Customer Reviews

Onkyo SKS-HT870 Home Theater Speaker System

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am happy with this speaker set because, in my view, I got a lot of value for what I paid. I wouldn't call myself an Onkyo fan when it comes to entertainment devices - Sony receiver, Sony PS3, Sony BD player, Samsung TV - but I am aware of Onkyo's reputation for quality and this set of speakers doesn't disappoint.

All prospective buyers should be aware that these are 6 Ohm (SIX OHM) speakers. They will work well with 6 Ohm receivers, of course, and you SHOULD be able to use them with an 8 Ohm receiver if it's kept in a well-ventilated shelf and you don't keep it continuously at full blast. My own receiver is 8 Ohm and it seems to be Okay but both Onkyo and the receiver maker may not want to honor the warranty if they get word of this.


CONTENTS

What you get is good quality, 130W speakers encased in well-built wood boxes, a 290W powered woofer and then, there are a couple of unexpected bonuses.

- 1 Center speaker, surprisingly large
- 2 Front speakers on 'tower' stands (tallboy) - will save you money on speaker stands but if you're thinking about hanging them, this is not your set.
- 4 Satellite speakers - do have hanging holes
- 1 Woofer - powered, connects through 'banana' jacks on both ends
- Color-coded wires for each speaker - kind of thin and I used my own, see below but... they're free
- Onkyo UP-A1 Dock for the iPod - this was totally unexpected


SETUP

A screwdriver will be needed to attach the heavy metal base to the front, floor-standing speakers.

If you go with the color-coded wires, connecting everything is easy. I decided that I wanted thicker, copper speaker wire so I went with ACOUSTIC RESEARCH AP-16100W 100' White 16 Gauge Oxygen-Free Speaker Wire and I'm happy I did that. The 100 ft. spool was about 25 ft. short of what I needed so, until I get another 25 ft., one of my satellite speakers will be using the Onkyo-supplied wire so I'm happy they included these.

The center and satellite speakers have mounting holes in the back but not on the base. I like my center speaker to sit on top of the TV and that was accomplished with about 1 ft. of Velcro 2"-wide tape. I used Velcro on the 4 stands as well as, in my view, it preserves the speaker's integrity and it even offers some cushioning.

I do not own an iPod or an Onkyo receiver so the iPod Dock I am trying to sell at Amazon. Hopefully, there will be a buyer and that should help reduce the overall cost of this set.


THE EXPERIENCE

I only have good things to say about this set. For what I paid, it fully meets my expectation. The sound is full, crisp and if there are any distortions my ear is not trained or sensitive enough to detect them.

Physically, the boxes look professionally built and designed, uncompromising black matte with the sides of the center, the top of the front speakers and the woofer's front a perfect shiny polish - don't touch them or the fingerprints could be seen from a distance. The tall front pair is stable even on my carpeted floor.


RATING

This set deserves its 5 stars well for delivering good quality, well-built speakers and the couple of extras - wires, iPod dock. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a 7.1 set of 6 Ohm speakers.

I had been looking for a reasonably priced 7.1 system, this one has been perfect. The speakers are unobtrusive, and reasonably sized, and the sound quality is great for a sub-$400 system. I wasn't aware when I purchased the set that it also includes the Onkyo UP-1A iPod adapter, while I have no idea why it is included it was a nice bonus, however I suspect that the $90 optional adapter increased the price, and it only works with Onkyo receivers (I have a Sony), for Onkyo Receiver owners this could save an extra purchase. I put mine up for sale on Amazon marketplace. The sub is more than adequate for the 14x14 room that I have my TV in, and the surround effect is spot on. All in all, I'm quite pleased with the quality of construction and the quality of the sound. The included speaker wire is good in a pinch, but I opted for thicker Monster speaker wire, I don't know enough about wire to tell if it made a difference, but I thought it was nice that the wire was included...

Okay, so look. Any hardcore audiophile is going to build their home theatre from the ground up and probably frown on "bundles" like this. However, Onkyo's quality has substantially increased recently and these speakers do represent that. I have these speakers hooked up to a Sony STR-DH810. I measured the distances, inputed them into the receiver and balanced them. It took a lot of tweaking before I got everything to sound right. I did have some problems with the center channel being drowned out so I bumped that channel slightly above the rest. If you want this system to sound the best it can then I please urge you to NOT use the speaker wire included.

The speaker wire that Onkyo provides will not handle lossless mixes well at all. You may get crackling and peaking and everything will sound flat. I re-wired with decent speaker wire and the difference was night and day. Sounds are richer and more full. Dialogue is crisp and doesn't cause peaking or crackling in the center channel. So do yourself a favor and toss the shoestring wires and get a 100 feet of THX certified Monster Wire for $21 here on Amazon.

All in all I love the sound. They are not the best but for the price they are extremely good. If the center channel could stand its ground better then the set would be exceptional. One day when I have a higher salary I will no doubt build my setup speaker by speaker, but for now this is as good as bundled packages get.

Very solid system, i have it hooked up to a denon 1910 and works great, right now my whole set up includes a samsung ln52b750, xbox360,ps3 and a samsung bd-p3600 and it all works great together!! movies are great and so are the video games!! speakers are alot louder than expected.... also the speakers were easy to hang on my walls, they all have a single keyhole. Also the system came with its own speaker cables!! if your just getting into the whole home theather game like i am!! try these out!! they are worth the price!! very solid system

This is tough. Lets do the good.

Sounds awesome! Looks good, easy to setup. For the money I really dare to find competition. Playing video with DTS Audio is amazing with my onkyo receiver and this speaker package. Comes with color coded wire but is a little low in gauge if you ask me. All in all, the Product is really sharp, well designed, attractive but neutral and not overkill.

