Customer Reviews

Onkyo HT-S7200 (B) 7.1-Channel Home Entertainment Receiver/Speaker Package with Dock for the iPod

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Well I upgraded my television to High Definition back in 2003 with a rear projection Panasonic 720p TV & again in 2007 with a 1080p DLP Samsung, a PS3 blu ray player, and have since built a huge collection of Blu Ray movies of over 250+ and counting. I had owned an old Sony 5.1 HTIB from way back in 2001 and really hadn't thought about High Definition SOUND. Boy was I short changing myself. After spending a large fortune on the HD Television, Movies, and player I thought I had it all covered & I have been extremely satisfied with my experience, until I realized I was only getting 1/2 of the benefit of the Blu Rays.

After doing quite a bit of research I finally understood that the Blu Rays were not only High Def video, but also Audio, and I was only using a lowly 5.1 system w/o HDMI inputs, thus missing out on a good chunk of the value of my movie collection. I started looking into 7.1 systems and new receivers and whatnot, but decided building my own system piece by piece may not be the way to go. I have always known Onkyo to make superb products and this was my first choice in upgrading to a new system. After comparing difference HTIB's between the 7200, 6200, 7100, and a few others I decided the 7200 had all the features I was looking for & was a lot more "future-proof" than the others I was looking at. It has a whopping 5 HDMI Inputs all supporting 1080p pass through as well as a plethora of older connections.

My main reason in upgrading was to take advantage of the Master Audio and True HD tracks of the blu rays & boy was it worth it, after a short swapping out of speakers from my old Sony's to my new Onkyo's I was ready for the super easy automatic calibration, with the help of the Audyssey EQ calibration microphone (included in the package!). I simply plugged it in, it prompted me to place the mic where I would be sitting & off it went, automatically calibrating the speakers for the best performance! Took a matter of 10 minutes and the system was finished & the sound was incredible. I immediately popped in one of my favorite concert Blu Rays, Nine Inch Nails Beside You In Time, and was BLOWN away by the True HD sound I was hearing, it was like being at the concert again, but with far less raging alcoholics and the smell of smoke, lol.

In short, this system supports all the latest and greatest audio codecs, passes 1080p through all of its 5 HDMI connections, included an amazing speaker package including 2 tall boy speakers (which all look fantastic once set up) and is a HUGE bang for your buck. I'm sure there are better systems out there, better receivers, etc. But for this being a complete package right out of the box with literally everything you need to get going, its crazy not to pass this up, especially at amazon's low prices! I shopped around for a few weeks before finally getting a price I was happy with & with amazon prime, got scheduled delivery within 2 days after ordering, that's just amazing.

My ps3 and samsung TV could not be happier, playing PS3 games in 7.1 is insane and now I have an excuse to go back and play through some of my old favorites & watch all of those old blu's that I haven't seen in quite a while. As an added bonus this system also included the iPod/iPhone docking system (works with my 3GS w/o a problem), even though it has no on screen guide you can easily set a playlist and be off & running!

Again, if you are looking for a great 7.1 system, are on a bit of a budget, and don't want to go through the trouble of piecing together you're own system, then by all means BUY THIS NOW! (PS. the only recommendation I have for you is to replace the dental floss speaker wire that comes with this system to something a bit more meaty, 14-16 gauge should be fine!)

Thanks for reading & hopefully this helped you in making your decision in making this purchase.

~Higgs

This htib is incredible. For a long time I wanted surround sound but I didn't want to go with a crappy htib that only has 1 hdmi input. Finally I found this Onkyo model. So far the sound is great on games, movies, tv, and music. The video upconverting works decently, although I wouldn't call it stellar.

