Description
Pyle Model : PFA540BT
Compact 5-Ch. Bluetooth Amplifier
Compact 5-Channel Bluetooth Amplifier, Hi-Fi Amp Receiver with HDMI, LCD Display, FM Radio
Features:
- 5-Channel Powered Amp Design
- Lightweight & Compact Size
- Bluetooth Wireless Music Streaming Receiver
- Hassle-Free Connection with Automatic Pairing Ability
- FM Radio with Digital LCD Display
- Front Panel Button Control Center
- HDMI Output + (2) HDMI Inputs
- Aux RCA (L/R) Audio Input Jacks
- Spring Loaded Speaker Terminal Connectors
- Full Range Stereo Sound Reproduction
- RCA Subwoofer Output
- Includes Remote Control
Bluetooth Connectivity:
- Built-in Wireless Music Streaming Receiver
- Compatible with All of Your Favorite Bluetooth Devices
- (iPhone, Androids, Smartphones, iPad, Tablets, etc.)
- Bluetooth Version: 4.0
- Bluetooth Network Name: ‘PyleUSA’
Technical Specs:
- MAX Power Output: 100 Watt (5 x 20W)
- HDMI 2160p Support
- Bluetooth Protocol Support: AVRCP V1.4
- Construction Material: Metal, Aluminum Alloy
- Power: 110/220V (12V Power Adapter)
- Dimensions: 8.0’’ x 5.8’’ x 2.0’’
The Pyle Compact 5-Channel Bluetooth Amplifier, Hi-Fi Amp Receiver with HDMI, LCD Display, FM Radio – 5-Channel Powered Amp Design – Lightweight & Compact Size – Bluetooth Wireless Music Streaming Receiver – Hassle-Free Connection with Automatic Pairing Ability – FM Radio with Digital LCD Display – Front Panel Button Control Center – HDMI Output + (2) HDMI Inputs – Aux RCA (L/R) Audio Input Jacks – Spring Loaded Speaker Terminal Connectors – Full Range Stereo Sound Reproduction – RCA Subwoofer Output – Includes Remote Control – Bluetooth Connectivity: – Built-in Wireless Music Streaming Receiver – Compatible with All of Your Favorite Bluetooth Devices – (iPhone, Androids, Smartphones, iPad, Tablets, etc.).
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EQ CONTROLSThis multi purpose 5.1-channel compact home theater digital stereo receiver box features crisp buttons and rotary knob controls for audio adjustment. Includes 12V adapter and remote control for easy distant audio adjustments |
WIRELESS REMOTEIt also includes an advanced remote control where you can fine-tune your stereo amplifier system. Easily adjust volume/ choose channels/ Mute/ Power ON or OFF by using the wireless remote |
BLUETOOTH CONNECTIVITYThe small personal integrated indoor stereo receiver is equipped with Bluetooth wireless music streaming. Works with today’s latest devices including smartphones, tablets, laptops, computers w/ hassle-free receiver pairing |
Veera –
It does not meet my expectations.
Lawrence Lim Sim Eng –
I am returning unit that is so bad with both the main amplifier unit and remote control buttons just not responsive to your pushing it to work. After a few times it works. Then when you try switching off it doesn’t work. Try a few times and have to switch off the power cord to do it. What a defective unit. I am returning the unit for a full refund. Consumers don’t have to suffer like I did for such basic functions. Bad
BadKarma –
Color me surprised!
