5.1 Channel Home Theater Satellite Speakers And Subwoofer - Black

A lengthy review follows so for the TL;DR version: Great budget speakers for a small living room or bedroom once burned in and are vastly superior to HDTV speakers or a soundbar. Highly recommend if you don't have the money for a $300 range set of speakers or just want to get your toe wet in surround sound setups. Updated February 25, 2017: Still a good bargain. Having since upgraded the living room surround sound speakers, I've moved these to my PC along with a cheap used 5.1 receiver but with a different subwoofer. They work very well in a "near field" environment of desktop and three feet away especially in gaming. More details at the end of the review. Updated 1/29/2016 Long version: When it finally became unavoidable that I'd have to retire my lashed up 5.1 system consisting of a Creative Labs Dolby and DTS decoder and Gateway BA-7900 speakers, I had to get some surround speakers fast and cheap. Reviews of the 108427 were good enough, the price was right, Prime shipping was fast, so I pulled the trigger. First it is important to relay what kind of taste I have in speakers. Long a fan of Boston Acoustics line of musically neutral products, I value detail and fidelity over shaking the foundation of the house. Yamaha and Polk follow, while I despise Bose and Klipsch for distorting audio. More like torturing it, but that's my personal opinion and audio preferences are very personal. Genres of music listened to are rock, classical, jazz, Sinatra, Dino, electronica, soundtracks, outlaw... pretty much everything other than rap and country. Constantly shifting between music types is why I prefer neutral speakers over "warm" sounding ones. The good news is these cheap Monoprice speakers are very neutral and well detailed for their price point. Better speakers can be had for 2-3 times the price including their own line. After 35 hours of burn in (a must with small speakers), the high frequencies are good, mid-range are good for movies (music is another matter), lows are shockingly good thanks to a subwoofer designed to carry a lot of the load the satellites normally would. If you are going to play a lot of music over these, you will want to either replace the fronts with bookshelf speakers or matrix everything with Dolby ProLogic II or DTS: Neo 6. While not faithful in those modes, they cover up the weaknesses that show in stereo mode. A drawback is the fussy connectors on the speakers. In fact I was sure one of the satellites was defective out of the box. Further examination revealed that some of the strands in the speaker wire had not made it through the hole in the spring loaded connector. It only took five or six strands splayed out to cause the speaker to hiss. Ten minutes of fiddling and muttering under my breath produced clean sound once all the strands were in. Connecting the active subwoofer to a receiver that has a single RCA line out does not require an adaptor. Just take the stereo RCA cord included and plug in only the white jack to to the line out and the white line in jack. Works just fine since it is a mono signal in the first places, though I found on my set that more bass was delivered through the white line in than the red. It may be designed that way like more expensive subs. 8/19/2017 I was wrong about the subwoofer only needing one RCA jack to work effectively. Taking a peek into the enclosure, it became obvious from the wiring that the 8" driver is a dual voice coil at 8 ohms each. This means you NEED a mono to stereo adaptor to get the full sound if you go off a receiver's subwoofer out jack. Otherwise the driver only moves half the air it should! Another review complained the speakers are very directional and I found this to be true. The design of the cabinets is that the drivers sit behind a shallow horn for both the tweeters and midwoofers which limits their off axis performance. While terrible for music, this is an actual plus for movies that have dedicated surround sound mixes or for gaming. Blu-rays of were used to test different surround mixes: TRON: Legacy was used to test DTS-HD 5.1, The Hunt for Red October for Dolby TrueHD, and The Conversation in DTS-HD 5.1. The first two I played to gauge the effectiveness of surround cues with the last movie used to hear how a dialogue heavy movie would fare. Directional cues are excellent making it a joy to listen to modern movies. The torpedoes in Red October zoomed around nicely with the tweeters really adding to the ambiance inside the submarines. The center seems a trifle weak, but it isn't a dramatic imbalance and can be adjusted at the receiver level. The sub is ridiculously good for a cheap 8", managing to be detailed and still able to make your ribcage vibrate when LFE is used in a scene like the dance club in TRON: Legacy. Just don't expect much lower than 40 Hz Though small, the Monoprice 108247 speakers need some oomph to push them. They really don't perform until they start getting loud. For reference, the speakers are hooked up to my Sony STR-DN1010 receiver that is rated to 110 watts per channel. Music doesn't fill out until above 40 volume, while movies and TV require at least 35. Yes, they can get loud as long as you have a decent enough receiver to drive them. Remember to calibrate the speakers with your receiver if you can and make sure the crossover is set to 160 Hz. Part of my putting together the new surround setup involved assistance from two three month old kittens. As a result, I can report that the speakers are fairly tough units able to survive a 3 foot drop with only the grill popping off. Of course, I don't advise trying this at home, kids. Love the movie performance, but playing music over them left much to be desired. Consequently, a pair of Insignia NS-SP213 bookshelf speakers have replaced the fronts. Currently they are burning in and I forgot to get the banana jacks to turn the setup from 5.1 to 7.1, so I'll update this review later with the results of that. 1/29/2016: While I still haven't gotten the 7.1 up and running, the NS-SP213 speakers up front blended in much better than expected with the 8427 set. Stereo music is very enjoyable now with the subwoofer perfectly overcoming the low end weakness of the new fronts. Though auto calibrated by the Sony receiver again, the center volume had to be manually bumped up a couple of decibels to overcome it being drowned out in the mix. In fact, I'm wondering if the calibration is what made the center seem weaker in the first place. To anyone interested in playing music over these speakers, I highly recommend adding a pair of bookshelf speakers to the mix. Also did some testing with and without the metal grills and found little discernible difference with the 80247 satellites, unlike the Insignia pair which need to have the grills off. February 25, 2017 Two of the satellites and the center now are being used with my PC via an old Sony 5.1 receiver. The directionality mentioned earlier is terrific for playing video games that use proper surround cues -- there's no sneaking up on me now! The subwoofer is also in service, but in the home gym/hobby room filling in the void for some deep bass deficient stereo speakers. Being able to wire the hot stereo outs to the speakers is a nice plus on such a bargain unit. I've also taken apart the remaining unused satellites to get a look at construction and was surprised at what I found. Though finding a capacitor bridging the woofer to tweeter wasn't a shock (it prevents lower sound frequencies from frying the tweeter), the polyfill mat to dampen sound was. The back of the plastic cabinet also seems to have been designed with the option to put a full crossover in! Build quality is better than expected for something this low priced leading to some mad scientist experiments on the spares.

