excellent midrange, distortion due only to crappy receiver, route the base to the sub it mixes perfect

got these baby's cheap, I was a salesman at the store, got them for employee discount, I've used them for about 3 years now, unfortunatly, I have a crappy reciever so I can't blow full potential on them Tecnics -ax7 rec. and decoder (both crap, plan to upgrade to onkyo soon AR 208's front AR 215ps rear ARsc2 center AR 108 sub Panasonic rp56 prog. dvd player tecnics 5 disc cd toshiba 32af42 flat tv

Nice finish (puchased the cherry),exellent imaging & crisp highs, "great price"

Very large for bookshelfs, lack bass, IMHO not well suited to all music, esp. rock

I purchased these speakers becuase of the cheap price. Just try to find a pair of decent bookshelfs for under $300! I had them in storage & decided to try them with my new SET,Decware Zen amp. I hoped that the 92db sen, & 4ohm rating would go well with the Zen amp. These speakers produce "decent bass" when hooked up to a solid state amp with some decent wattage,(ie, Yamaha RXV2092,150wpc stereo) but had almost none with the Zen amp. IMHO these speakers are designed to work best with high wattages to bring out there bass, hence the high 200watt power rating. They do seam to have a "hole" in the midrange & sound a "little thin" as well. I have compared them with klipsch 1.5's & 2.5's which i am using as surrounds as well as Infinity reference 2000.3's & B&W DM601's. They are realy a decent speaker & there best strenths are probably there nice crisp highs & superb imaging although there soundstage is a little narrow. IMO they are not that well suited to rock, but have an airy sound best suited to intrumental or accoustic music. I am going to give these to my roomate who i dont think has ever owned a good stereo, so he will be in "hog heavin". I replaced them with a pair of Klipsch Reference RB-5II's, which also have 8" woofers & produce considerably more bass & have a nice high sensitivity rating of 96db, which go EXTREMELY WELL with the zen amp. I was quite impressed with the finish & heavy duty binding posts on the 208HO's & think Acoustic Research makes good products, but this speaker may be there lower line of products.

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch 1.5 & 2.5, B&W DM601, Infinity Reference 2000.3, Klipsch Reference RB-5II

i got these speakers for $99./pr new.

maple finish

great sounding speakers for the price. strong mids and plenty of low end if you want it. i like the tonal balance of these speakers. they allow moderately high listening volumes even in my appartment because the low end is very controllable. i found the infinity rs-3 in particular had a ton of low end and sounded poor if you tried to attenuate it very much.

Similar Products Used:

infinity rs-3, infinity rs-1, paradigm mini 3se, paradigm 3se mk3

GREAT Deal. Fairly small for their sound.

They just don't have _it_.

These speakers are an incredible deal, but I'm not too impressed with the sound. They just don't have that sparkle I love in a speaker, and there's a bit of a whole in the mids. Add a good titanium tweeter to this speaker and I think i'd like it a lot better. Also, there's a pretty significant low end rolloff, but AR has done a good job maintaining a respectable amount of bass out of a box that small. I'm running these through a Harman/Kardon HK3270, so that's got to help a bit. Speaking of which, they also handle an impressive amount of power for their size.

price, appearance, sound quality

weak bass

A great speaker for the price ($120/pair at netmarket) and they're even cheaper now ($99/pair at accessories4less.com). Great sound clarity, esp in the high ranges, with above average imaging. I agree that there is something to be desired in the bass, but remember that this is a bookshelf speaker. Will work great for a secondary system (as I use them) and I have them backed up with a pair of the 206HO's ($90/pair on ebay).
There are few speakers of this quality for the price, and if you're looking for speakers for a secondary or inexpensive system, these are perfect.

Similar Products Used:

NHT Super 0's, Design Acoustic PS-10a

Tweeter allows for high's and also the size is not very overwelming, like other speakers that produce less sound.

Not as bassy as they are advertised, 40hz, my but.

I bought them with my netmarket account, after having some financial trouble, I needed somthing that was inexpensive and sound great in stereo and in multi-channel format. @ 120 for the pair I was amazed. I am big on ubid.com and bid.com, but for what I paid it was an incredible steal. They are the best sounding 8 inch speakers for under 500 I have ever heard!

I have the cs-25ho center channel and the 216ps rears, to form an incredible sound field. I am currently using an 8- inch aiwa sub, (hey I have expensive tastes, but no money to back them up.)I run it all on a sherwood 6095r, witch is absolute heaven, since I paid under 200 for dts and dd, that sounds great in stereo too.

Similar Products Used:

Polk, Cerwin Vega, B&W, other AR products, Auras, Psb and paradigm

Price, clarity, just love the look of it,,,Great highs!

Bass,?

Hi!
Just bought myself new speakers, again. I have a lovely wife who think that I´ve got some sort of Audio desease or something,,,,,, :-)
Well, new apartment calls for new speakers, found these at my local dealer and decided to try them out, since I´ve started to realy like AR. Great speakers! The highs are exelent and also the mids. I was a bit worried about these boxes since they have 8´´ as a midrange/bass driver. 8´s usualy have a smaller listening window then 6.5´s. But AR fooled me, the 208 does great. Only weaknes, no bass at all! I mean, for G´s sake, they have an 8 inch driver?!? What to do?? get a god subwoofer, period. Tried to find a god centerspeaker to, tried the cs25HO,,,,,,,,lousy voicematching. Bought myself the new HiRes center instead, HiRes2C or whats its name ( the big one, GREAT!!!!), and it worked much better. Why?? Beats me,,,,,still wondering.
Listen to all sorts of music, from M Manson to Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the AR´s are doing better with chamber music then With Marilyn Manson and they are great for HT.
Finaly, if a had the chanse I would probably have bought the 308 instead. Have never listened to them but the design should result in better sound quality overall. Give the 208´s a double five anyway!

Current system:
AR 208 Front, back
HiRes 2C Center ( Will "never" sell this one!! )
Audio pro B1.35 Subwoofer
ONKYO DS676
Pioneer Ps-09 (CD)
ONKYO DV-s535 (DVD)
SUPRA interconnects and speakercables.

Similar Products Used:

A truckload of stuff,,,,,,, ( Wife getting a bit anoyed:-) )

Freq. Response(40-20k),Size,Price

None

I bought these at www.accessories4less.com on closeout for $99 plus shipping. They are the best speakers you will ever find for this price,as far as I know. They have excellent highs and enough bass to satisfy almost everyone(maybe not 18 year old kids with hearing aids). I got the cherry finish and it looks great in my HT room,the finish is not shiny so they don't look cheap. Overall I whould highly recommend them to anyone.

Similar Products Used:

All kinds

Value, looks, power efficiency.

None at this price point.

These speakers provide probably the best of what I could have hoped for at this price range. They are wonderful for use in a home theater setup. They provide excellent sound quality and go very loud if necessary. I'd recommend them to anyone on a budget. These are bookshelves so you most likely will desire a subwoofer to help out the bottom end.
5 stars all around for the value and performance they can provide compared to similarly priced speakers.

good bass

difficult separation

Jumped on the discounted price ($140/pr).Clean sounding,strong bass for size;however,guitar gets lost somewhere in the mix.I agree,not the best speaker for rock,but the price was right.P.S. don't pay list.

Similar Products Used:

klh