Onkyo/Athena/Velodyne home theater system for $597

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GodsMadClown

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Pulled from Dealnews.com...

http://dealnews.com/articles/69571.html

Onkyo/Athena/Velodyne home theater system for $597

8:57 am ET, Jul 22, 2004; expires 11:59 pm ET, Jul 23, 2004
OneCall.com offers the Onkyo TX-SR601 Home Theater Receiver bundled with the Athena Point5 MK II system and a Velodyne CHT8 Subwoofer for $596.55. That's nearly $400 less than the best price we could find if purchased separately elsewhere. Add $84.01 for shipping. The Point5 MK II system features four S.5 satellite speakers and a C.5 center-channel speaker. Offer ends tomorrow
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or you can get the Onkyo 601 reciever from here for $349 shipped and you can get a set of the JBL SCS160s from here for roughly $265 plus shipping.

so for roughly $614 you can get the two items above and have a very nice home theater system. I cant vouch for the Athena speakers in the original post but I can say that the JBLs are very nice speakers and the 10" sub will rattle the pictures right off your wall if they're close enough. :p
 
Ummm.....

You can do a LOT better than those speakers (or the JBL's).

And a 10" sub no matter what's it's configuration is not going to rattle pictures off walls. (Especially with only 150W behind it.)

I built (yes built) a 300W subwoofer using the Dayton Titanic MKII 12" that would blow away most store bought HT subs easily.
( http://wyrdone.org/Projects/HomeTheater/Subwoofer.html ) Cost me roughtly $375 in parts for the subwoofer (including enclosure materials) (could have been built cheaper though).

Recently built a subwoofer for my computer system that uses an 8" driver and 100W amplifier. Cost me less than $150 in parts & materials. ( http://wyrdone.org/Projects/HomeTheater/Subwoofer2.html ) (Amp was $83, Driver is $20, wood around $30 )

As for Speakers for Home Theater.....also can be gotten for cheap....or made for cheaper.
(I would pit my current home theater speakers against commercial ones costing triple or quadruple the price. At about $175 a pair they outperform most floorstanders in audio quality and SPL. http://wyrdone.org/Projects/HomeTheater/MorePee-Build.html )

And there are plenty of other designs to work from: http://www.partsexpress.com/projectshowcase/index.html or http://www.audiodiycentral.com/
Personally the next upgrade will be to Wayne J.'s Veritas design: http://www.partsexpress.com/projectshowcase/veritas.htm
 
The Onkyo Home Theater setup is much better than that JBL or the Athena speaker sets. And at $410 I would even agree it's a good price.
 
Wyrdone said:
Ummm.....

You can do a LOT better than those speakers (or the JBL's).

And a 10" sub no matter what's it's configuration is not going to rattle pictures off walls. (Especially with only 150W behind it.)

.....<snip>........

At about $175 a pair they outperform most floorstanders in audio quality and SPL.
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$175 a pair, plus however much you paid for the table saw and the jigsaw or router, and allll the clamps and a workbench.

If you allready have woodworking tools great, but many people are apartment dwellers who neither own nor have space for a tablesaw in their residence (not to mention how bad you'd piss off the neighbors and possibly the landlord).

And perhaps your speakers sound better than store bought $175 speakers, but they don't look better. I realize poly can be difficult, I personally finished a dining room table and 6 chairs and can tell you that getting that table perfect was horrible, but it looks like you have some huge dust bunnies stuck in your finish.

For me, I have much higher standard for that which I build than that which I buy. To build a set of speakers that I would be satisfied with would cost way too much and take way too long.
 
Wyrdone said:
The Onkyo Home Theater setup is much better than that JBL or the Athena speaker sets.
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yeah whatever...

put the two speaker sets side by side (the Onkyos and the JBLs) and you'd definately hear a difference. if you dont, then you must be deaf or something...... :p

think about it. at $410 for the complete Onkyo set means that they didnt exactly put their higher quality speakers in that set.
 
ozziegn said:
yeah whatever...

put the two speaker sets side by side (the Onkyos and the JBLs) and you'd definately hear a difference. if you dont, then you must be deaf or something...... :p

think about it. at $410 for the complete Onkyo set means that they didnt exactly put their higher quality speakers in that set.
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Actually it means that the model is going on clearance because the newer model has 30 watts more per channel (whooptie freakin doo) and one more set of inputs.

