Review on 🔊 Powerful 100W 5 Channel Wireless Bluetooth Home Audio Amplifier for Home Theater, Surround Sound Receiver with HDMI, AUX, FM Antenna Inputs, Subwoofer Speaker Input, and 12V Adapter - Pyle PFA540BT by Brooke Wenzel

So I have an old HDTV with limited audio output functionality, a set of bookshelf speakers and a center channel speaker, and 2 HDMI devices (an Apple TV and a games console). I wanted to put everything together for a small 11 x 11 foot room used as a kids playroom in the attic. Preferably with a small, cheap and not too complicated solution. It turns out that putting together a system that does this is surprisingly expensive if you want true multi-channel audio. You need an HDMI switcher (to switch between two HDMI devices), an HDMI audio extractor (to extract 5-channel audio from an HDMI signal), and a multi-channel receiver with SPDIF/Toslink inputs (because this is HDMI audio extractors usually output). At the very least, this would require a large dedicated A/V receiver, which I didn't have room for. For a tiny room, repurposed speakers, and an old TV that was mostly used by my kids to play games and watch Netflix, I wasn't thrilled to spend that kind of money. So I was quite surprised when my web search led to this device - it basically packs all of these features into a paperback-sized form factor at a fraction of the price. It has 2 HDMI inputs and 1 HDMI output. Thus, no HDMI switch is required. It has a true 5.1 channel output (including a separate aux output which I haven't tried). This way I can avoid extracting audio to the Toslink device. It has a built in "20 watts per channel" amplifier (more on that) so I didn't need a separate receiver/amplifier. It has some modest tone control features (treble and bass), and you can adjust the volume of the center, front, rear, and subwoofer channels separately. Will it be audiophiles? Probably no. Pyle gets mediocre reviews at best for sound quality. I can't even vouch for the durability. But he does his job. Design: This compact device is about the size of a paperback book. The design is clean, modern and looks really good for a Pyle device. The metal casing, buttons and volume control appear to be of very high quality. However, the remote is very weak and the buttons are imprecise (minus 1/2 star for that), but that's a minor issue. Sound: The instructions are sparse, but as far as I can tell the "Surround Sound" button is the opposite of what you think. If you have true 5.1 input and want 5.1 output, turn off surround sound to get "true" 5.1 audio. When you turn it on, it uses (according to the instructions) a five-channel "analog" signal. Does this mean "imitation" of 5 channels? Who knows, but I do know that when my Apple TV was running in Dolby 5.1 output mode, turning on "analog" surround meant I couldn't hear the center channel. I turned it off and the center channel sound came back. For me the sound was clear, the stereo separation was accurate. The bass was a little anemic, but that could be down to my small speakers as well as the chipset the amp uses. So I'm not sure how they calculate 20w per channel x 5 channels or just 100w. No, that's not a lot of watts, but again, consider getting the most out of this amp. A typical bookshelf speaker has an output of 89-93dB/1W at 1m (at 1W it produces 89-93dB of sound at 1m). Typically, for every doubling of W, you get a 3dB increase in volume. So even if I get 3-4 watts per channel, it would be VERY loud in a small room. A lot more and I'm sure this little amp will start to distort the sound (remember the total power draw is only 36 watts). I suspect it has some sort of cheap Class D amplifier chip. Others have noticed a lot of distortion over BT - I hooked it up to my phone and streamed songs through Spotify (with five channel analogy enabled) and it sounded good! Without distortion. It connects almost instantly and is very easy. You will hear a beep notifying you that the device has been paired successfully. Others have found that the device forgets the channel's preferred volume/treble/bass settings when powered off. I have not found this to be the case when using the "Sleep" function. Maybe if you turn off the device completely? Who knows. There is no FM antenna included, but there is an FM tuner. In general I am very satisfied. Very good value for money. There was no way to get various components (an HDMI switcher with two inputs, an HDMI audio extractor and a multi-channel amplifier with Bluetooth, an FM tuner and aux-in or a much bulkier AV receiver) at a price close to this price to buy . unit revolution. In addition, it is the most compact solution that includes all these features. Much smaller than a typical home theater AV receiver. Minus 1/2 star for weak remote control, fuzzy instructions and probably overrated power rating.