A little story: A very nice set! My previous set was an RCA box set of receiver with 5.1 speakers purchased in the 90s. Speakers still work to this day but the receiver is starting to die. I purchased a Sony STR-DH750 with 7.2 capabilities to bring the speakers to life, but realized that my old subwoofer was powered by my old receiver. Rather than invest in an amp for 20-year-old speakers decided to invest in a new system. After extensive research, reading many reviews, feedback and ratings, I decided that Monoprice was the best bang for the buck. It was between the 108247 and this set, the 10565. While I'm a cheapo who tries to get the best for as little as possible, I made the decision that spending nearly double for the next step up was best, especially after the lroce dropped 40 bucks! The one downside to this transaction that it was backordered. What was to be a month's wait ended up being 10 weeks or so. I wasn't in a rush, amazon wasn't pulling my leg and even asked if I wanted to cancel my order, but I was hoping that the speakers would be worth the wait- especially since I wasn't yet finished making my entertainment center (that's a discussion for yet another forum). Shipment I finally received a ship date, and it arrived 3 days earlier! I was a bit disappointed because the box had visible damage. I took pictures to document it. Upon unboxing, it was only the outer box that had damage- fault of the carrier, not amazon or Monoprice. In fact, kudos to them because that outer box was essential protection! Unboxing The speakers have a nice, sleek, modern feel to them. Nothing extravagant, clear simple design; less is more, in my book. The sub is slightly bigger than what I thought; a little taller than expected due to the small legs. Setup I've hooked up several systems before, so as a man, decided not look at the directions. I do love the wire attachements on the back! Very simple: push, insert wire, release! No screwing or turning like the back of my receiver. Indeed, no mounting holes, just the speaker which is perfect for my setup as I have them sitting on wall-mounted shelves and a mantle around the tv. Setup took about an hour because I tried using old, used wire and realized I didn't have enough so had to use a new spool so that all the wires would look the same. Otherwise, should have taken 15 minutes or so. I added an old pair of bose dual cubes to these speakers and set them up for rear surround. The set does come with red/white combo RCA cable. Many reviewers have problems with this not working on their receiver so had to order an adapter or different cable. Both the sub and my receiver have stereo inputs so this worked perfect. I use the included the mic and run the auto setup. Piece of cake. However, afterpowering up my ps3, my screen would flicker every few seconds. I swapped out the included RCA cable to use a heavier duty set I picked up from RadioShack a few years ago. The flickering stopped! I pop in Iron Man on bluray to give the speakers a run. The surround worked beautifully! Bullets wizzing by startled my two cats. Yet... no real boom. I felt like the bass was missing. I unplug the front speakers and put my ear to the sub, and notice nothing. Is the sub THAT bad?? I hook up the receiver to my phone via Bluetooth and play a 10 minute video of the THX intro. Nothing impressive. I look at the back and crank the bass all the way up. Still nothing. I google my problem and find a small suggestion. I dive into the receiver's on-screen speaker setup to go to Speaker Configuration which was set to "3/4". No idea what that fraction stands for. The online diagnosis said to ensure the configuration number ended in ".1". So I scrolled through the setup options and 3/4.1 was an option, so I selected it. BOOOOOOOOOOOOM! A deep, heavy, bass sweeped across the house, rattled some wood shelving, sent my cats running and scared the crap out of my dog. Yup. Subwoofer works. Perhaps a little too well. After several movies, I finally adjusted the bass to my liking. It is VERY powerful, perhaps a bit too much. Even my neighbor thinks so. Conclusion: An easy setup that may require some fiddling and fine-tuning. The subwoofer may take some fenangling, but it is definitely worth it. If you're the kind of person to decide to purchase your own set of speakers, you're likely knowledgeable enough to figure all of this out like I was. End of the matter: just buy this, already. Look no further, don't waste your time reading anymore reviews. You won't be disappointed. These ARE the speakers you're looking for.