So I have an older HDTV with limited audio out functionality, a set of bookshelf speakers and a center channel speaker, and 2 HDMI devices (Apple TV and a game console). I wanted to connect all of this together for a small 11ftx11ft room – used as a kids loft playroom. Preferably with a solution that was small, cheap, and not overly complicated.It turns out it’s surprisingly expensive to cobble together a system that does this, if you want true multi-channel audio. It would take an HDMI switcher (to switch between the 2 HDMI devices), an HDMI audio extractor (to pull the 5-channel audio from the HDMI signal), and a multi-channel receiver with SPDIF/Toslink inputs (since that’s what the HDMI audio extractors typically output). At a minimum, it would take a large dedicated A/V receiver, which I didn’t have space for. For a tiny room, reused speakers, and an older TV that will be used primarily by my kids to play games and watch Netflix, I was not enthusiastic to put out that kind of money.So I was very surprised when my internet searches led to this device – it basically contains all of those features in a form factor the size of a paperback book, for a fraction of the price. It has 2 HDMI inputs and 1 HDMI output. So no HDMI switcher required. It has true 5.1 channel output (including a separate sub output, which I haven’t tried). So I can avoid the audio extractor to Toslink device. It has a built-in “20W per channel” (more on that) amplifier, so I didn’t need a separate receiver/amp. It has some modest tone control features (treble and bass) and you can separately control the volume of the center, front, rear, and subwoofer channels.Will “audiophiles” be into this? Probably not. Pyle gets mediocre reviews at best for sound quality. I can’t even vouch for the durability. But it gets the job done.Design: it’s a compact unit, the size of a paperback. The design is clean, modern, and actually handsome for a Pyle device. The metal case, buttons, and volume knob feel high quality. The remote, however, is very flimsy and the buttons are imprecise (minus 1/2 star for that), but that’s a minor quibble.Sound: The instructions are sparse, but from what I can tell, the “surround” button does the opposite of what you would think. If you have a true 5.1 channel input and you want 5.1 channel output, you turn surround OFF to get “real” 5.1 channel sound. If you turn it on, it uses (according to the manual) “analogy” five channel signal. Does that mean “simulated” 5 channel? Who knows, but I know when I had my Apple TV in Dolby 5.1 output mode, turning “analogy” Surround on meant I couldn’t hear the center channel. I turned it off and the center channel audio returned. To me, the sound was clear, stereo separation was accurate. Bass was a little anemic, but that could be both a function of my small speakers and whatever chipset the amplifier uses.As far as the wattage rating, it uses a 12V x 3A power supply, for a total of 36W. So I’m not sure how they calculate 20W per channel x 5 channels, or 100W total. No, that’s not a lot of watts, but – again – consider the optimal use for this amp. A typical bookshelf speaker is rated at 89-93dB/1W at 1 meter sensitivity (you put 1 watt of power in, it will generate 89-93dB of sound measured 1 meter away). As a rule of thumb, for every doubling in W, you get a 3dB bump in volume. So, even if I got 3-4W per channel, that would be VERY loud in a small room. Much more than that and I’m certain this little amp would start to distort (remember the total power input is only 36W). I’m assuming this has some low cost Class-D amplifier chip.Others noted a lot of distortion via BT – I paired it to my phone and streamed songs via Spotify (with “Analogy” five channel ON) and it sounded fine! No distortion. It pairs almost immediately and very easily. There’s an audible chime that tells you when the device successfully pairs.Others noted that the unit would forget the preferred channel volume/treble/bass settings when turned off. I did not find that to be the case when I used the “sleep” function. Perhaps when you unplug the unit entirely? Who knows.It does not come with an FM antenna, but does have an FM tuner.So, overall – I’m very pleased. Very good value for the price. There is no way I could have purchased the various components (a 2-input HDMI switcher, HDMI audio extractor and multichannel amplifier with Bluetooth, FM tuner, and Aux input, or a much bulkier AV receiver) for anything close to the price of this unit. This is also, easily, the most compact solution to contain all these features. Much smaller than a typical AV home theater receiver. Minus 1/2 star for the flimsy remote, the unclear instructions, and the likely exaggerated power ratings.
