I had posted last week about my negative experience with the shipping and handling of these speakers from Amazon.com. I originally ordered 2 speakers via 2 day shipping and to my disappointment, 1 of the speakers was extremely damaged in transit. After dealing with their customer service department a replacement speaker was sent. I received the replacement speaker today and to my extreme disappointment , once again, the speaker cabinet has extreme damage to the lower corner as if it had been dropped. Needless to say it has been a very negative experience overall as of this point... But then I hooked them up anyway, just to try them out
These speakers sound really, really good. At less than $300.00 per pair, actually quite unbelievably good. I had to try them out before I send them back. I'll rate them in a few catagories for you. My rating system is something like this...
Horrible - Poor - subpar - average - good - very good - excellent
Build Quality: good
Well, its hard to quantify this one subjectively at this point. I had 3 speakers shipped to me and 2 were damaged. However, the one that made it intact seems upon lifting it and overall feel to be fairly solid. They weigh a little over 40 lbs each. The finish is average overall, but good for this price point. I would have to think that under normal circumstances they would last a very long time. The (2) 8" woofers and (2) 8" passive radiators along with the 3/4" soft dome tweeters appear to be of good quality. No floor spikes and they slide easily on carpet. Good sized, look intimidating without the grills. I consider that a plus...
First impression of sound: good - slightly bright yet detailed.
I've audtioned 3 cd's through a Panasonic DVD player/ Kenwood VR107 receiver I've used in my bedroom system. My Harmon Kardon receiver and Sony player are packed away (I'm in the middle of a move)
Toto - Greatest Hits
Billy Idol - Vital Idol
Staind - Break the Cycle
The first thing I noticed was the imaging. Very distinct. Great seperation between each speaker.
The treble is slightly bright but very clean and in my opinion reproduced every detail. I decreased the treble setting down one notch from flat and the mids down 2 notches, the bass was kept at the flat setting and then everything was smoothed out considerably from what was a slightly overpowering mid/mid high. Not "tinny", but more in your face like a horn speaker might be.
The bass at first seems a little light (conversational level), but then you give it some volume (movie theater level) and all of the sudden there it is... and ALOT of it. The extreme lows come out nice. I'm hearing things that I used to need a powered sub to hear albeit not at an extreme output, but it blends nicely with everything else. Bass lines are independently audible and kick drums translate with authority.
The midrange output seemed to be little much. Like I stated previously, I needed to back it down a little bit for my tastes. Room size and listening location could be a factor here though.... 15 x 13. with me 10 feet away and speakers 7 feet apart. In a larger room the mids might be considered more "room filling" than overpowering.
As I'm listening, I have to say that the imaging is better than average, pretty good but not excellent. But I am really liking these.
High volume audition: They rock nicely - very good.
All I can say is WOW! I unloaded a good portion of 115 wpc on them listening to "Eyes Without a Face". They ate it up and asked for more. No audible distortion, no popping, clipping or high end harshness. Bass may have gotten ever so slightly muddy at top volume, but I was pushing it hard on that bass line. They stayed clean all the way until the point where I know the amplifier had reached in working peak. I'm a loud music junkie. My car audio system has 2 12" subs and well over 350 watts total power output and I was approaching those loudness level with these speakers.... the "just about to lose my sanity" volume. And they still sounded very good.
I would venture to say these are better for acoustic/jazz or classic rock based music as opposed to extremely bass heavy "metal" or rap. I've heard Cerwin-Vegas auditioned with type of music and they do really well with it. These seem to be a little more detail oriented and more suited for intricate musical pieces.
Overall impression: Yes, very good indeed.
If you can manage to get them shipped to you without sustaining damage and you're looking for an affordable floorstanding speaker set that can play loud, yet detailed and if your looking for a great speaker instead of a great piece of furniture that reproduces sound ..... look no further. This is one hell of a deal.
Final thought
I was very upset when I received a second damaged speaker. And my first thought was to send the whole works back and say "screw it" and wait for a different deal to come around, but after scouring Best Buy's, Circuit City's and Ultimate Electronics I found that there was absolutely no way I was going to find a speaker that sounds this good at this price from one of those places. I'll suck it up and play the return game until I get another good one... they sound good enough that it is worth it for me to go through the hassle.
I'm really looking foward to receiving my Bic DV62 center channel and rears to round out my system for theater use. I'll post again on them when they are received.
