Pamparo in Toronto

I recently bought an Onkyo HT-S6200 HTIB from Electronics For Less. I must give props to the staff for their customer service. After some confusion about the pick-up or delivery, they delivered it on a short notice and also upgraded the stands for the hassle that I may have even started! Good stuff

Onkyo HT-S6200 HTIB

Amplifier Specs:
130 watts minimum continuous power per channel, 6 ohms, at 1 kHz with a maximum total harmonic distortion of 1%

7.1 set of Speakers:

• 1 x Center (SKC-670)
• 2 x Front (SKF-670)
• 4 x Surround (SKR-670/SKB-670)
• 1 x Powered Subwoofer (SKW-770)

Due to space constraints, I could not put the speakers in a regular 7.1 configuration. So, I set my speakers in a Front Height that looks something similar to the image below,

Devices I connected

• Playstation Slim
• Panasonic DVD
• Cable Box
• Nintendo Wii (via Aquos’ optical out)
• iPod via Universal Port
• Sony Walkman (I can’t believe I have resurrected this!)

What I really like:

• 4 x HDMI 1.3 Repeater, 1 Out. So far I’ve used 3 inputs: PS3, Cable and DVD player. Nice to know that I still have one to spare on both the receiver and the TV
• Flexibility of using surround back or front heights. There is also options for bi-amping the fronts or using Zone 2 (a separate set of stereo outs)
• Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master decoding. These sounds amazing and it’s nice to see the signs lit up on the receiver
• Automatic speaker setup. Plug in the mic and follow instructions. This should be a good starting point before doing manual changes to the speaker config
• Built-in Audyssey Technologies (2EQ, Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume). Here’s a good article regarding these technology: What is Audyssey’s Dynamic EQ and Volume?. I hardly use Dynamic Volume but Dynamic EQ really helps when the volume level is low.
• Free IPod Docking station using the Universal Port
• Generous amount of input/output. I especially liked the analog outs for recording to an outboard gear!

What I don’t like:

• Speaker cables are only 22 AWG. You would think that for something this expensive, they will include at least an 18 gauge cable. BTW, here’s a nice article that talks about the topic: Speaker Cable Gauge
• Remote Control. While usable, I wish that they made it a little nicer. But this is knit-picking.
• Generating a little too much heat, imho. I know it’s normal for an amp to heat up so I am not worried much. It even has a sticker on this amp that says it’s normal. I left about 3 inches of space on top and about 5 inches at the back. Maybe I’ll stick a small computer fan later on if it really starts to bother me.
• Huge subs. I mean, literally! I expected more from this maybe because of its size. I find that the sub really sound good in a movie but not as much to my liking when listening to music. The bass sound is not as defined as I would like.

The bottom line is, so far so good. We’ll see how it performs after I put a little bit more mileage on it!