Cheap, very clear and crisp sound

I have not seen these in radioshack in many years...

I got these many years ago and have used them as my surrounds in my prologic system. I recently purchased a Denon AVR 2805, and am continuing to use these as my surrounds untill my 5 focal jmlab speakers come in... In DTS, these speakers are awsome!, when using 5ch sterio they are very crisp and clear (much more so than my technics 15" 3ways I had for fronts in my prologic system) I paid $30 for the pair back in '98 I think, and for $30, these are totally awsome!

Similar Products Used:

RCA, Sony, Onkyo, home built speakers

Price, sound, and looks.

Weak speaker terminals

In the fall of 1999 I replaced my entire system to go DTS and Dolby Digital. My wife wanted the "Klipsch horns" out of the living room.

We purchased six of the Optimus 10 twisties. Orginally I used 4 up front, (2 center speakers one on either side of my monitor), two in the rear. The 4 up front are on book shelves and the rears mounted with speaker supports on the wall.

I now use only 1 center, placed on top of my monitor.

These are all connected with Monster cable. You must take care not to break the connection posts...they are a bit weak.

My receiver is a Yamaha, with a Tannoy sub-woofer underneath my monitor, dead center.

Guests can't believe just how good this system is. My brother has Magnapans and other than "imaging" he confirms that they sound like $500 speakers. My benchmark for bookshelf speakers is the Tannoy Mercury series, but for 10% of the price I have the same sonic performance.

The Bose system was auditioned, but it sounded flat and lifeless. The trick with my system is good cables and the high end Tannoy subwoofer, handling the bass at the Optimus roll off at 150 hz.

So got out and by a really great sub and with the remainder of your budget, fill your room with the Optimus, now RCA twisties!

C.E. Rory Rorabaugh
former Program Director and Chief Engineer
KIRO-FM Seattle
KEZX-FM Seattle
KBRD-FM Tacoma/Seattle
KMUZ-FM Vancouver/Portland

Similar Products Used:

none

Price, Sound, Size

None

The XTS-10 became the XTS-20 and now has the RCA moniker.
The new RCA speakers are just as good and continue to amaze me with their overall sonic quality. I have added another home theatre in my home, hooked up to my PC, an purchased more of these fine speakers. We can purchase anything, but my wife wanted a living room, now that we are mature adults, instead of a kick-ass media center.

A few weeks ago I visited the Bose showroom in downtown Portland and auditioned their various swivel speakers along with their sub.

Overall I felt the sound was distorted. I asked the salesperson to turn down the sound to a conversational level, instead of loud, and the sound was harsh on the Bose.

I don't mean to demean Bose, I love their 901 series speakers, but their cubes are overpriced garbage.

You must couple the twisties with a decent sub. I have a Tannoy sub, placed dead center under my TV monitor. We have placed the 5 twisties at about 4.5 feet high, around our living room. Please note that the twisties are not as magnetically shielded as claimed. I have made a plate of galvenized steel to place my center speaker on, other wise my monitor would have color distortion.

In the computer room, my PC monitor does not have the problem with the center on top of the monitor.

If you are not in the habit of really cranking up the tunes with the Greatful Dead, these are great musical and home theatre speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Bose

Check my other review at Radio Shack Optimus XTS-10 speaker site. These sats are about the same size and appearance as the BOSE AM-Series twist sats. In addition to the above information these are shielded, sound dampened, bottom enclosure mid-range, and upper enclosure tweeter. These sound somewhat bright with a descent mids even when played loud. Though it suffers from the same problems as BOSE sats with the high-crossover points in addition to not handling as much power (30W RMS/60W MAX) it sounds much cleaner. You will definately need a sub or two subs if you use a passive sub because of localization (BOSE sats have the same problem though they don't give a second sub which is noticed by most people who are into the hometheater and audio hobby who wouldn't be impressed by either system). These speakers are much better used for surrounds are those of you who live in apartments and need the floor space and the security of not being evicted (unless you buy the SW-14P passive sub, then you can easily get evicted) and also recommended for those you who want to buy the BOSE AM series of speakers as this is a true quality and better sound comparison (really take a look at this for 30 days at home and return it before you buy a similar BOSE product and you will be amazed that BOSE could actually sell their AM-series for as much as they do). Though I don't recommend this to be bought for your own system unless you live in a high crime area and need extra money to be spent on "party" supplies instead of good speakers, I can't give this product a 1 speaker rating it deserves because it could be said that this thing can actually compete with a system of speakers that costs "10 times more" and sounds clearer and better. Pathetic.

I am obsessed with speakers, and recently I was at Best Buy and noticed the Bose acoustimass 5 speakers, they sounded like crap. Then I was at radio shack and heard the optimus xts-10 speakers and they sounded great, even though they were almost identical to the bose am 5 swivel speakers, except that they were a different brand. Th e opimus xts-10's sound better because in stead of having 2 midranges, they have a woofer and a tweeter for better sound. I purchased a pair and they sound great, but they sound even better with a subwoofer. The bottom line is that the bose am 5 speakers are a ripoff, but if you still like the way they look get the optimus xts-10's because they are much, much cheaper ( only 80 dollars a pair) and they look identical to the bose am 5's, but sound much better. They are available at radio shack. These are great speakers. If I could I would rate them higher than 5.

Before buying a pair of CR6 from Boston Acoustics I had a pair of Optimus XTS-10 in my clinic waiting room. There are really cheap considering the price of its similars from Bose, but during testing I noted horrible chuffing noises from the rear connectors at high volume, which meaned that there are bad sealed. I fixed this problem taking off and sealing the rear connector plaque with sillicon; the problem just dissapeared and they sounded really loud. If you have a limited budget, I think this speakers (fixed in the way I told) with a descent subwoofer will be enough for a beginner.

highs natural voice

none yet

I have had the klipsch quintets for over a year now. I really enjoyed them but was ready to try something new. I thought about bose but just to expensive. Tried the new xts-20v from radio shack and couldn't beleive the sound.They have better highs,cleaner voice,and better all around than the klipsch.Some people may say I am crazy that 49 dollar speakers can sound better than 400 dollar speakers. I tried them this morning with my denon rec.A-B switch and all I can say is the little dual cubes out did my Klipsch.The 20's are replacing the xts-10,and they are also rated at 100 watts max.

Similar Products Used:

quintets

Bright highs, verv inexpensive

Chuffing from the terminals

Great little-speakers if you have or are planning to buy sub. my only big complaint is bad distortion coming from the speaker termimals on the back of the speakers espically at loud volumes, but im plaing to seal the speaker termimals to get rid of it. their really good value because I bought them at raidoshack for 50 bucks a pair.

Similar Products Used:

Bose