I looked at bose, polk, klipsh, def. tech, infinity, and boston acoustics speakers in the under 1000 per pair. These AR seem to be the best (althought klipsch 10.5 were very close). They can handle lows the best, highs well. The 328s have the best looks as well.

The AR-328s are, by far, the best speakers for under a $1,000. The accuracy of AR speakers is unrivaled. These speakers are
perfect for a combination stereo/home theatre.

I got the 328PS and they are the best sounding speakers in the $1000 dollar price range that I have heard. Great loud tight base, non fatigue highs and great solid mids. The detail of these speakers are the greatest, they seem to benefit better from a power amp than most speakers. They have great detail and are very brassy for classical music. Not enough bass for you? Move them closer to the wall. The are great for the HIFI listener or the surround sound nut. These are great!

Finally got to listen to these, at sears though, set up was very very bad. So, this review may be a bit skewed. The bass was, well, good, kind of boomy, not CV boomy, but boomy. The highs were good, as far as i could tell anyways. The mids were pretty good, but lacked in well, it lacks in something, but I can't think of a good term to describe it. They were definently better than Cerwin Vega or the JBL's. But I decided on Paradigm phantoms. They were cheaper, have less bass and better highs. But, give these a try, don't buy from sears though. You can find them at about half the 700 dollar asking price of sears at www.netmarket.com. I'll give them four stars, Paradigm being five, JBL 620's being 3, Cerwin Vega being 2 (same for DCM), and i'll give 1 star to bose. I'd give them zero, but you can't.

Heard these at sears, along with AR 318-PS and Cerwin Vega E-312's. Set up was very poor for evaluating and comparing them, although slightly better than the setup at Best Buy. For example, one of the two 328-PS speakers had a damaged tweeter, only one of the 318-PS's was playing at all, and it had a damaged tweeter, etc. Only the CV's were both fully functional.
I thought the 328's had a good, balanced overall sound, with good high end. They also looked nice, and had the "tower" appearance I wanted. Sears had them marked down to $600 for the pair, and were throwing in the AR center speaker from the PS line for free. I have had them for a couple of weeks now, and I like them very much. They definitely bring out the differences in audio quality in various movies and broadcast TV. They sound very good with classical, and OK with rock. I know there is better stuff out there, but these are very good for the money. I give them 4 *'s.

Listened to a bunch of stuff, Infinity, Bose, JBL, Polk and some others. These sounded pretty killer to me. For the cash nothing else was close. Shipped $388.00 (shop4.com)
Sorry for the lack of tech info, but for me it sounds good, bad or ok.

4 stars for performance --- 6 for value ------- 5 overall

I purchased the 328's after listening to them and the salesman telling me that "these were the speakers for me" line. Truth is he was right, they cost hundreds less than my friends B/A's and sound just as good especially when I think of what he paid and what I paid. I would recomend these speakers to anyone who likes to hear every detail of music they listen to or movie they watch!

I've always loved acoustic-suspension speakers and have been suspicious of ported speakers because most I've heard over the years have boomy bass and have added a sort of metallic "edge" to the soprano voice at full tilt... I also lamented the demise of AR. Now AR [the name] has been bought by the California firm that also makes NHT speakers. I was looking for inexpensive speakers for my daughter's new stereo system and came across these at Sears, of all places. I tested them with a Bach organ recording and a highlights disk of Mozart's The magic Flute. These are gorgeous speakers for the money! Deep, tight bass and smooth mid-range and treble.

I purchased (2) 328PS for the fronts, C225PS center, (2) AR226PS rear and a S12HO for sub hooked them to a Denon AVR2700 and could not believe the sound. I love my tunes and take most things to the extreme ( budget permitting ) and I have to say that I don't believe that you could ask for much more than this. I'm messing w/ my home audio for some time. Maybe I'll start working on the car audio system again.

Have to agree with most of the other posts about these speakers. They sound fine, and will doubtlessly sound even better when I get through tinkering with the EQ and placement of these things (they are rather tall). NO problem with the bass, at least not in my medium sized living room. They get juice from a (4 yr. old) Sony STRD-990 receiver which I consider an adequate but not exemplary power source. My main beef is with Smile Electronics where I bought them. Advertised price is $320/pr. which is quite inexpensive. It took 2 1/2 weeks to get them...but of course it took only about 2 1/2 minutes to charge my card...and they quoted me $50 for the shipping but charged me $75. These people are rude...not unusual for the New York discount houses (SBH comes to mind). But I finally got them and they sound great, top to bottem, and I thought my troubles were over. Nope. One speaker arrived without a grill!
My old speakers were a two-way EPI speaker which did a pretty nice job, but lacked alot of the fullness I hoped for with a bigger, better speaker. When I get rich and famous, I'm sure I will trade these in on an electrostatic hybrid, but until then all my music, from the Clash to Richard and Linda Thompson to Robert Johnson has never sounded better.

Suggestion: Will sound best in a relatively large room. I have tilted the speakers up about 5 degrees to enable the highs to hit my ears just right.

Never do business with Smile! They are a complete nightmare. And I get to pay the long distance charges while I'm straightening out this grill situation.