Onkyo HT-S580 Home Theater System

Onkyo HT-S580 Home Theater System - Clear, well-rounded sound production

The convenience and low cost of home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) packages often come at the expense of quality and power. The reasonably priced Onkyo HT-S580 is an exception, an attractive all-in-one package that raises the bar for how well an inexpensive HTIB system can sound.

Look and Feel

The HT-S580 includes a compact, silver-colored set of four satellite speakers, a dedicated center-channel speaker, and an 8-inch subwoofer. The speakers are powered by a full-featured six-channel AV receiver that includes several surround-sound decoding options, including the most popular Dolby Digital and DTS formats.

The receiver drives each speaker with a respectable 100 watts per channel, and each satellite features a 3.13-inch woofer and a 0.75-inch tweeter. The center channel uses two of the woofers, one of each side of the speaker, with the tweeter placed in the middle.

Despite the compact size of the receiver at 17.1 x 5.9 x 14.5 inches, it is heavier than most HTIB receivers at 19.4 pounds. The weight speaks to the sturdy construction of the components. A nicely laid out remote control benefits from partially backlit buttons. All of the receiver functions, including changing the advanced listening modes, can be set using the remote control.

Features

Most HTIB systems suffer from inadequate power or lack clear, well-rounded sound production, but the HT-S580 excels in both of these areas. Onkyo's WRAT (Wide Range Amplifier Technology), exclusive to its receivers, delivers enough consistent power to make this system well suited for both small and medium-sized rooms.

Another nice feature allows you to set the frequency of the subwoofer crossover -- not an option you will find in a typical HTIB system, and one that allows you to customize for more or less bass response.

Installation is very straightforward with color-coded wiring matching up with color-coded inputs and outputs. The two digital inputs and four composite video inputs/outputs are adequate for most home theater needs.

Another nice feature of the HT-S580 is AB speaker switching, which gives you the option of setting up multiroom audio. This type of feature is very rarely found in HTIB systems.

There are a couple of things you won't find in this Onkyo HTIB. The absence of a jack for a line-level subwoofer, as well as the lack of video-switching connections for S-Video and component video, will limit your expansion capabilities should you want to upgrade.