I read about these in Stereophile almost a year ago, before they were made available to the general public. They sounded like "the answer". Based on the spec's, marketing materials, and the way these things looked, I was 99% sure I would buy them. I took off the grilles. The tweeter device didn't seem to be connected too solidly. The materials used in the casing didn't seem all that solid. Surprising, but no matter, I was still 99% sure. The speakers were being used to demo Ants in an HT listening room, and sounded good. but I needed to audition this in stereo with a CD before making my purchase. That was the best move I ever made.
Bass was loose and busting out like cannons. The midrange was woefully weak. The highs too bright. Believe me, I was dying to buy these things. I might even put them up as $3000 statues in my living room. But the sound is _very_ poor when used as stereo speakers. And that's the bottom line. Three stars for design ingenuity and looks. How could pioneer let this go to market without addressing midrange and cabinet issues? And how could they sell it for $3000/pair???

Good Looks, Nice Highs, Directional Tweeters

Wimpy Bottom End, Poor Cabinet Design, Unwanted Cabinet Resonances, Terrible Speaker Grills

These speakers aren't all that great, I cannot believe I fell for them, I had a nice, still HT setup all Infinity OV'3 up front, RS-5's rears, two HPS, 1000's and CC-3 with additional boxed rs-3's and CC-3 for my third floor HT setup.
I was looking for a 7.1 or 6 channel setup for upcomming SACD when it combines DVD and SACD in an affordable player and it becomes more readily available, I saw the prioces and said this is great, read some reviews and next thing you know I have four FZ-700's, 4 of the surrounds and two centers, funny thing is the surrounds have much better grills than the touted fronts, had one doa, fz-700 and all had busted up grills to some point or another or you will f*ck them up over time, anyone that said Overture 2/3 grilsl were crap don't know what crap is these grills are terrible and made of cheap plastic, I never busted any of my Infinity grills.

Listen to almost any track on Depeche Modes new Cd, esp 2 the cabinet resonances are awful I can here the buzz, rattle from sitting position on all speakers at -20DB or higher, these are poorly braced/designed speakers in my op and not close to being worth $3500 a pair, they all hum with no signal in standby, I don't have that problem with the Overture 3's.
I can't give these higher than 2 they are crap for the price and I would aviod them, I have never given such low rating but compared to my Infinity lineup which isn't the best out there these are junk, I sunk some serious money into what I though would be a nice HT speaker lineup for 7.1 and SACD, the Elite RX I picked up dirt cheap is nice, $330 for 35 and got an external 2 channel amp(Elite), maybe I can figure out what is making all that noise behind the ports but until then the design is junk and the engineer should commit suicide because the grills alone deserve 1 rating.

Similar Products Used:

OV'3's. Rs-5's, Rs-3's, Technics, SMB-300's, HPS-1000's

Overall sound, Ability to use for bench pressing in home gym

Size. They stay with the house if I move. Cheap Grills

After upgrading my HT with a Pioneer Elite 27 THX receiver
and Prog Scan DVD it was obvious the weak link was my speakers. First bought the M&K 750s, sub, and surrounds
locally and had 10 days to try them out. I noticed a diffence from my big KLH but my wife did really like the M&K's that much. Seemed to me like a waste of $2500. Saw the Elites in Ubid and couldn't resist. So a while I owned 2 sets of speakers. Ended up taking the M&K back and continued to complete the system bidding on the center and surrounds. Bought the whole 5 piece system for @ $900 plus aout $150 for shipping. More than 1/2 of the price paid for the M&K. Finally got all the pieces after a shipping delay. They sound fantastic. Even though I didn't hear them I have alot of respect for Pioneer Elite and everthing matched up well. My only problem was the fact that the grills were damanged during shipping. (a problem other ubidders seem to have also) Rather than sending them back I hope to get some type of credit and them order new grills from the factory. Despite the size I like the look of the speakers and have not noticed any buzzing. No doubt a hell of a bargain. My risk paid off and I have an extra $1000 to go toward a HD TV to complete the HT upgrade. By the way if you can put up with the hassle and wait ubid can give your great bargains and be careful. It can be addictive

Similar Products Used:

M&K 750 KLH, Optimus

Looks and Sound

None that I know of

I bought these and the matching center channel about 2 months ago. I have a modest system consisting of a Kenwood 2090 and a Pioneer DVD player complemented by a used 52 inch RCA big screen. I notice that the people who have reviewed these speakers haven't bought them. I spent $3800 for the front three and needless to say I am ecstatic. The helicopter scene in the Matrix absolutely shakes the room, and the high frequency energy is incredible. Im not an audiophile, Im just a college student, but I know good sound and I sure know good looks, and these speakers exceed at both...Just because it is Pioneer the audiophiles at the end of the spectrum criticize these speakers, knock it off.

Sound and Looks.

None

I purchased these speakers about 3 months ago. I ran into a price that I couldn't refuse. I had read the reviews on this website. It seemed like there were 2 bad reviews on the speakers. Funny thing is the 2 reviews seems like they're from the same person or at least that is where the return emails came from. It makes me wonder if he actually listened to these speakers or has something against Pioneer. I listened to the speakers not expecting much. I put on Saving Private Ryan in DTS and couldn't believe the sound these speakers gave. The highs and lows that the front speakers give are unbelievable. The subwoofers in the front speakers add a great punch. It's nice not having to have a seperate subwoofer for your system. The center channel speaker gives very detailed sound also. The center channel has a subwoofer in it also which is nice to have. The surround speakers do not have a subwoofer but offer great surround sound. I then listened to some CD's to see how music performed throught the speakers. I listened to the music in the stereo mode. Contrary to the bad review the bass was not busting out on these selections. I tried all different types of music. These speakers sound great regardless of what you put on them. If you're looking for great speakers for home theater or to listen to some great music try these speakers out. I know that there is a cardinal rule not to buy speakers from an electronics company but Pioneer has broken the mold with these speakers. By the way they look as good as they sound. Find an electronics store with the speakers and demo them out. They're worth it.