally devoid of this information. After some fiddling we figured out that the audio going into the receiver goes in through the HDMI out jack when using the ARC HDMI jack on the television. I don’t know why putting audio into the receiver through the out jack seemed counter-intuitive to me… Must needed information if you only use netflix and amazon prime built into a smart tv as opposed to a separate box.

Well, I received my system today a day early!

First impression: Dang, that is a big box, big subwoofer, big receiver, and big speakers.

I currently have it setup with the included wires while I am running 16 gauge through my walls.

I did a firmware update as soon as I powered it up, very smooth and simple process. Firmware can be found here:
Onkyo website. Via USB, it took about 10min.

I had already ordered the Rosewill rnx-n150 wireless adapter, and it is working great with my home network; Pandora is streaming right now!

Overall, the sound so far is FANTASTIC. This system is replacing a 3 year old Samsung blu-ray home theater that came from Best Buy. The big sub really adds a new dimension for me, because I can actually FEEL the bass, even when it isn’t loud. My home theater room is 12’x20’, and this system fills the room with clear, even sound, even before calibration. The HDMI passthrough is awesome for me since I have an Optoma projector with no audio out, and now I only need ONE cable running to it other than power!

Overall, I am EXTREMELY pleased with everything so far! If you’re on the fence about this thing, GO FOR IT!

I’m not very knowledgeable about these things, as will probably be evident by my question. If I need to use component cables for my DVD player, will the HDMI output on this thing convert so that I don’t need to connect component (and audio I guess) cables to my tv?