This gadget is a good choice if you want to surround yourself in high fidelity. This one is a reasonable 5.1 home theater speaker system with four satellite speakers, a central channel speaker, and a powered sub-woofer. At the price of $84, this gadget is worth the purchase.
What is it?
Monoprice is an Internet retailer that gained fame by providing a wide class of tech accessories at an extremely low price. As an audio device, the affordable price offers a plastic exterior instead of a wooden one but the heaviness of the gadget gives you a different impression altogether. It is indeed a good gadget to start with if you have a small room.
Key features
Speaker components:
1) Four satellite speakers: Each speaker is wall mountable, wired, 6 inches high, 4.1 inches wide and deep, and weighs around 1.8 pounds, which concludes that they are small. These 8 ohms speakers are capable of handling power upto 120-130 watts within a frequency range of 150-200 Hz. Each is fitted with one 3-inch cone paper woofer driver and a 0.5-inch dome tweeter. Finished with sandy texture, these black cabinets look surprisingly descent.
2) The central speaker: It is 9.7 inches wide, 3.9 inches deep & 4.1 inches high. The speaker weighs about 3 pounds and is fitted with two 3″ shielded mid-range cone tweeter. It has the same frequency and ohm range as that of satellite speakers.
3) The sub-woofer: This beast has wired connections and has dimensions of 10 inches width, 5.2 inches depth, and 13.7 inches height, and weighs about 16.5 pounds. With a single 8″ cone woofer that fires downwards, it has a 60-watt RMS (root mean square) amplifier along with stereo RCA (Radio Corporation of America) inputs for all speaker levels. It has satellite matching textures along with simple plain looks. This devil can handle frequencies within a range of 50-250 Hz.
What’s innovative?
The power cable is about 4ft long. The woofer is of active category as it has its own built-in-amplifier whereas the satellites are passive. The entire audio set has a sensitivity of 85 db.
The four satellite speakers and the central speaker handle mid- and high-range audio signals, contrary to which the woofer manages low audio signals, all fully supported with adjustable cross over frequencies and volume balance controls. Metal grilles are provided on the speakers that cannot be removed, though one can see the paper woofers and tweeters through the grill net.
The cabinets are made up of plastic rather than wood, despite which they are quite heavy, thus ensuring a well-built quality.
All the metal connectors are push-to-open, which ensures that the speaker connections are definitely secured. Being small, the connectorsâ hole size does not allow thick audiophile speaker wires. Therefore, Monoprice recommends using a maximum of 16-gauge speaker wire.
One really simple but useful asset provided is the four C-shaped brackets for mounting the satellite speakers on vertical surfaces. Hardware necessary for fixing the speakers to the bracket is also provided, but for fixing the brackets to the surface, one will have to acquire their own hardware. A plastic foot is also provided for the central speaker to adjust the face of the speaker.
Price and availability:
Finally, it can be said that Monoprice has done almost a commendable job by launching such a wonderful product at this price. For someone who is not so keen on spending $400-500 on a 5.1 music system, this black beast is the best at this price. The performance in overall aspect is very good, but considering the merits of this device, some cons can be neglected. At this price of $84, it is a dream come true for many music lovers with a limited budget. So now, you can have this remarkable thing in your little room without burning a hole in your pocket.
The up side
The price of this item by far is its biggest virtue given its range of features offered at this price.
The down side
With a limited budget, you do not get the ideal finish of a wooden exterior. However if you are prepared to spare some extra bucks, then the Pioneer SP-PK21BS and Energy Take Classic 5.1 can do a better job.
Our experience
Regarding performance, the over all balance is good, and the sub woofer matches with the satellite quite well. Minute harsh sounds and distortion are well managed by the speaker’s tweeters. In order to ensure best possible sound performance, one should place the sub woofer within 4 ft to 5 ft among any one of the front speakers.
The small speakers create a good surround sound when on natural effects; when played loud it hardly creates any overt distress and so delivers great sonic assaults.
The bottomline
When it comes to a gadget like the speaker and its sub woofers, one is always apprehensive of the high investment that is involved. However, this is where Monoprice 8247 5.1 speaker system scores over the rest by introducing the new chain of speakers that caters to the common man’s budgetary constraints. Hence, factors like a small room and limited budget will not be a hindrance anymore.
