Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)So far, this is probably the best home theater system for the price. So let's get started with the review.
PRESENTATION
The box is huge, so you know just by looking at it you're purchasing something serious. Despite the box arrived pretty damaged, the system itself was unharmed. The speakers are definitely sturdy, well-built and looks like quality ones, only the protective grids are made in plastic and look somewhat cheap. The receiver looks elegant, giving the sensation of being a lot more expensive. Subwoofer is big but not that much, so it can fit almost anywhere in the room. Installation is very easy since all speakers, speaker inputs and cables are color-coded, so it's very difficult to do it wrong.
AUDIO
Overall, my listening experience so far has been of pure joy. The sound of its 7.1 channels fill the room with great clarity and power. Movies sound amazing, my current demo disc is the Inception Blu-ray, using "Direct" mode or "THX Cinema". The bass is deep, and easily fills the whole room. Dialogs sound clear and natural and surround effects are as immersive as they get. With music is still very good, but not that great. Anyway, this can't be blamed on the system quality, but rather in the configuration, since for music is always better having big main speakers and not small speakers with a good subwoofer. But again, music still sounds very, very good. The volume is enough to fill a small to mid-sized room, and with enough, I mean it can get very, very loud, enough to have all your neighbors complaining about it, specially if you live in an apartment. But I bet you won't resist the temptation to listen your movies at THX reference volume level, even if it may get too loud.
VIDEO
The video is pretty good but somewhat lacks the same quality level than audio. Upconversion is decent but tends to slightly deform standard definition broadcasts. Overall, the best way is setting the video resolution "as is". But with HD signals, you won't find the slightest reason to complain.
RECEIVER
Yes, as everybody said before, the receiver runs hot. Very hot, specially at high volume levels (heat depends entirely of volume level, actually), so you have to be very careful about where you're fitting this in. It must be well ventilated, and avoid setting it on poorly-vented enclosed cabinets.
Anyway, about its features, what can I say? It has so many processing modes, chances are you won't ever use some of them. Virtually there aren't any audio formats this unit can't decode, or video signals it doesn't support (including 3D). And there are so many ways to process the same signal, you may have fun for hours trying to test all of them (if you want to take your time, of course). Audyssey calibration is great, it configures the audio to achieve optimal sound performance according to room acoustics, all by itself. Of course, if you're a bit picky like me, you may want to tweak resulting settings a bit.
Cables are a bit on the thin side, so if you don't feel comfortable with the included ones, you won't have a problem replacing them with thicker ones, yet the included ones seem to do their job pretty good.
Also, you may wonder, why buy this system instead of the cheaper 7300, 6300 or such? (they even include an ipod dock that this model don't, for reasons beyond my understanding) The answer is simple: This system has remarkably better speakers, and the THX features are actually pretty useful, adding several tweaks and improvements.
So, overall, this is a great system with an unbeatable value. For its price, you may try assembling your home theater with separate components, but you won't get even close to the sound quality and features of this system.
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Onkyo HT-S9300THX 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver and Speaker Package Affordable THX certified quality in an all-in-one receiver-speaker package. View larger.
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