To the bad. As stated in another review Onkyo states in the manual shipped with mine there is an I-Pod dock included and was also described here on amazon as included. I tore the cardboard and foam apart looking for it and thought I must be the unlucky guy. No the case. For whatever reason they stopped shipping with the dock. Onkyo made no mention of this, and denies it even ever came with one!! The support and response I got was appalling. I was treated like an idiot and as if I was wasting their time. I along with other Amazon customers have proof of false advertising and hope to get this resolved.

Bottom Line. Product=Great Company=Awful

I will NEVER buy another Onkyo product in my life. The only saving grace you might have is if you buy from Amazon you can always rely on Amazon to correct or make of for Onkyo's blatant short comings. They simply do not care about you the customer, and whats more is they seem to make that very clear to you. I am honestly offended by there practices. Good luck.

One of the main reasons i purchased this set is because it has the tall front L & R speakers, has great reviews on Amazon and CNet. Really great sound quality for the price. This is connected to my Onkyo TX-SR505 Receiver that i purchased about 4-5 years ago and set at 120Hz. I've actually set this up as 5.1 surround in a 20x25 room with TV, PS3, iPod and turntable and have connected the 2 remaining speakers in a different room as speaker set B (front L & R) on my receiver to pipe music/sound to my other entertainment room. Having it only setup as a 5.1 in a large room, i must say, the sound quality is impressive. Surround is fantastic, bass is powerful, low and crisp (Not muffled or distorted) and rocks the house pretty well. Front left right and center speakers are very crisp and hi's and mid's are very sharp (I also diverted all my bass to the front L & R speakers just to see how it would handle, which they did with ease while listening to some bass intensive rock from my turntable). Call of Duty: Black Ops on PS3 w/ surround is stunning, I'm positive my neighborhood feels each gunshot, bass rocks. Great Speaker set for the price.

Based on all of the positive reviews, I paired this 7.1 speaker system with my Onkyo HT-RC360 7.2-Channel Network Audio/Video Receiver (Black) in my gaming and TV area. I am quite pleased with the sound and the appearance of the system. My receiver supplies 100 watts per channel into 6 ohms for these speakers. The result is a clear and balanced sound for a very attractive price.

SETUP

Hooking the speakers up was extremely easy with my Onkyo receiver. Each speaker is clearly labeled as to room placement and the wires supplied with the speakers are color coded for the correct receiver connection - six different color wires match six different color receiver speaker connections. It was nice to be able to run all of the wires without stopping to label anything. The only thing that needs assembly for any of the speakers is attaching the weighted footing for the front side speakers.

LISTENING EXPERIENCE

After I set the speakers up and calibrated them for the room with the receivers Audyssey 2EQ, I threw on "The Hurt Locker" to get a good combination of dialogue, explosions, gun fire, helicopters, things driving by etc. The system performed excellently. Nothing was too loud and voices could always be understood - even in the action scenes. There was ample volume. In fact, I can't imagine turning things all of the way up on this system as it would be uncomfortably loud.

BOTTOM LINE

Straight music playback was solid for a 7.1 system. Obviously, these speakers pale in comparison to my Klipsch for music reproduction but they are a fraction on the cost and geared for surround sound. When I really want to rock out, I use zone two on the receiver to connect to another amp that drives the big speakers for music. Maybe I'm old school, but for music alone I prefer quality stereo speakers. However, for movies and games, these speakers can't be beat in this price range.

I'm using these speakers w/ Onkyo-608 after returning another Onkyo spkr set HT750 (which was too big and not as good as this one). Sound quality is awesome and improved even more after using Audyssey setup. Spkr don't look bad at all. I like tallboys, it matches perfect w/ my TV stand. Other speakers are little bit big (~9") compared to what's available in market but its not bulky. For many days, I considered these spkrs along with Polk1600, RM705, 6750, HarmonKrdn, Energy etc but all of those were more expensive and 5.1 spkrs. Certainly those speakers look stylish and smaller but subwoofer is in 50-100W range. Onkyo-870 comes with thundering 230w subwoofer.. more than enough to feel booms... thuds... and blasts... Fry's had these speakers on display as part of Onkyo7300 HTIB, so I checked actual size before buying it. Currently I'm using only 5.1 and plan to use 2 additional speakers for Zone 2.

Only cons I've seen so far are_
* boxy older design
* does not support use of banana plugs
* not many mounting options

Pros
* 7.1 speaker set
* superb sound quality
* lightweight speakers
* wooden body
* Tallboys save money for front speaker stands

Spkeares/subsfr are bit bigger but from all my research I believe when it comes to speakers "bigger the better". I really liked these speakers and would definitely recommend... so as Onkyo receiver 608.

The quality and sound of these speakers is fantastic for this price range. ive been watching the price of these for over a year. the speakers look great, but they are pretty large for anybody who wants smaller speakers. the two front speakers are great since no stands are needed. the only gripe i have is that the input for the speaker wire is too small for banana adapters. 14 gauge wires take a few twists to fit into. paired with the onkyo sr608, you'll have an amazing surround sound experience for less than $1000.

Ok I have to say, when I opened the box (huge box) and took out the speakers, they felt cheap. They were very light and made with particle board or MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard). However the sub did look very nice and looked of better quality. These speakers were very inexpensive compared to the competition. I thought I was getting exactly what I paid for. So after setting up my new Pioneer VSX-31 receiver, I plugged these babies in and couldn't wait to test them out.

The sound is great! I was really amazed at the quality. This totally reversed my initial opinion. I guess the saying is true... never judge a book by it's cover. The sound is very clear. I think these speakers are a steal. I mean for under $300, your getting a 7.1 surround speaker system? You can't beat this deal.

I'm really happy with these speakers.