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Average user rating:
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5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"Very nice sound, if you can hear it."
Pros: Sounds great, lots of inputs, looks nice too.
Cons: 1000 Watts? Get real....
Summary: My old Memorex 5.1 surround sound system finally conked out last week.
I'm not much of an audiophile or anything, I just like to have nice sound to go with my movies. Hence the Memorex system I had bought refirbished for $60 years ago. It only had three stereo audio inputs, but did a remarkable job at simulating surround sound.
I came across an ad in our local paper for a WalMart rollback. This RCA system, at about a 20% discount. I had seen it on a few previous trips to the store, and thought it looked nice. So, I picked one up and spent an evening installing it.
The unit itself looks really nice. All the major controls on the remote are also available on the front of the unit.
During installation I found that the speakers have wires coming out the back instead of the usual speaker wire jacks. I wasn't very happy about this because I had to rout the rear speakers, and the wire provided wasn't nearly enough to do the job. Lucky for me, I had already routed the wire from my old system, and so I joined the speaker wires from my old system, soldered them together and insulated the connections with electrical tape.
Since every room has different dimensions, and different routing requirements, it seems rather odd to have a length of wire permanently connected to all the speakers.
I installed the RCA audio output from my TV to the unit, and also used a digital optical connector from my dvd player to the unit.
Since it came with a built in tuner, the manufacturer provided an AM and an FM antenna. I've always thought it was a little odd to provide AM tuners in products that are ment to be installed near a TV, since they always seem to suffer from interference due to the proximity of the TV. This unit is no exception. The manual tells you to place the AM Antenna away from objects that might cause interference like TVs (funny), but of course they don't provide enough wire to get the antenna far enough away from the TV for the AM tuner to work very well. Only about half the available stations come in at all, and those that do all suffer from very bad interference.
The FM antenna is basically just a wire, about three or four feet long. However, due to the nature of FM, it actually comes in clearly. A better idea would have been to have a cable input on the back of the reveiver so I could connect my cable to receive perfect FM radio. At least they could have used a standard FM antenna connector so I could connect a better antenna.
Well, I didn't buy it to listen to the radio, right? Listening to the audio from my TV was fine. Clear, low base, crisp highs. Good seperation. There were a lot of functions in the unit to allow you to set the sound up for the room you're system is in. You can increase the sound level of any of the speakers by up to 5db. This is something my old system sorly lacked. It was very seldom you could actually hear the rear speakers, but the Memorex would only allow the rear speakers to be the same volume, or lower, as the front speakers.
With the RCA system, I can increase the volume of the rear speakers so I can actually hear them now. It's sorta creepy hearing a creak coming from behind you during a scary movie, and turning only to realize it was the movie making the sound.
All in all I'm pretty happy with this system except for one thing.
The box advertises it as being 1000 Watts. I'm sorry, but there's no way this system is 1000 Watts.
I'm a tech, I repair home electronics for a living. I cannot see for the life of me how they can claim this is 1000 Watts.
The unit maxes out at a volume setting of 47. This is the first time I'v ever seen a digital system that maxed at such an odd number. Most systems max at 100. Of course, this is mearly an arbitrary scale, but still, 47?
So, I cranked it to 47. At that level, the FM receiver sounds fairly loud, but certainly not 1000 Watts. The RCA TV input is less loud, and the optical digital input is terrible. The quality is great, but the loudness must only be about 20 Watts RMS per channel or less. I have a 20 Watt per channel car stereo that blows this away for volume.
I can only assume their rating must be 1000 Watts p-p, or peak to peak. Unfortunately, even that doesn't make sense. There are 5 speakers (not counting the sub woofer). To get peak Watts from p-p you devide by two. That would give us 500 Watts peak (p). Devided by 5 speakers is 100 Watts p per speaker. To get RMS from Peak, you multiply by .707. That gives us 70.7 Watts RMS per channel (this is being generous since I'm not including the sub woofer). This should be enough to make my ears ring, but as I said earlier my 20 Watt RMS per channel car stereo blows this unit away for volume. Also, there's no excuse for the digital optical audio being at such a lower volume level compaired to the analogue and radio inputs.
If I could squeeze another 25% more volume out of this puppy I would give it a rating of 8, but with such a poor volume performance for a unit rated at 1000 Watts, it only deserves a 6/10. At least it's "clean" maximum volume. There is no banging of speakers reaching the end of their travel, no distortion. Even with the FM tuner on, and the unit maxed, there was no distortion.
If you need surround sound for a TV in a smaller room, and you don't need to have the walls shaking, this might be a good unit for you.
Personally, I like to feel the sound as much as hear it, and you'd think 1000 Watts would provide that...
RCA RT2770:
