OK...I know I promised this nearly a month ago...but various factors have kept me from sitting down and getting through enough varieties of music to accurately describe this speaker. I also felt I should give it the full 30 days to see how I like it...I make the mistake of rushing things too much.
One tip when ordering from AV123...if you want saturday delivery, UPS red is your only option, and it's extremely expensive....so in this case patience pays off greatly....go for the regular shipping.
Once the speakers arrived, I found them singlepacked, in a box with a very good amount of molded foam padding. There was a zip-lock baggie containing the manual (which itself is inside a binder type sleeve), some rubber feet (which I did not use...I'm not sticking anyhing to the speakers), and the reciept for the order. The speakers themselves were each inside of a very snug-fitting white cloth pouch. I did not get to experience the packed white gloves some people talked about, but I was already very impressed with the pacakaging. Most companies would just use foam sheeting to wrap the speakers.
The speakers were bagged so you just open the top of the bag, setting the exposed part of the speaker on the stand, then pull the bag off, leaving the speaker there, completely untouched by my own hands.
The finish is by far the best I have seen on furniture or speaker....these speakers are so good looking that I now have to reconsider my own plans on furnishing my living room. Yes, I am a stickler for aesthetics. I could not find a single flaw with the South American Rosewood finish. The polish on the finish is a what I can best describe as semi-glossy. The speakers are about 14" in front of my window, and I can see my windowblinds in the reflections on the sides of these speakers.
The drivers are both aluminum. The woofer has a rubber surround, while the tweeter has a silk surround. According to some info I gleaned off of the AV123 forum, these are the same drivers Onix used in their ELT, just with better cabinetry and crossovers. I did not disassemble the speakers, since I will have to live with these, and did not want to risk damaging anything.
There were two things that I did notice, but neither really matters. The first was one of the screws holding the woofer in had a spotty finish....it's not noticible unless under close scrutiny though. The other is the giant "made in china" label on the back. I have no gripe with where it's made, it's more that this label overlapped the product label.
Reason it overlapped was the lack of space between the binding post cup and the rear port. I understand why this label exists (it's a requirement for shipping to many nations, for customs purposes), but since the industry I work in (electronics manufacturing) does this as well, I know they could use a far smaller label, or even integrated it into the product label. Like I said, it's really just me being a picky little monkey.
Now, onto the description of the layout of the system I am using them on:
Yamaha RX-496 receiver (pretty solid unit, nice sound at a good price)
Pioneer DV-C503 DVD changer (yep, I use it as a CD player...space constraints)
Cables....I don't buy into cables making a difference, but just for the heck of it...I am running K&B speaker cable 12ft pair (way too long), and custom made double shielded analog interconnects. Reason for analog is the RX-496 has no digital inputs, being a stereo reciever.
The speakers themselves are on some StudioTech speaker stands, 24" tall. I did replace the rubber pads on top with felt, since I did not want to risk the super sticky rubber pads it came with screwing up the finish on these speakers.
I have played so many CDs that I can't keep track of them all, but here is my observations:
This is a pretty neutral sounding speaker, leaving the wow factor to the recording. Some discs will leave me relaxed, while others will practically force you to drop what you are doing and listen.
I was going to make this a 3-way shootout between the BR-1 and the Cerwin-Vega V-5M....there was no comparison. This speaker spanked both of the others silly, in dynamics, detail, and sound quality. The BR-1 did beat the Ref .5 in bass, but the BR-1 is possibly the hardest hitting 6.5" bookshelf speaker I have ever seen...the thing wa actually so strong in bass that I had no way to correct the issues using them in a small room created....thus why I decided to find a smaller apir of speakers, which lead me to the Ref .5
So, onto a solo review:
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Bass: These speakers do not "thump", nor do they give any deep bass. Their extension is pretty much 55hz. and that's it. In the case of my tiny living room, this is perfect, since I can listen to any of my music at 1am without annoying my neighbors. The bass they do have is very tight and smooth. Drums sound like drums, and thunder is reproduced with reasonable amounts of believeability, despite lacking the low bass that real thunder has.
Midrange: It's pretty darn good sounding for a $300 speaker. The overall midrange seems to be well balanced with the bass and treble of this speaker. I do notice some coloration of the mids, which seemed to show itself with female vocals. I have to say I am still very impressed at this point.
Treble: Very detailed, and rather accurate. I did not find any complaints at all in this dept...Cymbals sounded dead on, violins sounded smooth, not screechy, and vocals sounded quite natural.
Imaging: These speakers have great imaging. I can easily place voices and instruments when I close my eyes. This proved to be great when watching movies.
I did not do any tests to see how it performed when played hard, since I'd rather stay on the good side of my neighbors.
Overall, for the price, I can say these are great speakers for a smaller room. A very smooth natural sound, excellent imaging, and the finish on these speakers are good enough to pass as furniture....all for $300. I just wish I could spare the cash to check out the X-LS speakers as well, to give them a nice face-to-face, and see who wins out.
