PRODUCT REVIEW: ONKYO 5.1 HT-S650 SURROUND SOUND

I always wanted a surround sound so I figured the time had come to enhance my gaming and movie watching experience to the next level. My Sony Trinitron Wega's speakers were pretty loud, but I was craving a deep bass effect that was only acheivable with a subwoofer. I pretty much needed everything, all 5 speakers, the subwoofer, and the receiver, so essentially what I was looking for was an all in one system where the speakers were optimized for the receiver. I checked out all the different models at the store, from the crappy Venturer and Apex brand to the most expensive Bose and Harmon Kardon stuff. As it were some of these All-in-one systems included the DVD player, but at the time I didn't need this considering I had the PS2, which was a DVD player. Most of the mid-priced set-ups sounded about the same and the speakers were kind of small. I listened to the Bose and of course this was nice, but I'm not a huge speaker nut, and don't have that kind of a discriminating ear to notice a huge variation in the difference. The best one I could find for right about $500 was the Onkyo system. I compared the Onkyo to the Bose and couldn't tell which sounded better. The bass on the Onkyo was deep and clear, the sound from the speakers was clear and vivid, with no distortion or loss in volume. The bass on the Onkyo was better than the Sony, JVC, and Panasonic units that I checked out as well. Really the only test was to take it home. The set up I got didn't come with the DVD player, but I didn't need it anyway so I didn't care.

One thing you need to realize is when you buy a receiver and speakers you have to visualize in your mind what it is you're hooking it up to, so you know what extra wires you'll need. In my case, I was hooking up at least 5 video game systems and a VCR. I bought a Monster Optical Digital cable to connect the PS2 to the Receiver to get the best digital source signal for my DVD and video game playback. I got a Monster BASS cable to connect the bass to the receiver. I got a multi-AV-switching box to connect all the Video Game systems. I got some extra S-Video and Monster Level 3 Audio cable to connect the AV-Switch to the receiver. I already had component output for PS2, but I bought S-Video for the X-Box at this time. I also picked up an extra 100 Ft of copper Monster speaker wire to use. I also figured now was a good time to get rid of those bottom dollar white 6-Plug power strips and upgrade to the Monster clean power surge suppressor with 8 outlets.

The Onkyo HT-S650 Surround Sound was in a huge heavy box. I took it out and removed the receiver and all the speakers from the styrofoam blocks. (I later took one of my sharpened broadswords to the styrofoam and the box in my backyard - that was wee fun) Hook up for all my cabling took a little over an hour, to move everything around, string the cable across the room, feed cable behind my "Tower of Power." I ended up using the Monster Cable copper wire roll on the Left and Right Surround speakers, but I left the other three with the factory wire cause I wanted to get it done quicker. I made sure to use the Monster Bass on the subwoofer, that was important. I connected the Monster Optical Cable to the PS2 and the receiver, and hooked up all the game systems to the Multi-Input AV-Switch, and that to the receiver with S-Video and monster audio cable. The factory wire comes color coded to go with the correct speaker, to the correct location on the back of the receiver. There is a diagram included that is pretty self explanitory. If I had fewer video components I would not have needed the AV-Switch, and could have connected right into the receiver, but I had too many. More expensive receivers give you more inputs though.

Once I fired it up, I wanted to do a test run. I was stoked and ready to go. I put in several of my video games, and damn...what a huge difference! The sound from the games was so much more dynamic. clear, and immersive than ever before. Final Fantasy X was THAT MUCH BETTER! And SSX Tricky was over the top. It's the bass that made such a massive difference, for sure. The one game that litterally made me drop my jaw was Medal of Honor: Frontline. I can't tell you how realistic the sound is while playing this game. It's an orgasm of sound. You can truly hear and FEEL the 5.1 surround on this. I was rattling the windows and it sounded like mortars were blowing off in the middle of my house. The bass was kick ass powerful and I sat at the edge of my couch in total amazement. When you fire a rifle or a gun in that game it sounded so real with the surround sound, I basically just held the controller in my hand, stared dumbly, and said, "Fuckin' Awesome!" When you hear Nazi's down a corridor to your left, it was coming out of the left side surround speaker, and as I turned in the game their voices would pan across the all speakers - bad ass! The whole Invasion of Normandy at the beginning was so realistic, especially with the sound, I almost could feel what it was like to be there, scared shitless watching you're buddies get blown away. I'm surprised the neighbors didn't call the police on me, considering how loud this was. The bass was rattling my whole body! Every time a bomb went off I could FEEL the concussive blast! Now that's what I call force feedback! I checked it out, and went outside, and sure enough it was loud out there too! Some games were noticably louder than others at the same volume setting on the receiver. For sure the music and sound effects were so much more vivid and immersive on many of the RPG's. Every gamer should experience their games with a surround sound like this. You'll never go back after experiencing this nirvana!

I didn't stop there and of course put in some DVD movies. I first tried The Matrix, and got awesome sound. Some movies had better surround and volume than others. Sometimes I had to turn the receiver up higher on some movies. Other movies didn't seem to use surround sound at all, or the volume coming out of the side two speakers was really low, while others it was perfect. Perhaps the best sounding DVD's were movies like Star Wars: Episode 1, Gladiator, and Pearl Harbor. During the podrace scene the surround sound truly takes shape.

I of course tried out some music. I started with all my favorite genres. Metal and Punk sounded as loud and as obnoxious as you want it to be, and on some songs it sounded like the band was in the room. Techno hit hard! That bass was thumping the beat and it sounded like a rave was going on in my living room. I had many video game remixes that I had downloaded from Kazaa, some classical and those sounded incredible and instrumentally difinitive. Enya was truly hypnotic and soul piercing at that kind of volume and depth.

There are some settings for tweaking the bass, changing source signal, etc. but nothing too complicated. Everything can be found on the remote. Sometimes if you notice the sound you're getting isn't as good as you want, just switch it from Movie Mode to Music mode and that helps even if you're playing a DVD or a game.

Is there anything to complain about my Onkyo 5.1 Dolby Digital sourround sound system? Not really. I could say that it gets really hot, like the temperature of a hot car in the sun, but the heat doesn't seem to affect its performance. I would advise to follow the instructions that say not to pile anything on top of the recieve and give it some room overhead.

In retrospect I can say that I made a very wise decision by getting this. This added a whole new dimension to my games that I never knew existed. I strongly recommend getting this set up, and be sure to get the good Monster Bass cable and the optical cable for the PS2, you'll not regret it. Once you "enguage" the volume button, you'll blow you're socks off and you're friends will thank you. I wouldn't recommend this for apartment dwellers though, you'll likely get numerous complaints from the whole complex and get booted fairly quick if you blast this at 1:00 AM like I do.

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