Sony STR-DG800 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver with HDMI Passthrough Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a follow up to my previous review on Sony STR-DG800 Receiver with HDMI Passthrough. I mentioned that if a HD DVD is plugged in to the DVD HDMI port on the Sony Receiver, there will be no audio coming from the Sony Receiver audio system as all audio and video signals are passed-thru (hense by-passed) directly to the televison. Consequently, you do not have the quality sound from your home entertainment center.
Well I found a work-a-round for this problem but it still require either an Optical Audio Cable or a Coaxial Audio Cable. It is similiar to the SAT/TV solution using the Optical Audio Cable that I memtioned in the previous review.
Coaxial Cable: You can plug a Coaxial Digital Cable coming from your HD-DVD player into the Coaxial Digital input port on the Sony receiver. This coaxial input port will work with the DVD HDMI input port to give you audio through the Sony receiver. Obvioulsy you will have to have a Coaxial Digital output on you HD-DVD Player.
Optical Cable: If your HD-DVD player only has an "Optical Audio Output", then plug the Optical Audio Cable into the "Optical Digital Video 1" port on the Sony receiver. After that, use the Sony Remote Control and follow the "re-assign" insturctions in the Sony Receiver Manual. You will be able "re-assign" the audio input from "Digital Video 1" to the "HDMI DVD" port. It takes patience, but in this way, you can overcome the drawbacks of the "HDMI Passthrough".
So now I do have audio to my home enterment system from both the Satellite HDMI port and the HDMI DVD Port, dispite the fact that these ports are designed to pass-through the audio to the television only.
Is is odd that the nice people at Sony Technical Support could NOT help me with this or any other solution for the problem. But I DO want to thank the fellows at J&R Electronic for brain storming these solutions with me.
Now that I have this work-a-round setup finished, I am raising my rating to four stars for this receiver. As of now, both the video and the audio from this receiver are everything I had hope for. Happy Birthday to me.


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Yamaha NS-6490 3-Way Bookshelf Speakers, Black Finish ( Pair ) Review

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(More customer reviews)Made purchase of these NS-6490's on clearance from the 'shack in fall 2009 and I'm glad I did. Probably not worth current retail prices but grab them on markdown if you can. The exterior is beautiful even with the glaring white woofers. The speaker has the required heft to dampen the 8" woofer, and the range should be smooth with the choice of provided driver sizes. Unfortunately we consumers just won't know what it is capable of until it gets a decent crossover. Inside you will find no acoustic fill, which by itself isn't unexpected in a design at this pricepoint. However, there is no effective crossover. there are instead 2 capacitors acting as bass blockers for the 4" mid and the tweeter glued to the back of the terminal cup and the 8" woofer runs full range. In a larger woofer this may not be a problem as the voice coil simply wouldn't drive higher frequencies; here it is. Budget for acoustic fill and a proper crossover, or run a new terminal cup and bi-amp with eq's. I didn't take the other reviews seriously about the lack of bass, chocking it up to the sealed design. Stock levels are woeful for the woofer and box size. I'm hoping some acoustic fill will round out the bottom end a little until I can get a decent set of crossovers.

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Universal 5 Black Satellite Speaker Brackets / Mounts for Walls and Ceilings 1XZ Review

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(More customer reviews)Don't let the price fool you. Very good, sturdy brackets with enough hardware to fit most brands/wall mounts I would assume. They are holding up my Onkyo on both a wall and on the side of my entertainment unit.
I highly recommend them.
EDIT- 1 month later and I am not as pleased. Still not bad but I have had to losen/straighten speakers out. I would drop down to 4 stars at this point.

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Sony SS-B1000 5 1/8-Inch Bookshelf Speakers (Pair) Review

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(More customer reviews)Hello friends,
Before you begin to read my review, please understand that I only wrote it because there are so very few reviews currently available about these speakers. Knowing that, here is what I can tell you about them:
First of all, I purchased these speakers for one, and only one, reason. I presently own a very nice Panasonic 27" color (stereo) television. The sound from the internal TV speakers never thrilled me, so I looked into purchasing some better speakers. The first thing I discovered (to my dismay) was that my TV did not have "external speaker" jacks. Okay, so I dropped a few extra bucks ($99.00 to be exact), and I purchased a very nice, 100 watt Sherwood, stereo receiver. Bear in mind now that I am only talking about a "stereo." I am not talking about a surround sound system, a Dolby digital system (5-1, 6-1 or the like), or any other high-tech system. Just plain old, every day, run of the mill stereo!
Now, I really thought that I was home free because I already owned a great pair of Bose bookshelf speakers. Wrong again! The Bose speakers are only "four" ohms, and my new Sherwood receiver called for "eight" ohm speakers. I know that seems to be a minor problem, but the receiver DID run very hot, and numerous reviews regarding the receiver clearly stated that it WOULD overheat using anything less than eight ohm speakers.
After realizing that the reported problem was true, I visited several electronic stores; I listened to numerous bookshelf type speaker systems, and I finally decided on the Sony. Let me tell you my friends, these little babies are absolutely superb! The bass quality absolutely blew-away my $300.00 Bose speakers (regardless of impedance). The sound is crisp, clear, and the typical problems of "no", or "very little" bass, are gone. Don't get me wrong . . . you are NOT going to get 15" bass speaker sound out these, but you WON'T be disappointed. They are truly, in my humble opinion, the very BEST bang for the buck!
My wife, who doesn't give a s**t about audio quality, actually commented on how really nice the TV sounds now, compared to my fancy-dancy Bose speakers. These little speakers deliver sharp, crisp, clear sound, and they seem to easily handle all the power that my Sherwood receiver throws at them. If you want some really nice speakers, with all of the bass that you can realistically expect from a small pair of bookshelf speakers, buy these! In a nutshell . . . they sound GREAT!

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Enjoy your favorite music in any room of the house with quality sound from the SS-B1000 performance bookshelf speakers. With 120 watts of power and an advanced woofer and tweeter design, they deliver high-resolution audio so you hear the music just as it was recorded.

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