The tweeter is very good. The treble and soundstage is also very great. The connecotors in on the back are very high quality and will fit 10 gauge wire's. The cabinet is heavy and heavily braced so thats good. If you are able to find this speaker under 175 bucks, its a no brainer However there are a few downsides

These speakers need a subwoofer, the bass sounds good, but is very weak, its a must, to have a subwoofer on these! Also there arent screw holes in the bottom, so no easy to connect spikes

It has been roughly 15 years since the C-3 was introduced, and in some respects, it is still a landmark product. The Soundstage review highlighted the speakers greatest asset: a highly detailed yet refined treble reproduction. In many respects it is still all these years later a class leading product on that regard. I was less impressed as the music dipped in frequency. As noted, the soundstaging abilities are good but nothing remarkable in this regard. Sound rarely gets outside of the speakers. However, the sound is very good as well as instrument imaging. I felt the midrange could have used some more realism. That is, it sounded a bit flat and forward, and lacked the "reach out and touch" 3d nature of more pricey Loudspeakers. The biggest let down is the bass reproduction. At times the bass sounded a bit tubby and overly warm, as well.as lacking in definition. It wasn't horrible. More distracting in nature. In sum, I am not in love with the speaker as others are. I still think it's a very good, well engineered product , that becomes even more attractive on the second hand market.

These are some solid speakers. I bought them used on a-gon for $250 and couldn't be happier. I'm using them as near-field monitors, feeding them 110w through an early 2000's Marantz...and they sound awesome coupled with a modest sub. The only thing is that they are super picky about placement (weird, seeing as how they're front-ported). It took me a while to figure out how to get them set up right, but after an hour or two of trial and error, I ended up putting them slightly above ear height, 5 or so feet apart, toed in (typical near-field setup; I just increased the elevation a bit). I've found that if you put them too low, they sound tinny and thin, but as long as the center of the woofer is at or above the height of your ears in your listening chair, they'll be extremely rewarding. Pretty much everything that everybody else said is true about the sound--it is that good.

I only gave them a 4 because if money didn't matter, I would have bought a pair of Viennas. Let's be real here, they're damn good, even for $500 retail, but they're not Sonus Fabers.


My decision was between the following pairs on a-gon:

B&W DM602s3
Vienna Haydns
Monitor Bronze S2
Energy C-3s

They all cost between $250 and $400, and I had the money to buy whichever pair I wanted. I opted for the Energys.

Plays acoustic music beautifully. Good bass, great vocals, live recordings felt visual, like you could see where each musician was sitting/standing. They look great!

For my needs, None.

I had been listening to speakers all over town, looking for a high quality bookshelf speaker. I have a small living room and the speakers will be used for 2 channel stereo. I chose the Energy speakers based on the great sound, and found them for a great price on Ebay. I highly recommend the Polk's and PSB as well, but both were on the high end of my $500 budget that I set aside. I picked up the stands for $75 bucks and still paid less than I would have for the others. When shopping for speakers, I took 4 CD's, Diana Krall's "Love Scenes" Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" Beck, and a live Grant Green CD. The three speakers mentioned above were able to capture this diverse group of music. I'm driving the speakers with an old B&K ST-140 amplifier.

Similar Products Used:

Polk Audio Lsi7, Paradigm Mini Monitor, NHT SB3, B&W 601, Monitor Silver S2, PSB B25

nice wide 3D image, solid bass, flat response, lively but not overly bright highs

Can sound a bit grainy with some heavily electronic music

The Energy C-series has been a longtime favorite of my budget audiophiles. These are no nonsense speakers, a good cabinet with the custom designed drivers using the knowledge gained from their own high end speakers, and a simple philosophy of wide flat frequency response. No frills here, just solid engineering. These are the speakers that bridge the gap between the entry level HTIB speaker sets, and true high end speakers. This series has modest two way bookshelf speakers to full range tower speakers. The C-3 incorporates the well regarded Energy aluminum done crossed over at a low 2Khz, to a 6.5 inch woofer with design elements shared with their high end Veritas high end line. The sound of these speakers is really something else. Clarity is their main characteristic. They aren't laid back, and they sound lively whether playing jazz or really rocking with low bass lines from a typically Madonna CD. The tightness of the bass is really a big plus here, the cabinet really keeps check on the bass from getting too tubby, and the midrange is nice and full, the vocals really have a lot of presense. I did notice a bit of coarseness and graininess on some CD's, but it's nothing objectionable. In fact, when I first listened to these, I had listened to some other pretty impressive speakers, Paradigm Studio 20/40, B&W 704/705, Energy Veritas 2.2, and I was surprised that the C-3 wasn't completely embarrassing after all that impressive company. While those other speakers did sound better in some respects, the fact that I liked the C-3's shows that these C-3's really are good. In fact, I had originally setting on the Paradigm Studio 20 which are 50% more costly, but the Energy's had a nicer fuller midrange, and was much cheaper made me sway toward the C-3's (the 20's did have a nicer bass to them, but the C-3's are no slouch in this department)

