Now that I was able to spend a few days with them, I thought I would write a little something up on them. They are not perfect, but they are quite impressive, and once you factor in price they are a solid contender IMHO. Since I am looking for some relatively inexpensive speakers for music only in my bedroom system, these guys were a logical choice for consideration to me having previously owned the GR Research A/V-1s which these share a little lineage with, being co-designed by Danny of GR.
The first thing that you notice is the cabinets. These were the maple and they are gorgeous looking, heavy and feel very well built. They edging and small details, like the flushing of the tweeter and port, exhibit a quality that looks like they should be far in excess of their fairly small price tag. Next was size. I wasn’t expecting them to be that large; I was surprised actually at their size. They are deeper than they are wide, so from the front they don’t appear large. They looked right at home on my 26” stands, and the tweeters were at just about the right height for my seating.
How do they sound? BIG…their sound is seemingly larger than their size would suggest. They do have a somewhat lower sensitivity at 87dB, so I had to notch them up by a few dB to achieve similar levels as my GR A/V-2s (91.5dB, 4 Ohm). I think the lower sensitivity works to their advantage actually, because you can throw a ton of power at them and they just say "Thank you sir, may I have another?" These guys were able to easily fill my 24x13 vaulted ceiling room at average listening levels, and they were also able to be pushed to quite elevated levels without breakup in the midrange or tweeters. I powered them in my room with my PM7200 (95w @ 8 Ohms) and in the main room with my MA500 monoblocks (125w @ 8 Ohms) and for most of the testing I ran them with and without an 80Hz x-over with the monos, full range in my bedroom, 2ch in both. They never showed signs of stress with anything I threw at them and they aren’t mine, so I didn’t want to push them to the point where they would. I would think they can handle fairly large rooms given enough power. They have a wide soundstage that has good depth and detail. I dropped them into my existing speaker spots, which seemed to work well with them in my main room, but not so well in my bedroom due to placement option limitations. They don’t like being close to the walls, as the bass seems to get a little muddy (about 2”). When I pulled them out about a foot further, they were much happier. In my main room, they have a few feet behind them so it is a non issue. In my main room, I sit about 9ft away with them about 9ft apart and they had a solid center image when sitting in the sweet spot. I noticed they share a similar character to the GR speakers, while they have good response over a wide angle, the true sweet spot is a bit narrow and requires good placement to bring out their best imaging. They sounded better with the grilles off IMO. Highs are a tad flat; clean but not silky smooth.
I first popped in my standard, Patricia Barber’s Café Blue SACD (MoFi) because it is extremely well recorded and has a lot to offer when auditioning with a variety of instruments and range of sound as well as vocals. The X-LSs were able to capture the depth of the recordings. They have good bass on their own, but for a medium to large room, they will do well to have a sub supporting. The midrange is very clean, though they have a tiny bit of what sounds like muffling to me. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I felt like the upper midrange was a bit soft, meaning the bass and highs are a bit more pronounced, with them having an overall soft sound to them. Vocals sounded great on the tracks Too Rich for My Blood and A Taste of Honey, with a very natural sound and no break up, but they were just a tiny bit muffled. Manha de Carnaval is recorded in a smaller room with mostly “body” sounds (no, not those kinds of sounds….think Bobby McFerrin, chest thumping, clapping, etc…) minimal vocals and the X-LSs were able to recreate the sound of the space well. I also used Patricia Barber’s Companion, which is a live album recorded at a small venue. The X-LSs picked up the small details like individuals clapping, glasses clinking on tables, and some talking in the crowd. No problem picking up the fine details here.
Next I thought I’d throw something edgy at them. That turned out to be Flyleaf, a small independent alternative/punk band that I saw last year and I liked them so I picked up their CD. They have some crunchy guitar work and good percussion and decent recording, but the shining point is their singer, a petite girl who has an interesting voice that is somewhat higher in pitch with some good power behind it. At first, she sounds like the petite girl she appears to be (sort of Michelle Branch?), but she quickly moves to some deep, guttural growls that really took me off guard in a good way. The vocals come across well, as she moves from soft passages, to full out screaming emotional bursts on tracks like Cassie and Fully Alive. This isn’t about space or detail, it is mostly about energy and that comes across well with the X-LSs.
To mix it up even further, I threw in Gorillaz Demon Daze. I’d call it synth-pop-funk-dance, with a wide range of sounds. It has solid bass lines and interesting vocals, instruments and synthesized sounds with good 2ch separation. There are some faster tracks like All Alone and slower ones like November Has Come, with a variety of male vocals and some melodies. It is an interesting album that I wasn’t sure I liked, but it quickly grew on me and I happened to be listening to it a lot recently, so I figured I’d see how it did. Bass is plentiful on the album, though not extremely deep, and the X-LSs had no problem keeping up. Separation and width were very good, and vocals were clear.
Others used – Godsmack Other Side SACD, Blue Man Group The Complex DVD-A, Shawn Colvin A Few Small Repairs and a Japanese import CD with which I am not familiar, it was lent to me by a friend and it is very good. There were a few more I would have liked to try but most of my CDs are still packed up at the moment.
So, the verdict – I’ve listened to many speakers in the price range and I have to say these have no business being sold for $200…they are one heck of a bargain at that price. I was hoping they would be just a bit livelier, but I have no real complaints about them. There are a few things they don’t do as well as more expensive speakers, but there are more than enough other things they do very well that push them to the top of the crowd. With the free shipping both ways deal going on, these should absolutely be on your audition list if you are shopping for something in this price range. Due to room placement, these guys may not be what I ultimately go with, but they offered a very compelling argument for themselves. I may have to consider some X-CSs now instead in that new Rosa finish…we'll see. Thanks for reading.