I'll start this by destroying my credibility. I am not an audiophile, and this is my first surround sound system worth the name. I did, however, do a massive amount of research before buying these. This is going to be long, so the TLDR on this is: These are great speakers for the price, and will probably be more than adequate for the needs of anyone who is not an audiophile. They are also better than many $600-$800 sets in terms of frequency response curve and general sound reproduction. They will not have the same build quality or design aesthetic as these premium sets, but look fine, and are made well. You won't regret buying these unless you have much more exacting standards than the average person, and even an audiophile would be satisfied with these as a second room/vacation home setup. So, the rest: I was originally settled on the Energy Take Classic 5.1 set. (which has become the long standing gold standard of affordable 5.1 speaker sets) Energy 5.1 Take Classic Home Theater System (Set of Six, Black) But, a price bump on those right when I decided on them led me to do some re-shopping. After reading and watching the CNET review on these, I started looking in to them seriously. I suggest you check out that review. These speakers are actually the replacements to the Monoprice 9774 5.1 system. The reason those were replaced was due to a patent lawsuit because they were exact clones of the Energy Take Classic 5.1 speakers. Nearly identical form factor, Identical internal components, and most interestingly, identical performance and frequency response curve. But over $100 cheaper than the average price of the Energy speakers. So that wasn't going to last, and it didn't. For a while there, they were hands down the best speaker per dollar that could be purchased. These Monoprice speakers are just enough different to dodge another lawsuit. The surprise is that in some respects, they are better than the speakers they replaced. The consensus seems to be that they provide a more satisfying over-all sound than the Energy Take Classic. I can't speak to this because I'm not in a position to directly compare them. But everybody that has seems to agree that these are either equivalent or better. The fact that they're cheaper doesn't hurt one bit. Another advantage is that if you want to add two speakers and make this a 7.1, Monoprice actually sells you two more matching speakers for about $80. Monoprice Premium Home Theater Satellite Speaker - Black (110800) Energy only sells the satellite speakers for their set as a package. And though exactly matched speakers in a 7.1 isn't mandatory, it certainly makes it easier for your receiver to blend. These are a recent purchase, so I can't speak to how long they will last. I can say they sounded great to me right out of the box, and the spring connectors were super easy to use. Important notes: Break in Period: Don't blast these things full volume until you've been using them for quite a good little while. A couple of weeks of regular TV watching should do it. This type of speaker needs time to loosen up and mellow out. Skipping this step is a really good way to permanently damage your sound quality. They're actually supposed to sound even better after being broken in, as well. Subwoofer Cable: if you order these, you need to get a shielded RCA splitter subwoofer cable. (one male connection that splits to two male connections) It will actually run ok off of a single RCA into the white input, but spend the extra $6 and do it right. They're all over amazon. I almost took off a star for them not including this, but I just couldn't make myself do it. The speakers themselves are just too solid. Speaker stands: A lot of people make the obvious (and incorrect) assumption that the Monoprice speaker stands will fit these Monoprice speakers perfectly. (go figure!) They don't. They work, but only if you mount the speakers upside down. I ordered some that are on the way. If those work out, I will edit this review. Edit: They didn't really work out. I'm using them, but they aren't ideal. Anyway, you should just go on and buy these unless the Energy Take Classic set is at one of the periodic low dips to $250 range. At that point they become a serious contender because of a 3 year warranty vs the 1 year that Monoprice offers. (or if you have a fascination with gloss black finishes) But that's about the only things that distinguish them from these. AND they might actually not sound as good. FYI - there are some known problems with the dust covers tending to have the little plastic bits break off inside the speaker when you try to remove them. So, if you want to use these without the dust covers, slow and steady wins the race. I intend to leave mine on, but it is something to be aware of.

