OK, I just got them an hour ago...initial impressions:
Onix Ref 0.5. ($300)
Packaging: Single boxed, and lacks the White gloves that many Onix owners have went on and on about. However, there was plenty of thick custom-cut closed-cell foamed plastic padding, and the speakers were in these white cloth pouches, which happened to fit these speakers like a glove...literally. Needless to say I'm pretty impressed so far.
Cosmetic: Honestly, I have never owned a single piece of furniture as well crafted as this, let alone a loudspeaker...the south american rosewood finish is as far as I can tell flawless. I'm not very knowledgable in how the finishes are classified, but to me it's a semi-gloss finish. You can just see my window blinds in the sides of them. The veneer is consistant, with no visible edges where the separate panels meet. The grills are very well assembled, and I could not find a single flaw. The drivers are aluminum...the woofer being a 5-1/4" variety, and a hybrid ailk/aluminum tweeter (aluminum dome, silk suspension). The drivers from both sides look exactly identical, no metal discolorations within the drivers.
I did find two minor gripes. One was there was some pitting on one of the hex bolts holding in my woofer...nothing big, but it did seem out of place on such a finely finished product. The other gripe was that the "made in china" labels on these speakers are big enough to overlap the product label. I don't mind the separate label, as I do work in an electronics manufacturing environment and know that this label is required for customs in many nations...but I do wish they could size it down a bit, so not to overlap. Just another incredibly minor detail that I thought was not befitting of something of this level of craftsmanship. Overall I gives these a 9/10 for craftsmanship. It's hard to imagine any way to make a speaker look nicer.
Review on sound coming soon....give me a weekend for my ears to get all kinky with these lovely speakers.
