Onkyo HT-S5300 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver/Speaker Package with Dock for iPhone/iPod

I purchased this HTIB system to replace my Sony STR-Se501 that I have had for over 10 years. That system has served me well, but recently the center speaker would occasionally cut out requiring me to tap on the top of the receiver to get the sound to come back. When working that system sounded pretty good, but I knew I had a problem when I played God of War 3 and I had a very hard time hearing the speech of some characters, even when my center speaker was working. I was all set to get the HT-S5200, but decided to hold off when I saw the HT-S5300 was coming out with better features. After getting the system setting up, I am glad I was patient.

The HT-S5300 is an excellent system for the price, even a much better deal when purchasing from online sites that give you a pretty hefty discount as opposed to the regular retail price. Everything comes packed neatly and securely in one large box and the basic instructions of hooking everything up is explained clearly on a full color poster which should have you up and running in no time. Even the speaker wires and inputs on the back of the receiver or color coded adding more the simplicity.

In addition to looking great with a black wood finish, the speakers are larger than I expected them to be; especially the front speakers and subwoofer, the fronts are so big in fact, instead of standing them up in a cubby hole of my entertainment center were I had my old speakers, I had to lay them down to get them to fit. I may look into getting some wall mounts for them, but my living room is an open area that isn’t really set up for wall mounting. I have only hooked up speakers required for a 5.1 system because I really don’t have the type of floor plan to accommodate the 2 extra included speakers without it looking tacky so I left the two extra speakers in their original packaging for future use. You may be wondering why I didn’t op for the HT-S3300 instead of the 7.1 HT-S5300. The reason is that coming from an HTIB that has an active subwoofer (i.e. has its own power source, as opposed to a subwoofer that is powered by the receiver itself), I didn’t want to “downgrade” to a passive sub. This is the main reason I opted for the HT-S5300 and had the HT-S3300 had an active sub as well, I more than likely would have gotten that instead.

After getting every thing setup, I admit I was unimpressed with the sound it put out. The bass from the massive subwoofer seemed weak and the other speakers did not seem to be as good as I expected, however after fiddling around with the sound settings I got them to sound excellent. The speakers required tweaking of their output level settings and I had to adjust the bass and treble settings to get the clear put powerful sound I was looking for. After getting my settings correct, I popped in God of War 3, and the sound is 100% better I can clearly hear characters speech and I now I want to play ALL my games again to hear them as they were supposed to sound. I have also tried my DVD’s and my one Blu-Ray movie, The Dark Knight, and it sounds much better than my old receiver did. The subwoofer is quite powerful, and if you put your hand anywhere near the opening, you will feel strong puffs of air coming out. Sometimes the bass is a little overwhelming, but you can adjust the output on the back of it as well as through the receiver’s menu.

An excellent feature is that you can adjust receiver settings directly on your TV screen without having to look at the small display on the receiver itself. This makes it easy to adjust settings from your couch using the remote using the well designed menu screen. Keep in mind this only works if you have HDMI on your TV, if you don’t have HDMI, then unfortunately this feature won’t work.

Speaking of HDMI, unlike many receivers in this price range, the HDMI carries both video and sound meaning no need for an optical or coaxial cable to get sound. This is another reason I waited to get a new receiver. The fact that this receiver carries both Video and sound also makes hooking up components much easier. I had been using a digital selector to get sound from my various devices, but after setting up my devices I discovered I didn’t even need the selector anymore so it has been removed completely from my setup. My older components like my DVD and VCR/DVD Recorder don’t have HDMI, but no worries; the receiver accommodates those devices as well using traditional connections. I applaud Onkyo tremendously for deciding to allow both audio and video over the HDMI connections on their newer receivers; it is a huge plus. Finally, the HDMI connections will support the new 1.4 versions, but works just fine with 1.3 cables as well. So don’t think you have to get the new version of cables to get your stuff to work properly because you don’t.

