Onkyo HT s3400 Owner's thread

cavallino

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I just noticed there was no owners thread for s3400.

Mods I couldn't locate a live thread for it, so I am creating this one. If there exists one please move this post there.

I am a recent owner of HT S3400. I know many others on this forum are already enjoying this system so my apologies for starting this thread so late in the product cycle, so to say, but I thought one was needed to ask and resolve problems.

My Initial Experience: On the whole I am quite satisfied with what I have seen in the last two days. It is more or less what I expected from the low end system. But I guess it will take a lot more time to get to know the ins and out of the system well.
Let me just add that while I have bought this recently I am not new to a home theater in a box thing. I have owned (and still own) one from the good old analogue days and my main reason for getting a new one was need for compatibility with the digital age.

In the meanwhile I have some questions for other owners. So here I go



1. While setting up the speaker configuration in the home menu should one designate the central and front speakers and small or large? (The manual says depending on the cone size set the size - so what should one consider the supplied speakers small or large?)

2. Is the use of Audyssey recommended or not, in general?

3. I have not been able to get the system to display either Dolby Prologic or Neo6 with 2 channel PCM; do they not work with PCM? What should be the source input for Dolby or Neo6 to work?
 
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I just noticed there was no owners thread for s3400.

Mods I couldn't locate a live thread for it, so I am creating this one. If there exists one please move this post there.

I am a recent owner of HT S3400. I know many others on this forum are already enjoying this system so my apologies for starting this thread so late in the product cycle, so to say, but I thought one was needed to ask and resolve problems.

My Initial Experience: On the whole I am quite satisfied with what I have seen in the last two days. It is more or less what I expected from the low end system. But I guess it will take a lot more time to get to know the ins and out of the system well.
Let me just add that while I have bought this recently I am not new to a home theater in a box thing. I have owned (and still own) one from the good old analogue days and my main reason for getting a new one was need for compatibility with the digital age.

In the meanwhile I have some questions for other owners. So here I go



1. While setting up the speaker configuration in the home menu should one designate the central and front speakers and small or large? (The manual says depending on the cone size set the size - so what should one consider the supplied speakers small or large?)


2. Is the use of Audyssey recommended or not, in general?

3. I have not been able to get the system to display either Dolby Prologic or Neo6 with 2 channel PCM; do they not work with PCM? What should be the source input for Dolby or Neo6 to work?

1. Set as small
2. See what difference u get while listening with on/off. Its u to ur liking.
3. Dolby Pro depends on the input source but should not be a problem with Neo6. I have connected AVR with Pioneer-610 which can output Neo6 and also Sony Blueray 380
 
1. Set as small
2. See what difference u get while listening with on/off. Its u to ur liking.
3. Dolby Pro depends on the input source but should not be a problem with Neo6. I have connected AVR with Pioneer-610 which can output Neo6 and also Sony Blueray 380

What is the best settings for listening to music, tone settings, decible settings to individual speakers, sub woofer level etc etc. so that you get nice heart thumping sound at low volumes
 
Ok so as many of you know my Ht s3400 is connected to my HTPC (cofig. given below in my sig.)

I have now tested bitstreaming AC3 (shows up as Dolby digital on the onkyo display), DTS (shows up as DTS :p). But can't get DTS HD MA or Dolby truHD to work to bitstream. I am using pot player.

So far so good - the sad part is that with a test file (mkv with DTS HD-MA) the AVR display shows it as "DTS mastr" but the file does not play. Did a bit of seach on the net it seems windows XP might be the culprit most googled guides/forum posts seem to show success with windows 7.

Has anybody been able to bitstream with win xp? Please let me know.

By the way I am using the following guide to set up pot player

Configuring PotPlayer for GPU-accelerated video playback with DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA), Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) or high-performance software decoding
 
I am using a Measy X6 media player and the 3400. Problem i have is if i set the media player to send lpcm multich, no voice from 3400 just music. Shows input as 6 ch and output as 4.1. If i set it to raw then it shows input as 2 ch and not 6 ch. This problem i have is only with aac audio. DTS & AC3 shows 5.1 correctly.
 
^^. Most AVRs have problems decoding aac audio and media players behave differently. In my Himedia HD600b, I whet only two channel when LPCM is used where as my bdp can sent aac files multichannel LPCM out. I used Xtreamer Firmware on the media player and the player is able to sent multichannel LPCM for aac, but only stereo for ac3 and dolby. Now what I use is to convert the mp4 aac files to mkv ac3. You will need mkvtoolnix to convert mp4 aac to mkv aac first. Then use popcorn audio converter to convert the mkv aac file to mkv ac3. Total time for conversion is approximately 10 minutes.
 
I was wondering if the reviver supports any sort of floor standing speakers of 200watt and of 6 ohms impedance. for front channel to listen to audio exclusively.
 
Would like to know if anyone has tried to replace (or add as B) the stock front speakers of the Onkyo 3400 with other speakers and had good results, specially for music.

I've heard Spirovious' Tannoy F1 Custom BS and matching Centre combination with my 3400 once and they sounded really great, but are above my budget.

Am I right in assuming that any pair of BS speakers rated around 100 watts and impedance above 6 ohms will technically be alright?

Have narrowed the options thru online research to these 3: Cambridge Audio s30, Polk Tsi100 and a Mordant Short (not sure of the model,think it is Avant). All three fit the above specs and are available under 10k in Mumbai.

