i have Onkyo HTX-22HDX
and this was my review on amazon at time of purchase:
"I had an older Panny commercial plasma which has no speakers.
Last week i fried my Samsung HT system (don't ask) which was the only audio out in my set up.
Did a quick web search for budget minded audio solution and was leaning in sound bar direction, and than i stumbled on this gem. Feature set this thing provides will cover all my needs for foreseeable future. Tone of inputs and video outputs, ARC, and expendability to 3.1 or 5.1 are great. Set up was quick and easy, it was up and running in 10min + another 10 for sound set up.
The sound:
Now this is where i was going to rate it 4 stars or even 3 stars (i have to say i was a bit disappointed at first)
In 2.1 set-up its sounds OK, not great, but ok... i fine tuned it, but i was not getting exactly what i wanted.
Also in 2.1 you do not get most of the systems audio processing features.
The biggest issue was dialog being washed out by FX sounds. Watching movie in the evening with kids asleep i constantly had to adjust the sound... NOT GOOD.
I did my research and picked up Yamaha NS-C210BL center channel speaker (took a while to find 6ohm speaker, Onkyo is rated at 6ohm don't forget that, 4ohm can possibly fry it, 8ohm will cut power output in half which is already on the low side at 25w per channel)
OHHH what a difference center channel made. IT sounds perfect, dialog is full and easy to follow even in action heavy scenes. With center channel attached i now get most of the audio processing features. Vol set 45-60(half way to max output) it feels my large living room with double height sealing with out any issues.
If you have this running in 2.1 drop everything and go by center channel, you'll be blown away.
With addition of center channel + good feature set i rate it at 5 stars
UPDATE:
Picked up new Panasonic 55ST50 and connected Onkyo to it via HDMI cable to Pannys HDMI(ARC) port.
Thanks to Panasonics Viera Link and Onkyo's RIHD the 2 work together like a charm.
When i power up my TV it automatically turns on Onkyo and sends audio to it. MAJOR WAF CUDOS.
Wife and parents had issues using Harmony One, now they can pick up fios remote turn on TV and the rest is taken care of... with harmony more than often they would press power and drop remote on the couch b4 it had a chance to fire of all commands resulting in all sorts of problems: wrong input/not powered up device/etc..."
