None so far

Rosewood in color, awesome build, incredible finish, the best U.K. speaker manufacturer by far. This monitor can compete well with any on the market. I have not found any shortcomings at all. Plus, they are actually pretty easy to drive, and match well with many components. They are not nearly as fussy as many monitors are to match up. I will have these speakers forever, as long as they are working. Celestion has done a tremendous job with their A series. Able to perform well on all types of music, and also do an admirable job in home theater.

Check these speakers out. Warm, full sound, excellent soundstage and dynamics. Treble quality is excellent, not at all fatiguing.

None

This speaker is unbelievable. It beats other monitors that I have tried in my home (above) hands down. Build quality and sound are phenomenal. I listen to a wide variety of music from rock to classical, and this speaker is the most all around monitor I have found.

It is NOT shallow, overly sibilant, or boxy sounding, as many of the monitors above. It has excellent dynamic capabilities, can play loud without strain, and has a nice treble/midrange. This is often way overemphasized on other monitors - I do not know why so many other manufacturers make monitors this way. Celestion can teach these other manufacturers a lesson or two with this speaker.

Do yourself a favor and listen to this speaker before buying another monitor. I do not think you can expect any better even with paying more.

I feel I love this speaker because I cannot stand overly sibilant treble, colored or un-neutral speakers, and ones that only play one style/type of music well (i.e. Sonus Faber Concertos!!!).

It helps to give it some room behind the speaker to prevent some bass overemphasis, but otherwise no problems.

The bonus is the superb build quality.

Do not believe the 4 ohm rating - this is conservative, this speaker does not drop below 5 ohms at any point. Typical 4 ohm rated speakers will drop to 2-3 ohms often.

Similar Products Used:

Sonus Faber Concertos, Soliloquy 5.3, Totem Rokk, PSB Stratus Mini, Tayler Taylo Monitor

Neutral, spacious, no siblances, good soundstage and good depth

no deep base, bulky and required very sturdy stands. Soundstage seems not tall, although could be equipment dependent.

Haven't been to AudioReview for years (yes - 2 almost) and was surprised to see "recent" reviews of my beloved and (still owning) Celestion A1.

This was not a popular speaker IMO in North America. But I trusted my ears when I decided on them many years ago and I never have the urge big enough to upgrade them while I upgraded virtually all my equipment since then.

The main reason I chose the speaker was the silky smooth high, fluid mid-range and transparency. (I am also very sensitive to siblance) Bass is excellent and defined with my only complaint at not getting enough 20Hz:)

The only real trade-off is the soundstage not being spectacular while considered quite good. And it never achieved good image height; muscle solid state amp like Bryston 4B helped but I liked my VTL 85 much better. So I gave up on the image height.

Btw, bi-wiring on the A1 was a revealing experience, is a MUST try. And small wires just don't cut it. (I started out with AQ 4+ when I was a novice. Now I use Midnight and Indigo - I am sure there are better wires out there. Just that personally I think auditioning wires makes me neurotic)

And yes, the A1 needs a lot of room at the back. 2 feet is a good start.

The other concern is the size and weight of this "bookshelve" speaker make stand-matching difficult. Concrete blocks seemed to be the only good match I can find to squeeze out the bass, but they are not exactly esthestically pleasing.

While I used very few speakers, I auditioned a few expensive system (10-20K range)over the last few years and honestly, while they are good, I was never excetionally impressed, especially in the dynamic range and transparency, where I still believe the A1 is faring quite well.

The only seapkers that I remember that seems to express more emotions were the Operas from Italy. But that was a brief aution long time ago, and I was told those Sonus Faber wanna-be resembles SF in that regard.

Similar Products Used:

B&W CDM1, Mission 751

I have owned this speaker for six months, It is built like no other, and the sound is to die for.A very smooth sound with excellent bass, very detailed highsand sweet midrange. This is a very dynamic speaker, that sounds larger than what
it is. I also listened to the A-2 and A-3 and IMO the A-1 is the best value of
the three,on a price performance ratio. Good stands are needed to bring out the
best In this speaker. This speaker seems to have a preference for SS amps. Find
a dealer and check this one out, If you are looking for speakers in the 2K range.For whatever reason Celestion chose not to promote their top of the line
series in this country,however overseas, they are a household name.

warm, detail,and powerful bass

can not place near rear wall, a little slow compare to some and need high current amp.

I brought a pair of used speaker without listen. After I unpacked and connected them up. I quite disappiont of the sound. the sound is nice warm, lack of transperent and boomy bass. After relocation the speaker about 1.5m from the back wall(before .5m) the sound much better boomy bass disappear and geting more cleary and forcus. It's lack some spark compare to sonus faber but at the end i prefer a1 because signum is too thin and lean sound.

Similar Products Used:

sonus faber signum