Any suggestions/experiences of these or other options that work well with the Onkyo 3400 within this budget?
 
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Would like to know if anyone has tried to replace (or add as B) the stock front speakers of the Onkyo 3400 with other speakers and had good results, specially for music.

I've heard the Spirovious' Tannoy F1 Custom BS and matching Centre combination with my 3400 once and they sounded really great, but are above my budget.

Am I right in assuming that any pair of BS speakers rated around 100 watts and impedance above 6 ohms will technically be alright?

Have narrowed the options thru online research to these 3: Cambridge Audio s30, Polk Tsi100 and a Mordant Short (not sure of the model,think it is Avant). All three fit the above specs and are available under 10k in Mumbai.

Any suggestions/ideas/experiences of these or other options that work well with the Onkyo 3400 within this budget?

A lot of people here have done it after buying onkyo htib on a budget. You can upgrade all 5 speakers except sub with good results.

For BS try wharfies 9.2/10.1/10.2
 
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@yogesh.

The Wharfdale BS range was my first preference. When I asked the same question on this forum a few months back, there was a very attractive Groupbuy offer for the Wharfdale bookshelves going on, and I was tempted to go for it.

At that time, some experienced forum members had suggested that the Onkyo 3400 amp may not do justice to the Wharfdale speakers.

The other valid point made was that powerful front replacements may overpower the Centre speaker and become an issue for 5.1 movies.

Thought we should keep these points in mind while planning upgrades. Would be nice to hear from members who have actually tried out different speaker combos with the 3400.
 
@yogesh.

The Wharfdale BS range was my first preference. When I asked the same question on this forum a few months back, there was a very attractive Groupbuy offer for the Wharfdale bookshelves going on, and I was tempted to go for it.

At that time, some experienced forum members had suggested that the Onkyo 3400 amp may not do justice to the Wharfdale speakers.

The other valid point made was that powerful front replacements may overpower the Centre speaker and become an issue for 5.1 movies.

Thought we should keep these points in mind while planning upgrades. Would be nice to hear from members who have actually tried out different speaker combos with the 3400.

I don't own a Onkyo 3400, but based on your post I can give my opinion. When you watch a movie in 5.1ch, you would obviously use a movie/game mode which will supress all other manual presets. In this case your AVR will pass the frequencies accordingly, I use a Onkyo 609 with wharfedale 9.6 for front and jamo HCS 102 for rest (cen, surr & surr high). I have adjusted the DBs & cross over in such a way it doesn't create any issue. Also the fronts are so powerful that I don't need a sub for music listening. Any point if you listen to music I would seriously recommend wharfedale 9.5 for fronts and rest as per your choice.
 
Would like to know if anyone has tried to replace (or add as B) the stock front speakers of the Onkyo 3400 with other speakers and had good results, specially for music.

I've heard Spirovious' Tannoy F1 Custom BS and matching Centre combination with my 3400 once and they sounded really great, but are above my budget.

Am I right in assuming that any pair of BS speakers rated around 100 watts and impedance above 6 ohms will technically be alright?

Have narrowed the options thru online research to these 3: Cambridge Audio s30, Polk Tsi100 and a Mordant Short (not sure of the model,think it is Avant). All three fit the above specs and are available under 10k in Mumbai.

Any suggestions/experiences of these or other options that work well with the Onkyo 3400 within this budget?

you can go for Wharfedale 9.6 or 9.5 for front which is an awesome combination for music. But given your budget as 10k which is difficult, I would suggest you to stretch it by 50-60% and go for yamaha floor stander which will be available somewhere around 17k, but I tell you its a pretty piece. Tannoy is a bright speaker where you need a sub to get the LFE. So if your choice for music is some thing without sub, then go for yamaha which may be with in your budget. but audition them perfectly before you decide. Try NS-777 or NS-F700
Home Speaker Systems - Speakers - Audio & Visual - Products - Yamaha United States
 
<Snip>I have adjusted the DBs & cross over in such a way it doesn't create any issue. <snip>

Nice idea 007! I had also initially considered this option of manual DB tweaks to adjust the front-centre balance , but was not sure how it would sound in real life.

BTW, the Groupbuy prices of the Wharfdale 9.1s had bought them within my budget range. Anyway, will reconsider the Wharf range now that so many recommendations are pointing that way.
 
Hi Friends,

This may be a stupid question, but can you please let me know how you are hanging the surround speakers? I dont want to make a hole on my wall.. any alternatives? between I got my 3400 a few weeks back and I'm enjoying the sound..

thanks in advance.
 
Hi Friends,

This may be a stupid question, but can you please let me know how you are hanging the surround speakers? I dont want to make a hole on my wall.. any alternatives? between I got my 3400 a few weeks back and I'm enjoying the sound..

thanks in advance.

It depends. you can use a speaker mount if its a book shelf(BS) else if its a satellite, you have to mount it on a wall. what is the speaker model?
 
Hi Guys,

I finally got the 3400 delivered and kind of partially installed. I also got a Sammy D5900 LED.

I need to know how do it connect my TV (connected to cable setup box) to the onkyo system, what i need is the audiofrom onkyo system.

Any Help.......
 
If the set top box has HDMI output, use it or paste the rear side image of set top box. normally Audio out(left,right) socket will be available which can be connected to TV, but its only analog.
 
The Marantz PM7000N offers big, spacious and insightful sound, class-leading clarity and a solid streaming platform in a award winning package.
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