great bass. nice overall sound

a little big

I got these on ubid for $106/pair, delivered. These are a great value for the price. They sound clean with wonderful bass.

I have no complaints. I don't know enough about music to give a detailed review, I just like what I like. And I like these speakers. I would recommend them to anyone looking for a great deal on tower speakers.

Great highs, Great Lows, Incredible value (199/pair)

Almost too bright. Almost.

This review is for the Aura LSW-828 speakers.

I'm so excited about these speakers that I want to "tell the world." I picked up a pair of these after coming many much more expensive brands side-by-side. These were as good as, or better than, speakers costing $1000/pair. At $199 per pair, these Aura's are the best bang-for-the-buck out there. I matched them with some cheap Advent Marbl speakers for my surround sound rear speakers, and I couldn't be happier.

The speakers are very bright with clean deep bass. I didn't know that 8" woofers could go so low. A friend came over and measured the frequency response with a sound level meter and calibration CD. The speakers fall off sharply at 30 hz, right about where you'd expect. And I appreciate that they seem to have no hard requirements on placement.

We danced to them in our basement for our 2000 New Year's party and the cops came because of noise complaints. I played the Terminator T2 Canal chase scene on DVD for some friends, and the bass was so good they jerked back like they were punched when the truck drove over the edge to the bottom of the canal. At low volume, the special effects during Bug's Life were absolutely perfect.

These are fantastic speakers at any price.

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch, Definitive

Great bass and crystal clear highs

Cabinets are a little large for whats in them

Great speakers very surprised with the sound vs. the cost. Very very good value.

Similar Products Used:

Polk 10b Audio Monitors

Great Range for a 2-way speaker.

A little bright.

I'm actually reviewing the LSW-828. Couldn't find an appropriate place, so this will have to do. It uses the same 8" woofer, but I believe the tweeter is a horn style setup. They are still breaking in, but already I know I'm not going to be dissapointed. I was looking for something for my bedroom, and I didn't want to deal with a sub. So, these do a pretty good job by going down to the 30's, with their ported inclosure. As said, a tad bit bright, but that's not too surprising with a 2-way. At $100 shipped from uBid, I'm more than happy.

Similar Products Used:

BA A60's, JBL's, Infinity's.

Bought the speakers as a present for someone, and just used them for a couple of weeks to break them in, and to test them out. Well, I am going to miss them. For the price (about $130 from ubid) they are a bargain. I have not seen a decent floor-standing speaker for this price. Despite the terrible system driving them (JVC amp, Pioneer CD player), the speakers were very musical and enjoyable. The faults that I noticed may have more to do with my sources, but I noticed a bit boomy based, and sometimes a detached treble that did not blend with the sound. But given the value and weak source and amp, I loved these speakers.

midrange, poor transient response of the woofer

I got these for $150 just over a year ago. Couldn't pass them up for the price. They sound good, and are worth the money I paid for them. I currently swapped them as the mains in my stereo for a pair of Paradigm Atoms on stands, because I'm in college and my room is small. The 8" woofers seemed rather slow to me, but I could really drive this system nicely if some of the pressure of the low end was taken off the woofers (so they didn't flap so wildly) and routed to the sub. Lack of a midrange driver is masked rather well, but still noticable. They're not worldclass by any means, but you'd be hard pressed to beat them for the prices they've been going for.

This is a steal! Quality speakers at a ridiculous price.

They are "funny lookin"

When these speakers arrived the first thing I noticed is that they come with either rubber feet or metal "spikes" for the bottom. It's something you see often in very high priced speakers, never in anything I cold afford! I'm using them as the rear speakers with my Denon 2400. It's nice to have some real bass from back there for a change. In 5 channel stereo, it's very plain that these speakers have a Quality crossover in them. The highs are much smoother than my wall mounted LX5's. The highs reach you clearly no matter where you are in the room! Which means they don't have to be directly facing you to be effective. I was aware of this company before ubid and could not believe my eyes when I saw them at auction. Thanks AURA and Thanks ubid! If I could give a value rating of 10, I would.

Similar Products Used:

Optimus PRO LX5 {same dipole tweeter}

Great sound... good match to Optimus LX series using Linaeun tweeters.

Somewhat odd looking.

Was watching UBID when I saw a slug of these up for auction. Probably the best audio bargain I ever bought. $37 each! Wow. Wow. The only better bargain was some lucky stiffs actually got these for $27!!

Have used Optimus LX5's as main speakers in my system for several years. I Really like them a lot, but they tend to be a bit short on base being as they are only bookshelf sized. The 827's however combine the di-pole tweeter strength of the LX5's with a huge boost in bass. Not that the base was critical because I use an amplified subwoofer anyway. But, at $37 each I couldn't resist these. In fact I got giddy when I saw how cheap they were going for.

So, now I've moved the LX5's to rear position and the Aura's to the front. These sonically match well to the LX's for a truly amazing sound at essentially give away prices. Such a good deal I may have to go bid on some more as I've seen them pop up on UBID a couple of times this past week at about the same price range. The only negative is maybe they look a bit odd with the tweeter sitting on top of their case - but at the price I should complain??? A value rating of 5 stars for these at the price I paid is injustice. Give'em a 10!

Similar Products Used:

Optimus LX5

Pretty good build quality for the price, havnt bottemed them out yet

Mids get garbly

These are pretty good speakers for the money. I, too sucumbed to the 37.00 UBID hooplah! Figured I couldnt turn them down at that price. (BY THE WAY...37.00 AT UBID MEANS 150.00 WITH THE SHIPPING FOR THE PAIR)I kind of knew this before I ordered, but figureed for 150, Ill try a pair of ribbons.

On with the review!

these replaced my NHT's for this audition, but I had to keep thinking what these were worth, and what the NHT's are worth! The Bass is supprisingly tight, and the highs can get up there. the big downfall is the mids have been attempted to blended between an 8" woofer and a 2" ribbon! the result is better than average for an 8 + tweet. The mids still get a bit garbled and directional, but overall they do a above average job, especially for the price. Im going to sell them for excactly what I paid for them, and someone will get a great deal! I just cant part with the NHT's they are clearly in another league than this speaker, but they are also tops in THIER leage of under 800.00 bookshelves.

Summary- If your looking for a speaker that reproduces music with crystal clean detail, these probably wont satisfy your needs (but you wouldnt be looking at 200.00 pair speakers, either!) If you want a speaker that looks really cool, has very decent build quality, 5 way binding posts, a high quality woofer, and be able to blast the snot out it without the snap-crackle-pop, than this is a hard speaker to beat for the money.

If I could give it a 6 for value, I would.

Similar Products Used:

none with 2" ribbons

Musical, Efficient, Good Value

Slight softness in bass. Mid & Treble slightly detached sound.

Excellent value - highly musical speakers that are not overly sensitive to room placement. Biggest negative is a slight disconnect between the low-end and mid/treble - probably due to the bi-directional ribbon tweeters and my associated equipment (tube). Woofer is not as tight or as quick with the transients as some more expensive designs (and the ribbon tweeters). Overall sound is very neutral however. Although solid-state equip would probably tighten the bass, the high-end may sound somewhat bright. No bi-amp option (and not expected with speakers at this price point).