Well - I know people have been raving about Onkyo's 760 and 770 systems but having now listened to the 760 system and investigated the build quality of the SKS510's - I was distinctly underwhelmed. Build quality was rather poor, especially the boxy and resonant cabinets; sound was colored throughout and transient performance very undynamic. Bass was boomy, colored and lacking transient detail. I doubt that the newer SKS520's are any better.
Anonymous
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well, this is an all in one for $450. it's not a pieced together $5K system. I dont think that the 100-150 different opinions I have read on this system is BS. For the price, You can not do better. For twice the price, you can not do better. As you can see by this forum as well as avsforum.com, you are a minority with this opinion. I have the 770 and it sounds incredible. I'm not sure where you demo'd the system, but you may have had a tainted experience.
No sure - I agree - this is a budget system and yes, you're right - it WAS a "tainted experience" in that I heard it at Circuit City - who didn't have the system set up correctly - big surprise ! However, I wanted to post my observations so that other people would not 'carried away' with their expectations. The speaker build is inadequate and that's all there is to it.
In my opinion, the 770 can be beat and by quite a wide margin with the 502 receiver and Fluance SX-HTB's for a few dollars more.
I agree and disagree. I also just recently set up the 770. I can't say that I "love" the speakers, IMHO they are larger than they need to be and could be designed a little better.
However, the SKS520s once hung and setup for speaker distance/level sound pretty good in my case. I don't have the same problem with the bass being boomy or colored.
In my opinion the Klipsch Promedia 4.1 speakers plugged into my PC are far superior to the SKS520s but also cost considerably more. (not familiar with Fluance however...)
The key is that the target market for this system is not the home theater/audiophile but the person looking for home theater that is a)simple to set up, b)family budget friendly.
In this market space the 760/700 takes the cake. Any of the sub $500 systems I listened to were not even in the Onkyos league. The cool thing is that if I have a $600 budget I can get a system NOW with some "ok" $150 speakers and if I feel the need later buy better speakers. If I'm just a regular guy and this is the only home theater purchase I am going to make for the next 5 years then this is still probably the best system for me to buy as I am probably not even going to know what "soundstage" means, and it certainly blows away the speakers in my TV!
On a side note the 770 uses the 520 reciever vs. the 502.
All that said I have the same complaint that the hundreds of 4.5 stars out of 5 raving consumer reviews I've read on these systems seem to agree on. The speakers, if nothing else, are not attractive, or the best...
And one other note I forgot, in this price range the competing systems speakers do not sound any better (in MOST cases much worse) the recievers have fewer options. While I could buy a separate reciver and then shop for speakers, and a DVD player (many familys already have that), then I'm no longer in the HTIB market.
Gene - nicely articulated position. I am sure you are right with respect to other HTIB's. What I was trying to suggest to people was this : a good receiver like the new 502 (which I am lead to believe is sonically superior to the 520) and a set of speakers like the Fluance or even Klipsch Quintets is not going to cost significantly more than the 760/770 setups and will undoubtedly be more dynamic, sonically accurate and cleaner.
I respect your opinions and am glad that you and so many others are enjoying their 760/770 purchases.
Civilized discourse, what a refreshing change from some other discussion groups
Matthew, as I said I both agree and disagree and your point is VERY well taken. It would be relatively simple to build an acoustically superior system for about the same cash, certainly not much more, but the process would be much more time consuming, and I think that most persons searching for HTIB systems want simple, quick sound that is better than what they currently have and I honestly believe that buying a 770 for those users would be a good move as the receiver is a good unit and IF that user in a year or two longs for more they can later easily and less expensively expand the system with better speakers vs. the run of the mill systems available at every Wal-Mart in the US.
For what it's worth, while I really do like the 770 a lot, I more than likely in a year or so (when I convince the Boss/Wife that I absolutely NEED and can afford them) will be upgrading the speakers, but that's all I'll need to buy at that time. (famous last words )
