Rating  - Awesome Device! Works When Set Up Correctly! Here is how...
Just hooked this up a week ago for our RCA 5.1 Home Theater 5-DVD Entertainment System in a 500 square foot living room and it works fine! In fact it works better than I expected!
The hook up was really simple. I'm not sure what qualifies as "cheap wiring" in light of what the other reviewer says, but the kit came with sufficient wiring and the wiring connectors on the kit itself is universal so you can add your own wiring (like we did) or use the ones on your existing home theater system.
Although the hook up was simple, it took us a few minutes to realize that the rear surround speakers after the kit was hooked up ONLY work when the source on your home theater system is playing surround sound music or movies. When one of the FM stations was on and playing we didn't get any sound from the rear speaker (only a slight hiss-but nothing distracting).
However, when we put the X-Men 3 DVD in and pressed play the living room came alive with rich Surround Sound.
This is how we came to understand not all sources will give you Surround Sound on the Rocketfish wireless kit. It has nothing to do with the performance of the RocketFish kit which would be the thing you would obviously blame first.
Also Note: Like most home theater systems our RCA home theater system has a changeable preset for "Stereo" , "Subwoofer" and "Surround" along with the Equalizer settings. "Stereo" was our defaulted setting so we had to change it to Surround Mode to get the full effect of the kit. Because of this the Rear Surround speakers when hooked up thru the Rocketfish Kit ONLY works well when our RCA system is set specifically in Surround Mode and the Stereo Mode is turned off. This would explain why many reviewers give this bad reviews on the basis that the units are non functioning when they first hook it up.
This is not in the Rocketfish manual but for the kit to work correctly you need to have
1) A source that gives surround sound (DVD, FM station, TV show, CD, etc...) on home theater system
2) You need to switch your home theater system settings from Stereo to Surround mode or completely turn off Stereo Mode.
3) You also need to have a 5.1 home theater system that is capable of 5.1 surround mode.
When all these conditions are met, the Rocketfish Wireless kit works well. And if your source is not playing surround sound you can easily turn off the surround speakers at the rear by turning off the Rocketfish kit or switching your Home Theater System's settings back to Stereo. Easy!
We did NOT have any interference between the RocketrFish kit and our in-home Internet 802.11 a/b.g WiFi set up. Which is sometimes a main problem of these Surround Wireless kits.
Pros:
Easy Set Up, Rich Sound, Looks Cool, Low Profile, No WIRES across living room floor! Works best for 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound Movies and Music DVDs and TV Shows.
Cons:
Manuals should give more information concerning compatibility of 5.1 Surround Sound. FM and CD Source Music playback on the Surround Sound is not as rich as Movie/Music DVDs and TV Shows. But I guess that is what Stereo Mode is for. Stereo Mode = CD and FM playback and Surround Mode = Movie/Music DVDs and TV shows. Simple.
The Bottom Line:
If you like to get the Movie Theater effect of Movies and Music DVDs in your living room, minus the wires then this kit is for you!
Rating  - Rocketfish does not work
I usually don't write reviews, but was so disappointed that this product didn't work, I felt compelled. My unit powers off after several minutes. I will be returning it today and will purchase the Kenwood system.
Rating - Mine didn't work. . .Make that 4 of 4 that didn't work
I just bought one at Best Buy. . .it absolutely doesn't work. No sound at all. The units connect up as indicated by the LED, but no sound comes out of the rear speakers. It also causes my Amp to occasionally shut off, which I suspect is caused by a short. Clearly when these work, they work well but there are major quality control issues. . .
UPDATE: I went back to Best Buy to exchange this unit and asked to test out the new one before taking it home. . .I did so with several folks from the A/V department. . .the new one didn't work. Neither did the next one. . .or the next one. . .there were varying issues with each. One shorted out and died when we hooked up the left speaker wire. The others were just silent, with no sound. They appeared connected, the volume was up, there was definitely a signal. . .nothing. I got my money back.
-J
Rating - Perfect for Rear Speakers
I don't know what other people are saying about this, but mine were PERFECT.
Rear speakers working wirelessly, perfectly, no sound lag, and very clear. I turn them on and off everyday. They always connect well with no problems.
NO need for batteries or anything, each unit has a AC power cord~ Always powered~!
The only draw back is that the audio cables that the rocketfish provide are little short, you might need to go to radio shack or circuit city and get a new roll of 18-gauge audio cable and restring them. No big deal.
Sound volume is great, although you may need to leave it on the highest volume to get that crazy home theater experience.
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Customer Reviews for Rocketfish,RF-WHTIB,600603112218,0600603112218,B000VEP3XO, |
