Customer Reviews

Acoustic Research WHT6024 2.4 Ghz Wireless Home Theater System

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great set, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who had the same dilemma I had. I can see how this would not work in every application, but it's great for me and the sound is better than I expected (I swapped out a nice JBL set so I knew I was in for a little disappointment, but it still exceeded my expecations).

My dilemma was I have hardwood floors and a 2-story house. My family room is very open with lots of wide doorways and openings and a lot of exposed floor. I don't have anywhere to hide speaker wire and I'm not going to tear up the floor and walls.

The package arrived in less than 5 days and was packed very nice. At first I was disappointed at how small the speakers were - they look larger in the pictures. My disappointment quickly faded though as I placed the speakers around and saw how pleased my wife was at how they disappeared into her decor. There is a lot of sound packed into these small speakers. Each speaker has two midrange drivers and a tweeter. They have a nice, solid heavy feel to them.

Contrary to another review, setting up the rear speaker stands was effortless. They came prewired, and the stands put together much like a torchiere lamp. No tools required - everything hand tightens and when done correctly is very secure. I was in no big rush so I took my time and polished off a couple beers while my wife watched. They went above and beyond and included little adapters for the feet so they can poke into carpet, as well as some little stands for the pointers to rest on. I did not use any of these, but I appreciate the thought.

The hardest part for me was getting everything else wired. The speakers are set up to a Yamaha HTR home theater receiver, a 50" Panasonic plasma, a DirecTV HD DVR, and a Sony Vaio home theater PC with Blu-Ray. I ended up with all digital connections thanks to HDMI and Optical.

Once everything was plugged in, I powered up and had no sound to the rear speakers, but I don't think it's an issue with the speakers. The transmitter for the rear speakers was connected via RCA cables to my receiver, which I had thought was a little goofy anyway but I wanted to try it. I replaced the RCA with regular speaker wire (that was not included BTW), and they fired up immediately. There was no need to synch or set anything special up - it's all automatic. I was very pleased.

At first I did not think I was getting enough bass out of the sub, but there was an array of settings to manually adjust the levels, and I found the sub packs more then enough punch for what we need. I vibrated a couple pictures off the mantle. We tried some of the XM statiosn at first, and the sound was great - as good as can be for speakers this small, but they have nice crisp highs, full mid, and of course, plenty of bass. We listend to some Classic Vinyl first, then tried some of the Hip Hop to test out the bass, and finished with some streaming Pandora. I was pleased with all music.

The real test was the next day. I picked Pearl Harbor because it has THX sound and I really wanted something with a wide range. There is good music in the movie, lots of gunfire, plane crashes, explosions, and a ton of dialogue. The speakers passed every test with flying colors. Even my wife who does not get excited about this stuff regularly commented on how amazing the sound was. I have noticed a slight hiss coming out of the rear speakers, but when we're watching TV it's totally unnoticeable.

I have my speakers placed approximately 20 feet from the transmitter and they have a solid connection.

MUCH THANKS to the previous reviewer who mentioned the speakers stay on as long as they have a signal from the transmitter. This would have been a disaster for me since my equipment is so difficult to access. While I had my receiver turned around backwards, I plugged the transmitter power supply into one of the switched outlets on the back of my receiver so everything shuts off when I power down my receiver. Otherwise, the slight hiss would have driven me crazy.

Here are the cons and why they did not get five stars:
The small size may disappoint you - the pictures are deceiving, but it was great for me.

There was no speaker wire included other than a couple of feet prewired in the rear stands (which is a plus). But I needed wire for the front and center speakers, and I needed more wire to connect the rear transmitter to my receiver.

The bases for the rear stands are UGLY and bulky. If you are going to be placing them on a bare wall, then these are NOT for you. These need to be hidden behind furniture.

Each speaker stand has to be plugged in to a power outlet, and they have a VERY bulky and ugly power supply - looks just like a Laptop power supply with the large AC adapter with the green light and everything. This wire would be impossible to hide on a bare wall. Mine is hidden under the couch on one and behind a very large plant for the other. One thought though is the speakers do not HAVE to go on the stands. The stands can be as far aways from the speaker for as long of speaker wire as you want to run. You could theoretically put both stands in a trunk or something, and then run the speaker wire out from each stand to the speaker. I almost placed mine on the end tables, but I would have sacrificed some sound quality to do it.

All in all, an excellent set and accomplished all my needs and then some.

Seems to be missing the speaker wire for the front, center and subwoofer. Would have been much easier to set up if they were in the box.