Onkyo Home Theater Speaker System Black

I don't think I have much to add to the other reviews posted. But I'll confirm what others have said. These speakers are a bit large - but I have a black TV with a black TV stand. In fact, the finish on these speakers matched my basic black wood finish TV stand from WalMart perfectly. Yes - they didn't blend in very well with the walls on the surround, but we are more focused on enjoying the sound than looks, so it worked for us. Overall, I would say that the extra size of these speakers is the key to their great sound and low price. Trying to engineer a super-tiny speaker with huge sound means exotic materials, high-priced design and testing, advanced electronics, and so on. These are based on time-tested speaker design principles and really do an amazing job. We replaced our 10 year old Bose Lifestyle system with this $169 set and I have to say the sound is actually superior by a good margin. These speakers really shine when reproducing high-impact, high-volume sounds. Think about the rumble and crackle you might associate with something like the space shuttle launch. Those types of sounds come across with clarity AND punch. I did have trouble with the subwoofer - the level control seemed to have no effect and it was like the control was stuck on the lowest setting. I called tech support (on a Sunday), got right through to a person, and was told I could drop the unit by a local authorized repair shop just a few miles from my house. I took the unit in on Monday and I think Wednesday the repair was complete. We paired these with a Yamaha AV receiver (RX-V867) with the "YPAO" automatic calibration system - basically a small microphone that plugs in to the front of the receiver and some internal software. It sends out test tones to all 8 speakers and automatically adjusts the levels and verifies polarity. After that, we popped in a movie in the blu-ray player for a test drive. The sounds was really impressive, especially on new sci-fi movies like TRON or the new Star Trek movie. The supplied speaker cables are rather wimpy, but I'd bet my paycheck the average person couldn't tell the difference between these and jumper cables in a double-blind study. Use them or not - you'll most likely be happy either way. My only other gripe with these are the keyhole-style mounting brackets that come pre-attached. These work ok, but I found it hard to find a screw long enough to go thru the drywall to the stud that still had a screw head small enough to fit thru the opening on the bracket - the brackets need to be a tad larger so that a regular drywall or similar screw can be used to mount them. That matters more for the surround speakers as you probaby WILL be mounting them - less so for the fronts as hopefully you can put those on the TV stand or shelf or something. Not a big deal, but worth mentioning. You can easily come up with a workable solution... As others have noted - the speakers are well packed. The box is heavy - ours arrived with the yellow "Two Person Lift" stickers all over it. But the free shipping from Amazon was perfect. Just my opinion, but I wouldn't waste your money paying up for the "latest and greatest" model of the Onkyo HTS speakers. For less than $175, I SERIOUSLY doubt you'll find ANYTHING close. Yes, these are not audiophile or studio grade speakers, but placement and tuning will make as much difference as anything.