Edward W –
I had high hopes dashed
I needed a small theater amplifier/receiver and found this one at a reasonable price. It was 5 channel + sub, essentially a PFA560BT without the 5.1 indicator, which means 5 channel + sub. So yes, since I only needed 3.1, I was certain this would work. I had previously owned some Pyle products, a couple sub speakers and an amplifier for my car, so I felt fairly confident with the purchase.I have seen where the 100w didn’t quite match the amperage of the transformer that came with it, but I didn’t need the full power. When received, I hooked the amp up to the front L+R and center speakers and the sub out to my powered sub and threw some power at it.The first thing I noticed was the 60Hz hum coming across the RCA sub output. Since the power adapter was not polarized, I thought there was an off chance the neutrals didn’t match between the amplifier and the sub. It persisted. I figured I could get a ground loop isolator and try that later so left things like this.I fired up my video source over HDMI and started playing a movie and it was plenty loud so “yay, Pyle”. Then I noticed in the center channel, a higher frequency gargle sound. I stopped the movie and it persisted. I adjusted the volume and it was still there.At this point, I decided that it wasn’t going to be worth my time to try and fix all of these “quirks”. I packed everything up and shipped it back. I’ll spend a more money and buy a better amplifier/receiver or I would try and repair one with a bad power supply that just needs time, troubleshooting and probably parts.12/21/2022 – Update: I did more investigating and the 60Hz hum was likely faulty wiring. The circuit the amp and sub were on are affected by a light that is switched on in the other room. Will investigate further but at least the hum concern can be disregarded. Also, repaired the Onkyo I already had for less money than the amp.That’ll teach me to be lazy.
TRA –
No HDMI
Bought this for the HDMI connection with 5.1 capability – that’s all I needed it for and unfortunately none of the HDMI ports functioned at all / no audio and no video. 3 different components did not even see the connection. Even the simplest of tasks displayed the HDMI did not appear to be connected at all with a multimeter (like they were just dummy ports) After reading many complaints of no HDMI success, I stopped testing.I then realized a great effort was made to falsely increase the positive reviews on Pyle products from the increased search results when searching for 5.1 HMDI Receivers.Receivers are an odd category today. I really don’t understand why all the receivers look identical to the units I had back in the 80’s and 90’s / funny thing is the quality is far lower. My powered receivers back then had more power than you could ever use (half volume) was loud enough for a night club and zero connectivity issues – ever.If you do decide to purchase this unit the Bluetooth seemed to be ok. But not sure why someone would want this type of appliance just for that when there are much cleaner and easier ways to accomplish this / brand quality names.Really wish I had the time to manufacture an affordable high quality unit for people looking for a smart receiver for simple optimal home theater systems. 5.1 speaker connections & higher. Quality multi jack/bare wire speaker connectors, HDMI arc port and 2 additional in. Smarter volume control for each speaker. Small, less buttons and simple remote for setup. When you sit down and turn on your TV remote, you don’t have to fumble remotes and play around for 15 minutes to get the sound right. It just works. You can get this today for about $300, but expect a monsterous receiver with 20 useless connection options – that’s what everyone is already making and that market is well covered.No tuner, no aux, no Bluetooth no useless features for watching a smart TV – a funny aside with this unit, 70% of the user manual explains how to use the antenna radio / really? It’s 2023 I am sure there are a couple people listening to the radio, but it’s obvious these manufactures are using parts left over and tooling machines from 2 decades ago just to get rid of them an pass the expense on to you.Well, enough blabber. Ordering some parts and making my own unbeatable receiver : )Really wished this compact unit worked – I do hope it fits your needs if you purchase.
J. Wade –
This little unit is great!
