It took some time to get the WHT6024's to sound right--straight out of the box, the satellites sounded thin and anemic, and the subwoofer's bass was way too boomy. Then again, that's not unusual, and with satellites as small as these, a careful setup is always crucial. It wasn't until we placed the sub within a few feet of the front right speaker, and adjusted the crossover frequency control of our receiver--the Denon AVR-3808CI--to 120 Hertz that we achieved a reasonably smooth blend between the sats and sub. After we invested 20 minutes of fine tuning the sound, the WHT6024 was ready for serious listening tests.
Starting with acoustic music from the Avett Brothers' Emotionalism CD, we were impressed with the speakers' detail and clarity. The band's guitars, banjos, and other acoustic instruments had plenty of snap, though we noted that the vocals sounded slightly hard. Despite our best setup efforts, the speakers never let us forget they were small.
Cream's Royal Albert Hall concert DVD from 2005 sounded somewhat bright and treble-heavy, especially when we cranked up the volume. The big sub had power to spare, and it did a fair job with Cream's bass player's sound. Overall, bass definition was good, but not great.
Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers DVD sounded notably better. The big artillery blasts were communicated with surprising gusto and the rat-tat-tat of machine gun fire made us jump. The speakers' detail highlighted the metallic sounds of the spent shell casings hitting the ground. Even in the midst of the fiercest battle scenes, dialog remained clear.
As far as the competition goes, you can find better-sounding 5.1 speaker systems, such as the $800 Mirage Nanosat Home Theater System--but you'd have to add your own wireless capability with add-on kits from the likes of KEF ($600) or Best Buy's RocketFish ($100). Alternately, KEF's own KHT-5005.2W--which combines its wireless kit with the excellent 5005.2 speaker system--works well, but the combined price tag is more than three times that of the Acoustic Research bundle.
In the final analysis, we were happier with the WHT6024's sound on movies than music--a verdict that is true of many surround sound systems. The wireless aspect of the system worked flawlessly, but--like nearly all such systems--the "wireless" moniker is something of a stretch.
Assitant Editor Jeff Bakalar contributed to this review.
What You'll Pay
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