Good Left, right, surround sound.

Bad speaker wire, wire clips are cheap, and wall mounts are non adjustable horizontally.

Got it from UBID 280 Delivered. Im happy with the price. Its proly the best starting Home Theater for the price. The back drops Ive had so far is if you dont have a good top of the line A/V DTS or Pro Logic reciever, your in trouble. I have the Kenwood 309 so I dont have much problems. Luckily I can adjust db's to each channel. I reccommend Wharfedale Movies 5, if you dont want to rock the house down. Its a good bang for the buck secondary system for the bedroom or den. Of course not all of us can have the Bose II or III series for 4k, so its a good alternative.

Price, Size, Bang for the buck

Speaker wire, and Brackets.

Looked for a cheaper alternative for my den and got these for $260 incl. shipping from Ubid. Although it's been said many times, the wire and the brackets suck. Don't even waste your time trying to figure out the brackets and use the wire for bailing hay. I hung these from the ceiling using Bose UB-15 brackets which I bolted to the top of the satellites (I used the bracket option with the two thumb screws and opened up the case to attached them safely)and then attached the cover plate to the bottom to give it a finished look. They work and look great. Wharfedale could really use the services of a mechanical engineer. The spring clips are flimsy and I had to tin 16 guage in order to get them in. Pushing them with an older Pioneer Pro Logic while I wait for a new SOny 845 to arrive. Sound is good and at least as good as the Bose. (Note that I built the den with DTS in mind, so the acoustic set up in the den is far better than where the Bose reside.)

Similar Products Used:

Bose Acoustimass 3s and 7s

Nice styling. Deep full sound. Clear.

Crappy speaker wire

Got these from Ubid for 217 and they were worth every penny. They sound great!

cheap; fairly loud; small

passive Subwoofer; clips too small

This is a great 5.1 system for the money. For the price how could I go wrong? The Subwoofer sucks and the center channel could certainly be improved. I ran some tests on the speakers and they did very well however. Overall I really like the system. I think this would be a great system for anyone starting out with HTS.

Similar Products Used:

Bose

GREAT price for a wonderful starter 5.1 speaker set

The speaker wire provided is not the best

This is a GREAT speaker set for the money. If you don't have surround sound yet, this is a wonderful way to start, without spending too much money. Got them from U-Bid for under $275 delivered. With a Kenwood 209 A/V receiver, and a Toshiba 3109 DVD player, movies really sound (and look) nice. CDs on the Toshiba sound good, too.

I added an Advent550S powered subwoofer, and now the floors shake. My kids have their friends over all the time, and everyone loves it.

Similar Products Used:

N.A. upgraded from a 2 speaker stereo hookup

Price, sound acoustics

Speaker clips, sound quality (tonal)

I purchased these to be utilized for the computer and setup with a Technics SA-AX6 receiver/5000 decoder. I was quite impressed at first for such a package, but found some pros and cons of my own.

Pros:
1. Good all in one package that doesn't take up too much space (except subwoofer).
2. Good sounding acoustics on audio material from being a matched set. I was amazed at the sound quality when the system was put in Pro-Logic mode playing CDs. The sounds would reverberate through each speaker as I assume as it was intended to be. I also noticed improvements over other sound field settings (theater, hall, club). I couldn't get the same response from my home theater system since it wasn't a match set.

Cons:
1. speaker clips: I use 14 gauge wire, but had to cut that in half and still had a hard time getting any of it into the clips. I ended up tapering the end and stuck as much in as possible. I'm going to have to resort to pin connectors or replacing the connectors as a whole. I think the largest bare wire you can install is 18 gauge. Subwoofer had no problems as the connectors were bigger. One other concern I had that I investigated since they ship such a small speaker wire, was the speaker wire internally of each speaker. It's safe to say they they don't use the same speaker wire inside the speakers. I believe it to be 18 gauge wire.

2. Sound quality: There is something seriously missing in the bass. I believe the subwoofer is cut off somewhere between 80 to 90 Hz as they recommended in their book. However, there is no bass response whatsoever in the satellites. I found this out as I set up the sub-bass unit as a subwoofer. The receiver I have has the capability of outputting bandpass frequency and volume to the sub. So I turned down the volume and raised the subwoofer and played with the bandpass filter. I didn't notice any difference as the filter will work between 50-200 Hz.
I then turned down the sub and turned up the volume for the speakers and played with the bass and treble controls. The treble control was quite noticeable, but there was no difference in tone with the adjustment of bass control.
Therefore, I believe the frequency range between 90 and 400 hz could be missing as I know the center channel has it's own crossover network (the one torn apart to investigate the wiring), but also wonder if the other's could have their own crossover networks.
The main speakers are suppose to be utilized with the sub-bass unit for "proper" crossover frequency response. However, there should be some recognizable bass in the satellites if they aren't connnected. This leads me to beleive there are individual crossovers in each speaker to cut out these bass signals.
Because of the lack of bass, the room doesn't have a "fullness" to it. You hear the midrange, highs, and feel/hear the subwoofer, but altogether, it doesn't fill the room like my HT system does. By cranking up the bass, the sub only makes things rattle more and eventually overpowers the satellites. By cranking up the speakers, you only suffer from ringing of the ears.

