mouths of the babes

No, this speaker system is defective by design. For one thing, Klipsch skimped out on the quality of the components on the ac to dc converter in the amplifier. They are exposed to heat higher than the parts are rated. This is most likely why the system has a measly 1 year warranty, while the non-computer speaker systems klipsch sells carries a 2 to 5 year warranty. Look at the distribution of user reviews at amazon. You can see that half are at the lowest rating while the other half the highest. And the low ratings all complain of the same thing: total failure of the sub or speakers. Statistically speaking, this means something isn't right. Now look at newegg's reviews of the promedia ultra. The star ratings are more positive, but if you actually read the reviews they are negative (Newegg reviewers aren't the smartest). And again, all complaining of the same thing. Compare this to the amazon reviews of Logitech's G51 computer system and the Z-5500. All postive except for very few. Look at the ongoing thread at Hardforum (its a popular computer related forum) with a whopping 264 replies so far and 42,000 views-- the most in that particular section of the website. You don't see this kind of thing with other speaker systems. Some people have even had their systems break numerous times! The owner of the website that contains the schematics to these systems explains problems with them on his pages. And finally, look at this guy on e-bay talking at length about the heat issue. What's really depressing is that the higher rated components which could prevent the damage to the rest of the amp cost about a dollar or two more than what they used! Klipsch became greedy and, because of that, ruined many hundreds, if not thousands of people's audio systems and wasted tens of thousands of cumulative hours of their customer's time. Instead of issuing a recall, Klipsch decides to discontinue the system and sweep the problem under the rug. Personally, I will never buy another item from them again and I will tell everyone who asks about this company not to buy from them. The management should be ashamed of themselves.

Check out your state's Consumer Protection office: http://www.consumeraction.gov/state.shtml Some states have something called an "implied warranty", which essentially means that regardless of what the written warranty for a product says, the manufacturer must ensure that a product does what it was designed to do. You might even consider taking Klipsch to small claims court. Chances are that it would cost Klipsch way more to send a representative to your state than to refund your money. See this: http://consumerist.com/345963/suing-big-companies-in-small-claims-court-is-fun-and-easy Also, some states require that when a repair for electronics item is done (outside of warranty), that the manufacturer or whoever is contracted to do the repair to give you back the parts which were replaced. This way you can see what is wrong with the product. https://www.ufcu.org/learning/home/remodeling/repair_guides/electronics.php

I believe the amp or subwoofer or possibly control pod on my promedia 5.1 ultras is starting to break. My system has been in use for only 2 years. What I hear coming from the speakers is something that sounds like a person shaking a metal bracelet or metal necklace. In fact, the first time I heard it was while I was watching a video lecture and I thought the guy lecturing had his mic to close to a bracelet . In addition to that, I can hear a fuzzy sparking type of sound coming from the amp. This sound coming from the amp still occurs after disconnecting all the speaker wires and input wires save for the control pod which one needs to turn it on. When I turn the system on, the usual "pop" that the speakers make sound louder now and higher in pitch. The subwoofer sometimes completely cuts out and I'm left with just the satellites producing sound. I unscrewed the amp from the subwoofer enclosure and looked around, but I didn't see anything damaged. These noises I'm hearing are sporadic. I have read about the incredible number of people who have had problems with the amp in this system, and I'm not sure what to do from here. If I do a repair with Klipsch, do they actually fix the design problems so that they won't happen again, or do they merely replace whatever pieces are broken with the same parts? As a side note, there is a terrible safety issue and design flaw with the control pod on the 5.1 ultras. On two occasions, the volume very quickly and automatically decided to jump way up. It goes up continuously and at a linear pace. By the time I got to the volume knob I thought my eardrums and the speakers would both blow (I was listening to music both times this happened). The volume knob on this system is very finnicky and I think it has something to do with that. You can change the volume by ever so slightly wiggling the knob, yet not increment the knob to the next notch.