Table of Content
The system is perfect for a small to medium sized living room and will be easy for anyone to get set up and running in under an hour. Once again, Onkyo has delivered a quality yet economical product that I can gladly recommend. The Onkyo HT-R693 A/V receiver included in this package has seven HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs, so you can support both a TV and a video projector without needing to swap cables. But only one HDMI input and one HDMI output is compatible with the latest version of digital copy protection—HDCP 2.2—that you’ll find in 4K UHD video-playback devices, such as Ultra HD Blu-ray players. Like one of their standalone receivers, it comes with an included setup microphone and an easy user interface setup routine.
The small surround speakers are supposed to be just above ear height. Finally, Onkyo recommends placing the subwoofer between the front and center channel speakers for the best performance. Onkyo aims to dispel confusion while delivering solid performance with its $899 HT-S7700 HTIB package. The HT-S7700 delivers a full 5.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos experience without requiring you to install speakers in your ceiling .
Stay Connected
It is fully compatible with this unit, making it my go to method of control once the network was set up on the receiver. Setting up a home-theater-in-a-box system has become a relatively simple task. Onkyo has done an excellent job with their quick start guide and color-coded wiring.
Most people will place the front speakers closer to the receiver; as such, Onkyo provides longer cables for connecting the surround channels. My listening position was 13 feet from the receiver, and I had plenty of cable to accommodate that scenario. The included subwoofer, which sports a 10-inch driver, was larger than I expected.
Speaker - Input Sensitivity/Impedance
The colors on the back of each speaker matches the color on the receiver’s rear panel and even the colors of the speaker cables, so you’d have to be very careless to hook up the speakers incorrectly. As you would imagine, the front channels receive the bulk of the work. Next I put in Roger Waters’ The Wall mixed in Dolby Atmos as well.
This is not the actual cinematic film, rather, a mixture of concert performance, cinematic scenes, and on-stage performance. The height channels in this case are used to expand the live music sound stage, and it comes through very well. I put on the title track which begins with the on-stage performance and cuts into one such cinematic scene, all while keeping the music track intact from the performance. In addition to Chromecast built-in and AirPlay, you can stream virtually any audio from smartphone, tablet, or laptop to your home theater via Wi-Fi® or Bluetooth. Available internet radio and music subscription services include Spotify, Deezer and many more.
Home Theatre Systems
The height channels also performed wonderfully, and unlike during my testing with the demo disc, I felt that they blended without calling attention to themselves. Power your speakers like never before with Onkyo’s unique Dynamic Audio Amplification system. Music lives and breathes thanks to accurate, noise-free signal processing and hi-current power that dynamically controls your speakers for authentic audio reproduction, filling you with emotion. Onkyo says it designed the HT-S7700 to be one of the easiest HTIB systems to set up, and they deliver on that promise.
While the Atmos effect was noticeable, the Dolby enabled front speakers sounded slightly less natural as compared with a fully separated speaker system. For example, in the falling leaf trailer, while the sound still seemed to shoot around me as the leaf did, the overall effect seemed slightly less natural as the leaf moved from front to back. I was certainly able to tell that these were phantom ceiling speakers rather than actual speakers firing at me from above.
Product Key Features
Firing up Fury Road I immediately noticed that the Onkyo makes it a point to try and envelope you with sound with a very aggressive approach to reproducing the surround mix. Given the potential target audience, I think this will go over favorably. If you’re new to surround sound, you probably want to hear every speaker getting a workout.
If you own a turntable, the A/V receiver in Onkyo’s HTIB system is the only one we reviewed to be equipped with a phono input. I liked the included microphone to automatically balance the system. I was disappointed with the very thin, small gauge speaker wires. Very Nice System - Has plenty of inputs and works very well with new 4K TV - Make sure you go into set up on the TV screen - The sound had an echo until I did the complete set up on screen . I was pleasantly surprised at the performance of Onkyo’s subwoofer. A 10-inch subwoofer won’t deliver deep bass, but the Onkyo sub gave me a top-to-bottom, thoroughly satisfying experience.
The HT-R695 includes both wired and wireless connections, and is very easy to configure. As I have the luxury of a network drop in my cabinet, I opted for the wired connection. I found that a firmware update was waiting for me the first time I fired the receiver up, which completed in about 30 minutes. Aside from internet-based firmware updates, the network functionality also allows for control via the Onkyo Remote smartphone app, and network streaming audio services such as Spotify. As I have discussed at length in previous Onkyo receiver reviews, the Onkyo remote control app is fantastic.
Especially considering speakers are included; getting everything cabled properly should be something even the non-technically minded person can accomplish. In my case, I was able to use a combination of my existing in-wall speaker wiring for my surround and subwoofer channels as well as the included speaker wire for L/C/R/LH/RH channels. The included Dolby-enabled speakers have separately cabled ceiling-firing speakers that require a second speaker wire pair.
On the surface, the HT-S7700 packs in a ton of features where it counts. Set this up in an hour, used the included mic for calibration, was blown away by what I had been missing. I'm sure you could spend thousands and get something even better, but for the price the Onkyo system is great. Our magazine, which began with the publication of the SECRETS Primer, is available exclusively on-line and offers to our readers an extensive information resource about home theater and high-end audio. SECRETS of Home Theater and High Fidelity was launched in 1994 as the first major publication offering serious audio/video journalism on the Internet.
The system consists of an A/V receiver, five satellite speakers, a powered subwoofer, color-coded and pre-cut speaker cables, and a subwoofer cable. The front left and right speakers have additional speakers on top of the cabinets that perform as Dolby Atmos height channels, bouncing sound off your ceiling. The speaker package includes a pair of Dolby-enabled front speaker units that are actually two separate speakers in one chassis. They have separate inputs for the height channel and front channel. Also included are a standard horizontally oriented center channel and two satellite-style surround speakers. The subwoofer looks okay, though the blue glowing LED would annoy me after a while had I not been able to place it out of view.