Retail was over $500 brand new for the system.

Look at it this way, you get a better reciever than what you posted for only $60 more plus a free set of speakers. ;)
 
Magic H8 Ball said:
Look at it this way, you get a better reciever than what you posted for only $60 more plus a free set of speakers. ;)
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ehhhh?

you think that the reciever that comes with the above kit is better than the 601?

if so, you better check again...... :p
 
Very hot deal. Athena is new but from what I've read they are much better then JBL who is one of the worst mainstream speakers manufacturers made IMO. The Athena speaker package included got some award from Sound and Vision. It looks like an Energy Take 5 kind of system. Which sounds great for the money. A 10" 150 watt sub is plenty of bass for most people. I never turn mine up more than halfway.
 
Wyrdone said:
The Onkyo Home Theater setup is much better than that JBL or the Athena speaker sets. And at $410 I would even agree it's a good price.
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Sound unheard, I would gamble on the Athenas over either JBL or Onkyo which I know are junk.
 
ozziegn said:
ehhhh?

you think that the reciever that comes with the above kit is better than the 601?

if so, you better check again...... :p
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Ok,

601: 6 x 85 Watts per channel

HT-R510: 100 watts x 6

Looks better than the 601 to me.

Care to explain for what reason you think the 601 is better?
 
Stereophile said:
Sound unheard, I would gamble on the Athenas over either JBL or Onkyo which I know are junk.
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Riiiiight, heard one pair of Onkyo's heard 'em all eh?

Just looking at the specs for the left and right front speakers, I would go with the Onkyo (dual 5.25 drivers) over the Athena's (single 4" driver) or the JBL's (dual 3" drivers)
 
Magic H8 Ball said:
Ok,

601: 6 x 85 Watts per channel

HT-R510: 100 watts x 6

Looks better than the 601 to me.

Care to explain for what reason you think the 601 is better?
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yes because more power is teh better!!!

Check out the specs. The 601 is the currently model year. It includes component HD switching which the HT-760 package does not. It also has more digital inputs...blah blah blah

Theres an aiwa with 200 watts per channel... I think that one is for you...
 
So am i a dumb ass for spending a grand on my denon 100x5?

601 = 192kHz/24-bit DACs
510= 96khz/24 bit dacs

To be honest i think thats about the only diff. As for this wattage war, its the same dam amps people. The onkyo speakers are alittle less then 8 ohms, so that 85 watt amp turns into a 100 watt amp (notice it doesnt say 100x5 at 8 ohms). Hell put 6 ohm speakers on the 601 and you get 110watts. Also what i love is these 100x5 setup with a 3amp fuse from the wall. That means it is always sucking less then 360 watts from the wall at any point in its life. If the transformer is a magical 100% eff, and the amps are the the average class ab 50%, thats 180 watts average max, or 36 watts each. At least the onkyos suck 5 amps or better. You wanta know what your really getting, check the fuse and devide by half and multi by 100, and thats what your really getting roughly. Works with car amps too, do you really think your getting 600 watts with two 15 amp fuses?
 
Oh demoed the athena's. They kinda suck. Get this, the sats stop at (db-3) at 120hz. Using a normal setup the sub kicks in at 80hz (90% of rescievers). They didnt sound to good when guys talked or drums or cars where in the pic, good for gunshots, chicks voices, and rap( what doesnt sound good with rap, get a 2 buck sat and a 12 woofer and your good) so it might be good for some people. Reminds me of the first gen kilpsch pc speakers that had the sats crossed over too high.
 
cosmos said:
yes because more power is teh better!!!

