
Onkyo HT-S680
Pros
- Nice receiver layout, great in space constrained rooms
Cons
- Lacking high definition ports, few DPS features
Bottom Line
A disappointingly ordinary home theatre system. Onkyo's 6.1 offering does things reasonably well, but fails to impress in any really important areas.
-
Price
$ None (AUD)
After reviewing the excellent sounding Onkyo 5.1 surround system we were really looking forward to seeing what their 6.1 home theatre brought to the table. Unfortunately, the 6.1 system was not quite on the same level as Onkyo's previous offering, with very little to make it stand out from the competition.
The Onkyo 6.1 is a full home theatre system, offering both a DVD player and a receiver, as well as a 6.1 surround speaker system. Both systems are a fairly blocky, silver design and a little larger than we're used to these days. Conversely, the speakers are absolutely tiny in size. Barely more than seven inches tall, they don't take up much space , which makes them ideal if you want to install the system in a small room. Facilitating this is the ability to wall-mount the speakers, further conserving space.
One of the things we did like about the system was the layout of the receiver. The large design offers ample space with every function clearly labelled and having its own buttons. System options, ranging from input device to sound field to more advanced options, can be cycled through with ease. All of these functions can also be accessed via the remote, but we found utilising the face buttons to be on par and in some cases more efficient than doing it from a distance.
We found the speakers were relatively simple to setup, utilising the standard positive/negative split cable which are colour coded for easy identification. The back of the receiver was clearly marked and is also quite straightforward to set up, with the ports grouped according to channel (DVD, Video 1 etc).
The range of features present on the receiver was disappointing. As people who really like to play around with the sound field, the pitiful six DPS offerings was simply not enough. The presence of a good set of surround options, (including DTS-Neo:6, DTS-ES and Dolby Pro Logic II) went some way to compensating for this, but many of those are standard fare these days and ultimately the provided features came up a little short, especially compared to other systems we have seen.
We were also surprised to find no high definition inputs or outputs present. The receiver has a large number of connections, but most are standard RCA or s-video ports, with just a single optical and coaxial audio input. On a system designed to synthesise multiple input devices it is almost criminal to not include at least one component input and one output, if not more, and with HDMI/DVI steadily growing in popularity those connections would definitely not go astray either. We have not used plain RCA cables for video transmission in a very long time and were very disappointed that we were forced to in that situation.
The sound quality of the system also left a lot to be desired. With the incredible sound from Onkyo's 5.1 offering still ringing in our ears, we perhaps expected a little too much from this system, but overall we found it to be quite average. There was a certain crispness to some of the higher range, which was occasionally biting enough to be considered excellent but in general, the sound was a little flat and lacking in bass. The surround speakers in particular seemed almost non-existent. Whilst they are never supposed to be extremely loud, we could barely hear anything out of them on this system.
Brand Post

Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Asus TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A review: This 4K monitor plays nice with consoles
- 2 Firewalla Gold review: Powerful home network security in a tiny box
- 3 Alienware AW3423DW review: Quantum dot OLED renders rival monitors obsolete
- 4 Acer Aspire 5 review: An affordable laptop that’s enjoyable to use
- 5 Asus ROG Zephyrus S17 review: This gaming laptop oozes luxurious power
Latest News Articles
- Optus is offering a deal on its Internet Family Entertainer plans with Netflix
- Fetch TV adds 8 new free channels to its line-up
- Fetch TV releases the Fetch Mini 4K set-top-box with voice activated remote
- Sony announces X-Series speakers for music lovers of every genre
- JBL PartyBox 310 lets you party in wet and dark places and sing duets
Resources
Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers

Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world

Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles

PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D

The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G

Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65

This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76

It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- Best Unlimited Internet Deals in 2022
- Microsoft’s universal ‘One Outlook’ client just leaked out
- Liquid Retina vs. Liquid Retina XDR: Which display is better?
- Which flagship TV is best? Sony 4K HDR Bravia 2016 versus LG 4K HDR OLED 2016
- 10 Blu-ray movies / Best looking Blu-ray movies