Onkyo 2.1CH Bluetooth Speaker System

We have a huge living room (more of a great room) with vaulted cathedral ceilings, so when I saw the size of the Onkyo speakers I was skeptical they would be able to fill the room appropriate with sound. Rest assured, the fears were unfounded. The system sounds spectacular in a large room, the design of the speakers and subwoofer being very efficient and making the most of its watts. The wireless subwoofer is especially convenient for those of us with larger rooms, and it works great. One complaint about the sub: the bass levels vary so drastically between inputs, you will find yourself constantly changing sub level along with the volume based on what you're watching. Even something like a football game will have me changing sub levels versus watching a TV show, much less movies or xbox games. Sound: The quality is spectacular, with highs coming through crystal clear. The system is a little light on the midrange, but that's to be expected when you're only dealing with two speakers this size. The subwoofer creates bass, but it is more the hollow lower-fill than room-filling bass. I have a Velodyne hooked up to our main sound system in the basement and that sounds far better. For basic movie & television watching, this subwoofer works fine. If listening to music is your thing and you like music which highlights lower frequencies (hip hop, electronic, etc), the subwoofer will leave you wanting more. Not bad, mind you, but.... lacking, I guess is a better word. Not enough to delete a star rating, however. Finish: the speakers have a rough textured finish to them and are matte in color, which lends a real sense of quality. If you run your fingers across the top, they are not smooth plastic but textured metal. The subwoofer is a slightly more glossy black with a downward-firing 6.5" paper cone woofer. The main module is about the size of a VHS cassette tape, and probably a bit lighter than one too. It is attractive and although it's plastic, it wouldn't look out of place in a million-dollar home. Bluetooth: works well, quickly & easily pairs with all of our devices (apples iOs, android, computers, etc). Speaker mounts: the mounts are genius. You can mount the speakers 4 different ways (2 horizontal options, 1 vertical, 1 wall-mount) with the included stands. It's a small brilliant piece of engineering that really adds value to the system. The stands are high-quality metal with rubber feet. Remote: it comes with a tiny credit-card remote which works well, but the system has the excellent capability to "learn" the commands of your other remotes, and you can program multiple remotes for various functions if need be (you are not limited to one). This is one of the main reasons I purchased the system, honestly. I don't like having 3+ remotes for all the various systems, and this learns well. I was able to pair every remote in my house to the system. Now we can use just one remote for the TV, DVR, and Onkyo - and it doesn't have to be an intelligent remote either. We're just using the Tivo remote for all. Wiring: The system comes with plenty of white-shielded wiring, which can be both convenient and frustrating. If you were to wall-mount the speakers, white speaker wire would be nice and less obvious to run exposed. But for the 99% of the rest of us who rest these on an entertainment center, counter, or a desk, thick white wires coming out of the black control module and black speakers looks less-than-clean. This is strictly subjective, of course, but it would have been nice to have black speaker wire for uniformity. Auto-sensing Power on/off: This is the part that *should* make the system more convenient, but I found in practice makes it more troublesome. One of the selling points to me about the system was the auto power-on sensing ability of the optical input. If you plug it into your receiver or cable box, it automatically turns on when it senses audio signal. This is extremely convenient and what sold me on the system. What I did not consider (and this is no fault of Onkyo's, hence the full 5-star rating), is DVRs are turned on all the time. The Onkyo always senses the continuous signal from the DVR and thus always stays on. If I pause a DVR program and turn off the Onkyo at night, the next morning I will find it on again (invariably the DVR eventually defaults to live TV no matter what you're doing, and when it does the Onkyo senses the signal and turns back on). Our solution so far has been to either mute the Onkyo (only works while it is on, but when it turns off and back on it unmutes itself), or leave the volume at 0 when we're not watching, so it stays on all the time but doesn't play sound audibly. This is an extremely minor annoyance, but it's something I hadn't though about when I ordered the Onkyo system. Running the optical cable through the TV itself did not remedy the solution, so we're still looking for a better workaround (wish that functionality could be switched off, in retrospect). In all, I love the system and would order it again. I just need to find a workaround for the DVR issue. If anyone else has one, please let me know what worked for you. UPDATE 05/2016: Our Onkyo subwoofer died before the two year mark and conveniently just outside of the warranty period, leaving us with only frequencies above 100 Hz. It sounds really terrible without the subwoofer, like tweeter-only bad. I knocked the 5-star rating down to 1 star because of how terrible Onkyo support was throughout the ordeal. The company directed us to a local authorized repair center that is no longer in business. The company then tells me they cannot replace or sell me a new subwoofer unit. My only option was to send the subwoofer to California for repair service but they couldn't tell me how much it would cost to repair (I was told it could be up to $400). If I include shipping (which I was on the hook for), I'm about near the cost of a new system, plus the month of downtime without a sound system. Boo Onkyo, you lost a lifelong fan of your brand over such poor customer service. If you won't have regional service centers around the country at least step up the return/replace/warranty game.