First off let me say that you should completely ignore the critical reviews on this unit, I was a little skeptical after reading some of those but decided to take a chance anyway, and I am really glad that I did! I guess some people were expecting this $80 little unit to come with features and sound quality of something like Marantz, Harmon Kardon, Yamaha, etc. It is not that! However it is a decent and very reasonably priced solution for anyone looking for simplicity in a small package with very respectable sound quality. I installed this unit into my motorhome that already has a fairly high end 5.1 speaker setup. I previously had a Harmon Kardon AV receiver, a quality unit with a lot of features but it was also a big heavy unit that was bouncing around inside of the stereo cabinet when we were traveling down the road. To make matters worse, it also got very hot inside of the RV’s stereo cabinet, which it shared with an Xbox. Therefore I decided to give this little Pyle unit a try in-place of the big HK. The first thing that I really liked was the ability to mount it with screws, I chose to mount it vertical up on the inside wall of the cabinet leaving plenty of space for the Xbox to reside by itself on a shelf. The unit does not generate a lot of heat at all, just barely warm to the touch, even after playing movies/music at level 15-20 volume levels. The bluetooth is very simple and easy to connect, and it even works from quite a distance away – I can be outside of the motorhome in a lawn chair, connected through my phone and playing music through this unit inside, and it stays connected great. It honestly would take a well trained ear to tell the difference in sound quality from this unit as compared to the HK AV receiver that it replaced. For our purpose it sounds really good while playing movies in surround sound, listening to music, and also while playing games on the Xbox. When my wife first heard it her response was “Wow! Is that coming out of that little thing?”. Overall I couldn’t find anything else comparable to this unit in size and especially in price. I am very satisfied so far and as long as it holds up long term I think it was a great purchase. We just returned from a 2-week vacation where this thing was on 85% of the time and it didn’t miss a lick. The only reason I did not give 5 stars is because the antenna connection for FM is an oddball that I cannot seem to find any adapter for, so we haven’t been able to use the radio functions at all. Not a big deal since we typically travel through different cities and often remote areas anyway.
accelr8 –
Nice unit but it “pops” when you turn it on
Overall this is a great inexpensive amplifier for powering a set of passive speakers. It offers 5.1 channel surround sound which I didn’t test, since I was just using it to power 2 speakers in the basement work shop. Sound quality was great, remote works fine, and the bluetooth works well. It’s also very small and fits nicely on a shelf. I like that the display is blue, and bright enough to see when lights are on but not so bright that it blinds you at night. A minor complaint is that the display uses 7-segment LEDs, so when it says “AUX” it really looks more like “AUH”. They could’ve used an 11-segment display, or a dot matrix display, but I understand this would add cost and it’s really not necessary.However, the reason I returned it is because it emits a “pop” sound on the speakers whenever you turn it on. It doesn’t matter if you set the volume to minimum, or which input you’re on. I did a little research and this is basically an effect of power-on transients common in low-end equipment. Better amplifiers have delay circuits which keep the speaker outputs disabled until the power-on is complete so you don’t hear the popping noise, but on this unit the outputs are always on which is why it makes the sound.I emailed the manufacturer (Pyle), and they said this is normal and isn’t bad for the speakers, but as an electrical engineer I disagree. Power-on transients are stressful since they force the coils to move very quickly and may have long-term detrimental effects. But even if they don’t, it’s still very annoying to listen to. I turn it on and off at least twice a day and it’s not something I want to hear. Five stars to tech support for getting back to me quickly. I thought about opening up the unit and wiring in my own time delay relays, but this would definitely void the warranty and I shouldn’t have to go through all this trouble for a feature that should be included. In case Pyle is reading this, I would pay an extra $20 for the same unit if it offered a delayed output to eliminate the popping sound. This is something that should be considered as a standard feature. My 30-year-old Sony amplifier has this, and the only reason I’m replacing it is because it doesn’t have bluetooth built in (and it’s enormous in size).Bottom line, if you’re ok with turn-on noise, you won’t be disappointed with this unit. And it’s less of an issue if you use it infrequently or leave it on most of the time. But it’s not for me and I will regrettable be looking elsewhere.