Check out the specs. The 601 is the currently model year. It includes component HD switching which the HT-760 package does not. It also has more digital inputs...blah blah blah

Theres an aiwa with 200 watts per channel... I think that one is for you...
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What do you mean by "component HD switching" ?

The HT-R510 has two sets of component video inputs, see for yourself.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-vmmMEx...id=morephotos&pi=4&i=580HTS760&display=XL#Tab

Regarding the audio inputs, how many digital inputs are actually usefull? I only have two possible digital inputs,,,, my DVD player and my laptop (both have TOS link). And I can't think of any reason to connect the laptop to the stereo when I have a stand-alone DVD player. What else would I connect to the thing that had digital audio?
 
nightanole said:
The onkyo speakers are alittle less then 8 ohms, so that 85 watt amp turns into a 100 watt amp (notice it doesnt say 100x5 at 8 ohms). Hell put 6 ohm speakers on the 601 and you get 110watts. Also what i love is these 100x5 setup with a 3amp fuse from the wall. That means it is always sucking less then 360 watts from the wall at any point in its life. If the transformer is a magical 100% eff, and the amps are the the average class ab 50%, thats 180 watts average max, or 36 watts each. At least the onkyos suck 5 amps or better. You wanta know what your really getting, check the fuse and devide by half and multi by 100, and thats what your really getting roughly. Works with car amps too, do you really think your getting 600 watts with two 15 amp fuses?
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From what I can find looking around the Onkyo website, all of their recievers (home theater packages included) are rated at 8 ohms.

With AC power, with any load that is not purely resistive, you cannot simply multiply I * V to get P. There's this nasty little thing we like to call reactive power that is the result of inductive (transformers) or capacitive loads.

Not sure where your got "divide by half and multi by 100". If you were trying to calculate RMS current, the you would want to divide the peak amplitude by the square root of two for sinusoidal sources.

Bottom line, power calculations are much more complex than you make them out to be..
 
Magic H8 Ball said:
Not sure where your got "divide by half and multi by 100". If you were trying to calculate RMS current, the you would want to divide the peak amplitude by the square root of two for sinusoidal sources.

Bottom line, power calculations are much more complex than you make them out to be..
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I was trying to easy boy it. The point i was trying to make was that some 500 watt amps have a 2.5 amp rating, and some have a 6 amp rating, yet they both claim 500 watts. Or in car audio land, my kicker 120watt has a 40 amp fuse, and so does my buddies pos 600 watt audiovox. Generaly in the car audio world, you get your fuse rating, say 40amps, devide that by 2, 20, then multi by the car voltage (12-14.5v) and thats the real wattage the amp will put out.

I was just pointing out that
A; amps are only about 50% or less (33% at 1/4 power) eff, and
B;the unit is incapable of even sucking 500 watts total from the wall.

Can you explain how that works and how they can still claim 500 watts rms? 115-120v is all ready in rms (156v peak if i remember) Never did understand that. Yes the transformer and caps can hold reserves, but its sopost to be constant power rating, not pulse or peak.
 
nightanole said:
Can you explain how that works and how they can still claim 500 watts rms? 115-120v is all ready in rms (156v peak if i remember) Never did understand that. Yes the transformer and caps can hold reserves, but its sopost to be constant power rating, not pulse or peak.
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If the numbers don't jive at all, then either the manufacturer is publishing a peak rating instead of an RMS rating, or they're lying.

For car stereo, the manufacturer may rate the amp at 14.4 volts (voltage output of your alternator) or at 12.6 volts (voltage of a fully charged car battery). For home stereo they could go as high as 120 VAC (peak-to-peak voltage is +170 to -170) on the input.

I've personally seen AC power be anywhere from 105V (at a plant that had LOTS of inductive loads, this low voltage played hell on the computers) to 115V. Power companies shoot for 110V.
 
Magic H8 Ball said:
Riiiiight, heard one pair of Onkyo's heard 'em all eh?