My favorite things about this product are:
1) Ipod dock: It isn't perfect, and you can't see your playlists on the tv, but it's great if you make a playlist or want to watch a video downloaded from itunes.
2) Sound quality is amazing
3) It's fairly easy to set up. I had to snake a few cables through the ceiling, but it works great. It took maybe 2 hours to get everything hooked up plus do the calibration. All the speakers and wires are color-coded to streamline the process.
4) The calibration optimizes the system for your listening needs, depending on where you sit in the room, how far the speakers are from one another, and the height of the speakers.
5) 5 hdmi inputs: I can plug my PS3, 360, and cable box in, and I still have 2 more slots for future devices.
6) Upconverts video from composite or component cables to 1080i, 720p, or 480p depending on your preference. This is great for Wii owners, or anyone with a DVD player. The quality isn't superb, but I see a noticeable difference from before I had the receiver.
7) HDMI carries both sound and picture, and you only need one cable to go from the receiver to the TV. This means that if you have component or composite cables hooked up to the receiver, you don't need another set of the same cable plugged into the TV; it all goes through the one hdmi cable.

The one downside: The cables it comes with are fairly thin. I bought 100 feet of 16 gauge wire to hook up the surround sound and surround back speakers that are further away; I would recommend this. But for the front and center speakers, I just used the supplied wires. The distance from these speakers to the receiver is fairly short, so I wasn't too worried about losing sound quality. The sound has been amazing.

If you're looking for a home theater in a box, and you can afford to spend the extra 200 dollars to get this model over a Sony or a Samsung htib, I highly recommend this. It has everything you need and the value is amazing considering the price. All of the parts are sold separately as well, so they aren't cheap parts designed just for this set. This is the best value htib out there, and the quality is top-notch.

Really impressed! There is a big problem with most inclusive systems, this has all the benefits, best of both worlds. boasting a staggering 5 HDMI inputs, it has specific steetings for T.V., music, and multiple gaming settings from Action and RPG to Rock and Sports....which is very cool! Ii has an iPod dock, which I was happy to see that you can play movies off of the ipod with no resolution issues. I haven't used the tunner yet, really no need. Really easy lay out, looks great. FYI the subwoofer is HUGE! I thought it would fit on the lower self on my entertainment system.....not going to happen. SUPER AWESOME unlike the other system it play music every bit as good as my brothers Dennon which he dropped almost $2K on.