Tragic_comic –
Solid Unit, Can only recommend for HDMI pass-through sound *updated 10/26/20*
I would have given this 5 stars, but the RCA inputs gave a horrible sound output…distorted and scratchy at low volumes. Same issue I had with a Chinese unit I tried first. However, luckily I am using this as a media center and the TV/Android TV Box are my only sound sources…so HDMI was an option. Crystal clear sound, and surround/center work perfectly. *EDIT*I now know what everyone is complaining about with the remote, it works fine and feels solid but ONE UNIT HAD A REMOTE FAIL VOLUME DOWN after 1.5 years. Remotes are $36 a pop from PYLE…used a universal remote that learned from my working remote on second unit.The remote lets you control the volume settings individually for surround, center, and main. It also lets you control treble and bass. I have had no issues with the system “resetting” when powering down fully, all my settings were retained. This is hooked up to a power strip that shuts everything off when the TV is shut off…so I was a little nervous based on the other reviews. Not an issue for what I received. I’m assuming maybe they addressed these issues with later versions, or the reviewers received faulty units. The unit does revert to a lower volume setting, which is preferred so I don’t blast my speakers or THUMP my subwoofer.Unit was packed well, came with plenty of instructions. It has a low-intensity blue display, and doesn’t distract when using it watching movies. It is the perfect size to fit on top of my subwoofer, and has isolating rubber feet. My powered subwoofer works with the high-pass speaker wires, so I am all set and didn’t assume something this small could drive an unpowered sub.I am using 3″ cone satellite speakers and a dual 3″ cone center channel speaker. This powers them perfectly, and gets plenty loud for a home theatre system, with the powered subwoofer.I woudn’t expect this to work with large stereo speakers, and would cause distortion if you tried to use it as a pre-amp. Amping an already amped signal is never a good idea.If I didn’t have the HDMI option, I would have been angry…so keep that in mind with what you have for inputs. The HDMI is ONLY for audio pass-through, it is not an ARC receiver and will not sync your equipment. I do have to buy an HDMI splitter now, as I can’t use this to easily switch between audio sources since I can only use HDMI.EDIT: both units have bluetooth issues now. One stopped connecting permanently, the other connects when it wants to. One unit has issues with HDMI sound, where you have to cycle the inputs aftet u pause your show or when first starting up (same unit with bad bluetooth and remote). Even when only one source is connected.
Asa –
Big sound in a little package
Really great affordable 5.1 reciver. Not super high power but will push any decent speakers in an average size room. Lots of features in a very little package.
Ray –
Excellent system for a bedroom
This product fit my needs perfectly for the bedroom. Look up the product specifications before buying, especially if you believe that you are purchasing a surround system with Boom-Box volume, because you will you will be disappointed for not doing the homework. There is at least one other reviewer who helped me decide to purchase this product because his application was similar to mine. I have setup in my bedroom a 27 inch LG TV with one HDMI input (no fiber-optic sound output option), configured with a HDMI Roku streaming stick.I wanted better sound in my bedroom than my LG TV could provide with its built in speakers. The volume in the bedroom was meant to be lower than my sound system in the entertainment room. I had a couple of spare Bose speakers laying around that I wanted to use for the bedroom TV setup. The Pyle PFA540BT amplifier fit my application perfectly with no compromise in quality. I wired (using 16-gauge wire) the two Bose speakers to the amplifier, inserted the Roku stick into one of the two HDMI inputs of the amplifier, and inserted an HDMI cable into the HDMI output of the amplifier and inserted the other end of the cable into the TV. I also connected an F-Type female plug wire antenna to the antenna terminal of the amplifier to make use of the built-in FM-radio when I’m not watching TV. The amplifier also has AUX inputs which I have not yet used.I have been using the above described setup for more than one month and I am very pleased with the Pyle amplifier. The amplifier has sufficient power at 20 Watts per channel to drive the Bose speakers with ample volume when the volume-dial is set about mid-way. I can stream video to the TV using the input mode set to the Roku stick. The sound quality coming out of the Bose speakers is much better than the TV speakers. There are no issues with voice not being synchronized with video streaming from the Roku stick.The amplifier’s remote control is super easy to use. Even though the instructions seem sparse, they are very clear about how to operate the system. The remote has separate control buttons for all the features, and all the controls are also on the amplifier unit. The amplifier also picks up many FM-radio stations using the simple wire antenna I added. The amplifier has lots of memory to store favorite stations.The amplifier’s Bluetooth feature also works flawlessly. I linked my Windows 10 laptop to the amplifier via Bluetooth. Of course, the incredible sound from the Bose speakers was much better than the laptop speakers. A Bluetooth connection to my iPhone was also accomplished with ease.The Pyle PFA540BT amplifier is a handsome and well-built, low-cost unit that has a small footprint. It rests neatly on my dresser next to the TV. I have not configured my bedroom entertainment system for surround sound, but it provides the option of connecting up to five speakers and a sub-woofer. I am very happy with the purchase I made because I chose the correct product for my application.