Rockville HTS56 1000W 5.1 Channel Home Theater System, Bluetooth, USB, 8" Subwoofer, LED Light Effects, Remote Control, Optical Input, for Movies, Music & Karaoke

TLDR: If you have a couple hundred bucks and want a starter-level home theater system that will help you figure out what you want in a future, high-quality theater system, definitely pick this up. Buy a DAC to go with it, too. Throw the whole thing in a man-cave after it's outlived its usefulness. Nice system for the price, but it belongs in a man-cave or office, not as a real theater setup like I intended it for in the living room. I expected this going in, based on other reviews, so I have no regrets about this purchase. I bought it because I have never had a theater system, and have never been to someone's house that had one, so this was my first experience with using anything related to "surround sound" and I wanted to use this as a learning experience. Pros: It's loud. Very loud. So loud that I'm sure my neighbors knew when I had installed it. Simple to setup. Pretty straightforward to use. Great for watching TV and most movies (more on this soon). Cons: The fidelity of the speakers is not amazing, which is what I expected for the price and why I would not use this system to listen to music. The lack of fidelity is very noticeable on music, but I would say hardly noticeable (if at all) when watching most movies/TV. The primary drawback, for me, was its inability to decode digital 5.1 signal, and why I say MOST movies/TV. It will ACCEPT digital signal through SPDIF, but can only read PCM encoding (which carries 2.1 instead of 5.1). It cannot decode actual surround sound signal. It can only decode left, right, and subwoofer (the 2.1 signal), and this is a best-guess scenario when the audio is downgraded from 5.1/7.1 to 2.1. So most of the time it's fine, but some soundtracks end up very... odd. Like for Justice League, the music was extremely quiet most of the time, while dialogue, explosions, and everything else sounded great. Still watchable, but very jarring. RECCOMENDED TO GO WITH IT: I bought a $40 DAC (digital audio convertor) to decode the SPDIF 5.1 channels to 6 RCA plugs, and plugged those into the theater system. Real 5.1 surround sound achieved. Jank workaround, but everything sounds SO much nicer.

Highly appreciated and met my expectations. Perfect sound output

I read all the reviews before buying the Rockville stereo, they all seemed to be outstanding reviews so I had to give this stereo a chance. I mainly purchased this stereo because I wanted to update the older Bose stereo I have with a more modern on which is bluetooth capable because I listen to Apple music almost constantly and hated that I couldn't play it on my stereo, granted this Rockville stereo is no way close to being a Bose. When it arrived the very first thing I noticed that I was disappointed about was the center speaker, I thought it would be longer and was disability because I wanted it laying in front of my television, to be honest all of the speakers are shorter then I thought they would be. Taking into consideration that all the speakers only have two 3 inch speakers in them other then the 8 inch subwoofer, it does in fact sound fairly good, unless you go in turning up each individual speaker as they distort and rattle. I seen several reviews saying there is absolutely no distortion or rattling but there can be depending on how you set it and the remote control is pretty confusing for a simple, cheap stereo system. The led lights on the speakers and main body are probably pretty cool to most people but I myself find them annoying, the led lights on the main body have a variety of settings but the speakers themselves only have one setting and can not be turned off. The only other thing about this stereo that I really do not care for is that the subwoofer is actually in the main body of the stereo, so if you have the stereo body on a table or bookshelf, anything sitting on there with it will rattle around and can fall off. There is some bass with this stereo, it is not superb but it is actually very good for a cheaper stereo system. Another annoying feature of this stereo is when it is shut off, there are two red lines that constantly blink where the screen is on the main body, I have no idea why they thought this would be a good idea, I mean when the stereo is off, it should remain off. The main body also has a knob on it with some stereo control features, it is very basic and doesn't control to much at all of what this stereo can do. In order to use all of the stereo functions you need to use the remote, so if you misplace the remote or if the remote is damaged then you won't be able to use most of the control features. Being able to adjust all of the speakers individually is very nice, that way if from where you are sitting or standing you can adjust them so you get the most out of each speaker but again that will most likely lead to some distortion or rattling. So far the bluetooth has worked pretty good, I have not had any disconnections but I have had some interference of some sort to where the stereo would get quite soft while listening to it at an elevated level, I am not sure what caused that but I think it was an app lagging or something. Overall, I would say for the money that this is without doubt your best option to get a good sounding stereo with bluetooth capabilities, it sounds very good and has some decent enough bass so you would be able to listen to your favorite songs and enjoy the experience whether you enjoy some classical, country, Americana or some loud rock or some hard hitting rap.

