Onkyo HT-S7400

• Average user rating: 5.0 stars out of 1 review
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 10 stars

  Wonderful upgrade with this HTiB unit

  by JLett42 on September 3, 2012

  Pros: 1. Speaker quality and sound is huge, crisp and clear
  2. Great center speaker with two mids and a tweeter
  3. On-screen display is great for set-up and for fine-tuning
  4. Set up was easy

  Cons: 1. Disappointment with the 'look' of the interface for the Internet apps
  2. Short wires for the two surround speakers

  Summary: I recently received my S7400 unit and have been very happy with my purchase. This is my first purchase of an Onkyo brand item and it is winning over this ...

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  Summary: I recently received my S7400 unit and have been very happy with my purchase. This is my first purchase of an Onkyo brand item and it is winning over this Sony loyalist.
  
  Obviously, the most important part is how the unit sounds, and the sound from the S7400 is wonderful. I upgraded to this unit from a Sony HTiB system, and the improvement in both receiver quality as well as speaker quality and sound is huge. Highs are crisp and clear, mid frequencies are clear and much more distinguishable, and the bass is of a decidedly higher quality with more refined accuracy than my old Sony unit, making music more balanced and more enjoyable to hear. There is also still plenty of `boom', for those earth-shaking action sequences when played through the HD audio-compatible receiver. What separates this higher-end, powered subwoofer apart from the passive Sony subwoofer are both the amount of bass as well as the ability for the 7400 to have more 'accurate' and natural sounding bass rather than the muddy sounding bass I was used to.
  
  This system has a great center speaker with two mids and a tweeter in it. Dialogue is much fuller sounding and much clearer and easier to hear. The front speakers also have separate tweeters and mids, where my old system only had a single, smaller speaker for everything. Having those frequencies separated by speakers handling the duties individually is certainly one reason for which the sound is so good from this system. The 7400's sound is almost multi-dimensional compared to the very flat sounds that came from my previous system (and this is coming from one who used Sony exclusively up until the purchase of this unit). Basically, it's almost like going from DVD to HD in terms of audio quality, whether it be watching TV, playing CDs or watching blu ray discs.
  
  The on-screen display is great for set-up and for fine-tuning, but once the system is set up and all of the settings were made, I found the on-screen display a little annoying as the overlay covers up the bottom part of the TV screen when selections are made or volume is changed with the remote. I LOVE having the OSD for setting the system up and making adjustments in the settings, but don't care for it popping up while watching normal television. However, it can be turned off, which is a great option. The front-screen display of the receiver is also much larger and easier to read and has 3 different dimmer/brightness settings. I never had a problem reading the small Sony ones, but some have complained of it being very small to read from any distance over 5 or 6 feet.
  
  I've had no problems at all with the HDMI connections. I've got 3 components running into the receiver via HDMI and one HDMI out to the HDTV and all is working properly. I even find lip-sync to be much better as well for the satellite viewing-probably because of the improved processing abilities of the receiver. I had a slight lag when watching my satellite with my old system, and that lag is now gone.
  
  I have noticed some people mention issues with the HDMI pass-through. I am not needing to use components on a pass-through basis, but I did notice there are some pass-through settings that can be made in the set-up of the receiver, so it may be that adjustments in the set-up need to be made for it to work properly...just a thought.
  
  I'm in the process of reading through the manual. It is a little complicated and convoluted in some of the wording for this audio novice, but I think it will be necessary to read through it to really get everything out of the benefits the receiver offers.
  
  Set up was easy with all of the cords color-marked to know which speaker goes where and to which connection in the rear of the receiver. I will admit that the wires supplied for the rear speakers are quite short; mine just barely being long enough with not an inch to spare in a smallish living room (running the wire around the walls rather than a direct route). It also would have been nice to have a little thicker speaker wires.
  
  I was not thrilled with the interface of the wifi and Internet available apps-very basic looking. I actually like the interface offered from my blu ray player better, so I can't comment to the working of these apps on the 7400 as I am not using the receiver for them.
  
  The auto calibration software was thorough and took much longer to set up than my Sony, but did a wonderful job. I needed to tweak the bass a little, but overall it did a great job of processing the sound, taking into consideration the speaker distances, the speaker set up and acoustics.
  
  At this point, I'm a convert for sure and admit that you do get what you pay for. I do realize that sometimes one can only get what is within the means of their budget, but one should get the most bang for their money and I certainly feel this unit has been worth the extra it costs over other 'budget' systems. If this HTiB unit is within your budget, you are doing a disservice to yourself buying a cheaper unit like I did before, just to save some money. I'd even think the lower priced 3400 would be a better option for smaller budgets.
  
  So, other than a slight disappointment with the 'look' of the interface for the Internet apps and the short wires for the two surround speakers, I am a very happy user and consider this to be a great upgrade. I give this system 5 stars because of the sound and quality of the system and because the minor issues don't really affect my enjoyment of the system. I'm sure it's not the cream of the crop compared to separately purchased components of a high-end systems, but I'd certainly consider it 'high-end' for a HTiB unit and I have no reservation in recommending it.
  
  P.S., for best deal of this system, find out more at this blog: Networkavreceivers.blogspot.com/p/onkyo-ht-s7400.html
  
  Hope this review is helpful.

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