sweet mid, exellent bass and enjoydable sound

Too much bass for some record, competitions offer better sound

Proac sound is very good in overall picture, everything is there tight bass, sweet mid and treble but it not transparent and detail as kef and thiel . This speaker still a must listen to anyway.

Similar Products Used:

Kef reference model 4 and Thiel CS6

They're ProAc's...that pretty much says it all

none that I know of

To respond to Mike Z, the drivers to not even cost near $1000, the drivers themselves can be had dirt cheap. $140 a piece for the woofers and $55 for the tweeters, they are basic mass produced Scan-Speak drivers. Although the actual ones in the ProAc's may be slightly modified.

Similar Products Used:

Blah

Clean bass and an openess with the midrange, it makes a small foot print

I wish the binding post would allow a socket wrench to tighten the posts

First and foremost I knew that these speakers would suit my audio needs so I drove 650 miles round trip to Rhode Island from nothwest NJ. They are not easy to find on the Internet as used or demos. This way I was able to actually see them even though the drive took over six hours round trip. The reason I felt the Proacs was worth the distance is because of the January 2000 article in Stereophile that made me take notice. Until I got to the store I have not even heard these speakers. This may sound stupid to many of you but sometimes the things that you like the most turns out to be the components weakness. So I relied on the Stereophile article to be my ears. After all the 3.8's are a class A Stereophile choice. Ocean State Audio was the store in which sold their demos to me and they even opened the store on a Sunday which is usually their day off. The speakers sounded absoultely wonderful. The bass is full but not over whelming. The midrange is sweet and the Response 3.8's make vocals sound truly natural. The expensive price of the 3.8's forced me to try to find them used or as demos. Comparing these speakers to my Martin Logan SL-3's I first noticed that some harshness found with the SL-3s was now smoother.I enjoyed the Martin Logan's but the Proac 3.8 Response just fills the room with out being too bright or harsh. The musical ability of the Proacs to reproduce vocals is their strong point. Some reviews on this site suggest that the 3.8's might sound muddy. I would disagree with those reviews but instead they have just the right amount of upper frequency range. My only comment is that trying to tighten the binding post I had to use a pair of pliers on my MIT cables. This resulted in minor scrathes on the binding post but otherwise the spade connectors would not sit firm on the speaker. I wish the posts were shaped to take on a socket wrench for a snug fit. All said an done I am truly happy with these speakers and would highly recommend other listners to have a listen.

Similar Products Used:

Martin Logan SL-3

What can I say? I boght one myself. I haven't got it yet, just have a chance to audition it in the showroom. It sounds great, though the Bass is not so tight and quick. But I was hooked by its low level detail, layering, 3D soundstage the best midrange and treble I've heard among other speakers like Thiel CS6, for example.I have to wait for the 3.8 and set it up in my room, then I will tell you more about it later. I hope I will get the quick , clean and tight Bass from this speaker after optimum set up in my room. to be continued.....

Detail Detail Detail. Deep open bass, Waltz-like emotion

Not exciting enough. Dynamic range seems a bit limited

$7200? I don't know. They are extremely detailed and I nevr felt I was missing any part of the sound. I feel they could give me goose bumps but never make me cry. Even after spending a huge chunk of time with them.
Upon entering Ocean State audio, I found the people there to be extremely professional in helping me to find the best speaker for my use, espically being only 21 and constantly getting bombarded with the "audiophile pre-judgement". Upon showing me the 3.8's The impressive part is the build quality and the "speaker-ness" of them. No frills, no fooling just 100% surpurb speaker. SOME PEOPLE whine that pro-ac does not give huge drivers ore a million of them for what you pay but when the drivers you use cost over $1000 to make, such as the JM Labs Utopia tweeters, or the response series drivers, they are built with quality and passion. They re-produce emotion, imageing, and tonal quality you cannot get out of those 10-way speakers on the market. And just maby if these "audiophiles" want the quality they here, they should just pay the price and enjoy the music, not the hyped-up reviewing/buying process.
Just an opnion/observation. I could never proclaim myself as an audiophile, My EGO is not that big that i feel because i own $10000 worth of equpment, I know it all. Again these are just my opnions, listen to these speakers yourself, I feel if you are into the emotional aspect of music you will like them.

I use
Marsh Sound Design A 400s Amp
Marsh Sound Design p2000 pre-amp
Sony DV-7700 as a cd player (soon to buy a rega planet)
All MIT Cables.

dinamics-openness-sense of space and details-can be used whit both tubes or transistor -lot of air around beautifull finish

i'm using this speakers in a small room 5m x 4m dived by a pair of big Bryston monobloks 7BST (MR Larry Greenill wil like it....)and this is absolutely the best combo i tried in my room.
maybe you can get better results but whith a lot of money more...

