Onkyo HT-S5205 Home Theater System

The mid- to high-end Home Theater market has one major brand name springing up with confidence: Onkyo. These guys are reputed manufacturers of Home theaters and stereo speaker packages, each of its models resplendent with loads of features and choices. Today we have a mid level entrant, a brand new model called Onkyo HT-S5205.

Design and features
The black model for reviewing came clad in a metallic black chassis and cabinet for the receiver and speakers respectively. The fa�ade of the receiver is a brush finished, mildly glossy face plate with a ensemble of well arranged buttons, typical Onkyo receiver style with the pendulous volume knob on the right and square power switch on the left end. There are 2 rows of push buttons, one circular and the other flat rectangular in shape. This lies below the alphanumeric LED display which lights up in green� fonts.

The back panel has all the connections, which include 3 HDMI 1.3 ins and 1 output with pass through. This model does not support Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio decoding so 1.3 is almost a misnomer. It supports DTS, DTS Neo: 6, DTS 96/24, Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro Logic II.

There are 2 component video ins and one out, plus 2 co axial and 1 optical audio in. The output to each speaker channel is 100 watts into 6 ohms. Frequency response is 20 Hz -20 kHz

The speakers are tiny satellites, made of a glossy black. The drivers on these are 8 cm in diameter, magnetically shielded, and have a bass reflex port on them. I honestly couldn’t locate this port, as the grilles are permanently glued on. The impedance of the five speakers is 6 ohm, and can draw about 120 watts of power.

The subwoofer is a straight surfaced cuboidal piece with a similar gloss surface. It is front ported, and has a 20 cm diameter driver. It is a 150 watt subwoofer, and is downward firing (the driver is placed on the bottom surface, facing down on the floor)

The system comes with nice features like Audyseey processing suite containing� "Audyssey 2EQ",� to correct room acoustic problems, "Audyssey Dynamic Volume", to maintain optimal listening level and "Audyssey Dynamic EQ", for loudness correction. It also has Onkyo’s old goodies like Crossover Adjustment (40/50/60/80/100/120/150/200 Hz), A/V Sync Control Function (Up to 100 ms in 20 ms Steps) and Late Night Mode( turns the bass low)