Looking inside through the grilles on the top cover I caught a glimpse of the massive torroidal power block, I knew that this was a serious piece of hardware. I carefully opened the shell, observing that Arcam must have cut the budget on the cosmetics as the metal shell was incredibly thin Vacaville Concrete Solutions

None . .

plenty base and sound not very tiring

not so good with very heavy rock sound a bit too mellow

excsllent speakers for the price,when filled with sand base is excellent.had been using small missionsand i now find these speakers very enjoyable

Constuction, imaging, versatility.

Power-handling, frequency balance.

I have owned these loudspeakers for a little more than a month, and have found them to be good performers with all types of music, but perhaps best suited for home theatre. Right out of the box, good build quality is evident. They are weighty, enclosures tightly constructed, with good fit and finish. The front panel is made with 1.3 in. MDF, and they are well-braced internally. I particularly like the apparent quality of driver construction. With the covers removed, the units display a "jewel-like" appearance to me, with the woven kevlar 6.5 in. woofers, and the two small ports. I have used these with both a H-K AVI-200 II, and an ESS amplifier with Onkyo P-301 preamplifier. Signal sources primarily VCR, and Phillips CD-921. These loudspeakers are not "rockers". They seem to be happier with the lower powered HK, approximately 100wpc into their 6 ohm load. Even at similar volume levels, The ESS, with its 250wpc into 8 ohms, seems a little much for them. The Onkyo is superior to the preamp section of the H-K, so I'm using it in conjunction with the HK amp section. These speakers do a good job with lighter classical, such as harpsichord, but larger works with heavy transient bass are difficult for them at anything above moderate levels. Having said that, they do pretty well with classical pipe organ, since the low frequencies are not transient in nature. I find the balance to be as described in the previous review, with the highs and mids good, but somewhat overpowered by the low end. This is not displeasing to me, and perhaps explains my preference for them in HT use. Imaging is good, with the speakers well away from the rear wall, and toed-in to intersect the listening plane at its center. Depth of image is very good. On home theatre, their ability to fill the wall with sound exceeds that of my magneplanars, which surprised me, but is their only point of superiority over them, and only with HT. Overall, I am well-pleased with these small, but capable speakers, and would recommend them as a good all-around choice for music and HT use.

Similar Products Used:

A long time ago, but DBX SF-1500, and Hafler DH-355

Bass, build, detail, staging, and price.

Treble does not ''''sparkle'''' as much as it possibly could.

Will not find better for the price ! I had not read any reviews on these speakers or heard them in a shop, I really did take the sales man`s word for it ! and it came to great relief to find these speakers are superb. Build is not so much solid, more like everything fits together in a light and elegent way, if you know what I mean, these are remarkably light speakers and to compensate Heybrook have left the bottom of the cabnit empty to allow sand or what ever to fill in the space, adding to the overall weight. This not only improves bass weight ( which is impressive anyway ) but also the sound stage. Bass wise, these sound engergetic and worm. For home cinema or music, they work well for both, although don`t drive them too hard because they will not do well at excessive volumes. Mid range does`nt feel as present as it probably should, but still outperforms most speakers at the price. Treble is`nt as bright as I would like however. I have never really been blown away by its performence top end, maybe because the bass overshadows it, or it could just be my amp, but never mind. Overall I would recommend these speakers to all. For music or home cinema, they don`t come much better than this, or perform with quite so much class.

Similar Products Used:

Technics CS65 ( rubbish ), JPW`s ( model No not known )