Been meaning to do a review of this system for a while. Had the 10565 system since Oct '18 in the upstairs gameroom where its main duty is being connected to the xbox. Additionally, I stream music via bluetooth to the AVR and it does a great job for that as well (receiver is only putting out about 80-90W/ch, and over about 50W/ch it starts to break up, so no sense pushing it anyway). It's 200.00, or was when I got it... for a 5.1, powered-sub system. It sounds perfectly fine at that price point. You're not expecting to top a $1500 Klipschissplittlixblah-blah system for this price-point. Accept that, enjoy the great sound this puts out at reasonable volume levels, and carry on. I wouldn't crank this up to '11' for a party and expect it to survive... but I wouldn't do that for any stereo I have either... I have sympathy for my stuff I guess. I've had it at 50% volume for hours playing music though.. plenty loud (rock, metal, etc...).. though 'plenty' is of course subjective. In the 20x12 room it sits in, it will give pretty decent thump for sound-effects and movies w/in reason. Again.. price-point here. I paid at least $100 more than this 20 years ago (so, really, like ~$400 in today's money) for something way less 'good'... w/just a passive subwoofer, and less power-handling ability and it sounded like empty wooden boxes being klonked on by a swarm of agitated beavers vs. some pretty nice sound out of the monoprice setup. I don't know if I would push these speakers to the 'rated' power.. but surely they could hang with 50'ish nice, clean watts per-ch (you know, before your $300 receiver really starts to push out a lot of distortion anyway). I suspect the target buyer is someone in an apartment where noise-levels have to be rational. I think it'll do a great job filling an apartment living room with nice sound and the sub isn't so crazy that your neighbors will kill you (it has adjustments to set the levels and so on.. if you tick off your neighbors, that's on you). I'm saying all this stuff about 'bang for buck' and so on b/c I'm assuming anyone looking at this is on a budget and isn't packing a $2000 tube-amp at home waiting to connx to this thing. You're like a lot of us,.. got a budget AVR rated to somewhere between 70 and 100'ish Watts/ch for movies/music and want something that will at least compliment that setup. This will do that. Remember your budget AVR(eceiver) may be rated to 100W/ch, but it'll really give up doing that job distortion-free/low somewhere ~30W south that of that number (on a continual basis). Finish Quality: Again.. price-point-wise... it's exactly what I expected.. not fancy in the least, but clean. Some small imperfections in the finish.. nothing I can spot from more than a foot or two away that makes me upset. These are not 'lookers'.. though they look nice enough w/the grills off vs some other offerings in this price range I think. They actually disappear visually pretty well honestly... and I would think that has a different kind of appeal to the folks that don't -want- a showy, in-your-face system. Use/Assembly: Easy peasy... 5.1 systems have been around a while now... this is no different than the vast majority. You plug the wires from the appropriate channels off your AV Receiver into the various speakers, and your sub-out to the sub's inputs. Four of the speakers are identical, makes no difference which of those four goes where (front L/R vs rear L/R). The center channel is specifically made/intended to be such.. it's obvious, can't mess it up. The powered sub does not have the '5' outs itself.. it just takes either RCA inputs or speaker-level left/right from stereo. So, it won't necessarily turn an old-school 2-channel stereo into a 5.1 system... not in any easy plug/play way that I am aware of anyway.. but I'm hardly an expert. Seek YouTube Gurus for that kind of info. There's instructions in the box.. read those, I may be completely lying about the 2->5.1 thing... I did not read them, but my setup was blindingly-easy, even for me. So, there's my 5-or-so month update... still quite pleased, don't have any regrets for the type of use I've put it through.

