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For the first time since 2002 when this website was first launched almost seven
years ago, an Onkyo HTIB is NOT the hands down sole winner when it comes to offering the very best home theater system in a box
you can buy for less than $500!
It's not so much that Onkyo has taken a step backwards (THEY DEFINITELY HAVE NOT!), it's
just that Samsung now offers a brand new 2009 HTIB system that just might offer certain customers even MORE bang for $500 than the new Onkyo HT-S5200. [If your budget allows you to spend MORE THAN five hundred bucks on your new surround sound audio system, we
highly recommend the higher priced Onkyo HT-S9100THX and Onkyo HT-S7100.]
IF you plan on
purchasing a separate NOT INCLUDED Blu-ray Disc player, we recommend that you go with the new $400 Samsung BD-P3600. In addition to the streaming Netflix movies on demand and Pandora music possibilities it offers and
advanced wireless WiFi / Ethernet home network connectivity, the Samsung BDP3600
features internal 7.1 channel decoding for Dolby TrueHD and
DTS-HD Master Audio and has a 7.1 channel analog audio output.
Which brings us back to the differences between the Onkyo HT-S5200 and
Samsung's HT-AS730ST. Onkyo markets their HTS5200 as having 7.1 channels, but these eight channels
might be best set up as 5.1 home theater, plus a stereo pair of B-speakers in another listening zone. The Samsung HTAS730 5.1 home theater
system cannot handle multi-zone audio. |
However, the
receiver that's included with the Samsung HTAS730ST features a
7.1 channel audio input, so you should connect the OPTIONAL Samsung BDP 3600 Blu-ray Disc player to the
Samsung HTAS 730 home theater system using NOT INCLUDED 4 identical pairs of analog stereo RCA interconnect cables INSTEAD of using HDMI. That leaves the three HDMI inputs available
for other components. (The Onkyo HT-S5200 has 4 HDMI inputs, but LACKS the 7.1 channel audio input.)
If and when you are ready to set up 7.1 surround sound in the future, the Samsung HT-AS730ST home theater system is also wireless-ready
for two more speakers, which means that you can connect an OPTIONAL wireless transmitter and speaker amplifier,
plus another pair of Samsung speakers and experience the sonic beauty of 7.1 channel Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio from
Blu-ray movies! (To experience Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD from an
Onkyo HTIB, you would have to step up to a more expensive model.)
The Samsung HTAS730 also features five voice-matched two-way surround sound speakers, where four of the seven surround speakers from the Onkyo HTS 5200 are "full-range" one-way speakers - at
least the crucial left, center, and right Onkyo speakers are two-way.
With all that being said, the Onkyo DOES include a longer manufacturer's warranty than the Samsung (two years vs. one year) along with a
long tradition of offering some of the best sounding and most reliable surround sound systems ever squeezed into a single box! |