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm

I am one of those people who are frustrating for electronic salespeople to deal with. I go to the store, listen to all of the available options, and then go home. I repeat this process at all of the available stores in the area, and about 50 times at each store individually. Not a big fan of rush decisions--combination of being incredibly anal on decisions and not having a billion dollars to throw at anything I get an urge to buy. I only mention these characteristics of myself to illustrate the almost painful, thorough process I put myself when buying anything major. I have listened to a great number of speakers--big fan of the side-by-side comparison--and these speakers quite frankly blow away anything else. I know and respect the fact that people hear things differently, but the difference between these speakers and all the others I've auditioned seems to almost objectively put them in a class several notches above the rest. The music (big music fan, vs. audio) seems to just jump off of these with a purity and clarity that is incredible. In comparison, the others that I've heard seem rather uninspired, flat, and bloaty. These throw out a BIG soundstage. When combined with decent power (I am a big fan of the Denon line, currently owning the 3802) and clarity, these just sing like angels from above. Dramatic, I know, but so was the difference in my extensive listening sessions. Obviously better speakers do exist, but I honestly believe you have to spend a great deal more money to achieve the same level of sonic nirvana. I would heartily recommend these to anyone searching for a strong reference bookshelf speaker within the mortal price range. One thing I have appreciated with these (and not noticed on prior audio equipment) is the ability to now hear very clear differences in the quality of recording that different cds possess. One example of an exceptionally well-made album is Madonna's "Ray of Light." Not everyone may be a Madonna fan but, in terms of clarity, separation, dynamic range, soundstage, and overall presence, it is a wonderful album to use as a tester or simply listen to. These speakers are also very well made--magnetic grills are a great design concept--and they look very classy. If I haven't made this point abundantly clear already (which I'm sure I have), these speakers are wonderful and I believe most people, given the same listening experiences I went through, would very much agree. I encourage anyone searching for speakers to do a good deal of listening, including the side-by-side method, and to include these speakers in such tests.

equals or betters loudspeakers costing upwards of a $1,000

None at this price

I Just heard these speakers at a friend's house two days ago. He burned them in for over 200 hours before doing any critical listening to them. Not only are they one of the most Tonally accurate,inexpensive monitors i've ever heard, but these little speakers produce clean bass down to around 35Hz in my friends apartment. They are connected to a Bryston amp, which is what the people at Energy used in designing the Connoisseur series product line. You would think because of their low price, the C3's are made to be used with cheap receivers & low-end surround sound crap from Circuit city. But they are really designed to be used with high-end Separates,or a well made intergrated amplifier.

Good crisp highs and good midrange. Magnetic speaker grill. Very stylish speaker cabinet.

Sound better with jazz, classical, contempary styles of music. i.e. Billy Childs, Mozart, Dave Matthews Band.

Have always been a Energy fan from the beginning. I recently upgrade from my EXL16's to these guys, and let me tell big difference. Excellent sound reproduction from most types of music and they do really well with movies to (although I use the XL100 center instead of the CC1 ). They have really good imaging. I have my set about 7 ft apart and it sounds like the music is still right in front of you. They are very clean, crisp, and presise on the highs. Midrange is also very good, just depends on the music. The bottom end is also pretty good, there are some speakers in the same price range that do a little better on the bottom end, yet sacrifice the rest ( personal opinion ). The C3's for the money, are an all around good choice for bookshelf speaker for pretty much any use.

Similar Products Used:

Energy EXL16, XL100, XL150 Boston Acoustic VR940, VR910, VRSMIRCOS (all of which I currently own!)

excellent highs and smooth mids, attractive cosmetics, magnetic speaker grill

not biwirable anymore, lacks bass compared to my old C2''s (using my sub now for low''s now)

I sold my old Energy C2''s for a great price and eagerly upgraded to C3''s once they were released (knowingly that they are just a tweak of the old Connossieur seriers). Seems like Energy improved on the old Connossieur''s weakness: 1. average mid range 2. cheap plastic speaker grills 3. bindings post too close together After careful listening to my new C3''s with all types of music, I concluded the C3''s have better mids, slightly improved detail and imaging, but at the sacrifice of bass compared to my old C2''s. Conclusion: C3''s are just my C2''s with a smaller cabinet (hence less bass), better mids imaging (probably cause of new woofers and improved cabinet design). The old Connossieur are very good, if you are happy with your old Connossieur series don''t bother upgrading. If you are buying new, these are very good speakers at an affordable price and updated to meet and beat Energy''s competitors.