Customer Reviews

Onkyo HT-S6100 7.1 Channel Receiver and Speaker Package

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I received my 90 lb box containing my Onkyo HT-S6100 Home Theatre system from OneCall.com for $666.00 shipped. Took about 7 days to arrive, double boxed. Connected immediately and worked properly. Make sure you go through the menu prompts on the screen of your TV to verify all speakers are working. One of my speakers was not working correctly because I did not connect it properly. I would not have known if it were not for the testing ability from one of the on screen menu items. Pay attention to the colors on the wiring as they match the colored circles on the back of the receiver. (nice touch). The volume knob does not have the lit blue ring on the circumference which I was expecting.(The subwoofer was bigger than expected and has a lit led on the front to let you know it is getting a proper signal and glows in blue. The remote control does not light so you may want to get a fully lit unified remote such as my favorite, the harmony one (the newest one out) for 199.00 anywhere. Don't buy any of Harmony's other remotes with the raised oval keys because they hurt your fingers after much use. The Onkyo HT-S 6100 HTIB performed exactly as planned. I am using it with 4 devices. It is connected to my TIVO Series 3 HD, Apple TV, Sony BDP 300 Blue Ray and Nintendo Wii. All sounds are moving properly from the various components to the receiver and coming out of the speakers with no lip sync problems. I have not had any hissing, popping, signal ugliness or processing voodoo. I previously had a Samsung HTIB and I did have signal, both video and audio weirdness, maybe because it was HDMI 1.1. The Samsung HTIB with HDMI in and out worked fine as long as I didnt plug anything in to it otherwise it was finicky with other HDMI components. My current TV is the Sony 60 inch KDS 60 XBR HD 1080i rear projection model that was a top choice about 18 months ago. The Onkyo HT-S 6100 works perfectly and the sound is definitely a significant step up from my previous Samsung HTIB. In fact, on audiophile recordings using a lossless music file streaming through Apple TV on an HDMI connection I was surprised by the smoothness and detail of the sound reproduction. The only things that bug me are: lack of THX certification, unlit remote, would like a larger more contemporary readout screen on the receiver, wish the speakers were heavier, and came with proper stands. I ordered the proper Onkyo stands, 6 of them from Amazon for 300.00 shipped. I called Onecall back after seeing the Onkyo HTS 6100 cheaper at JR Music and they credited me 44.00. The owners manual is 100 pages in English and you must remember to do the microphone supplied calibration process. I noticed no video degradation running all signals through the receiver however when changing from one HDMI component to another, such as from TIVo to Apple TV or BluRay DVD, there is a HDMI handshake delay of a few seconds before new signal both audio and video begin to operate. The Receiver when turning on or off gives off a distinct mechanical sound letting you know it is turning on or off which I call positive feedback and appreciate. Onecall.com people were pleasant to deal with and the owners manual while lengthy is a suggested read. Remember to plug everything in before you plug in the receiver and turn it on. Immediately go to the onscreen menu choices and get oriented to all the menu items so you will know what is going on. I am glad to get a HDMI repeater rather than a pass through as I am able to finally get HDMI simplicity and get rid of my optical cable and lip sync issues. I have seen this item advertised for $500.00 and highly recommend. This item is almost good enough to make me want to get rid of my better, but more complicated and grossly overpriced audiophile equipment. I am surprised there is any profit for the manufacturer or the retailer considering all the components and their performance. I feel like I have made a smart decision because had I bought expensive home theatre items 18 months ago I would have been unhappy every time there were an upgrade. Things like HDMI 1.3, the new audio formats, the microphone calibration, the upscaling, the repeater VS passthrough issue. I don't think you can justify spending thousands when you can buy a disposable system for 500.00 and upgrade every 2 or 3 years.

I recieved my system last week, so far i couldnt be more happy. easy to set up, pretty easy to adjust settings, and the sound is great. I only have mine connected to an upconvert dvd player, but i hope to get blueray soon. the sound is crisp. easy to hear the dialogue while action is happening. i was really impressed with the microphone set up. self-explanitory and a noticable improvment over just plug and play. My room is medium size, and it is more than enough sound to fill the room. Overall certainly one of the best in box systems available. My only complaint, which is typical, is that the speaker wire is very thin. I am going to replace it ASAP.

If you are looking for an HTIB, beware of this unit. First, and foremost, this receiver has problems with it's HDMI board. There is a class action against them for this. Speakers are of decent quality and the unit will work well initially. Setup is easy with the included setup mic, but UI could be improved. One other thing to keep in mind is that this unit will not work with universal remotes. The remote protocall with this unit is non-standard and cannot be emulated, even by high end universal remotes. You will need to have this remote on hand for volume control and input selection. Buyer beware.

