Onkyo S790B 7.1 Surround sound system $374 w/o tax after $30 MIR ($404 shipped)

[NSA Lummox]

I think I know what sound system I'll be buying . . .

790B

790S

There's a twenty dollar difference between the Black and Silver for some stupid reason, even though there's NO difference in the product. I tried to get a CSR to pricematch the black on to the silver and he wouldn't do it (he was a jerk anyway though from the getgo).

So, with that said you can get the silver for $20 cheaper, but you also run the risk of ups delivering a box that, according to the manager, is ~2.5'x2.5'x4'. Personally, I'm going to spend the extra to get it in store (all of my home theater equipment is black anyway).

Note: this requires an affiliate coupon that is available on fat wallet.

So, for the black, you end up with $449 (sale price) - $45 (affiliate coupon) - $30 rebate = $374 with free shipping or in-store pickup + tax.

I haven't read a bad review on this system yet.

 

[5tharrow]

My brother picked this up (the black one) at CC last week during a no tax day. It's awesome. The surround speakers are shallow enough to place on the wall, and the fronts are narrow enough to fit on his AV stand beside his 46" DLP.

He replaced an Onkyo receiver that was about 17 years old. I have an Onkyo system at my place, and a I have several friends who have Onkyo systems; they never disappoint, and they last forever.

 

[elph]

Yeah, Onkyo FTW. My dad bought a refurbed onkyo 5.1 receiver about 15 years ago for $149 and he's still using it.

 

[zendari]

Really nice startup product. Good value.

 

[MattUNI2001]

I bought the silver system while it had a 75 dollar rebate. I have had it for about a month now, and I absolutely love it. The subwoofer is huge and delivers loud, thumping bass that rattles my entire apartment. I've yet to have the volume 3/4ths of the way up because it is so loud. Every person that comes to my apartment is amazed at the home theater system I have (I have an Optoma H31 projector hooked up to this.) I HIGHLY recommend it for a system that is under $400.

Speaking of the Optoma H31, I highly recommend that for the movie-lover as well!!!

 

[Vcize]

Looks like a pretty good deal, no HDMI but that's certainly to be expected in this price-range. Only 2 digital inputs though worries me a bit. Who the heck has only 2 components to hook up anymore? I've got five right now (cable box, TV-OTA, Xbox 360, DVD player, PC) and plan to add two more by the end of the year so looks like I'm out on this one. Too bad as I've had an Onkyo receiver for years and it's treated me well and I've been looking to upgrade to a new 7.1 or 5.1 system :\.

Btw, Mattuni2001 I saw you mentioned you're in an apartment with this setup. No complaints from the neighbors?

 

[tennesota]

What does "FTW" mean?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Vcize
Looks like a pretty good deal, no HDMI but that's certainly to be expected in this price-range. Only 2 digital inputs though worries me a bit. Who the heck has only 2 components to hook up anymore? I've got five right now (cable box, TV-OTA, Xbox 360, DVD player, PC) and plan to add two more by the end of the year so looks like I'm out on this one. Too bad as I've had an Onkyo receiver for years and it's treated me well and I've been looking to upgrade to a new 7.1 or 5.1 system :\.

Btw, Mattuni2001 I saw you mentioned you're in an apartment with this setup. No complaints from the neighbors?

Looks like the manual says it has 3 optical and 1 digital coaxial input.

EDIT: oh, and they also make switches for this sort of thing.
cheap example

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: tennesota
What does "FTW" mean?

for the win

 

[tennesota]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: tennesota
What does "FTW" mean?

for the win

Thank you sir.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: tennesota

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: tennesota
What does "FTW" mean?

for the win

Thank you sir.

np

For future reference, http://www.urbandictionary.com/

 

[NSA Lummox]

Originally posted by: Vcize
Looks like a pretty good deal, no HDMI but that's certainly to be expected in this price-range. Only 2 digital inputs though worries me a bit. Who the heck has only 2 components to hook up anymore? I've got five right now (cable box, TV-OTA, Xbox 360, DVD player, PC) and plan to add two more by the end of the year so looks like I'm out on this one. Too bad as I've had an Onkyo receiver for years and it's treated me well and I've been looking to upgrade to a new 7.1 or 5.1 system :\.

Btw, Mattuni2001 I saw you mentioned you're in an apartment with this setup. No complaints from the neighbors?

Ok, I need to assuage some misinformation here, and it's not your fault Vcize . . .

Firstly, I did indeed buy this thing, and to quote Kent Brockman on the Simpsons . . .

HOLY FLIRKING SNIT!!!!

This thing is FREAKING BALLS OUT AWESOME! I can't imagine people having an easy time beating a system like this for the price. As a test, I just watched Batman Begins. It's one of my favorite movies, but it's a good audio test as it has a fairly significant amount of ambience, wide arrange of voices, plenty of action sequences, and some awesome horns in the music. Needless to say I was very impressed. In scenes where there's rain or water in the background, all of the ambience can be heard from the sides and rears while the fronts and center deliver smooth, crisp voice. The surround was superb in the fight scenes as well; it sounds like you're in the middle of the fight. The sound quality was so clear and accurate, and also so full, that I was blown away.