I'm going to flip through the manual as i write out this review so i can discuss all of the major features of this unit.
The remote control: You can program a blu-ray player, a regular DVD player, cable/satellite box, TV, VCR, and CD player. The remote also controls an ipod(if you stick it in the included dock). The remote has no backlight, but the buttons are clearly laid out and pretty straight forward.
The speakers: these get pretty loud, but if you increase the bass too much, you get lots of distortion from the side speakers. Don't worry, you won't need to increase the bass from the main speakers because the subwoofer gives you some great bass. By the way, the subwoofer is huge! It's a slick black color and it looks pretty cool. You might think that the speakers don't get too loud, and i definitely felt that way when i connected my mp3 player and cranked it full blast. Yes, it got loud, but i was disappointed that i was already at max volume and my ears weren't bleeding yet. But i read the manual and figured something out. You can increase the max volume of the speakers by 12db! You have to go into the "IntelliVolume" settings. This setting was intended to balance out the volumes between sources. For example, let's say your CD player at 50db sounds way louder than your cable TV at 50db. So you go into IntelliVolume and tell the receiver that you want the speakers to output an additional 5dbs when watching cable TV. But i just told the receiver i want the speakers to output an additional 12 db with ALL sources. The speaker wires for the surround back speakers aren't long enough for my room. If you run the wires under the house and make it a straight shot, it should be ok. But if you do what i do and run the wires along the walls and around the furniture, it may not reach. It's 18 feet from the receiver to my back speakers if you're looking at a straight line. By the way, instead of using the extra 2 speakers for surround back, you can use them as "front high" speakers and place them above and behind your TV. Then you just tell the receiver that the speakers are used for front high, not rear surround.
The AM radio antenna doesn't do much good. I can't get a clear signal on any station. But you can add an outdoor antenna if you really want AM radio. The FM antenna is decent, much better than the AM.
There are many many inputs on the back of the receiver. I hooked up 4 units with an HDMI cable. I connected the CD player with an optical cable. Then you just connect one HDMI cable from the receiver out to the TV.
THE RECEIVER: This is the heart of the HT-S7200. It took me about 3 days to get a good grip on all the functions. The manual is very good and i don't think there'll be much confusion about the unit once reading it.
The Audyssey 2EQ setup takes about 15 minutes with the included microphone. The speakers output a tone and the mic picks up the sound and can calibrate how much sound each speaker will produce from your preferred sitting position. After i did this setup, i felt that i wanted more from the surround back speakers, so i went into setting and increased it.
The receiver also allows for a second zone of speakers. So you can listen to 2 different things in 2 different rooms. According to the manual, zone 2 speakers will only produce sound from an analog source, like the radio or a CD player connected with rca cables. Also, if your zone 2 speakers are active, then your main speakers in zone 1 can only function as 5.1, not 7.1.
One cool feature is that you can watch TV(with no sound) while the CD player or FM/AM radio is being output through the speakers.
For audio equalization, from the remote you can control treble, bass, and volume coming from the subwoofer. If you want, you can go deeper into the settings and adjust midrange frequencies.
The receiver has a sleep timer to turn off automatically.
The receiver has a "music optimizer" which improves the sound quality of any source with a sampling rate of less than 48 kHz, like mp3's or CDs. It works well.
If you don't have an ipod, but rather a different mp3 player, you can still connect it easily into the auxiliary input on the front of the receiver, but you cannot control it with the remote. The benefit of the ipod dock is that you can fwd, rewind, random play, etc with the remote, but it doesn't display on the TV.
The most fun part of the receiver for me is trying out all the different listening modes. There are about 35 of them! I'll talk about some of the ones i've used:
--STEREO: this outputs sound from the front left and right speakers, as well as the subwoofer. Good for listening to a stereo source, like mp3 or CD.
--DOLBY PRO LOGIC IIx: This turns a stereo source into 7.1. It separates instruments to be played in different speakers and it does a good job of creating a more spacious sound. This can also be used with a 2-channel source DVD or video game.
--Dolby Digital: this is your basic 5.1. Choose this mode if you have DirecTV and you're watching a channel with the DD symbol. Of course also use this mode for any DVD with the Dolby Digital logo.
--Dolby Digital EX: This expands a 5.1 source into 7.1 source to get those rear surround speakers into the mix.
--DTS: i love this mode! But it only activates if your source was mixed in this format. I have a concert DVD that uses DTS and it sounds great. It's very similar to DOLBY 5.1, but uses less compression so it just sounds a little.....cleaner to me.
--Neo:6 : This is similar to DOLBY PRO LOGIC in that it turns a 2-channel source into a 7.1. You can use this for a movie or music. I think i like the DOLBY PRO LOGIC better, but you can decide for yourself.
--STUDIO-MIX: I like this one a lot. This is specifically for music and creates a lively sound field by getting all 8 speakers involved.
--Game Modes: action, RPG, rock, and sports: This also gets all the speakers involved. Sounds great with your PS3, Xbox, or Wii games.
--All channel stereo: this is great if you're having a party at your house and you want loud music. This activates all the speakers, but instead of creating a pseudo 7.1 effect(trying to place each instrument in a different speaker and getting a reverby sound), all speakers output the same stereo sound. It basically sounds like you have your CD or mp3 player hooked up to each speaker and each speaker is outputting the exact same thing.
--I don't have a blu-ray DVD using Tru HD so i can't give you an opinion on that listening mode.
You can also make some audio adjustments to the DOLBY PROLOGIC IIx for music.
Other features:
--Cinema Filter: This softens overly bright movie soundtracks which are typically mixed for reproduction in a movie theatre.
--dynamic volume: This helps to make the volume of commercials equal to the volume of the movie or show you're watching. Many commercials are produced to jump out at you in volume to grab your attention, so dynamic volume attenuates the db's. If you're familiar with mixing music, it's basically like compression. You can choose 3 levels of dynamic volume: low, medium, high. The higher you choose, the more consistent volume you will hear across sources. The downside is that the overall volume output capabilities decreases.

It seems as though you cannot upconvert a regular DVD to 1080i if connected to the receiver with an HDMI cable. If connected with composite cables, then yes you can. There must be a good reason for this, but i don't know why.