Well, first of all, I got it for $580 from CircuitCity shipped. For me, it's definitely a justified price, however, I don't know if the $699 price tag is justified for this unit.
Let's review them one-by-one.
RECEIVER:
The Good: The receiver has four HDMI inputs, which is necessary considering all the units one can have now a days. I am only using two of them now, but I definitely need couple more once I finish building up the entire system (PC server, HD Tivo...). The number of inputs on this unit is great. Two optical in, two digital coax in, four RCA cable in... which is one of the primary reasons for me to get this package. I want a real receiver and not one of those theater in a box system, which rarely has any inputs at all. Setup is easy, just follow the manual and you should have it running in about half an hour.
The Bad: not be able to rename the input source, I connected my PS3 (HDMI), PS2(RCA video+optical audio), DVD(HDMI), TV (optical) now i have to remember that DVD is for DVD, SAT/CBL is for PS3, AUX is for TV out, VCR/TVR is for PS2, which is quite annoying. The output screen from the receiver stayed in the 480p era, on the menu setup, the screen is insanely unattractive, which is surprising considering the unit is doing 1080i conversion.
SPEAKERS:
The good: the price. I paid $580-$370 (receiver) - $70 (iPod dock)=$140 for a set of 7.1 speakers, which is not bad.
the sound is detailed and clear, however it lacks fullness. I spent about an hour to tune the speaker to get it into a decent state. The subwoof is power and produce great base, but the wood box didn't fit in with the rest of the speakers, i wished they have finish it with some other material.
The bad: speaker wires sucks, I bought new wires right away after i unpack the unit, those wires are horrible. Needs a lots of tuning to get a decent sound, I will definitely upgrade the speakers later on, at least the front and center speakers within the next couple month.
OVERALL:
Great unit for the price, sound is not bad if you know how to tune it. If you have the money, at least upgrade parts of the speakers. But overall, beat, sony, samsung, panasonic or whatever other home theater in-a-box system.

This is a great HTIB for the money. The setup was fairly easy, especially using the automatic calibration. The sound that comes out is amazing. The only thing I think that would make the a top of the line system is if it came with some heavier gauge speaker wire. The wire provided is rather small. Do youself a favor prior to installation, get a roll of heavy speaker wire and cut to custom length to get the most efficient sound this system can deliver.

well so far so good. let me just start by saying this is my third htib in less than 2 months. my setup is 40 inch samsung ln40a550,directv hd,ps3.

the first htib i chose was the sony ht s2300, which was to weak to meet my standards. sub was cheap because it was passive. returned that and got the
samsung as720st which was nice, met my needs, i was happy with it until the infamous "handshake" issue got way to annoying. it is where when you switch sources it will say "mode not supported" and you you have to turn it on and off to get a picture.

so i returned that and got the onkyo 6100 which so far I'm loving. the sound is great, there are 4 hdmi inputs = way more than enough, 7.1 speaker package in the box, i like the auto setup with the mic that it came with, has an ipod dock which is way cool, i play alot of
guitar hero 3 and it is awesome on this thing.
well long story short, i am very satisfied with the 6100 it is meeting all my standards and not on error yet.

just one thing, it does get very hot like someone on here mentioned. which scares me just a little bit.

anyone who is thinking of getting this wont be disappointed. its a very good investment.

This product arrived on-time, was simple to install, and sounds great! There are not too many movies right now that record in 7.1 and the ones that do my PS3 (what I use for Blue Ray) doesn't offer 7.1 DTS. But This product with my New 50" Panasonic Viera HDTV is awesome. I primarily watch sports, movies, and play PS3 (mostly COD4 and COD5). The picture and sound are amazing. I have a 4 1/2 month old and the sound can be low enough and still sound clean enough to get the job done...but when everyone is out of the house and the neighbors are gone and I turn the system up, it sounds like a combat zone. Lol. But for reals, this was a purchase that I made for myself for XMAS and I am very satisfied. I'm sure you will enjoy it if you do buy it. I spent some time researching different speakers and recievers but this was the best deal for keeping under $1,000 budget. I spent $579.00 including delivery and I think I got a great deal.

Best of luck with whatever selection you choose but if I had it to do over again I wouldn't change a thing. Plus it has an iPod dock (way cool)!!!

Update: November 2010:

I have to completely revise my old review. There is a serious problem with the AV receiver. It is now very well known in the forums that the receiver has a hdmi board issue. Basically everything will work fine for several months and slowly due to heating the hdmi board starts to die. You will notice at 1080p your t.v. keeps saying "no signal" for several minutes before you signal. This delay will slowly increase to 30min ... 90 min until eventually you will never get signal. Common with people who use it with ps3 or any blu ray players. I am going to take mine to onkyo service center to get the hdmi board replaced. If you have the same problem, take it to a onkyo service center (they know about this problem), but its important to mention to them to replace the board and not just the capacitors. I shall get back once I have it fixed.

