Attention all Onkyo Owners/Prospective buyers

[goodleeu]

Hi,

I had purchased ONKYO HT-S3500/ AV RECEIVER HT-R391 on May 2012. Till last week it was working flawlessly. But the next day there was no power at all. Tried everything changed sockets but no use. The power was not up. I sent the Receiver to Onkyo's official service center in Kalina, Mumbai. Now the horror story starts. The guy said Transformer is gone cost 1.5k, also HDMI board is gone cost is 6k and also another electrical board is gone cost is 12k. So the total estimate he gave me was around 19k. I had bought it for around 25k. How ridiculous is this ? I asked them how would a perfectly fine working unit suddenly die. Reason given was some interference by Tata Sky Dish or any other Dish tv installed. However in my entire building not a single house has installed Dish tv. I agreed to let them order for new HDMI board but not other electrical board since it was expensive and without it the problem was tripping of the system. Now they say i have to wait for 30 days since they order and get their parts from Japan.So it seems Onkyo wants to dump their products and rip off the customers in service and repairs. So any one who is thinking of buying Onkyo stuff .. think 10 times !

 

[prosenjit]

were you using stabliser or power surge
or both?

 

[goodleeu]

Actually none .. direct connected to power socket using plug adapter

 

[prosenjit]

what is done cannot be undone.dont curse yourself.
always use voltage stab and belkin gold series minimum power surge.
electronics get damaged by poor power supply,mech damage,dust/moisture accumulation short ckt,static charges
First one being most frequent...
avoid these..item runs longer

 

[musicbee]

Actually none .. direct connected to power socket using plug adapter

Don't think you can blame Onkyo for bad power supply and for not protecting equipment with at least a stabilizer. I have 2 Onkyo AVRs and both have been running for 2+ years without a problem and used for at least 8-10 hours daily.

At the minimum a stabilizer is a must.

 

[spirovious]

I had Onkyo earlier and never had any problem even there was sudden power cut.I had connected it to spike guard.

 

[Rockfella]

Damn sad OP. Thinking of this which is the most reliable spike gaurd out there?

 

[mathan]

It must have been a power surge that has fried your equipment. Always install a stabilizer or Belkin power surge protector. Once Belkin saved all my equipment from lightning strike. An investment that is worth.

 

[Rockfella]

Which is the best stabilizer and surge protection out there?

 

[spirovious]

It must have been a power surge that has fried your equipment. Always install a stabilizer or Belkin power surge protector. Once Belkin saved all my equipment from lightning strike. An investment that is worth.

How much surge protector cost?The lowest one around Rs.600.
Belkin 3 Out (Port) Surge Protector - Extension Cord | eBay
Belkin 3Way Surge Protector Power Strip | eBay

 

[Rockfella]

I have 4 of these already. Are these good enough to handle spikes?

How much surge protector cost?The lowest one around Rs.600.
Belkin 3 Out (Port) Surge Protector - Extension Cord | eBay
Belkin 3Way Surge Protector Power Strip | eBay

 

[spirovious]

The first one in the link has some good specifications like-

Continuous Duty Electrical Rating
250V/6A/50Hz/1500W
Maximum Energy Dissipation: 210 Joules
Maximum Spike Current: 6,500 AMPS
Maximum spike current is measured by amperage. Higher amperage rating reflects greater absorption capacity against lighting or sudden dramatic power spikes.

Response Time: <1 nano-second
A rating of <1 nano-second (a billionth of a second) instantly responds to prevent disturbances before harming equipment.

Are they enough for us?

 

[Rockfella]

I have the Onkyo connected to this:

Belkin : Essential Series 6-Socket Surge Protector

I hope this is good enough

The first one in the link has some good specifications like-

Continuous Duty Electrical Rating
250V/6A/50Hz/1500W
Maximum Energy Dissipation: 210 Joules
Maximum Spike Current: 6,500 AMPS
Maximum spike current is measured by amperage. Higher amperage rating reflects greater absorption capacity against lighting or sudden dramatic power spikes.

Response Time: <1 nano-second
A rating of <1 nano-second (a billionth of a second) instantly responds to prevent disturbances before harming equipment.