So there you have it. I hope this review helps. If you have any questions, write me a comment and i will try to answer it.

This receiver recently stopped switching the HDMI inputs.
It would work fine after powering on but if an attempt was made to switch the HDMI input it would not be able to receive a signal.

I called a warranty repair vendor to get it fixed. They told me that this is a KNOWN ISSUE with these models due to a manufacturing fault and it would take 2 weeks in & out.

I called after 2 weeks and they told me that had not received the parts from Onkyo yet and it would take another two weeks. Yet again when i called on the fourth week the told me Onkyo has been taking up to 2 months to ship the part that's needed.

I'd had enough so decided to call Onkyo directly, the told me the part is on back order and will be shipped to me on May 17th. At that point I will have been without my receiver for over a month and a half.
I mentioned that the vendor told me this was a known issue and the rep didn't respond. When i asked why it takes 1.5 months to repair a product that was known to be defective before it was sold all he could say was "I'm sorry sir the part is on back order"

I will not be buying an Onkyo product again and I think you are taking a big risk if you buy this one.

After a lot of research, including a "recommended" rating from Consumer Reports, I purchased this home theatre system as a gift for my wife to replace a 20-year-old ailing receiver and Infinity speakers with a bad case of dry rot. It is connected to an old TV, so I can't comment on any functions involving a big-screen digital TV (future purchase). However, we primarily got it for good sound and are very pleased.

Shipping was fast and free via Amazon Prime-- thanks Amazon. The setup was easy -- I had to use custom speaker wires as the included ones were not long enough for the rear speakers (check out Radio Shack for good, inexpensive black or white speaker wire). The system has an automatic speaker balancing system (Audyssey Dynamic EQ) -- worked fine.

The ultimate test -- sounds awesome! Regular music as well as movies fill the room. The iPod dock works good -- even plays my iPhone movies on the TV. Nice location to charge my phone overnight. I also connect cable, DVD, cassette tape deck, and Apple Airport Express music (on our computers) through it without a problem.

Only complaint -- the system does not come with the optional "high front" speakers and Onkyo does not sell a separate set. I contacted Onkyo customer service and they recommended Polk speakers. I installed them and the sound is even better.

By the way, I have asked Onkyo customer service several questions and they responded fast and competently.

Greetings fellas,
To be quick in this review but to point some interesting facts that I was looking for to read before buy a HTIB and I didnt find, I could describe my equipment with the following:

1.- SIZE: The equipment is BIG, Boxy but beatiful finished, the outside box is huge too big I may add, and came all broken up, Not onkyo's fault. The tallboys are great and have a great stand and the receiver is not as big as Yamaha's or others. Also have a beatiful finish gloss.

2.-START UP CONFIG: Dont worry too much about all the audio codes that this baby has, why? first you may have to do some diggin in google to get to know the audio codes and conversion mode (that is not the same but works together), The auto equalizer provided by onkyo AUDISSEY works pretty good, althoug for narrow rooms like mine you may have to play with the volumes to get your surround speakers to get a little louder (not big deal, very easy to do), you can input differents config to each input source, but it carries a general config, for speakers and audio adjust (which is great and dont make it messy). Anyway in the manual which is very good explained, the codes are divided and you can understand what means what and what you may used. Cables for back back surround may be a little short if you want to hide it. Careful with the heat of the avreceiver cause its hot.

3.-AUDIO: This my friends I was a lot concerned with before buy any HITB, I like the loud sound, when I mean loud its LOUD, my old equipment was loud and solid so to spend this amount of money I need to be sure that maybe I could sacriface loudness for clarity of the surround, and I certainly did, for i.e I have the PC cable plug to RCA connected to an analog input, the receiver can convert this in 7.1 by applying ProLogic IIx, delivers the sound through all the speaker depending on the up n downs of the music, (voice comes for central channel and some instruments on the back), of course you may use the All channel stereo and get a plain stereo for enviroment music at little higher in volume. I was disappointed I must accept when after the first configuration without the speakers well placed just desperate to hear it rockin I apllied the audissey eq and realizes that the max volume was so little that my old equipment can kick his b..t out of the window, but I learned that after you place the speakers rund the EQ again quit the regulation security of max volume, put the Intellivolume feature +5db, and help just a little the AU EQ with the frecuencies of the surround, oh man. My little brother in the next room complain to me because he is feeling like an earthquake in his room, my friends I can say its loud and clear almost as I wanted but I could say 9/10.


