Did you not read this part of the review?
"Could Energy do better?
I reviewed the Connoisseur C-3s back in 2002, and that speaker not only received a Reviewers’ Choice nod but won our year-end Budget Leader award as well. At the time of the review, the C-3 was $500 per pair, which was a great deal; later on Energy lowered the retail price to just $300, making the C-3s an astonishingly good deal.
Could Energy do better? Honestly, I didn’t think so -- until I unboxed the $550 RC-10s. With beautifully finished real-wood-veneered cabinets (the C-3 looked nice, but it was vinyl clad), rather exotic-looking drive units, binding posts that wouldn’t look out of place on speakers double or triple the price, and magnetically attached grilles, the RC-10s set a standard for build quality that no other bookshelf speakers that I know of near their price can match.
Oh, yeah, they sound great too, bettering the C-3 in every way except for a little bit of bass weight. (The C-3 had a 6 1/2" woofer and a larger cabinet, which seemed to give the speakers a slightly bigger sound.) Still, even if it’s not quite as fleshed out down low as C-3, the RC-10 has shockingly good bass for its size, along with detail, control and articulation that better the C-3's and which I never thought possible from such a low-priced two-way. The midrange is very clear and devoid of congestion, but it’s the top end that sends this little speaker over the top. The RC-10’s tweeter is so sweet-sounding you’d swear that Energy built this driver for a speaker four times the price. Why do I say that? The RC-10 doesn’t quite match, but does come close to, the performance of the Paradigm Signature S2’s tweeter, which I consider a reference -- something I wouldn’t expect from a speaker half the S2’s price, let alone about one-quarter of it. As a result, the RC-10 is as amazingly refined-sounding little speaker.
If the RC-10 has a weakness, it’s that it is the perfect speaker for a small- to medium-sized room, but not a really big one. Put it in a room that’s too big, and despite the more-than-impressive bass for its size, it will still likely sound small. After all, it is a rather compact speaker. There are bigger RC-series speakers -- floorstanders, in fact -- for filling large spaces. If the RC-10 cost twice the price (and I suspect it would if a boutique company that doesn’t have the engineering wherewithal of Energy produced it), some audiophiles might nit-pick about this, that, and the other thing. Maybe someone would want more presence in the mids, and maybe someone would want the speaker to sound more relaxed. But at what Energy is asking for the RC-10, there’s really not one nit to pick.
Put the RC-10s in the right room and partner them with good-quality components, and you’ll be rewarded with outstanding minimonitor sound at a ridiculously low price. Energy has not only bettered the older Connoisseur-series speakers, they have redefined my expectations for inexpensive speakers.
...Doug Schneider
das@soundstage.com