Now, as for the information, I think I remember reading somewhere that it only had 2 optical inputs, and this simply is false. It has:

3x Component Video input
3x Fiber optic input
1x Coaxil input
3x RCA Input w/ S-video
1x RCA Input w/o S-video (on front)

I've seen other indications that it doesn't have all of these connections. Staring at it in my living room right now, I can tell you that's what it has

I have only 2 complaints about this system, and they're fairly superficial things and not really performance oriented:

1) The thing doesn't upscale inputs. If you have a component video, s-video, and composite video device plugged in, then you need to have component, s-video, and composite cables running to the tv. I plan on upgrading everything to component (ps2, vivo on 6600gt, and gamecube if I can find the cable anywhere).

2) The wall mounts that are on this thing are simply stupid. They look like the type of thing you'd have to hang a picture. I wound up jerry-rigging it to work with my speaker mounts (Wal-mart atlantic plastic speaker mounts: they work like a charm and cost a heck of a lot less than the competition). These things I wouldn't think are compatible with any standard mount. I wound up buying pegboard hooks from home depot and bent them by hand, ran them through the brackets on the back of the speaker, then through the mount, then bent the hooks out so that they were wider than the holes on the mounts. It's working fine for now, but I'd like something a little less Red-Green show style for such a nice system.

Overall, I'd have to say BUY THIS SYSTEM FOR THIS PRICE IF YOU NEED A HOME THEATER! You won't be disappointed.

 

[axia55]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Vcize
Looks like a pretty good deal, no HDMI but that's certainly to be expected in this price-range. Only 2 digital inputs though worries me a bit. Who the heck has only 2 components to hook up anymore? I've got five right now (cable box, TV-OTA, Xbox 360, DVD player, PC) and plan to add two more by the end of the year so looks like I'm out on this one. Too bad as I've had an Onkyo receiver for years and it's treated me well and I've been looking to upgrade to a new 7.1 or 5.1 system :\.

Btw, Mattuni2001 I saw you mentioned you're in an apartment with this setup. No complaints from the neighbors?

Looks like the manual says it has 3 optical and 1 digital coaxial input.

EDIT: oh, and they also make switches for this sort of thing.
cheap example

How does a switch like that work as far as maintaining sound quality?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: NSA Lummox

Originally posted by: Vcize
Looks like a pretty good deal, no HDMI but that's certainly to be expected in this price-range. Only 2 digital inputs though worries me a bit. Who the heck has only 2 components to hook up anymore? I've got five right now (cable box, TV-OTA, Xbox 360, DVD player, PC) and plan to add two more by the end of the year so looks like I'm out on this one. Too bad as I've had an Onkyo receiver for years and it's treated me well and I've been looking to upgrade to a new 7.1 or 5.1 system :\.

Btw, Mattuni2001 I saw you mentioned you're in an apartment with this setup. No complaints from the neighbors?

Ok, I need to assuage some misinformation here, and it's not your fault Vcize . . .

Firstly, I did indeed buy this thing, and to quote Kent Brockman on the Simpsons . . .

HOLY FLIRKING SNIT!!!!

This thing is FREAKING BALLS OUT AWESOME! I can't imagine people having an easy time beating a system like this for the price. As a test, I just watched Batman Begins. It's one of my favorite movies, but it's a good audio test as it has a fairly significant amount of ambience, wide arrange of voices, plenty of action sequences, and some awesome horns in the music. Needless to say I was very impressed. In scenes where there's rain or water in the background, all of the ambience can be heard from the sides and rears while the fronts and center deliver smooth, crisp voice. The surround was superb in the fight scenes as well; it sounds like you're in the middle of the fight. The sound quality was so clear and accurate, and also so full, that I was blown away.

Now, as for the information, I think I remember reading somewhere that it only had 2 optical inputs, and this simply is false. It has:

3x Component Video input
3x Fiber optic input
1x Coaxil input
3x RCA Input w/ S-video
1x RCA Input w/o S-video (on front)

I've seen other indications that it doesn't have all of these connections. Staring at it in my living room right now, I can tell you that's what it has

I have only 2 complaints about this system, and they're fairly superficial things and not really performance oriented:

1) The thing doesn't upscale inputs. If you have a component video, s-video, and composite video device plugged in, then you need to have component, s-video, and composite cables running to the tv. I plan on upgrading everything to component (ps2, vivo on 6600gt, and gamecube if I can find the cable anywhere).

2) The wall mounts that are on this thing are simply stupid. They look like the type of thing you'd have to hang a picture. I wound up jerry-rigging it to work with my speaker mounts (Wal-mart atlantic plastic speaker mounts: they work like a charm and cost a heck of a lot less than the competition). These things I wouldn't think are compatible with any standard mount. I wound up buying pegboard hooks from home depot and bent them by hand, ran them through the brackets on the back of the speaker, then through the mount, then bent the hooks out so that they were wider than the holes on the mounts. It's working fine for now, but I'd like something a little less Red-Green show style for such a nice system.