Exceeds expectations

So I made this purchase a few weeks ago. It took two weeks to receive the product. I was a little disappointed, but it was fine. It arrived while I was out of town for work and was waiting for me when I got back home. Easter Sunday I woke up and said, let’s open it up. It was packaged wonderfully. Everything was wrapped neatly as well as securely. I tan all my wiring, plugged it in and was quite impressed. The sound quality was very nice. Everything was working perfectly. It was about fifteen minutes in that I went out into the living room to see if I could hear it outside of my room. It sounded like a movie theater inside the room, so I needed to check the loudness. As I was walking back into my room, I noticed there was no sound. I thought, hmmm, what could be the issue? Well, it turns out that while I was checking the lower on the back, as well as the power chord and outlet is was plugged in to, I noticed a burning smell from inside the receiver/sub woofer. It completely died. Fried up and didn’t even have it hooked for half an hour. So I contacted the seller. It has taken another week to get everything situated. Took a week to get all the shipping information and labels. Now I still have yet to receive my refund. I would have rather just had another receiver sent so I could send the old one back, but instead, I had pull everything back out, repackage it, and send it all back. This has been one hell of an experience and will never purchase anything from them again. I needed up going to Walmart and purchasing a Vizio surround that actually sounds better, plus, it was a little cheaper. It would be a great product if it actually worked. Buy at your own risk.

I'm loving this. I was using a jerry rigged surround sound, and I've never used actual surround so this, this is incredible. First things first setting up was so incredibly simple. Part of that is the incredible length wire that's provided for the rear speakers. I measured (badly) and thought the location I'd have to place them would be meh, however, they were plenty long to reach the back of the room. I have full room coverage. I thought this was going to take me hours to set up. I think I had it set up and done within fourty-five minutes. It could've been shorter, but I used different wall mounts than the ones it came with. I don't have everything I need to set up correctly, namely a level and this system still sounds wonderful. Second, volume... be careful with this beast. I always test my sound systems (car, computer, etc) and playing from BT some decent songs, I could hear this on the road. So if you live in a city that doesn't put up with so called Noise Pollution, or neighbours who are delicately put- dick wads, get a less worthy system. The remote is part of the review, and it's simple and easy to use, no complaints at all. Overall, vaule for money, while I've only had for a few hours now (will update eventually) I'd have to say this is the best $150ish I've spent in a very long time. Update- I've have this surround system for about two years now. It's still as clear as the day I bought it. There've been times I thought it was going out, only to discover it was from the source audio, not the speakers. I had the led lights unplugged for the longest time, but having them on really can add a sort of theather setting lighting. It would be nice if there was a dimmable function for them, however, if found too bright it's easy to unplug. I can't comment on the remote as it's been long since destroyed via my children. For the $150ish I spent on this, it has absolutely been worth it. Overall... Complete satisifaction.

My father in law wanted a soundbar because he is 83 and I seen this for around the same price as a soundbar so he went ahead and ordered it . When he received it he called me to come hook it up . After the very simple hook up I turned it on . And yes we used the optical for the sound . It was unbelievable, the sound is loud and clear and simple to operate. Me wife and I loved it so much we also bought one and it's all hooked up . The videos do not do this unit any justice at all , it's a very powerful system, Bluetooth hooked right up instantly, the S D card plays excellent and same with the USB . Rockville you ROCKED IT !!! R.D.G.

It’s got bass and sound clean but if you a sound system head, it doesn’t have highs and after 30-45 minutes bumpin it, the subs gets quieter and speakers. Not meant for over an hour of full thumping it but pretty solid for $120 I got it for. 8 inch sub sounds pretty solid if you have it half volume long term but blasting it, gets quieter over time. Worth the 120 guaranteed but wouldn’t pay $170 full price for the quality