I wanted to post my review of the eD W6-6TC Speakers because there seem so few reviews of these speakers online and others should benefit from what I've learned.
My equipment:
Emotiva LMC-1 Processor
Emotiva XPA-3 Amp
Oppo BDP-83 BluRay Player
WDTV
Panasonic 46" G10 Plasma
eD W6-6TC replacing Axiom Audio M3v2
I use this setup in my 20x14 living room for TV, and 2 channel Audio and HT and we listen to everything. I bought these speakers specifically because I had heard they were based on the Swan D2.1SE, which I understood to be neutral, dynamic, and musical. Audioholics has a discount code for $175 off these speakers, which brought the price down to $475 shipped, which was lower than the Swans.
Ordering Experience:
I placed my order for the eD's on 9/3 and got a confirmation on 9/4 with a shipping tracking number. The speakers arrived on 9/8 in a double box. The box was dinged up and dirty from the Fedex trip from Iowa, and inside the packaging was not as well padded or packaged as what I've come to expect from Emotiva or Oppo. But it was good enough to deliver the speakers in perfect condition. They come wrapped in soft white cloth bags and white gloves accompany them.
Visual Appearance:
The speakers are beautiful in Rosewood. The arrangement of the drivers and front port are not as clean as on the Swan D2.1SE, but they still look better than any budget bookshelf I've ever seen. The binding posts on the back of the speaker are huge and of much better quality than anything I've ever seen on an Axiom, Paradigm, Kef, or B&W and I've owned bookshelf speakers from all of them.
My wife instanly loved them and my wife rarely comments on any of my hifi hobby gear. That said, no matter how nice they look if they didn't sound better than the Axiom's they were going back...
Sound:
These speakers need some time to break in. Immediately, they sound distant and closed in. They opened up after about 3 hours, and then exhibited some silibance in the trebble and not as much bass I had expected. I discovered along the way that speaker wire oxidizes on the ends over time so I clipped the ends of my Kimber 4TC wire and re-terminated them. That removed the silibance.
After about 20 hours of listening I would describe these speakers as a nice step up from the Axioms. In some ways, this comparison left me impressed with how much the Axioms did right all these years. At their price, they offer a nice sound.
But the eD's are superior. The soundstage is much deeper and wider. With Jazz, instruments and voices have more timbre, fine detail, and air. Subtle details emerge from the blackness and you can hear combinations of cymbal and drum that merged on the Axioms. With Classical, dynamic shifts in volume are huge and the music has an emotional content that I have missed with the Axioms.
On Rock, Techno, and R&B, these speakers can go loud without distortion or harshness. There is no musical compression with complex passages, and the dynamic range is mezmerizing. More than the Axiom's they reveal how much better SACD's and reference recordings sound than bad recordings, MP3's and even FLAC files.
OK, I have a small house and I haven't tried many high-end speakers before. But these large bookshelves at $475 are a wonderful revelation, and I'm enjoying rediscovering my music collection. On some recordings, the hair stands up on my neck.
Highly recommended. A wonderful speaker at this price and twice.