Similar Products Used:

ruark equinox

I had the chance of listening the Response 3.8 which is a new model here, I was even told this the only pair available in the country. So I think I was pretty lucky to be able to listen to those for about 5 hours.
I want to construct a very good stereo system, and be able to upgrade it to a home theatre later on.
So I want to choose a very good main speakers and try to match with a matching multi-channel amplification

I listen a wide variety of song on this system which was composed of a preamp a Classe SSP-25 (AC-3, DTS, THX ), an Amps from Classe also the CAV-150 (6 x150W in 8 ohms), and a standard Yamaha DVD player. We used the SSP-25 built in CD music filter/decoder to get a very good system running.
They have a very good bass handling, and even more when the we bridge 2 channels of the CAV-150.

I compared those with Hales Revelation 5, Proac Response 2.5, and a pair of Wilson Cub.

The 2.5 are very detailed, very precise and have a good imaging.
The Wilson Cub were more directional and even more detailed than all other.
Both of them miss some punch in the bass at the end, we also used a Velodyne FR1800RII to try to improve bass response of Cub but without success. I think we would have requires more time to tunes the sub properly. But even after tuning the result was disappointing.

The very good but very different Hales Revelation sound confuse next to the Proacs.

The 3.8 are sharp, and detailed, may be a little less precise than Proacs, or less detailed and less sensitive than Wilson Cub, but they have a much wider image!!!

The bass is awesome, we try to add the Velodyne sub over it to improve bass response but it didn’t improve anything. Everything I need was already there, may be even more.
Very good build quality, and very nice finish. (you have choice of more than 8 different)

Those Speakers really rocks, they’re not cheap, but if you want to build a system on something solid with a great imaging, and detailed, razor sharp sound I think this is a very good choice.

Even at this price I give them a Rating 5
If you have the chance to listen to those please let me know what you thinks of them.

Presentation of space in recordings, exceptional bass response, open midrange, and smooth treble. I would say that they are suprisingly balanced when you consider their size and frequency response. A speaker that is easy to fall in love with.

Soundstage depth, not as dynamic as it looks, and not much else.

I am submitting this review summary because today I went hunting for a smaller speaker to replace my pair of Response 3.8's to facilitate a smaller listening room then I currently use. The room that I use now is large, 16 by 23 with the speakers on the short wall with no side walls for at least 12 feet on either side. The room that I will be using after the move will be 14 by 22 but the usable space for placement width will be 9 feet on the long wall so the real listening area is really 14 by 14. I think that the Response 3.8's will be too much for that amount of listening space.
I auditioned the Meadowlark and the Audio Physic speaker lines. The Meadowlark speakers were nice, very good speakers for the money. I did not think that their cabinets were attractive and they did not work well with my equipment ( the dealer carried my electronics so I was able to hear the speakers with identical equipment to my own). The Audio Physic line was more to my taste. The Virgo was a soundstage giant. I think that part of the reason why this is the case is because they are so thin. It is as if it is a sight trick. They were very good and I heard them in a room with similar dimensions. I left the store thinking that these may be ones to replace mine. I had also heard the Vandersteen 5 which I would say is better than the Response 3.8's in some ways and similar in others and the Vienna Acoustics Mahler's which, even though they contain the same drivers as the Response 3.8's do not have the same bass response. The lack of bass response makes them sound a little thin. Their lower priced speakers, the Mozart for example, is an excellent choice in its price range. I did not think the same way about the Mahler's.
Anyway, I went home and put on one of the demo discs that I brought with me to the audition. I was amazed at how much better my speakers sounded then what I had listened to today. I did not realize how wonderful that my speakers sound until I went and listened to other speakers. The Proacs are more balanced, have better bass response by far, present a more realistic soundstage despite their size, and were just plain better than anything that I listened to within the last week. Am I biased? Absolutely. Am I correct? Absolutely. I have owned these speakers for 8 months and they continue to make me smile and shock all who come over and listen. I suggest that if you are looking at speakers in this price range that you make sure that you hear these before you buy something else. If your audio taste runs a little sweet and believe that musical enjoyment is more important than absolute musical truth you will not go wrong. They are very revealing speakers, but they are not ruthlessly revealing speakers. They are a pleasure to listen to. This experience has reminded me of that.
I am going to see if I can make these work in the room that I am moving to. If they are still too big I think that I will replace them with a pair of Proac 2.5. My experience today has made me a true believer

Similar Products Used:

Audio Physic Virgo, Vienna Acoustics Mahler, Vandersteen 5