Official Onkyo HT-S790 & HT-S790S Thread - Page 4

You definitely need to give this (or any decent receiver) enough room to vent all the heat that builds up. That TV stand is probably designed for true HTIB's that have a built in DVD player, yet are half the height (mainly due to the fact that the receiver is half as good as the one in the HT-S790).

Get creative and put the receiver somewhere else to allow it to cool.

No, the front speakers on this system are just too large for regular "satellite" speaker mounts. And there are no mounting holes or screw openings on the front speakers (the rear have mounting holes to slip over a nail head). Check some of the earlier posts for suggestions for speaker mounts.

Most people would suggest using 16 or 14 gauge speaker wire. Any thicker, and it won't fit. Any thinner, and it wouldn't be much of an upgrade from the stock wire (which is 22 gauge).

The bottom of my speakers are just 18" off the ground. Too low? Probably. Like you said, the ideal height of the speaker should be at ear height (sitting down, of course). Ideally, that would mean moving my speakers about a 1' higher so the tweaters would be at the right height. Of course, the speakers fill the room so well that I really can't tell. Plus, if I moved them higher then I couldn't use my nice speaker stands.

The surround speakers and rear surround speakers are identical (even if they have different part numbers). Just to be consistent, dump the rear surround speakers.

To set the receiver to output 5.1, you can just change the speakers setting - it is pretty easy. Also, if you are inclined, if you switch the receiver to a 5.1 setup, you can run 2 other speakers as fronts off the "B" speaker output (such as in a different room). There really is no downside to getting this 7.1 receiver as it can emmulate a 5.1 receiver with little difficulty.

The strength of this system is the receiver. It should be able to handle most floor speakers you swap in for the fronts.

I would second this. This is a great starter system, and works fine for most situations. But if you are planning on swapping out the fronts and/or sub, you would probably be better off just getting the receiver by itself and building a system from scratch.

Something sounds wrong here. The unit has to cool down before it can be restrated. You should be able to start it up after it has cooled down.

That being said, it sounds pretty suspicious that it would overheat after just an hour at low volume with 15" of free space above it. I run mine all the time for 3+ hours in an enclosed entertainment center with just 6" of space above it with no problems. If it happens again, I would return it for another one as the receiver must be defective. Maybe call the store where you got it if you can just bring in the receiver to swap so you don't need to bring that huge box back.

Good suggestion. With all that wiring back there, it would be easy to accidentally cross wires.

I would go with a third option. HDMI from the cable box to lcd and Digital coaxial/optical audio cable to the receiver. This ensures a pure digital output to both display and receiver. If the two above are the only options, I would go with the first option. That preserves the digital connection between the source and display. That is, of course, unless your cable box has issues with HDMI. My Scientific Atlanta 8300HD has known issues with HDMI, and therefore it is recommended to use component output. In that case, option #2 is the best.

Final say: try both ways and judge for yourself. Everyone's setup and equipment is different and therefore will result in different "best" setups.