Customer Reviews
great sound, not good with mp3 
2008-01-05
i owned the previous onkyo for 3 cds. i sold it and bought this one. if you want great quality and price, this is what you are looking for. dont waste time and money buying bose or denon or even sony, onkyo has great fidelity. it is small yet powerful. you can listen to your music quite loud and still get a clear sound.
cons.
the mp3 is very slow and not easy to manage
if you are listening to radio and open the cd-dvd, it automatically changes to the cd input instead of staying in radio mode.
the screen looks a little bit old (still lighted dots)
pros
have to listen to it!! it is amazing.
i would recommend it for cd, not mp3. or maybe for mp3 if you have it connected to a tv screen to manage it easier
Onyko CSV720S review 
2007-12-30
First purchase of any Onkyo product. Read many other comments before comitting to this system but very pleased with the obvious quality and very clear sound. In fact I played some old CDs of the "Doors" [boy does that date me!] and I could clearly hear "noise" from the transfer from the original vinyl records to CD.
I do feel more base is needed for some recordings and may buy the extra cost base speaker for this system in the future.
Over all a very good compact system with lots of features for the money.
Exceeds my expectations 2007-12-28
My primary purpose for this system was to run playlists of .ogg files from my PC music data base to a remote location (a bedroom)... with a 50' cable from a PC into the line in jacks... [I'm very glad that I ripped my Early Music collection to high-res .ogg and NOT low-res .mp3 because these speakers are TOO good for low quality input] and yes, there IS some residual line hum when it and the PC are sitting idle.]
I confess that I haven't bothered to RTFM or tweak the settings or even put batteries in the remote (it was that easy to set up and connect to the PC and the AQUOS tv) It does apparently have a setting for Night Listening so dynamic recordings don't wake you up out of a peaceful zen state... With SACD's and DVD's it sounds BRILLIANT, and it is a very cost-effective and space saving adjunct to a nice LCD tv if you want to add hi-res music and any conceivable type of digital media (including satellite radio, which I don't listen to, iPods, non-ipods, etc. failed cd-roms, etc.) in an extra room with minimal hassle. Even set up with both speakers sitting tethered on a TV cart, the 3-D stereo environment sounds very natural (including for gut-strung baroque instruments with delicious bass), and easily fills a large room without distortion. It's MUCH more than I expected for the price... and has more features than I'll probably ever bother to use!
Now I really can fall asleep listening to "live" lute and theorbo music at the foot of the bed... just like Louis XIVth... :P (without having to sleep wearing my studio cans!)
Amazing bang for the buck 2007-11-29
Mainly echo-ing other reviews..for the price the sound quality of this unit is phenomenal . Like other Onkyo products I have bought the sound quality for the low to mid price range is hard to beat .
For the price you get a decent pair of mini-bookshelf speakers too . The sound is clean and undistorted with a decent bass response from the speakers (for their size) ..but you'll need a subwoofer if you want to go bass heavy / really crank it . 30W per channel is not going to shake the house either but it's plenty of power to listen to music loudly . And it plays mp3 discs and SACD .
In the end I decided to upgrade the speakers and move the included pair into my TV home theater set up . I got a pair of 400 dollar bookshelf speakers (higher price than the total original unit) which are much better quality (bi-wired etc ) and the sound quality took another jump up allowing me to hear a surprisingly good soundstage for both cds and mp3s .
Note: I fed my mp3s either from cd or from a computer/wireless device using lossless (FLAC) streaming and the unit's digital optical in ... hence was feeding in a high quality digital signal . Got very good sound quality (as good as the quality/bitrarte of the source mp3's would allow) . If you connect an Ipod via the optional analog Onkyo connector the sound quality of the mp3s is affected by the quality of the digital to analog converter of the Ipod itself . In my case 2nd generation Ipod = horrible analog output quality , hence the sound quality of the Ipod is not very good . But that is the case no matter which receiver unit I connect my Ipod to .
Summary
You're not going to get audiophile quality for under 400 bucks but this unit is good enough to attach some decent/higher quality speakers .
Great Value for the Price! 2007-10-11
I bought this product after spending a long time reviewing reviews :-).
Initially I was thinking about buying a home theater system with a high end receiver but as my search continued and I got input from some really audio savvy coworkers, I settled on the Onkyo Shelf System.
I have to say I am really pleased with the product. I have had the product for almost 6 months.
It really has the most clear sound you could ever imagine for a product at this price.