3. The sub-bass was bigger than I expected it to be. It isn't powered either, so if you utilize it as a subwoofer as I do, make sure your receiver has an amp output for a sub. If you don't, you can set it up with your front main speakers.

Summary: Fortunately I bought this set for only one purpose in mind: a mini system for a den to go with my computer for gaming, DVD watching, and audio listening. I would not recommend this for a HT system at all. However, if you don't like your music loud and not much of a bass (100-400 HZ) fan, these would be a good starter set. Somehow the system is able to blend the deep bass with the speakers and make something out of nothing, but don't crank it too loud or you could receive ear damage from the highs.

I replaced a couple of speakers with the 301s briefly. Even though I received those lows for the fullness, I missed out on the highs. I even replaced the center channel with the Polk that I had. The Polk had better response to bass also, but it didn't match the rest of the system in tone quality.

I guess with the system and for the price, you gain some and lose some. I gained better sound (surround?) effect for acoustics, but I lost (and missed) the fullness of the music representation.

Hopefully when I receive my Acoustic Research HC-2 speakers (to replace my existing HT system), I'll get the best of both worlds.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha towers, Bose SE-5, Bose 301, Polk center channel.

Small Package with lots of sound! Great for apartments or smaller rooms.

Cheap speaker wire provided.

Found the Wharfedale's on UBid. Got them including shipping for about $300. Didn't have a AV receiver yet so based on reviews here purchased a Denon AVR2800 along with a Panasonic 5-disc DVD/CD player. Wow! Sound is great. Probably would benefit from a powered sub-woofer but for the complete price of the system (approx $1400 excluding cables and wiring) the sound if phenomenal. 5 Channel stereo sounds terrific. Then, I got S-Video hook-up to the TV (Sony 27") and the combo of DVD pix and sound is unreal! I'd swear it's as good as being in a theater. Matrix, Replacement Killers, and Saving Private Ryan are too much! So real. But now I have a bid in at uBid for the upgraded Wharfedale center channel speaker....audiophiles tell me if I am doing the right thing? Can I do this?

Similar Products Used:

none

Great Value for a Surround System.
Great Audio delivery for movies

Speaker wire is not great. Speaker mounts are OK but to not let you adjust the position.

Went against my prefernce for tower speakers and bought this satelite system. My main reason for buying these were price & reported performance of Wharfedale. (I have a bias for Eurpoean design) Got these @ ubid for $260 delivered. (Before buying these I spoke to the local US sales office where they said regular retail was $800 & if you look it up at www.wharfedale.co.uk you can convert their British price list to confirm & get a better idea of what wharfedale is) I hooked these up in my TV room to my newly bought Harmon Kardon avr 25II (ubid for $160). I also hooked up my 2004 series B&W 3-way Tower speakers in the ajoining living room. These Modus Movie speakers are best you can buy under $300. For Movies they provide a good full sound. The first movie I played (JVC 4-head stereo)was Lethal Weapon 4 - WOW. Although I wish the center channel was a bit bigger, you can compansate with the controls on the H/K. For music they are pretty good too. The satelites are responsible for too much sound production (Mid & High) and because of that you can hear what you are missing. They handle the upper mid & lower highs well. They are missing they lower med & higher high ends. The subwoofer provides good sound. My B&Ws provide a better overall sound (wharfedale has better bass) but I would have had to invest at least $500 just for Center & rear speakers, and 400-500 for a subwoofer! Wharfedale is a great choice for those who love music & movies, but don't want to pay through the nose.

Included book on home theater design

I didn't have any problem with the brackets but I do have a problem with setting the center channel speaker on top of my RCA 27" TV. But I'll be replacing the TV soon anyhow. The speakers sound great and are a good match for my Onkyo DR90 that I picked up from UBID.com at the same time. These are excellent speakers even if they cost four times as much.

I just purchased this speaker package from ubid for $279 shipped. I plan to hook them up tonite for a test run. I hope I didn't make a mistake by purchasing these because there is a limited amount of info and reviews of this package on the net. I based my decision on the price and solid reviews on other Wharf speakers. I will give a follow up soon. I must admit I am nervous. I'll give three stars based on price alone. After I break them in I'll give another rating based on price and performance.