I'd give it more stars, but based on how much time I've had to waste, I can't. The system sounds nice and functions well, but I've had it for nearly two weeks of it sitting on the floor because I cannot find the oddly specific mounting bolt that is needed to mount these sepkers to anything. I've now ordered 3 different sets of "universal 1/4 threaded insert mounting bolts" and NONE of them have worked. Now I have to spend my time off going to a hardware store, manually trying bolts just so I can mount these things. Lastly, I ordered the mounts from Monoprice, and they are incompatible, so don't waste you're money there. I used to really recommend this brand, but now they're starting to make me realize that trying to save money was a mistake, and I should have just hired an installer to do it instead. Buyer beware!

I originally bought these in Dec of 2014. Hooked it up in my theater room and could not believe how amazing the sound was. They actually sounded better than a $1,000 set of speakers. No joke! I mean movies were full, soundstage was excellent, I could not believe how great it sounded even at very loud volume. two years later I wanted to order this again for my other game room. Speakers came in yesterday, and I hooked it all up. Man something REALLY changed in the manufacturing process. This new set sounded off. It was a bit hollow and tinny. I thought maybe it was my source or EQ, and I actually hooked up my older home theater set, and sure enough the sound was awesome again. The quality really took a hit. I spoke with a Monoprice rep, and they confirmed the manufacturing changed at some point, and that there was nothing they could do. They cannot sell me the older version, and they do not sell refurbs or anything, and to check eBay or something for a used set if I wanted the older ones. These speakers are pretty good. If you haven't heard the old ones, you will like what you hear I am betting, but having the older set installed in my theater room, I cannot handle the quality loss. It's a real shame. I am going to return this set and buy some Energy Take Classic (if I can find them) or something else, maybe Klipsch HD. I may actually try to build this set from eBay or something, because the sub isn't great. I paired my theater setup with the Klipsch SUB12 which sounds glorious with these speakers (2014). Really sad too because the 2014 version of these were nothing short of truly amazing. I hate it when a company does this. I cannot endorse this product in good conscience, but maybe you'll like it having not heard the 2014s, ignorance is bliss right?

