Pure Acoustics MovieMate PHT851 5.1 Satellite Speaker Package

Pure Acoustics MovieMate PHT851 5.1 Satellite Speaker Package

The Pure Acoustics MovieMate PHT851 is a complete 5.1 satellite speaker package: five compact satellite speakers and a subwoofer in one box, providing every loudspeaker a surround sound system needs except the AV receiver. It is the straightforward route to real home theatre sound for rooms where full-size tower and bookshelf speakers will not fit or are not wanted. Instead of researching separate front, centre, surround and subwoofer purchases and hoping they blend, a package like this gives you speakers that were designed and voiced to work together from the start, with the tonal match between channels that makes effects pan smoothly around the room.

The layout follows the standard 5.1 arrangement. Two satellites serve as the front left and right channels flanking the screen, one satellite handles the centre channel — the speaker that carries dialogue in film and television mixes — and two more act as surrounds, placed to the sides of or behind the seating to carry ambience and directional effects. The subwoofer takes over the low frequencies that small satellites physically cannot reproduce, along with the dedicated low-frequency effects channel in movie soundtracks, so action sequences have the weight the picture promises.

Key features

• Complete 5.1 system in one package: Five satellite speakers plus a subwoofer cover front, centre, surround and low-frequency channels.
• Matched speakers throughout: Satellites from a single design family keep the sound consistent as effects move around the room.
• Dedicated centre channel: A centre speaker anchors dialogue to the screen, keeping voices clear at everyday listening levels.
• Subwoofer included: Low frequencies and the movie effects channel are handled by a separate subwoofer, freeing the satellites to concentrate on clarity.
• Compact satellites: Small enclosures sit on shelves or mount on walls, suiting living rooms where large speakers are impractical.
• Works with standard AV receivers: The passive satellites connect to a conventional 5.1 AV receiver with ordinary speaker cable.
• One purchase, no guesswork: Channel count, voicing and subwoofer pairing are decided by the manufacturer rather than left to trial and error.

Setting the system up

Placement follows the usual 5.1 practice. The front pair goes either side of the television at roughly ear height when seated, the centre sits directly above or below the screen as close to it as possible, and the surrounds go to the sides of the listening area, slightly above ear level. The subwoofer usually works best near the front of the room, close to a wall; moving it into a corner increases its output if the room is large. Once everything is wired to the receiver, running the receiver’s automatic calibration — or setting channel levels with an SPL meter or a phone app — balances the six speakers against each other and against the room, which is the step that most determines how convincing the surround effect will be.

Why a satellite package suits living rooms

Most living rooms cannot accommodate five full-size speakers, and most households would not accept them visually if they could. Satellite packages exist precisely for that reality: the speakers that must be heard more than seen stay small and discreet on walls or shelves, while the one component that benefits from size — the subwoofer — sits out of the way on the floor. The result is genuine surround sound, with effects behind you and dialogue locked to the screen, in a room that still looks like a living room.

What you need to add

The PHT851 package provides the speakers; the system also needs a 5.1-channel AV receiver to power them and process the surround formats from your sources, plus speaker cable to connect everything. Any mainstream receiver with five amplified channels and a subwoofer output is a suitable partner, and sources — a television, a streaming box, a Blu-ray player, a game console — connect to the receiver in the usual way.

For a first home theatre, or a tidy upgrade from television speakers in a room that cannot take large enclosures, the MovieMate PHT851 covers every channel in a single matched package: add a receiver, wire it up, calibrate, and the room is a cinema.