Several people have been raving about these little speakers so I thought I'd give them a listen. FedEx dropped off a small box yesterday and I hooked these up last night. I thought I’d share my impressions as these are very new speakers.
First, the packaging is great. Doubled-boxed with the speakers wrapped in plastic. Not as nice as Aperion with the blue, velvet bags, but certainly enough to survive the usual UPS assault.
Upon unpacking, I noticed a couple very minor scratches on one of the speakers, but the rosewood sure is beautiful. I was quite surprised how small the speakers are, but they're quite heavy for their size. Not quite as heavy as the Aperion 5B, but as heavy as my Monitor Audio BR'2 which are substantially larger. So heavy, so small, and red in color, the speaker felt like a brick in my hand.
The cabinets are beautiful. They passed the WAF test with flying colors. The logo does stick out a bit, but it doesn't really bother me and you can always take the grills off.
Dynamics are great, but not quite as good as the Aperion 5B. The Aperions are very quick and make the shift from quiet to rocking smoothly. The ELT525's are on par with the BR2's.
The ELT525's are very different from the x-series speakers. Whereas the x-series are a bit heavier on the bottom to midrange, I felt the ELT525's were more neutral not accentuating any particular area. Very similar to the BR2's. The Aperions concentrated a bit more on the upper frequencies than both the ELT525's and BR2's. Overall, the ELT525's are well-balanced speakers.
The ELT525's are terribly inefficient coming in at 83db and they certainly needed a little power to open up, but my Cambridge Audio 540R v2 which is on duty till my new Emotiva stuff arrives had no problem getting them to sing. They won't play as loud as the Aperions, but go loud enough for my taste. The efficiency of the ELT525 and 5B I found to be about the same.
Although the Aperions gave ground to the BR2's when it came to disappearing in the room, the ELT525's had no problem keeping up despite a smaller driver. Every av123 speaker I've heard simply fills the room with sound and has no problems imaging. Everything sounded right where it should.
Overall detail was superior on the ELT525's versus the 5B's and almost on par with the BR2's at moderate volumes. The 5B's had a more reserved midrange and the BR2's sounded richer at lower volumes probably due to their higher efficiency.
Another thing av123 has nailed with their speakers are vocals. And the ELT525's didn't disappoint.
Overall, I feel the ELT525's are an excellent speaker for the money. The cabinets are beautiful and the sound is great. Probably my favorite internet speaker so far. They gave up a little ground to the BR2's, but not much. We all know the excellent customer service av123 offers so it's hard to pass these up, especially for $299/pair. My only gripes are the minor scratches which I know av123 would take care of, the logos, and the low efficiency.
I'd say the relationship between Aperion and av123 speakers is similar to that of PSB and Monitor Audio. If you want speakers that rock you, PSB and Aperion are for you. If you want speakers that offer as MLS put it intimate listening sessions, the ELT525's and Monitor Audio's are for you.