I think this is really a good pair of speakers. I wish I could have a pir too but the retail price at the market right now is too expensive for me. I wonder the guy who gave the review below will tell me where he got that online close-out-deal. I'll appreciate if u can share with us. Or somebody may want to email me if they know about that. Thanks.

Great highs, mids and low amp power needed to drive.

Mid-bass a little weak and the bass can be lacking in the deep end. Build quality kinda flaky.

After listening to many speakers in this price range, including B&W and Apogee, ($2500) I picked the Preludes. I was a little leery about the powered woofer (not subwoofer). But after listening to a broke in pair, I found the sound to be powerful and full. I knew that they would need some work due to the build quality. I found an incredible deal on ubid.com for $650 ea!! I wanted Dunlavy Anethas, but they are $6000. (Damn). When I received these I wired them up and let them play at med vol for 3 days while at work to let them break in. Smoothed the sound right out. Next I took them apart. I used rubber putty and Audioquest (or use dynamat) rubber sheets to damp the enclosures. Also on the back of the mids plastic casings. On one of the mids (there are 2 4’’ in each speaker) I placed 3 very small dots of silicone rubber on the back of the driver in a triangle; this softened the coloration I was getting. In the woofer chamber I added the foam sheets to all exposed wood and sealed the speaker with silicone. I also cold-welded and silver soldered all the wire to speaker connections inside. Last I hate the cheap plastic facing and metal speaker mount enclosure. They should have used wood! So I filled the inside of the entire facing with latex foam and laid plastic sheeting over it while it dried. Last I ran a thin bead of silicone (clear) down the sides of the installed facings. One more trick to stop the covers from rattling is to take the covers off and wrap a crapload of Teflon tape around the mounting pegs and push the covers back on, no more rattling!!! This sounds like a real pain but is was worth it. The second I fired them up the difference was HUGE! The bass was tighter, the voices were warmer and the whole thing was just more solid sounding!
The bottom end 40Hz down is a little weak, which is why I have a Velodyne FSR 15 sub set at the roll off of the Infinities. The blend of sound with the 12’ woofers is perfect. If you want a set of speakers the rival any 5K set up, get these if you can. Infinity discontinued them for a new model that is 6 grand. Snap a pair up if you can, you won’t regret it.

Wadia 22 transport
Proceed DAP
Denon AVR 2800 (used as pre and home theater)
McIntosh MC162 (driving front 2)
Velodyne FSR 15 sub
Apature silver interconnects
Fineline silver Dig coax cable
Audioquest Midnight speaker cable

great imaging, soundstage, very good low bass response for small woofer. it can be aligned for optimum bass response in your listening room. My wife likes the looks.Bass is self powered.

it's heavy, if that's a weakness

great sound, ability to tune bass, good looks. These speakers have been a wonderful mirror, in my home, of recording sessions done in the studio...very helpful.

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B&W 805, Genelec 1031a

I've lived with these speakers for over a year and generally like them, but they have definite strengths and weaknesses. They sound wonderfully realistic on small-scale music and solo instrumental music, and they have an almost reach-out-and-touch the sound of the instruments, if you and the speakers are carefully positioned. But dispersion is so tightly controlled that anyone sitting away from the sweet spot will hear garbage. Also, I find the tweeters are too low to the floor for optimum clarity. I raised the speakers about 5 inches off the floor to help them in this regard.
They do have the advantage of a very narrow front panel which makes them easy to place in cramped quarters, and their built-in subwoofers are flat to 25 Hz, which means you can get by without an additional subwoofer. They seem to be even better at movies than music due to their non-fatiguing high end. Their matching center channel also makes for a seamless frontal soundstage. Their surround Quadrapoles are another matter--way overpriced for the performance they offer and apparent parts cost.

Fit and finish is generally good, but there are some noticeable panel resonances due to the use of mostly plastic in the front panel and grill assembly. The drivers are arranged d'Appolito-style which I find restricts the listener's vertical positioning for best sound, and the recessed tweeter also restricts horizontal positioning. Within these limitations, the speakers sound excellent, but I think my personal preference would have been for wide dispersion speakers.

I did a lot of testing and heard a lot of different speakers before I wentout and bought these speakers and I must say I made the right choice. The sound staging is incredible. Live performances on these are visceral experience. Vocals are clean and sharp. With the high sensitivity rating you can run these speakers with a nice 15-20 watt amp and blow away anything. I have the matching center channel and for home theater it is just as amazing. Although I would expect more from the woofer, it does blend in well. But for deep bass don't count these speakers to offer it. Placement of these speakers are easy compared to other brands Ive auditioned. These are a definte buy although it is difficult to find a dealer.

WONDERFUL with digital music and DVD's. Create a very real stage. Women's voices and anything new is wonderful. (never hooked to a turntable).

Older CD's sound horrible - they tend to make the true analog stuff (old Genesis, Floyd, ELP, etc) sound awful.

I drive these with a Yamaha RX-V995. I use a Sony DVD-S500 for playing CD's and DVD's. They are truly the center of me Entertainment system - CC-3 center channel (anyone know where I can still find the Prelude Center to match these??). I do have sub in the system too - love deep bass during movies. They go from one soure to another and always handle it well. It doesn't take too much to drive them (i.e. you wont wake you neighbors to get them working).

The style rating with these is great too. Small lateral footprint. Very tall - look excellent next to my 60" TV. All my friends think they look "really cool". I have seen photos of the new Preludes coming out (I heard they were going to be 10K not 6k - but whatever)and I think these are sexier. I guess I still enjoy the all black look - the new ones have a wood/veneer base and a black top.

If you can get them from Ubid for around $625-675 each - jump on them. If they are out of your budget, then get the Oveture 2's. Either way you cant go wrong.

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I bought the Overture-2's about a year ago and use them in my living room. They (Ov2)are still my favorite speakers - but I think its the acoustics in that room. I also play more music with the Ov2's which lends to this as well. The preludes are definitely fuller

the new kicker vr's is a very loud deep bass speaker and will out do most subs.

cain't think of any

well designed and enigerred subwoffer i give it two thumbs up.

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rocksford fosgates