Koss 1000 watt 6.1 hometheatre system

[Mikau]

Is it any good? Its ridiculously low priced, there must be a catch. Its selling for $179.99 at best buy.

[markw]

Don't believe those specs, particularly in light of this price. Not all watts are rated equally.

[Lensman]

Is it any good? Its ridiculously low priced, there must be a catch. Its selling for $179.99 at best buy.
As Markw said, watts are not rated equally. The lower you go the more the number tends to be exaggerated. And Koss seems to be exaggerating as much as possible by touting it as a 1,000 watt system. Other manufacturers more concerned with being truthful would not sell it based on adding all the outputs of every channel together. Instead it would sell as 135 watts per channel receiver with a 190 watt powered sub.

It is cheap, but consider the fact that the price includes a receiver, DVD player, 5 satellites and a powered sub. This works out to $22.50 per component. What kind of DVD player or subwoofer can you buy for $22.50?. Given this, it's exceedingly unlikely any of these parts are built to a higher standard.

The satellites have a 3/4" tweeter and 2 5/8" midrange, which is actually surprising as most satellites in the bargain price range have only a single full-sound driver. But the fact the midrange is so small almost certainly indicates that either there is a sizable hole in the frequency output between the lowest sound the midrange can produce or the highest sound the sub can produce. Or it means the sub is producing frequencies so high that there's no low-bass extension and the sound is likely to audibly drift in the soundfield toward the sub's location as it goes lower in frequency.

All this said, it is really cheap. So if you're looking for a throwaway/spare room/vacation home/kid's room system and aren't actually particular about how good it sounds, this is a great deal. But I wouldn't buy it based on the potential quality of its sound performance.

[Mikau]

Hmm..well the only differance I've noticed is it says "6.1 channel 'amplifyer'" where it normally says "reciever". Would that explain it?

[N. Abstentia]

Like Lensman said, it's a great disposeable/bedroom/garage/kids room system, just don't expect high quality. Common sense should tell you it's nowhere near 1000 watts. It's MAYBE 10 watts at the most on a good day.

The term 'amplifier' and 'receiver' can mean the same thing, although techically an amplifier is a device that simply amplifies the signal and a receiver is generally a preamp and an amplifier together in one chassis. The less components you have in one chassis the better the quality (generally).

[markw]

Hmm..well the only differance I've noticed is it says "6.1 channel 'amplifyer'" where it normally says "reciever". Would that explain it?Maybe you could post a link to the item in question instead of having us guess at it? After all, Ebay is a pretty big place. Odds are you're still going to get, at best, basically a glorified boom box with tiny speakers.

If you're really interested in learning why we are saying, you might invest a little reading time here.

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/index.php

...lotsa gold in them thar hills if you dig a little.

[Lensman]

Maybe you could post a link to the item in question instead of having us guess at it? After all, Ebay is a pretty big place. Odds are you're still going to get, at best, basically a glorified boom box with tiny speakers.

If you're really interested in learning why we are saying, you might invest a little reading time here.

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/index.php

...lotsa gold in them thar hills if you dig a little.

Actually he said Best Buy, not eBay. Here's the link for it and the page on Koss' site:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1093386297108&skuId=6809732&type=product
http://koss-av.com/product_video/dvd-home-player-ks5190.htm

Of course they're of no help as neither provide any menaingful specs whatsoever.

[Lensman]

Hmm..well the only differance I've noticed is it says "6.1 channel 'amplifyer'" where it normally says "reciever". Would that explain it?

As N.Abstentia said, no. Watts refers to amplifier power, whether it comes from a stand-alone amp, a receiver with a built-in amp, or an all-in-one system such as this one where the amplifier is combined with a preamp, tuner, and DVD player.

The standard accepted way of stating these specifications is by the amplifier's power output for each channel. This is because better amplifiers produce descreet power to each channel. So a receiver that's rated at 70 watts per channel should come somewhere in the general neighborhood of being capable of putting that level power into each separate speaker - regardless of what the amplifier's load requirements are for the other speakers at the time. With this Koss and it's single combined power output rating, there's looks to be no guarantee of that.

The term "watts" has become a big selling word for consumers who don't know what a watt actually is and don't understand how electrical power is measured or utilized by electronics gear. Doubtless this got started with something like light bulbs. After all, a 100 watt bulb is much brighter than one that's 40 watts. So a system rated at 1,000 watts has got to be at least 10 times better than one that's only 100, right? With the help of advertising, "watts" has become synonymous with "quality" in the minds of these consumers. So many manufacturers go to all kinds of lengths to stretch and exaggerate the "watts" number, and the cheaper the product the more the number is exaggerated. That's why you'll routinely see home theater systems at Wal-Mart touting figures of 500, 700 or more watts.

This tactic doesn't fool audiophiles, however. Which is why it's not unusual to find amps in specialty audio stores with prices in the thousands that are rated at only 20-30 watts. And I guarantee one of those 20 watt amps will play both louder and cleaner that the 1,000 watt one in this Koss.

So don't rely on one word be the only way you ever determine if a sound system is any good.