rahuljonline
Active Member
Hi people,
It's been about 2-3 weeks,since I bought the Onkyos home. A week was spent on the woodwork etc, and finally I was able to give it a nice listen. So, here's my review, and a few crappy quality pics (since my brother took our camera away).
First of all, it's been a great journey, the last one year, since I began working.
All the members of this forum really helped me out a lot, helped me learn, and helped me put my money in the right place.
So, I was looking for a decent home theatre system for my 50" Plasma. The first system I heard about was Onkyo 3200, and then listened to Onkyo 3100 at Ezone. They also made me listen to some Sensei products. Then I was told the Onkyo 3300 was launched. I had my eyes set on these.
This from where I started auditioning different brands.
I auditioned the Denon 1611 along with Polk RM 6750 at ProFX.
Then I heard the Onkyo 5205. And to be honest, I found the Onkyo sound slightly better. Also the Denon+Polk was around 50ks, and out of my budget.
Then I auditioned Harmon Kardon+JBL cinesystem. I liked the sound but the AVR 133 was rather ancient.
Next up was Yamaha RX 465 along with N8900 towers. The sound was louder, and not as clear as the other systems.
Now, I must admit I'm no audiophile, and this is my first experience, so I might run out of right adjectives to define various kinds of sound. But what I found was that auditioning and having the system home, to home conditions were totally 2 different ball games. So, I could not just go into the specs, but my ears were not trustworthy yet.
So, finally I thought of pulling the trigger. Onkyo 508 was an AVR with that would decode all the modern codecs like DTS HD-MA etc., it had HDMI 1.4 and was a 7.1 reciever, that made it 'future-proof'. Now for the speakers, I did not want to add on slowly, I wanted to experience the surround effect at one go. I choose the Onkyo 728 as they were wooden made, and the fronts were tower speakers, which meant it would be at the right level. It sounded a lot better than the 5205, also the speakers and the powered subs were higher rated than both 5205 and 5300. So, I thought it was better than buying the 5300 as it was 1)cheaper, 2) had better power ratings, 3)tower speakers. The only downside being it was 5.1 and 5300 is a 7.1. But I can always add the 2 extra speakers, and make it 7.1 (that will be when I buy the blu-ray player).
The AVR also gives me a Zone 2 output, which is cool.
I generally liked the sound, and infact was a lot clearer than the Denon+Polk combo.
I bargained hard with the person at Promises, Kolkata, and got it at 42.5 ks. Which I thought was a good deal.
I had changed the speaker cables to Bandridge, cost me 1000 bucks more, as my room is about 19X20 ft, needed those cables anyhow.
Right now I watching stuff from WD TV Live via HDMI to AVR, and DVD Player via Optical and Component to AVR.
So, after having spent a few weeks with it, I pretty satisfied.
I did the calibration with Audyssey EQ and the mic provided. It sounds very nice. The crossover has been set to 100hz, by Audyssey. The bass has improved in the last few days (maybe because of break in).
Movies are awesome, but sometimes I have to turn down the volume a little bit during the action scenes.
I collected a lot of DTS Music over the last few days, and they sound fabulous.
Some of the amazing stuff I heard were:
1. Avatar
2. Hotel California Live (HD)
3. Blue Man Group Feat. Dave Mathews - Sing Along (DTS Demo Disc)
4. Dire Straits - Money for Nothing (DTS CD)
5. Pink Floyd - Shine on you Crazy Diamonds (DTS CD)
6. Metallica - Black Album (DTS CD)
7. The Police - Every Breath You Take (DTS CD)
8. Iron Man 2
9. BB King and Stevie Wonders Live at the 25th Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
10. Led Zepellin- Songs Remain the Same (Blu Ray Rip)
and a zillion more stuff...
Just love the sound, its really clear and I can hear almost every note.
So, that's about it for now. Hopefully this will be useful for other people who have a budget of around 40ks.