Just looking at the specs for the left and right front speakers, I would go with the Onkyo (dual 5.25 drivers) over the Athena's (single 4" driver) or the JBL's (dual 3" drivers)
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I don't need to hear those particular speakers to know the majority of speakers, especially in this price range, made by Japanese electronics firms do in fact suck. I think inferring Onkyo speakers suck is a pretty safe bet. It's not something those companies do with any thought or skill. No one really buys high end Japanese stereo speakers. Sure Yamaha makes some good monitors and there maybe a few esoteric models with potential but most good Hi-Fi is American, Canadian and European.

Word of advice: Specifications can only give a general idea how something will sound. There are dozens of poor measuring Hi-Fi speakers that sound far more realistic and engaging then some "ruler flat" designs that just have no magic or spark.

The Sound and Vision link someone posted was a good read. The Athena's are hands down the best deal in the thread. It's almost like they are selling the speakers cheap and throwing in the Onkyo receiver free, not the other way around. ;)
 
nightanole said:
Oh demoed the athena's. They kinda suck. Get this, the sats stop at (db-3) at 120hz. Using a normal setup the sub kicks in at 80hz (90% of rescievers). They didnt sound to good when guys talked or drums or cars where in the pic, good for gunshots, chicks voices, and rap( what doesnt sound good with rap, get a 2 buck sat and a 12 woofer and your good) so it might be good for some people. Reminds me of the first gen kilpsch pc speakers that had the sats crossed over too high.
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Where did you get that idea ?
Athena website lists S-5 spec freq response as 80-20Khz + or - 3 db
http://athenaspeakers.com/s5specs.htm

Do you really think they would ship a 5.1 system with a whole in the response ? Only Blose. LOL
Sounds like you had a bad audition. It's really hard to get a good audition without going to a real stereo store that likely takes the time to set things up correctly. 50% of the sound is the room interaction. I know Best Buy started carrying this line. Did you audition at a Best Buy ? If so, I don't think you can come to any reasonable conclusion of Athena's sound or color from such a poor environment.
 
My bad, the speakers i audditioned were Avant, not athena, sorry guys. Anyway dont get the avants, by mordaunt shorts, by Marantz. Look really close in apperance
 
Deal still going as of sat. As for if this is the correct area, we did loose the home audio/video forum, and this is generaly discusing just these items. We arent saying manavox is better then onkyo or anything, just giving opinions about the brands.
 
Magic H8 Ball said:
What do you mean by "component HD switching" ?

The HT-R510 has two sets of component video inputs, see for yourself.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-vmmMEx...id=morephotos&pi=4&i=580HTS760&display=XL#Tab

Regarding the audio inputs, how many digital inputs are actually usefull? I only have two possible digital inputs,,,, my DVD player and my laptop (both have TOS link). And I can't think of any reason to connect the laptop to the stereo when I have a stand-alone DVD player. What else would I connect to the thing that had digital audio?
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Just because you have component inputs, doesn't mean they are capable of high definition. Check out Onkyos website. Well, I have a DVD player, XBOX, PC and sometimes run a line from my home audio workstation...
 
I think there is a little mis-understanding about fuses in this thread.

Not all fuses and breakers trip at their rated amperage. For instance, a 20 amp breaker on a 110 volt line doesn't chug along fine at 19, 19.5, 19.9 amps and then INSTANTLY trip at 20.0 amps. It works more like a totalizer. You can get 40 amps through at 20 amp breaker for a short period of time. you can get 60 amps through a 20 amp breaker for an even shorter amount of time. You could draw 22 amps through a 20 amp breaker all day long.

Ever have a space heater running in a bathroom, then turn on the hairdryer? Combined they put something like 3500 watts load on what is generally a 20A circuit (design: 2200W). The fuse doesn't trip instantly, you can actually run them both for a while. Heck, I can finish my hair, but my wife can't. Now, throw on another heater, it will go what seems almost instantly.

So, the short of this is, you can always run higher than the "spec" amperage. Just for how long is the question.
 
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