PFA540BT

So I have an older HDTV with limited audio out functionality, a set of bookshelf speakers and a center channel speaker, and 2 HDMI devices (Apple TV and a game console). I wanted to connect all of this together for a small 11ftx11ft room - used as a kids loft playroom. Preferably with a solution that was small, cheap, and not overly complicated. It turns out it’s surprisingly expensive to cobble together a system that does this, if you want true multi-channel audio. It would take an HDMI switcher (to switch between the 2 HDMI devices), an HDMI audio extractor (to pull the 5-channel audio from the HDMI signal), and a multi-channel receiver with SPDIF/Toslink inputs (since that’s what the HDMI audio extractors typically output). At a minimum, it would take a large dedicated A/V receiver, which I didn’t have space for. For a tiny room, reused speakers, and an older TV that will be used primarily by my kids to play games and watch Netflix, I was not enthusiastic to put out that kind of money. So I was very surprised when my internet searches led to this device - it basically contains all of those features in a form factor the size of a paperback book, for a fraction of the price. It has 2 HDMI inputs and 1 HDMI output. So no HDMI switcher required. It has true 5.1 channel output (including a separate sub output, which I haven’t tried). So I can avoid the audio extractor to Toslink device. It has a built-in “20W per channel” (more on that) amplifier, so I didn’t need a separate receiver/amp. It has some modest tone control features (treble and bass) and you can separately control the volume of the center, front, rear, and subwoofer channels. Will “audiophiles” be into this? Probably not. Pyle gets mediocre reviews at best for sound quality. I can’t even vouch for the durability. But it gets the job done. Design: it’s a compact unit, the size of a paperback. The design is clean, modern, and actually handsome for a Pyle device. The metal case, buttons, and volume knob feel high quality. The remote, however, is very flimsy and the buttons are imprecise (minus 1/2 star for that), but that’s a minor quibble. Sound: The instructions are sparse, but from what I can tell, the “surround” button does the opposite of what you would think. If you have a true 5.1 channel input and you want 5.1 channel output, you turn surround OFF to get “real” 5.1 channel sound. If you turn it on, it uses (according to the manual) “analogy” five channel signal. Does that mean “simulated” 5 channel? Who knows, but I know when I had my Apple TV in Dolby 5.1 output mode, turning “analogy” Surround on meant I couldn’t hear the center channel. I turned it off and the center channel audio returned. To me, the sound was clear, stereo separation was accurate. Bass was a little anemic, but that could be both a function of my small speakers and whatever chipset the amplifier uses. As far as the wattage rating, it uses a 12V x 3A power supply, for a total of 36W. So I’m not sure how they calculate 20W per channel x 5 channels, or 100W total. No, that’s not a lot of watts, but - again - consider the optimal use for this amp. A typical bookshelf speaker is rated at 89-93dB/1W at 1 meter sensitivity (you put 1 watt of power in, it will generate 89-93dB of sound measured 1 meter away). As a rule of thumb, for every doubling in W, you get a 3dB bump in volume. So, even if I got 3-4W per channel, that would be VERY loud in a small room. Much more than that and I’m certain this little amp would start to distort (remember the total power input is only 36W). I’m assuming this has some low cost Class-D amplifier chip. Others noted a lot of distortion via BT - I paired it to my phone and streamed songs via Spotify (with “Analogy” five channel ON) and it sounded fine! No distortion. It pairs almost immediately and very easily. There's an audible chime that tells you when the device successfully pairs. Others noted that the unit would forget the preferred channel volume/treble/bass settings when turned off. I did not find that to be the case when I used the “sleep” function. Perhaps when you unplug the unit entirely? Who knows. It does not come with an FM antenna, but does have an FM tuner. So, overall - I'm very pleased. Very good value for the price. There is no way I could have purchased the various components (a 2-input HDMI switcher, HDMI audio extractor and multichannel amplifier with Bluetooth, FM tuner, and Aux input, or a much bulkier AV receiver) for anything close to the price of this unit. This is also, easily, the most compact solution to contain all these features. Much smaller than a typical AV home theater receiver. Minus 1/2 star for the flimsy remote, the unclear instructions, and the likely exaggerated power ratings.