4.-VIDEO: Picture get a little darker when using HDMI, i.e: PS3 to onkyo to tv all hdmi the pic gets darker and you may notice if you have a good regular eye for details (like me :)). The switching interface is great and very simple. There is not interface for ipod dock in the tv. and the setup menu displays on the little screen of the onkyo and also in the tv. In standby mode there is not time display which I miss of my old equipment.

5.-MOVIES & GAMES: I have a PS3 and a XBOX360 connected to this AV receiver, blue ray rocks if you configure your ps3 as bitstream to not convert your audio so it can pass directly and let the AV rec do the job, the conversion of audio is beatiful, if you are watching "I robot" and you go the BD menu/audio and select DTS 5.1 this baby changes itself and turn those lights on of DTS 5.1 activated and the same with Dolby, THE RECEIVER DOES THE CHANGES ITSELF, and to complete the surround backs you can put an "audio mode" (not codec) using prologic IIx so the AVrec converts it to 7.1 still using DTS. The Xbox outputs only 5.1 and does the same, the game hearing modes are beatiful even at low low volume frequencies you can hear if the bad guys are coming from your side or back very clearly. ALL this using HDMI to AVrec and one HDMI to tv.

So after all, I recommend you to buy this HTIB with confident, is some equipment that will last updated for few years

PS: This is my first review, so please if you can rated it would teach me to write them better next time. I havent test the optical audio IN from the TV to the receiver to see if it has any delay. Ill update later.

I had originally settled for a Bose Cinemate home theatre but with that there are not much in the way of adjustments and everything has to be plugged into the television and then the sound comes out thru the bose..the bose was only 2.1 channel sound simulating surround sound..this has all the LATEST features including 7.1 channel updated surround sound as well as wall shaking bass. Its going into an 800 sq foot room addition and will truly add cinema quality sound. The system with the additional microphone(no charge included) will balance the sound for all the speakers AUTOMATICALLY...the best feature was the price was less than the bose...have had Onkyo products since early 90's...still have a 5.1 dolby digital amp that has never had a repair problem..hope this one can meet or exceed that....

I have been using my Onkyo HT-S7200 for two weeks now, and I am HIGHLY impressed with the entire system. Sound quality is fantastic, the HDMI pass-through works like a charm (1080p and audio). The tallboy speakers are good looking with the black wooden design. Very large subwoofer really completes the sound as well.

The only downfall of this entire package is that the surround speakers are fairly large, so they aren't easy to hide and can seem bulky if you are going to wall mount them. I personally used some Atlantic speaker stands with the double-sided tape (due to the positioning of the bracket on the speakers). Worked like a charm.

I would recommend this package to anyone looking for component quality without the inconvenience of trying to match up receivers and speaker packages.

I bought this from amazon in January after a friend recommended onkyo for quality and price. This system rocks! The sound from the speakers is clear and one feels as if in a movie theater. At first I was concerned about how loud it would be as I live in an apartment, but once I set it up and ran the automatic calibration I found that to get the surround quality the volume itself doesnt have to be super loud. Of course if you want to crank up the volume you can. While others have complained about the unit getting too hot, in my case I left it in a pretty open spot and the heat does not seem to be excessive. The same applies for the wires, yes they appeared a little thin to me too but I've used them with good results. Sometimes I wonder if people just jump on the bandwagon on these sorts of things, after all I cant imagine the onkyo sound engineers to have created this good of a product only to limit it with inadequate wires to save a few bucks. Cons: if you are not tech savy the advanced menus may be a bit much. Onkyo gives lots of options depending if you are listening to music, playing games, watching movies, etc. I've left mine in the default "all channel st" and seems to work best for most applications. One last thing. Plan on spending a couple of hours setting it up and make sure to get mounting for the surround speakers.