I mainly listen to classical music nowadays. In fact, the sound on Onkyo was so good that when I watched a live concert of Beethoven's piano concerto it did not sound that much better. Should I say more!
This is a great choice if you want to spend[...] It fills my whole home with sound that I have never had to go more than about 30% of the full volume.
Open the box before your ability to return to Amazon runs out 
2008-07-12
I received this as a gift and didn't open the box because I didn't have anywhere to put it until after the 30 days to return to Amazon expired. The CD/DVD drawer on the unit didn't work. I couldn't register the unit with Onkyo (required to get warranty work) because they didn't have a record of the serial number (?). The unit had a date of manufacture of 2005 - it was bought in mid-2007 so this was kind of odd. It was very difficult to get the unit in - the place was over fifty miles away and was open during work hours. Not only was the power unit broken and had to be replaced but the inside of the unit was dirty. There is a good chance I paid a new price for a refurbished unit that was never repaired. The stereo sounds good but now I hope nothing else goes wrong since the warranty expired before I heard it play the first CD.
A good compromise 2008-06-27
I am happy I bought this set. It is versatile and has a fine sound. The unit is compact, the sound is full-sized. The good things I read in reviews of this item are true for the unit I received. Plus, I can not believe that what I hear in theater listening mode is coming from only two speakers.
Better Than Most Costing Substantially More!!! 2008-02-17
Got mine for $93 on clearance at Circuit City who seems to have a policy of dropping everything at least 60% if it hangs around for a year or more. I originally thought of buying it at the previous sale of $199 but was glad I waited and got it for $106 less!
This unit replaces a previous Onkyo that still played like a champ but couldn't handle SACD or MP3s, let alone video DVDs.
So far, so good. Digests everythings I put in the CD drawer although it has a nasty tendency not to show how many songs are on a disk nor does it show titles and artists unless you know how to manipulate the remote for the on screen menu.
Speaking of such, be aware that the remote is a monster of 50 or more buttons that Albert Einstein couldn't figure out.
Sound reproduction is good and the CD player seems quiet with the only detected hiss being on an analog CD made from an old vinyl record (so I imagine most of the noise was from the vinyl original and not the CD).
By the way, if you want deeper, booming bass than you had been opt for the subwoofer. Theatre mode does right fine for me in that respect.
As always, a class act from Onkyo and, by the way, it comes with 1 year warranty! May not sound like much, but most only come with 90 days!
Sound is just not for me 
2008-01-30
I recently purchased this and while the components all seem to be very well made, the sound just was not for me. It seemed as though the reproduction of the music was based upon what someone thought I (the public) would like. It was very digital sounding, very compressed, lacking any warmth. I have to say that what came out of the speakers just did not seem to sound real to me. The only thing that was half way decent to my ears was listening to some classical music on the radio. Trying to listen to the Beatles and Bob Dylan and even newer band recordings was just upsetting.
I guess I was spoiled by my 30 year old analog-based vintage Scott Receiver which had recently stopped working. I inherited the Scott receiver from my brother after he left for college (Thanks Paul!). I think I am going to have to get that thing fixed afterall- or buy a vintage receiver somewhere else. Even with my newer cheap Sony speakers it sounded a hundred times better then the Onkyo.
The moral of the story: If you grew up with analog sound (vinyl records and old receivers) you should think twice about getting this Onkyo system.
Mechanically loud disc player 
2008-01-12
I was pretty excited to get this stereo. I've been researching for quite awhile and was very impressed by the reviews of this product and had high expectations, especially with copy from the manufacturer like this: "Imagine turning up the volume and filling your entertainment room with noise-free, impressively powerful, true-to-life sound." So naturally i assumed that i would be getting a stereo that would produce wonderful sound for some of the quiet music i listen to. I like loud, aggressive music and I also love really quiet stuff, too, so i was pretty disappointed when set the Onkyo up and put on a quiet cd (Baird Hersey and Prana, "Eternal Embrace") and in the quiet moments all i could hear was a VERY LOUD disc mechanism spinning the cd. Sort of ruined the whole experience... I hoped that it was just new and needed to settle in but after a few hours of play it has not settled one bit and has even taken to clicking with each spin of the disc. Yuck!
Also, the speakers, as mentioned in some of the other reviews, obviously need to be "worked out" as they are bound very tightly and it made listening a bit tiring.
So, back to the search, 'cause this baby ain't it.