Haven't experienced DTS HD-MA yet, but will buy a Blu-Ray player in the future, along with a Logitech Harmony (need it real bad, as there are too many remotes now.. :lol
It's been about 2-3 weeks,since I bought the Onkyos home. A week was spent on the woodwork etc, and finally I was able to give it a nice listen. So, here's my review, and a few crappy quality pics (since my brother took our camera away).
First of all, it's been a great journey, the last one year, since I began working.
All the members of this forum really helped me out a lot, helped me learn, and helped me put my money in the right place.
So, I was looking for a decent home theatre system for my 50" Plasma. The first system I heard about was Onkyo 3200, and then listened to Onkyo 3100 at Ezone. They also made me listen to some Sensei products. Then I was told the Onkyo 3300 was launched. I had my eyes set on these.
This from where I started auditioning different brands.
I auditioned the Denon 1611 along with Polk RM 6750 at ProFX.
Then I heard the Onkyo 5205. And to be honest, I found the Onkyo sound slightly better. Also the Denon+Polk was around 50ks, and out of my budget.
Then I auditioned Harmon Kardon+JBL cinesystem. I liked the sound but the AVR 133 was rather ancient.
Next up was Yamaha RX 465 along with N8900 towers. The sound was louder, and not as clear as the other systems.
Now, I must admit I'm no audiophile, and this is my first experience, so I might run out of right adjectives to define various kinds of sound. But what I found was that auditioning and having the system home, to home conditions were totally 2 different ball games. So, I could not just go into the specs, but my ears were not trustworthy yet.
So, finally I thought of pulling the trigger. Onkyo 508 was an AVR with that would decode all the modern codecs like DTS HD-MA etc., it had HDMI 1.4 and was a 7.1 reciever, that made it 'future-proof'. Now for the speakers, I did not want to add on slowly, I wanted to experience the surround effect at one go. I choose the Onkyo 728 as they were wooden made, and the fronts were tower speakers, which meant it would be at the right level. It sounded a lot better than the 5205, also the speakers and the powered subs were higher rated than both 5205 and 5300. So, I thought it was better than buying the 5300 as it was 1)cheaper, 2) had better power ratings, 3)tower speakers. The only downside being it was 5.1 and 5300 is a 7.1. But I can always add the 2 extra speakers, and make it 7.1 (that will be when I buy the blu-ray player).
The AVR also gives me a Zone 2 output, which is cool.
I generally liked the sound, and infact was a lot clearer than the Denon+Polk combo.
I bargained hard with the person at Promises, Kolkata, and got it at 42.5 ks. Which I thought was a good deal.
I had changed the speaker cables to Bandridge, cost me 1000 bucks more, as my room is about 19X20 ft, needed those cables anyhow.
Right now I watching stuff from WD TV Live via HDMI to AVR, and DVD Player via Optical and Component to AVR.
So, after having spent a few weeks with it, I pretty satisfied.
I did the calibration with Audyssey EQ and the mic provided. It sounds very nice. The crossover has been set to 100hz, by Audyssey. The bass has improved in the last few days (maybe because of break in).
Movies are awesome, but sometimes I have to turn down the volume a little bit during the action scenes.
I collected a lot of DTS Music over the last few days, and they sound fabulous.
Some of the amazing stuff I heard were:
1. Avatar
2. Hotel California Live (HD)
3. Blue Man Group Feat. Dave Mathews - Sing Along (DTS Demo Disc)
4. Dire Straits - Money for Nothing (DTS CD)
5. Pink Floyd - Shine on you Crazy Diamonds (DTS CD)
6. Metallica - Black Album (DTS CD)
7. The Police - Every Breath You Take (DTS CD)
8. Iron Man 2
9. BB King and Stevie Wonders Live at the 25th Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
10. Led Zepellin- Songs Remain the Same (Blu Ray Rip)
and a zillion more stuff...
Just love the sound, its really clear and I can hear almost every note.
So, that's about it for now. Hopefully this will be useful for other people who have a budget of around 40ks.
Haven't experienced DTS HD-MA yet, but will buy a Blu-Ray player in the future, along with a Logitech Harmony (need it real bad, as there are too many remotes now.. :lol