Overall, I'd have to say BUY THIS SYSTEM FOR THIS PRICE IF YOU NEED A HOME THEATER! You won't be disappointed.

I agree that this is pretty much the way to go if you need a whole system for the $400 range.

The receiver you get is pretty much an Onkyo 504, which is a good ~$225 receiver that would serve you well if you ever decided to upgrade the speakers / sub.

You get pretty decent speakers compared to the POS plastic toys that some systems come with in the range.

Sub is pretty decent too and they didn't totally compromise on the size of it.

I think this system is hard to beat.

~$100 for an decent sub, ~$200 for the receiver only leaves you ~$100 to get 7 speakers for yourself... so the Onkyo is a good buy.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: axia55

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Vcize
Looks like a pretty good deal, no HDMI but that's certainly to be expected in this price-range. Only 2 digital inputs though worries me a bit. Who the heck has only 2 components to hook up anymore? I've got five right now (cable box, TV-OTA, Xbox 360, DVD player, PC) and plan to add two more by the end of the year so looks like I'm out on this one. Too bad as I've had an Onkyo receiver for years and it's treated me well and I've been looking to upgrade to a new 7.1 or 5.1 system :\.

Btw, Mattuni2001 I saw you mentioned you're in an apartment with this setup. No complaints from the neighbors?

Looks like the manual says it has 3 optical and 1 digital coaxial input.

EDIT: oh, and they also make switches for this sort of thing.
cheap example

How does a switch like that work as far as maintaining sound quality?

I haven't used one, but I don't imagine you'd have problems with it. All they have to do is basically keep the optical fiber path going between the ends of the thing and everything should keep working perfectly.

 

[MattUNI2001]

Btw, Mattuni2001 I saw you mentioned you're in an apartment with this setup. No complaints from the neighbors?

Not as of yet - I only have one person to my side and if I know they are home, I play movies/music respectively. However, when I see that their car is gone, it is no hold barred!! I can't wait til I get a house so it can be loud 24X7!

 

[Horsep0wer]

Originally posted by: NSA Lummox

1) The thing doesn't upscale inputs. If you have a component video, s-video, and composite video device plugged in, then you need to have component, s-video, and composite cables running to the tv. I plan on upgrading everything to component (ps2, vivo on 6600gt, and gamecube if I can find the cable anywhere).

so if i have component inputs going to a TV that only has Svideo, would this receiver not work for me or do i just lose the component video quality?

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Originally posted by: Horsep0wer

Originally posted by: NSA Lummox

1) The thing doesn't upscale inputs. If you have a component video, s-video, and composite video device plugged in, then you need to have component, s-video, and composite cables running to the tv. I plan on upgrading everything to component (ps2, vivo on 6600gt, and gamecube if I can find the cable anywhere).

so if i have component inputs going to a TV that only has Svideo, would this receiver not work for me or do i just lose the component video quality?

If your TV just has an S-Video input, then you should only use S-Video and composite cables. Component stuff doesn't matter to you. You can't hook up component stuff to a TV with S-Video only.

Receivers that do "Upconverting" convert all signals to the highest possible connection to the TV. I.e. you hook up your TV to the receiver with a Component cable, and all of your Composite and S-Video signals (from your VCR etc.) are converted to Component within the receiver, which keeps you from having to change inputs on your TV. This receiver doesn't do that, so you've got to run all 3 kinds of outputs from the receiver into the inputs of your TV (hypothetically assuming your TV has all 3 inputs) and, when you choose a different source with the receiver, you have to re-choose the input on your TV.

It's kind of surprising that this receiver won't even upconvert Composite to S-Video, since all that requires is a couple of resistors.

 

[zainali]

i got the s770 from some guy used for about $200. its like 2 generations older and 6.1. no upconverting either.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AM3U2I

anyways got that one from amazon.com. this thing has basically 3 inputs for component/toslink/regular audiovideo.
works great. i basically switched to all components for video and toslink for audio. have a dish hd box , xbox 360 and dvd player connected to these.

 

[DidlySquat]

Originally posted by: 5tharrow
My brother picked this up (the black one) at CC last week during a no tax day. It's awesome. The surround speakers are shallow enough to place on the wall, and the fronts are narrow enough to fit on his AV stand beside his 46" DLP.

He replaced an Onkyo receiver that was about 17 years old. I have an Onkyo system at my place, and a I have several friends who have Onkyo systems; they never disappoint, and they last forever.

DLP ? what a stupid inferior tech pushed by greedy mfr (joke is on consumers who buy them)

 

[regpfj]

That is a great price on a nice system OP, thanks :thumbsup:

For those who prefer black, it is available at Vanns.com for $399 shipped, no rebates. Put the item in the cart, and the price changes from five to four hundred OTD.