OLD REVIEW BELOW: PLEASE IGNORE
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I received my package from Amazon a week back. I was really impressed with the quality of speaker as I was originally skeptical after reading few other reviews. I see that the speakers are a tad heavy, but are very good quality. The sub woofer was much larger than what I had expected. Setup is very simple. Connected my ps3 to the receiver through HDMI and was able to play blue rays with amazing sound without much trouble. To another HDMI socket I connected the output of my dishnetwork and was able to switch between the two easily with the av remote.
I was a little disappointed with the way the audio wires plug in behind the speakers and the receiver. You could run into a loose connection issue as you need to make sure the wire actually touch the metal when you connect the wires. I had to buy longer audio wires as well. The package comes with approx 30 feet wires for the two surround and two rear speakers and 11 feet for the front and center speakers. But 30 feet isnt enough if you would want to conceal them. Hence, I purchased wires elsewhere for a total of 200 feet and was able to wire things perfectly concealing all. The remote for the receiver requires proper line of sight for its functionality.
Having done all of this work, I was really impressed with sound quality achieved. The ps3 audio setting was set to output 7.1 pcm and also selected to output 5.1 pcm (many blue rays are still 5.1). Remember the ps3 internally decodes all dts, dolby etc. encoding of the disc and trasmits pcm sound. In order to play 5.1 pcm output from ps3 in a 7.1 speaker system with proper matrix sound, you need to select the dolby pro logic IIx listening model from the 606 receiver. And it sounds amazing with the 7 speakers. Note, if you dont select 5.1 pcm in your ps3 and you are playing a 5.1 ch only blue ray disc, then the ps3 will send out only 7.1 ch pcm sound to the receiver with two blank channels and you will not receive any sound in your rear speakers.

Its impossible to get a competitive receiver to that of the 606 along with 7.1 speakers for this price. The speakers can be mounted on wall vertically or horizontally. They also have a groove for a screw for the possibility of using a speaker stand mount with these speakers. I got four of speaker stands elsewhere and mounted the four center and rear speakers on them easily.

Summary:
pros:
1. Sounds great. Works perfectly with ps3.
2. Good quality speakers.
3. Ipod dock is nice.
4. Great package deal getting the 606 receiver with 7 speakers.

Cons:
1. Have to get longer wires for proper concealment.
2. Speaker wire connection interface could have been made better.

Onkyo HT-S6100 7.1 Channel Receiver and Speaker Package
This system was easy to install, and had surprisingly good sound with little noticeable distortion considering the small speaker size. The AM/FM receiver also worked well. I use the AM receiver mode a lot and I noticed that it was not as susceptible to interference as my previous system.
I will list the features that I liked most about this unit without going into detail:
AM/FM receiver works very well.

System integrates with audio and video equipment without miles of cables and external switches and controls. There are ample input and output connections built in that are assignable and remotely controlled.

There is a wide range of audio listening modes selectable for each input component including several types of Dolby encoding. Some of the modes include selectable automatic acoustic adjustments.

The system of seven speakers and a subwoofer is a technological marvel. Each individual speaker can be adjusted for output volume and each has its own frequency equalizer controlled electronically with a menu driven program. What is even better is that it has a self setup system with a microphone, and when placed alternately at three different listening positions will automatically run through an acoustic program that balances the system to match the listening environment.

When I had a technical question about the operation of the system the Onkyo people were easy to contact in the United States by telephone and seemed eager to help. This is a huge plus considering the way things go now days with outsourcing and language barriers.

There are so many features to this system be prepared to study the manual for a while in order to take advantage of this "Audio Computer". Make sure you buy some HDMI cables and use these to connect things if you can, however there are several more connection options in place if your older equipment is not HDMI compatable.

I have had some previous experience with Surround Sound and Dolby compatible systems in the past so I can speak with some authority when I say this is a GREAT system for a smaller home. If you like, you can make the bass audible to your neighbors across the street. Onkyo also makes a similar higher output system for a larger home theater environment.

I cannot comment on how well this system will last or on the long-term reliability because I have only operated the system for a few months.

I bought this system at Circuit City for $549 on a price match deal. After getting the 90lb box home it took me about 2 hours to set up; a good deal of that time was unhooking my previous Panasonic system.
Like other reviewers I wish the speaker wires were heavier but that is a minor issue as far as I am concerned as I have plenty of speaker wire around. Setting up the unit is fairly easy if you done this before but might be a little daunting for a first-timer. The speakers are marked and the wires are color coded as is the back panel. The receiver has more than enough connections but for me the selling point was the 4 HDMI connections which I needed so I could get rid of the HDMI switch I was using.
After getting everything connected I did the auto setup and discovered that one speaker was not connected properly. The auto setup took 10-15 minutes and is fairly easy. I am very pleased with the sound and video, The HDMI works flawlessly and the picture quality doesn't seem to suffer. Blu-ray playback is spectacular and the sound blew me away.
If you want to make a step up from the basic HTIB then this system represents great compromise between the $199-$299 systems and the $1000 systems. I took off one star for not being able to rename the inputs.