Are they enough for us?

 

[musicbee]

I have the Onkyo connected to this:

Belkin : Essential Series 6-Socket Surge Protector

I hope this is good enough

Yup, it will do the job.

Adding a stabilizer or a UPS is also good practice.

Finally, from my own personal experience the wiring in the house can be the culprit too (courtesy a bad electrician or the builder hiring cheap labor). The wiring (in my new home) actually had cross connections and I fried 3 SMPSs and many batteries in my UPS. It was thankfully limited to my computer/study room and hence the damage to equipment minimal. Shudder to think if the plasma, projector or an AVR was connected in that room.

 

[mathan]

I bought this Belkin Gold series for around 2.5K I believe. I also had one stabilizer connected to a CRT TV in one of the room. When a severe lightning struck the stabilizer and the CRT TV got fried and became useless but the music system and LED TV, Media Player, Xbox, BR player connected to Belkin was saved. Infact the Belkin surge protector has lifetime warranty and I was able to get a new one also. The point is even a stabilizer could not save the TV but this belkin product really saved a whole bunch of system.

 

[Naturelover]

There are some threads on stabilizers on the forum.
The Vertex (Chennai) stabilizer has been used by some forum members. I have some details for the 2kVA set. This has been quoted to me at Rs 13,500 with a slight tweak for AV use.

a. Input range - 170 V - 270 V
b. Output - 230 V +/- 1%
c. Electronic Under / Over voltage cutoff
d. Electronic Overload cutoff
e. Built-in Double Stage EMI / RFI filter & Spike Suppressor (MOV)
f. LCD display - Reads I/P & O/P voltages / Output Current / Frequency
g. Input - 4 sq mm Cable. Output Sockets - 5 A - 4 nos

Something like OBO Betterrman V20 C/1+NPE device can be used for additional surge protection. This has been quoted at Rs 4,500.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bsxow0x9fj0uwwo/YCyNMt3gpb

 

[rbalagopalan]

Please don't blame it on Onkyo. In fact the prices you had mentioned sounds to me reasonable compared to some other brands. More over Onkyo has direct service support unlike other brands who have out sourced it. May be you can blame them for delay in service.

ATTENTION:
I was in touch with a High end service technician who confirmed lot of power board and main board failures in their receivers where ever TATA SKY STB was hooked to the receiver.

With regard to protection / stabilisation I won't recommend a servo for HT setup. Better is CVT (Constant voltage Transformers) preferably with isolation like BHURJI CVTs.

Thanks.

 

[spirovious]

I was in touch with a High end service technician who confirmed lot of power board and main board failures in their receivers where ever TATA SKY STB was hooked to the receiver.
Thanks.

Please share your thoughts in following regards-
1.It this with only Tatasky STB or any of DTH?
2.Is it only when you connect STB with HDMI/So optical/coaxial can be connected safely.
3.Will this be an issue even STB is connected directly to HDTV via HDMI?

Thanks.

 

[rbalagopalan]

Please share your thoughts in following regards-
1.It this with only Tatasky STB or any of DTH?
2.Is it only when you connect STB with HDMI/So optical/coaxial can be connected safely.
3.Will this be an issue even STB is connected directly to HDTV via HDMI?

Thanks.

The technicians failure history is only with TATA SKY STB with HDMI connection. Other STBs no issues.

Only copper involved connection can cause this damage so HDMI and CO-AXIAL is ruled out. Hence Optical connection to the receiver from STB is harmless. More over all STBs support only Dolby so optical is more than enough. HDMI can be given directly to TV, of course now TV becomes vulnerable but it is inevitable and to an extent TV can tolerate this I think so, as all TV manufactures would have foreseen and faced this.

 

[shanmune]

With regard to protection / stabilisation I won't recommend a servo for HT setup. Better is CVT (Constant voltage Transformers) preferably with isolation like BHURJI CVTs.

Thanks.

Can you please throw some more light on the above observation you have made ? I used to hear that servo (along with a built-in surge protector) as the recommended one for AV setups. In fact many in the forum went for servo stab.