I use onkyo 575 to drive the 509,songs be satisfied.
Bass is quite enough for me and it songs burly.Demerit is treble and mid is less than my brother's KEF Q35,I mean the enrichment.
On this price level,it's great!

Bass & Power

None

Sorry for my bad english.....
I have the Philips 975 A/V reciever and for center speaker i have the Jm lab tantal cc5 and front speakers pionner cs 5070 and rear speakers klh-5000. In a early erthquake my pioneer speakers was broken, so i decided to buy new speakers. I bought Jm lab tantal 509 and i was so suprised that i thought i was listening to music for the first time. The Bass was so smooth and the musical feeling blow my mind. In movies the cc5 with the 509 is the best. The only thing that didn.t like in the 509's is the musical feeling in rock songs.......but in general speaking.....the best speakers i ever had and believe me i have heard many many speakers from audio spectrum and athena till pionner and mission. BEST

Similar Products Used:

Klh 5000, Pioneer cs-5070 & Mission 701

I listened to these speakers at Sound By Singer in NYC, powered by a 35 watt NAD amp.In short I thought these speakers sounded terrific. They have a crisp presentation, with tons
of high-frequency detail, and solid bass for a bookshelf model. The imaging and soundstage
was very impressive. The concave titanium tweeter on this is a knockout. I prefered these to any
other speaker under $1,000 (including a more expensive JMLab Cobalt bookshelf) on display at Sound BY Singer. One of the
really impressive features of this speaker is its high efficiency rating (92), which makes it an
excellent match for low wattage amplifiers like my NAD 302 (25 watts). It's important to consider
the electronics speakers will be mated with. You may think those NHT speakers sound great in
the store when mated with a 250 watt amp, but because of their low efficiency they probably
won't sound so good if mated with an under 100 watt amp.

In general JMlabs produces some of the highest quality speakers available at any price. In the
Tantal 509 they have created a genuine bargin. The only drawback to these speakers is their
apperance. The "rosewood" vinyl verneer model on display looked awful. They look much
better in simple black verneer. In general they don't look as good as some of their comparably
priced competition--but they sound better, and that's what really counts. I would dock one star
for apperance, but add another for value. The only other manufacturer that comes close to this
level of quality *and* value is Paradigm

Vocals, Acoustic Instruments, Piano, Live music
Solid Build,

None

I will admit that I made only slight comparison to other products and that I have plugged these into a Yamaha mini-system, the GX-500. The 509's are very efficient and 75 watts RMS is good for them. The improvement is astonishing over the bookshelf speakers that were supplied with the unit. I am hearing things I have not heard before in all sorts of music. My tastes are varied but it is clear these speakers were designed for vocals and acoustic instruments.
Lisa Gerard on Duality, Fiona Apple on Tidal, Emanuel Ax on the Sony Brahms Piano Quartets, all sound 3D with previously unheard clarity and seperation. Throw in Rashan Roland Kirk Live at Montreux and you are front and center of a nice soundstage.

Bass is tight and natural for acoustic music but a little thin for rock and techno. I boost the bass on rock and this ads the oomph that I need. However, techno suffers because of the immaculate tweeter. Synth cymbals become very harsh at medium sound levels ie. Portishead's Dummy and Lamb's first become somewhat painful on certain tracks.

I conclude that the positive improvements justify the minor tradeoff. With some more solid amplification and sources they would sound even better than they do on my relatively inexpensive minisystem. I will wait to find out. I promised myself I would listen to 200 cds before I thought about upgrading to seperates. I wonder though about those dimishing returns since this has been such a dramatic upgrade!!

Similar Products Used:

None

Sound

Looks

These have been discontinued and Audio Advisor has them for $400 ($300 less than retail).

I seriously considered buying these when I was searching for the best pair of under $1,000 speakers I could find. I later upped my budget and bought a pair of Meadowlark Kestral Hot Rods. But I probably would have been happy with these, and felt like I got a got a good speaker for $700.

These guys are pretty ugly, but they sound great. For $400 you would be getting quite a good deal. As a bonus these are 92dB efficient, so they will mate well with low powered electronics. 5 watts would get these rocking. These have one of the nicest tweeters I have ever heard.

Similar Products Used:

speakers from paradigm, meadowlark