Onkyo DW-S500
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CNET Editors' Review
The good: Sleek shelf-stereo system; USB input; better than expected speakers; subwoofer output.
The bad: Meager power; headphone jack is on the receiver's rear end.
The bottom line: Onkyo's upmarket shelf system belts out seductive sound quality while offering decor-friendly styling.
The urge to converge
Designwise, the receiver's extruded aluminum chassis looks smart, and its vertical CD player' ... Expand full review
The urge to converge
Designwise, the receiver's extruded aluminum chassis looks smart, and its vertical CD player's motorized door is extracool. Another plus: the 9-inch-tall unit's deep-blue display won't sear your eyeballs during late-night listening sessions.
On the connectivity front, along with the more traditional line-level input and output jacks, you get a USB input to connect your computer to the stereo. Meanwhile, an optical digital audio output allows for a direct connection to a CD or MiniDisc recorder. Onkyo has thrown in a subwoofer output jack that'll come in handy if you want to add a sub to this $400 system.
As far as the tuner goes, it offers 30 AM/FM presets, and there's a three-mode timer with weekday, weekend, or sleep settings. We found both the full-function remote and the front-panel controls easy to use.
The S500's hefty fiberboard speakers look and feel like component-grade models. They feature a 3.5-inch cone woofer and 1-inch soft-dome tweeter. Another nice touch: The speakers are magnetically shielded, so they can snuggle up to your computer monitor or TV and not mess with the picture. However, don't plan on wall-mounting these babies--the speakers depend on the bottom-mounted bass port's proximity to a supporting surface. They're at their best on a desktop, a shelf, or a counter.
The S500 can tap into your computer's streaming-audio and MP3-playback capabilities with its USB connection, but the built-in CD player can't handle CD-Rs full of MP3s. Regarding the USB connection: PC users need Windows 98, 98 SE, Me, 2000, or later operating systems. Apple adherents with iMacs, iBooks, or Power Macs running OS 9.0 or later can also link up the S500. Multitaskers can mix in their computer's alerts and other sounds while listening to CDs or the radio.
We do have two minor operational gripes: The headphone jack is on the receiver's hindquarters, so we had to tip the S500 forward to plug in our earbuds. Also, the S500 has only a two-mode Acoustic Presence (bass boost) function rather than separate bass and treble controls. Hide Review
Ex-movie theater projectionist Steve Guttenberg has also worked as a high-end audio salesman, and as a record producer. Steve currently reviews audio products for CNET and works as a freelance writer for Home Theater, Inner Fidelity, Tone Audio, and Stereophile. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
User Reviews
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"Good Sound, Terrible Ergonomics" By
Pros: For a small stereo, it does sound good. It won't make your ears bleed, but it gets plenty loud and I'm surprised that there is actually some bass form the tiny speakers! Overall, the system looks good, which is probably why I was suckered into buying it.
Cons: If you define "ergonimics" as the ability for a human to efficiently interact with a machine, this thing fails miserably. As mentioned above, you won't likely be able to figure-out how to operate this stereo w/o the manual. The remote makes little sense
"Sounds awesome" By
Pros: Very crisp highs and hits the lows okay for the speaker size.
Cons: I'm good with electronics and it took me 2 hours to figure out all the timers/alarms, station sets, naming and all. Should really include a battery back up, everything wiped out in a power surge.
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