Purchased system for my parents:Its really perfect for there needs. The system will be mainly for Home Theater-DVds and Satelite. I must say the sound was surprisingly much better than expected for home theater listening.

Like others here, when listening to music these speakers come up short-not that it will matter-parents could care less.

The System I purchased:
Energy Encore $1095
Sony ES STRV444ES $739
Denon DVD-1000 $339
The Sony and Denon came in one box double boxed. Mike from acoustic sound included a DVD kit at no charge. For entry level home theater speakers the Encore does the job well.

I have had them almost a year. They sound a lot better since I hooked them up described a couple of post down. Thanks P
I just got a new 6.1 reciever has anyone been able to find one sat for sale anywhere?

Design, Size, Add-on Stands, Built for HT

Not as strong Musically. Sub is mis-matched for the system

This was a big switch for me, because I have had a large soundstage for the past 3 years with a full Definitive HT. I have a small 12 X 20 room with lots of walls and little glass. I didn't have to turn my Marantz SR7000, which I truly love , up to any great degree because the Definitive's have such a great response.
The Encore has been slowly breaking in for the past few hours, and the satellites really look HOT on the matching metal Encore Stands. It is great in Dolby Digital with a hot DVD like MI-2 or U-571, but it lacks strength musically. Too much mid range, and the sub is not well suited to the system. I talked to the API rep. and he says the sub has the same specs as the EXLS12, and shold be just as efficient, but I'm not really inpressed with it...yet.
I look forward to a warm speaker sound in the near future, and hope that the soundstage will start to become larger.
P.S. Buy yourself some IXOS 6003Geometry 13AWG wire. This is some fantastic wire at about $2.00 U.S./FT.


Marantz SR7000
Marantz CC3000
Toshiba SD3109
IXOS 6003 Geomerty 13AWG wire(this stuff is HOT!!!)try it!!

Similar Products Used:

Definitive Technology BP2004's/ProMon100's/ProCen100

Size

Forward upper mids,very ill defined subwoofer.

I have to honestly say Im a little suprised by all the reviews and the lack of anyone stating the obvious about this set up. True it can sound good on movies but when it comes to music, where these are suppose to be so superior and capable, they fail. I will start with the subwoofer. Looks great but has no definition at all. Very one notey and boomy. Change you settings you say? Well lets see. I have owned 5 different subs in the past 6 years and I am familiar with proper adjusting. The bottom line is the Energy ES8 is a better product. I challenge anyone to compare on its abilty to play bass notes. The Encore sub may rattle a larger room but thats it. Now with the Sats. Has anyone taken the time to just A/B a Sat vs another small speaker, alone with no sub? You will find again the sats are not musical at all. The mids ar forward and un natural for serious music listening. I love Energy products for the most part but I would listen to the Take Sats before the Encores. Great idea that needs to be tweaked before it went to market. Energy was too quick to put out an Encore on this one.

Similar Products Used:

Energy Take 5, NHT Zero/SW2Pi, Tannoy Mercury, paradigm Studio, Energy C-2

Clarity, Appearance, Size, Price, wall mounts

Extended break-in period

When first hooked up, I was a little disappointed. After about a month of play, I started to wonder why I had the initial disappointment. Although I was skeptical about the break-in time, now I am a believer. They sound very clear for both music and movies. I had them paired with a Yamaha RX-V 596 for the first 2 months, now I have upgraded to a 2095. Can't say I hear much of a difference. The speakers sound great with both receivers.
I had the audio store install the rears on the back wall of my living room and they look great angled toward the listening position. They are tricky to mount (I'm told) but the guys who did the job were experienced with these and I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. My house is on a cement slab so they had to go through the attic space.
I have had friends over for movies (Airforce One and the Matrix) and these speakers handle HT wonderfully. The voices are clear on the center and the sub has plenty of power for the size of my room (about 15 x 12).
I used the Radio Shack SPL meter to calibrate the surrounds and I'm glad I did. It makes the sweet spot even better.
The price I paid is $300 off the list due to these being "B" series. According to the rep at Energy who I spoke with, the B's have minor cosmetic imperfections but no alterations in performance. There is a small scratch on the sub, but I really couldn't find anything else wrong. I would buy B stock again in a heartbeat--well worth the savings.
Energy has great support. When I have emailed questions, I have received a response withing 24 hours or sooner--by email and by telephone. They stand behind their product completely. Have read good reports on other audio sites from satisfied customers.
I originally looked at the Take 5 but wasn't happy with the music quality. The Encores have a much fuller sound for music.
For the size of my room and the price point, I can't imagine a better sound. I am really excited about this purchase.

