Thanks for all the advice, my subs are up and booming. I had a faulty speaker wire that connected one of my subs to the center speaker sub output. When one is down they both dont work. UGH.
Anyway, I have to revise my rating to take into consideration the subs working.

They sound awesome, even with the annoying hum. Truly the center channel is excellent and the subs in conjunction with the towers fill the room with sound. Next week I setup my soon to be bought DVD to my soon to be bought Sony ES 50.

Should be rocking.

Update: Finally hooked the center channel up. I had the hum. Upon listening closely to each driver, I found that one (mid bass) wasn't working. Everybody should check all their drivers out. Hopefully this can be replaced or repaired

I also bought these speakers from Costco last week. The sound is great, much better than with my previous speaker system(CSW). I have also humming sound from center speaker, but I found it to be bearable. I have one problem though. The fuse in the main amplifier inside the center speaker has blown out. Not one, twice. Everytime I put the new fuse (250V 2amp time delay fuse from Home Depot), and put the power on it, it is blown out. Has anyone had this problem before? I had no problem for several days. Please tell me what the problem is if anyone happen to know it. I will also call their technical support and update the results. Thanks everybody. I really like these speaker.

I had been researching speaker systems for months. I listen to music as much as I watch TV and movies, so I wanted high quality performance for music only, that also delivered great surround sound for movies.
During my research, I concluded that I should buy very good tower speakers for music, and add pieces for the home theater (rear, center & sub). i thought this process would cost about $2,000 and take me about 12 months to accumulate due to the price. Audioreview.com turned me on to the Carver 5.1, which I almost bought for $499 at Costco. I auditioned the system at Circuit City, and was blown away by the performance of the small cabinet system. When I read about the 5.2, I dashed out to the nearest Costco, and bought the 5.2.

I am amazed at the performance of the system. The 300 watt amp in the center channel speaker drives the twin subwoofers in the towers. The dipole design in the towers and surround speakers add more dimension to the material. Performance is excellent with music only, and truly amazing with DVD movies. You could spend $699 for just a pair of towers with similar sound quality with music only, but you woudn't get the center and surrounds, which are perfectly matched to the towers.

Carver knew what they were doing. Fit and finish is perfect. the speakers are gorgeous. My wife was astounded at the design. They actually look like they belong in the room, rather than necessary inconveniences. They also take up very little room on the floor. The subwoofers are in the bottom of the towers, the surrounds hang from the wall, and the center is on top of my big screen TV.

Carver sells the system for $1,500 at their web site, but forget about that. I do not know why Bob carver is liquidating the inventory since his return to the company, but I am ecstatic that I got this speaker system for $699 + tax at Costco. I even picked them up in my GMC Yukon to save shipping. The tower boxes are tall, so use a truck, van, or SUV with the back seat folded down.

Bye the way, I combined this with a Harman Kardon AVR75 receiver from Onecall for $598 + $26 shipping. The HK delivers more than enough power to shake the house and get me in trouble with the wife. Remember, the Carver system is 4 ohms, so don't use a low current, low wattage amp or receiver.

Highest rating. 5+

Just bought the Cinema 5.2 system from Costco. So far, it appears to be a fairly complete and solid package, especially considering the current selling price of $699. All of the hardware and cabinet materials are of high quality as are the construction and attention to detail. The Lighstar powered subwoofers are smooth and clean. The main speaker dipoles seem to provide a nice spatial quality during home theater use, but still provide decent imaging during two-channel musical listening.
The only concern that I have noticed is a slight but fairly noticable hum/buzz from the center channel / subwoofer amp unit. I tried unhooking all of the speaker and input connections, plugging the unit into RFI filtered power sources in two different houses, and even exchanged the unit for another one, but can still hear this hum (from several feet away.) Has anybody else that has purchased this system noticed this or have any ideas?

5 stars for the overall system but 4 stars if the hum problem turns out to be inherent in the design.

Excellent Speakers, got the deal from Costco. Center Channel hums but removingthe back panel where the amp is and moving it away from the speakers does get
rid of the hum. Now I just need to get a little box or something to mount the
amp in. Also had the problem with the right mid not working because the two
guys were miswired. Swapping the ground leads as mentioned below fixed that.

Thanks to this forum; I never would have noticed one of my center speakers
wasn't putting out. I had to listen real close to tell.

I wonder if placing some kind of shielding material between the amp and the
speakers would fix the hum? Hmmm. Anyway, even with the glitches, I'm glad to
own the Carvers. I use them with my Denon 2400 and haven't had any trouble
with them being 4ohm speakers. Everything sounds good on these speakers!

If anyone finds a solution to the humming problem please post or respond directly. Curt, thank you for the right midbass fix. Much appreciation.

Regarding the previous Update Post: "One Midbass not working"I and at least one other person had this same issue with the rightside midbass not working in the center channel. The problem appears to be that the internal wires are hooked up wrong. Instead of the two midbasses being wired in series, the right midbass is hooked to itself and the left midbass is receiving the two signal leads. Switching the two speaker grounds (simple push-on tab connectors) at the voice coil connections inside the cabinet (Brown wire and Yellow wire) has corrected the problem in the two cases that I am aware of.

Still giving only 4 stars because of the hum issue.

Final Update (I hope): I want to Curt for his tip for the center speaker fix. Switching the 2 ground wires worked. The second set I got had the problem and I was at my wits end what to do with the speakers. I called the Carver warranty number, it refered me to an outside repair house, which I called. They said that Costco was not an authorized dealer and that any repair work would be done on a fee basis. I suggest that new owners give the systems a thorough work out to wring out any problems and return them to Costco if problems occur.

**** FIX FOR CENTER CHANNEL HUM ****
Here is a fix for the center channel hum many have complained about in this discussion.

Basically, it is a poor design. The amp is mounted in the speaker enclosure. The crossover for the the speaker sets very close to the transformer for the amp's power supply. When you have 2 coils that close together, you get radiated interference from one to the other. The closer the crossover to the transformer, the worse the hum.

Here's the bad part. To fix it correctly, you need to modify the enclosure. I am building a separate box just for the amp, and attaching it to the back of the center enclosure. With the amp in this position, I get zero hum.

Now the good news, the center speaker needs to be in a full MDF enclosure anyway. Here is a chance to not only remove the hum, but to also improve the sound of the center speaker. Get the seal on the enclosure as tight as possible. I have also experimented with some damping materials in the speaker and that seems to help.