I just purchased these a few days ago and they arrived very nicely in the mail. I got them for lower as it was a warehouse deal, but it was well worth it. I was aware that they do not come with speaker wire as the suggestion came up when I was ordering to add speaker wire to the order so I did just that. It would definitely come in handy. For the speaker wire, I bought the RCA 16 gauge 100 foot package. This worked out perfectly and I had some left over speaker wire that will come in handy since I have a cat who likes to chew (odd, I know). It took me a little while to get everything setup. Make sure that if you don't have already precut speaker wires that you get a wire cutter which will cut off the ends of the speaker wire so you can twist them. This will make it a lot easier to cut through the wire and thread them through the holes. One thing that is different about the speakers was the fact that you have to push down on these little brackets on the back of the speaker to then thread the wire though. I read some reviews where people said this was hard, I found it quite easy to thread them through. I have a Sony receiver which you have to thread the other end of the wire and then twist the knob to keep the wire tight. I liked the press and release much better. Additionally, they come with mounts! When I first opened the package I was thinking, how in the world am I going to mount this like my older speakers? Sure enough, there were mounts. They were very easy to mount to the wall also. If you don't have any extra screws lying around, you will need to order some when you get this package or you can run to Home Depot. After wiring and setting everything up, I recalibrated my surround sound system (to each their own, some systems do not do this) and tested it out. I have to say, I LOVE the sound of the speakers! I feel like I am immersed in sound within my living room. I had co-workers trying to convince me to get rid of my surround sound and get a soundbar, they have no idea! Surround sound is the way to go! As for the quality of the speakers, they are a little on the heavy side, but not too heavy. They are very good qualify outside and sound great hooked up to my Sony 5.1 Surround Sound System (receiver is NOT included in the package, these are most likely replacement speakers or for those that bought the receiver and not the speakers). Overall, I am so very happy with my purchase and would recommend these to anyone! Even the woofer sounds great with the surround sound, which I didn't have before!

The subwoofer makes a humming noise. I had it replaced and the new one still hums. It's not a ground loop in the home because I can connect a klipsch subwoofer with no hum. The satellite speakers were fine. I needed 8 ohm speakers and they are a good size for the bedroom. Sale price was great. Got set for under 100 dollars during holiday sale. But I replaced the subwoofer with my klipsch.

These are a great inexpensive set of speakers - I was more interested in their bigger brother, but Monoprice doesn't sell them through Amazon.ca just yet and their final cost otherwise would have ended up being more than $300. I don't even want to say that for the price these ones sound great, because they put out some deceptively great sound. The build quality is more than decent and extras like wall mounts are a nice touch. I bought some banana plugs to use with my amp but the pin type plugs you can get probably would not work with these speakers unless you're wall or stand mounting them (as there is no clearance underneath if placed directly on a flat surface). I also don't fully understand the situation where someone would need a left and right connection to a subwoofer, so I simply have my single subwoofer out on my amp running to the right input on the sub and it seems to work fine. I may replace it with a Y connector eventually. My only complaint is minor, and that's with the subwoofer - it puts out an audible hum when there's no sound. It seems to be linked when switching inputs with the amp, but thankfully it's not a constant thing (thankfully!). The auto on feature works well and while it won't fill a big room it's got a decent punch to it.

Mi Monoprice 10565 Premium lo acompaño con Sony STRDN1080 y la calidad del sonido es increíble OMG! XD

How time flies! I bought this surround system 5 years ago! And its still going strong. The centre of my system is now a relatively old Marantz AV Surround Receiver NR1403 and a 60” Samsung 8000 series 60 inch LED 3D TV. The Monoprice sound surround system exceeded my expectations. After 5 years the sound is excellent it just seems to get better all the time. They said the speakers required a break in period. To my ears the system sounds full and smooth. The speakers combined with the Marantz sound stage creates better than average sound compared to other systems I’ve had in the past. I have not had any issues with the system and I like the idea that the subwoofer only activates when necessary. In addition to using the system for the TV, I listen to both my large collection of CDs and streaming sources through this system and all sound very good, which isn’t the case with some sound surround systems. The finish is plain and unadorned, which I like. Simple black cube shapes for the satellite speakers and the subwoofer provides nice smooth bass with adjustable crossover and has a relatively small footprint. The system is hard wired not wireless, so some wiring is required. I installed the wiring for the rear speakers along the bottom of the baseboard and its pretty well invisible if one isn’t looking for it. At the time I bought this system a CNET review compared the Monoprice system positively to the similar Energy Take Classic 5.1 system which cost much more saying it sounded better. There was some speculation at the time that the Monoprice system was reversed engineered from the Energy system. Whether that was the case or not I don’t know, I just know they do sound great. I would recommend this system to anyone looking for a reasonably priced 5. 1 system that performs well without having to break the bank.

Es necesario tener un amplificador para poderlas conectar, tienen una muy buena calidad de sonido, el woofer responde excelente y el precio es muy accesible.

It's a wonderful product,