I've had surround sound speakers set up in my living room for years, but the receiver stopped working quite awhile ago. So I've just been using my TV's built-in sound. But after I recently watched a movie and had to turn it all the way up to just barely make out the dialogue, I figured I'd look into a replacement. I had good luck with a Pyle PCA2 two-channel receiver I bought a few weeks ago, so I figured I'd try them again. Glad I did. This thing went from box to boom in about 20 minutes. It's easy to set up even if you don't read the manual. The back uses standard RCA/HDMI/speaker wire connections, so it wasn't tough. Admittedly, the sound is not going to match a Marantz or a Harmon/Kardon or anything...But it's way better than I expected for the price. It drove the speakers just fine, and got plenty loud and clear. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the remote had separate bass and treble adjustment, as well as an independent subwoofer volume. All in all, I was super impressed with the features. I even dropped a 5.1-mixed copy of my favorite album into my CD player, connected it, and fired it up. It sounded really good. Then I connected my phone to the built-in Bluetooth to play some MP3s, and that was easy as pie and sounded good, too. Honestly, I only have two complaints, and neither one has anything to do with the unit. One, the remote is pretty small and feels a little insubstantial...but it still works just fine. And two — now I think I may need to upgrade my speakers! They're pretty old, and I think some newer, bigger ones will sound better. This receiver will definitely drive them, though! If you have any reservations about picking up this unit, don't. You could certainly spend more on something with a fancier brand name, but this will definitely satisfy everyone but the pickiest audiophile.

First off let me say that you should completely ignore the critical reviews on this unit, I was a little skeptical after reading some of those but decided to take a chance anyway, and I am really glad that I did! I guess some people were expecting this $80 little unit to come with features and sound quality of something like Marantz, Harmon Kardon, Yamaha, etc. It is not that! However it is a decent and very reasonably priced solution for anyone looking for simplicity in a small package with very respectable sound quality. I installed this unit into my motorhome that already has a fairly high end 5.1 speaker setup. I previously had a Harmon Kardon AV receiver, a quality unit with a lot of features but it was also a big heavy unit that was bouncing around inside of the stereo cabinet when we were traveling down the road. To make matters worse, it also got very hot inside of the RV's stereo cabinet, which it shared with an Xbox. Therefore I decided to give this little Pyle unit a try in-place of the big HK. The first thing that I really liked was the ability to mount it with screws, I chose to mount it vertical up on the inside wall of the cabinet leaving plenty of space for the Xbox to reside by itself on a shelf. The unit does not generate a lot of heat at all, just barely warm to the touch, even after playing movies/music at level 15-20 volume levels. The bluetooth is very simple and easy to connect, and it even works from quite a distance away - I can be outside of the motorhome in a lawn chair, connected through my phone and playing music through this unit inside, and it stays connected great. It honestly would take a well trained ear to tell the difference in sound quality from this unit as compared to the HK AV receiver that it replaced. For our purpose it sounds really good while playing movies in surround sound, listening to music, and also while playing games on the Xbox. When my wife first heard it her response was "Wow! Is that coming out of that little thing?". Overall I couldn't find anything else comparable to this unit in size and especially in price. I am very satisfied so far and as long as it holds up long term I think it was a great purchase. We just returned from a 2-week vacation where this thing was on 85% of the time and it didn't miss a lick. The only reason I did not give 5 stars is because the antenna connection for FM is an oddball that I cannot seem to find any adapter for, so we haven't been able to use the radio functions at all. Not a big deal since we typically travel through different cities and often remote areas anyway.

FIRST THING THEY R NOT SUPPORTED BY AMAZON RETURNS. PAY OUT OF POCKET TO EVEN GET A REPLACEMENT UNIT OR RETURNING IT. EDIT: Gave this product a 2nd shot and I got fooled again. Atleast I can return it for free now because I will be returning it for a 2nd time. Either this is a bad & cheap product or there is no Quality Control with these guys. I'm hoping that it's the latter because the one that I got came in broken. One of the slots to put a speaker wire broke at 1st use and won't take a wire. The sound quality is a bit hit or miss. At different times it would have a hissing or a sudden but quick change in volume it is really weird. Something that my older and bigger receiver had no problem with. When I try to connect it to either of my PCs via HDMI, it cannot even register this device. My PCs' audio drivers r updated. IDK why this won't even see this device, I won't see it on the port. EDIT: The unit I got was functional this time, no broken parts. However, it still cannot connect to a PC via HDMI. While connecting it via aux still produced hissing and bad sound

