My Review of the 52's
I finally got a chance to do some serious music listening over the Thanksgiving holiday. I have the 52's and the matching center across the front with the NHT Superzero 2.0's performing surround duty (for now; I plan on replacing them with 22's in the near future). The speakers were allowed to break-in over the course of a week of television and movie watching. I didn't notice a big difference from when I originally installed the 52's, but perhaps some of that shine mentioned in previous posts had smoothed out a bit. The speakers maintain their slightly forward, aggressive, detailed, open character.
I did all listening through my Logitech Squeezebox which is run through a PS Audio DL III DAC to the Pioneer Elite VSX-33 receiver. I know; additional conversions should make for worse sound. Not in my experience, but that issue is beyond the scope of this post. I like the sound this system produces, and in the end that's all that matters.
I listen to a great deal of hard rock and classical music. It's a challenge to find a speaker that will reproduce Bach and Santana with equal aplomb, let alone a speaker that is affordable. Frankly, I didn't expect much from the 52's. I got prepared to turn the volume down as I figured that fatigue would quickly set in listening to a bunch of brightly recorded rock. I was pleasantly surprised.
The highlight of the listening session was "Smooth" off of the Ultimate Santana CD. With the NHT Supertwo 2.0 this track was unbearable at high volumes. The NHT is not really designed for high volumes, but even when I turned the volume down these speakers struggled. There was just too much sizzle for my taste. Enter the 52's. Problem solved. I had all the detail I wanted plus I was actually turning the volume up.
Turnng to classical, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos 1, 2, an 3 (Telarc), never sounded better. I would put the sound I heard slightly behind my old seperates system (Integra 9.8, Earthquake Cinenova Grande, Onix Reference 3's), but nothing I couldn't live with. Considering the price difference involved I will definitely do so with a great big smile.
In conclusion, these budget Pioneer's are only budget in their price. Nothing I have heard would indicate that anyone would be unhappy with them as their primary speaker regardless if you can afford to spend more. They are a perfect multimedia speaker for a living room that must do double duty for music and movies. Really, the only downside is cosmetics; my wife and I happen to find them fairly attractive, and match the rest of the system perfectly. Every bit of developmental dollar obviously went where it counts: sound reproduction. In short, Pioneer is selling the sauce, not the sizzle.
Well done, Andrew Jones. I plan on drinking many Newcastle's in your honor.