Similar Products Used:

None

Sats, center, clarity, size

Bass, or lack there of.

I'll keep it really simple. The sats are fantastic, great for HT and will hold there own for people with moderate to light musical taste. The 8" bass is not capable of keeping up the speakers. BIG dissapointment. Don't expect to be "blown" away during a great DVD action scene. You're probably better off spending your money elsewhere.

Similar Products Used:

Polk RM6600, Bose AM15

GREAT sound, for home theatre and cd-playing
Really great looking

Built in brackets could be improved.

For the money (don't pay sticker price . . .), the best loudspeakers you can buy!

Great sound, superb quality.

Looks are worth buying alone. Metallic Silver / Black Carbon speakers, black-marble looking boxes, blue LED on subwoofer . . .

All I can say is these speakers are the best I have ever seen/heard.

Go see them for yourself.

For the built in bracket, only one screw hole is provided, fine if you tighten the hex-key in the back so the speaker will hang firm.

Similar Products Used:

Sears
Nuance (crap)
Klipsch Quintet

Excellent design,sound stage,subwoofer

manuals,mounting bracket

Finally purchased the Encore after a long wait. This was because the initial price set by the local distributor was too high. In any case it is the run in period but nevertheless the Encore is the best HT package in the market both for music and movies. The key component,in my opinion is the 8inch subwoofer which can outclass any bigger subs easily. My system

NAD T 550 DVD Player
NAD T 760 Receiver
Encore
Nordost Solar Wind Interconnect
Nordost Flatline Gold Speaker cables
Monster Interlink 400 subwoofer RF cable

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch

Movies, Woofer, Looks and Price

Mounting Brackets and Documentation

Needed a small (in size) HT speaker system that could fill a large, poorly accoustical room. The room is 25'x25', cathedral cieling, open doorways, and one stone wall.

After much research I purchased the Energy Encores. Can't believe how good this system fills the room for movies. The system sounds very good out of the box, and gets better and better over about a 30 day breakin period.

The system does quite well with music, but its strength is HT. I would look at a different system if music is more important than HT. The Sub kicks a**!

The mounting brakets are a pain, but they are free!

Documentation is non existent, but tech support is excellent.

I purchased them through A&B Sound from Len Gerling. Len was very helpful and a no pressure sales person.

Similar Products Used:

Bose

Great HT system for a great price.

Bracktes,Owners manual sucks the worst out of any manufacture to date.

Just breaking in my system and they sound great so far. I looked for months and months and looked and many reviews before I bougth the encore system. The energy system so far is the best most well rounded system on the market today and they look great to. Many others claim to have the best sounding HT,system like Bose but what they do not tell you is they use there own factory cd's and dvd's that they have chosen to make there system sound even better than it really is. Not to say bose is bad sounding but is is missing to many low and low-mids that is what makes it so week. I have listend to the bose with a Sub- added to the base module and is sound great but the system gets to costly try $1899.00 with the sub added in to the price. Many other systems that sound as good as encore cost $2,000
$3,000 range and up. Most average price for encore is about
$1,500 and less if you shop it you can get it for less.
I paid $1191.44 including encore stands,xpms100 speaker 100FT wire,and monster sub-cable including tax. Not bad at all that is dam cheep for all included system like this one.
If you buy encore you will need to let the system break-in it takes about 30days or less and they really sound even better. For HT,and as a stero system they perform exellent and you will be happy with them for the price and the sound.
Good luck and listen to many other systems and you will agree encore is the best in class. P.S. bring your own cds and dvds so you can tell how a system performs when you listen to any system in a sound room. Also bring many types of music to judge how they performe to your liking.
music

Similar Products Used:

Bose AM 15, JBL,SONY,B&W,