I purchased this audio receiver to connect to my Nintendo-PlayStation Classic's HDMI port. This receiver includes a FM tuner, Bluetooth connectivity, 2 HDMI inputs and 1 HDMI output and RCA Aux input ports. Its about 6 inches long and 4 inches deep. I don't like how the radio antenna was designed. I'm not sure if my antenna is broken but the part that attaches to the receiver itself constantly falls out. The antenna attachment is a square but the receiver port is a circle. Another major dislike on the product is there is no HDMI-CEC available. I have to turn on my TV and the Pyle receiver separately. In a perfect world Id turn on my gaming console, which would turn on the Pyle receiver, which would turn on the TV set. Because HDMI CEC is not available I have to turn on all 3 devices separately. HDMI-CEC should be on all HDMI devices by default. I think I paid about $80 for it from Amazon. I have this receiver to connected to some older Fisher (Panasonic) speakers and they sound great. The surround sound is ok here as well. If I can get the antenna situated it will be well worth the $80. I just wish HDMI-CEC was in place. A few other things I don't like is the HDMI output audio is not in sync with the 5.1 surround sound. You will need to completely turn down the TV audio & only use the 5.1 output. The included Bluetooth is only for audio in. You will not be able to get audio output with with Bluetooth headphones or Bluetooth speakers. Audio output only comes for the 5.1 surround sound.

This product fit my needs perfectly for the bedroom. Look up the product specifications before buying, especially if you believe that you are purchasing a surround system with Boom-Box volume, because you will you will be disappointed for not doing the homework. There is at least one other reviewer who helped me decide to purchase this product because his application was similar to mine. I have setup in my bedroom a 27 inch LG TV with one HDMI input (no fiber-optic sound output option), configured with a HDMI Roku streaming stick. I wanted better sound in my bedroom than my LG TV could provide with its built in speakers. The volume in the bedroom was meant to be lower than my sound system in the entertainment room. I had a couple of spare Bose speakers laying around that I wanted to use for the bedroom TV setup. The Pyle PFA540BT amplifier fit my application perfectly with no compromise in quality. I wired (using 16-gauge wire) the two Bose speakers to the amplifier, inserted the Roku stick into one of the two HDMI inputs of the amplifier, and inserted an HDMI cable into the HDMI output of the amplifier and inserted the other end of the cable into the TV. I also connected an F-Type female plug wire antenna to the antenna terminal of the amplifier to make use of the built-in FM-radio when I'm not watching TV. The amplifier also has AUX inputs which I have not yet used. I have been using the above described setup for more than one month and I am very pleased with the Pyle amplifier. The amplifier has sufficient power at 20 Watts per channel to drive the Bose speakers with ample volume when the volume-dial is set about mid-way. I can stream video to the TV using the input mode set to the Roku stick. The sound quality coming out of the Bose speakers is much better than the TV speakers. There are no issues with voice not being synchronized with video streaming from the Roku stick. The amplifier's remote control is super easy to use. Even though the instructions seem sparse, they are very clear about how to operate the system. The remote has separate control buttons for all the features, and all the controls are also on the amplifier unit. The amplifier also picks up many FM-radio stations using the simple wire antenna I added. The amplifier has lots of memory to store favorite stations. The amplifier's Bluetooth feature also works flawlessly. I linked my Windows 10 laptop to the amplifier via Bluetooth. Of course, the incredible sound from the Bose speakers was much better than the laptop speakers. A Bluetooth connection to my iPhone was also accomplished with ease. The Pyle PFA540BT amplifier is a handsome and well-built, low-cost unit that has a small footprint. It rests neatly on my dresser next to the TV. I have not configured my bedroom entertainment system for surround sound, but it provides the option of connecting up to five speakers and a sub-woofer. I am very happy with the purchase I made because I chose the correct product for my application.

