Just joined w/in the last couple of days, trying to get my post count up so I can post links/pics and so on. This is a 'review' (if we want to call it that) of the Monoprice 10565 5.1 system I purchased via a major online retailer that sounds like Amaze-A-Zon (not sure if it's ok to mention 'names', etc...).
If this is out of place here, mods.. feel free to delete.
EDIT: This was originally written back in March 2010'ish I think?
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Been meaning to do a review of this system for a while. Had the 10565 system since Oct '18 in the upstairs gameroom where its main duty is being connected to the xbox. Additionally, I stream music via bluetooth to the AVR and it does a great job for that as well (receiver is only putting out about 80-90W/ch, and over about 50W/ch it starts to break up, so no sense pushing it anyway).
It's 200.00, or was when I got it... for a 5.1, powered-sub system. It sounds perfectly fine at that price point. You're not expecting to top a $1500 Klipschissplittlixblah-blah system for this price-point. Accept that, enjoy the great sound this puts out at reasonable volume levels, and carry on. I wouldn't crank this up to '11' for a party and expect it to survive... but I wouldn't do that for any stereo I have either... I have sympathy for my stuff I guess. I've had it at 50% volume for hours playing music though.. plenty loud (rock, metal, etc...).. though 'plenty' is of course subjective.
In the 20x12 room it sits in, it will give pretty decent thump for sound-effects and movies w/in reason. Again.. price-point here.
I paid at least $100 more than this 20 years ago (so, really, like ~$400 in today's money) for something way less 'good'... w/just a passive subwoofer, and less power-handling ability and it sounded like empty wooden boxes being klonked on by a swarm of agitated beavers vs. some pretty nice sound out of the monoprice setup.
I don't know if I would push these speakers to the 'rated' power.. but surely they could hang with 50'ish nice, clean watts per-ch (you know, before your $300 receiver really starts to push out a lot of distortion anyway).
I suspect the target buyer is someone in an apartment where noise-levels have to be rational. I think it'll do a great job filling an apartment living room with nice sound and the sub isn't so crazy that your neighbors will kill you (it has adjustments to set the levels and so on.. if you tick off your neighbors, that's on you).
I'm saying all this stuff about 'bang for buck' and so on b/c I'm assuming anyone looking at this is on a budget and isn't packing a $2000 tube-amp at home waiting to connx to this thing. You're like a lot of us,.. got a budget AVR rated to somewhere between 70 and 100'ish Watts/ch for movies/music and want something that will at least compliment that setup. This will do that. Remember your budget AVR(eceiver) may be rated to 100W/ch, but it'll really give up doing that job distortion-free/low somewhere ~30W south that of that number (on a continual basis).
Finish Quality: Again.. price-point-wise... it's exactly what I expected.. not fancy in the least, but clean. Some small imperfections in the finish.. nothing I can spot from more than a foot or two away that makes me upset. These are not 'lookers'.. though they look nice enough w/the grills off vs some other offerings in this price range I think. They actually disappear visually pretty well honestly... and I would think that has a different kind of appeal to the folks that don't -want- a showy, in-your-face system.
Use/Assembly: Easy peasy... 5.1 systems have been around a while now... this is no different than the vast majority. You plug the wires from the appropriate channels off your AV Receiver into the various speakers, and your sub-out to the sub's inputs. Four of the speakers are identical, makes no difference which of those four goes where (front L/R vs rear L/R). The center channel is specifically made/intended to be such.. it's obvious, can't mess it up. The powered sub does not have the '5' outs itself.. it just takes either RCA inputs or speaker-level left/right from stereo. So, it won't necessarily turn an old-school 2-channel stereo into a 5.1 system... not in any easy plug/play way that I am aware of anyway.. but I'm hardly an expert. Seek YouTube Gurus for that kind of info. There's instructions in the box.. read those, I may be completely lying about the 2->5.1 thing... I did not read them, but my setup was blindingly-easy, even for me.
So, there's my 5-or-so month update... still quite pleased, don't have any regrets for the type of use I've put it through.