One small complaint I have is that sometimes the settings seem to not save or undo themselves and other times I cannot adjust the speaker level settings because they sometime get disabled for some reason. The full manual does not do a very good job in explaining why this happens, so that leaves me to trying different things to get it to work. But when I do get it working, I am very pleased with the sound. Also I ran into a situation last night in which I wasn’t getting any sound from my PS3 to the receiver, but simply turning off the receiver and turning it back on resolved that hiccup.

One final thing I must mention is that this receiver is in the Harmony’s database of devices so it works with my Harmony One really well. However keep in mind; instead of using “HT-S5300″ as the model number you should use “TX-SR508″. I believe that is the actual model number of the receiver (or very similar receiver) if you were to buy it separately. There is a model number on the receiver itself, but that model number listed is not in the database which I why I used “TX-SR508″ instead. I haven’t quite completed getting my button configurations done, but once I am finished, I suspect I won’t need the included Onko remote anymore.

I debated for a while before deciding on this receiver and after getting the settings how I wanted, I could not be happier with my purchase. If I had some complaints then it has to do with the manual, even though its neatly laid out, it does not does a very good job in explaining why certain things happen (i.e. unable to configure various speaker settings at times), but the system itself is excellent for the price with good speakers and a powerful subwoofer that should satisfy most of us. You can always opt for better speakers, but for most, I suspect the included speakers would be enough for a while. If you are looking for a great Home Theater system that won’t break the bank, you can’t go wrong with the HT-S5300 which can function as 7.1 system and also a 5.1 system if you don’t have the room setup for a 7.1 one. There are also option inputs for Front High speakers as well as a “Zone 2″ setup that allows you to send sound to speakers in another room. If you don’t really care about the active subwoofer, then take a look at the HT-S3300, a 5.1 system with much of the same features as this, but with one less HDMI port and a passive subwoofer and a little less power.
Rating: 4 / 5

I typically read, but do not write, reviews for products I buy; however, in this case, with all the negative reviews I’ve seen on this system, I feel I should chime in. I have had this system for about 2 weeks now, and have loved it. The sound is great, the hdmi switching is great, the hdmi-cec compatibility is great, etc. Other than the 3D capability, which I have not used, I have experienced every major selling point/feature for this system, and loved it.

My setup includes:

50″ Samsung Plasma (PN50B550)

Samsung Blu-Ray (BDP1590)- Refurb that works flawlessly, btw.

Xbox 360

HTPC

All components are wired through HDMI to the receiver, utilizing the single HDMI out from the receiver to the TV for video.

The speakers, for an HTIB setup, are clear and powerful. While the volume seems to follow an almost logarithmic scale, I have never had to crank past 60% before feeling like my ears were going to bleed. Dimension-wise, the room the system is set up in is about 12×15, and it fits perfectly. The subwoofer, set to mid-volume, is always enough. It is a decent sub that focuses on it’s full, intended spectrum, as opposed to just punching. It rumbles when it should, and even at low volumes, it will carry a bass line audibly without waking up the people sleeping in the next room.

Issues I’ve experienced:

* The receiver itself would not fit in my component cabinet. The noted dimensions include a 6″ height, which my cabinet would accommodate, however, the combination of the included legs/spacers and the “face”-overhang of the unit were about a quarter centimeter too much to slide into the allotted height. This was easily fixed by picking up some furniture coasters, predrilling them, and mounting them in-place of the original legs.

* I have experienced a timing/sync issue with the audio dropping every 30 seconds or so for a split second, while the unit was decoding dts. Power-cycling the unit, which took all of 5 seconds, solved the issue, and I have not experienced this problem since. I run both bitstream and PCM and the receiver has produced/passed sound perfectly with both, minus this one instance.

With the low number of reviews on this product, keep in mind that a fair number of negative reviews stem from unrealistic expectation, lack of electronic literacy, etc. I’m not saying that they are all this way, or even that the system is perfect, but for the price, Onkyo has built something pretty great. Good luck.
Rating: 5 / 5