Bought this for the HDMI connection with 5.1 capability - that’s all I needed it for and unfortunately none of the HDMI ports functioned at all / no audio and no video. 3 different components did not even see the connection. Even the simplest of tasks displayed the HDMI did not appear to be connected at all with a multimeter (like they were just dummy ports) After reading many complaints of no HDMI success, I stopped testing. I then realized a great effort was made to falsely increase the positive reviews on Pyle products from the increased search results when searching for 5.1 HMDI Receivers. Receivers are an odd category today. I really don’t understand why all the receivers look identical to the units I had back in the 80’s and 90’s / funny thing is the quality is far lower. My powered receivers back then had more power than you could ever use (half volume) was loud enough for a night club and zero connectivity issues - ever. If you do decide to purchase this unit the Bluetooth seemed to be ok. But not sure why someone would want this type of appliance just for that when there are much cleaner and easier ways to accomplish this / brand quality names. Really wish I had the time to manufacture an affordable high quality unit for people looking for a smart receiver for simple optimal home theater systems. 5.1 speaker connections & higher. Quality multi jack/bare wire speaker connectors, HDMI arc port and 2 additional in. Smarter volume control for each speaker. Small, less buttons and simple remote for setup. When you sit down and turn on your TV remote, you don’t have to fumble remotes and play around for 15 minutes to get the sound right. It just works. You can get this today for about $300, but expect a monsterous receiver with 20 useless connection options - that’s what everyone is already making and that market is well covered. No tuner, no aux, no Bluetooth no useless features for watching a smart TV - a funny aside with this unit, 70% of the user manual explains how to use the antenna radio / really? It’s 2023 I am sure there are a couple people listening to the radio, but it’s obvious these manufactures are using parts left over and tooling machines from 2 decades ago just to get rid of them an pass the expense on to you. Well, enough blabber. Ordering some parts and making my own unbeatable receiver : ) Really wished this compact unit worked - I do hope it fits your needs if you purchase.

This item is easy to setup and passes HDMI through without any issues. The Audio is loud enough for small rooms. There is a line level subwoofer out so you will need to add a powered subwoofer. I have this installed in my RV and it was sufficient to watch and enjoy Theater effect in movies. The goods: *You can digitaly and remotely and trim the audio level for each set channel. Front, center, suround, subwoofer. *There is a seperate digital master volume knob that can be adjusted via remote also. *Can digitally trim the bass, trebble and dialog levels. *remote works very well The limitations: *Sound output is limited to 20W per channels. Sufficient for smaller rooms and efficient speakers such as bookshelf speakers. WIth all 5 channels running, sound level is limited. *Subwoofer output is line level. Will need an active or powered subwoofer. *Need the remote to access trims. Overall, I am very happy with the product for what I needed it for.

Buena calidad de construcción en aluminio. Excelente para home cinema de una sala pequeña y altavoces acorde, en mi caso sala de estar de 4x4m, y sistema bowers Wilkins m1. Opción estéreo y multicanal, no opciones ni modos ni funciones extras ni excesivos que te incitan a traer el control remoto en mano todo el tiempo. Lo que hace, para ese tamaño de salas, muy bien logrado. Solo tiene entradas hdmi y rca. Eche de menos una óptica. El control remoto con todas las funciones que ofrece el equipo, pero es de plástico blando y fragil, a tener cuidado. Lo compre de urgencia para sustituir averia de un receiver de marca premium, en estancia secundaria y, muy complacido.

There was always a risk with pyle stuff as its infamous for poor quality so took a gamble as it was the only compact HDMI amp out there. Was so impressed with the unit at first worked great. In fact was so impressed I was about to order a second one. Then after a week all HDMI inputs stopped working. I did the usual checks, cables etc all worked fine when connected direct. But via the amp no signal was getting through on both HDMI inputs. Lucky Amazon saved the day and arranged for an immediate return.

nice amplifier. bought it for my home use as an audios system in basement with the speakers that a friend got from a friend. Nice versatile unit

It does not meet my expectations.

The ir sensor is not very sensitive. The display is a 8segment display and not a matrix display like is depicted on the photos and that makes it look cheap. The bluetooth antena is not very good. I placed the thing behind the tv and is enough to cause interference with an iphone placed 8 feet away. No IR extension and no OSD so if you hide the thing behind your tv then you have to point the remote against the ceiling and you wont know wich input are you changing into and because the ir sensor is not very good sometimes does not work and you have to move close to be sure. Besides that, the product works good. If you place the receiver away from the tv i think the bt and the ir should work correctly but in my case the tv is on the wall so i had no choice. Very good sound for an amplifier like this. I solved the ir problem buying a cheap hdmi ir extension. Still no OSD though...