Bandwidth, 3D soundstage

As long as you control the bass and don't use exceedingly bright electronics, only a little noticable loss around 3000-4000 hertz.

I had these 125s for over 3 years now, partnered with Arcams A85 adn cd92t, and I have tried them with different speaker cables, Monster Cable, QED, Van Den Hul, to end up with Nordost Blue Heaven (the name heaven is appropriate). My perception about how to best leverage the qualities of the 125s, is to choose fast cables with decent detail. QED Silver Anniversary Biwire for example have a tight bass which keeps the 125s under control, but although they have decent detail, they are only good value for money. This is a perfect allrounder for the 125s, if you mainly listen to non-stereophile cd's. If you mainly listen to stereophile cd's and can spend money, try the Blue Heaven or the Solar Wind. Even tigher bass for as deep you electronics manage to produce, and delicious mid-highs with extremely wide 3D soundstage. But if your cd has a weakness, it will all be exposed. After testing the Blue Heaven, I must day that every other solution sounded highly sad and unmotivating. You probably get better than that only with Electrofluidics or Townshend cables, but I would not bet on it.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Tannoy, NHT, Mission, Bose, JBL, AR

Easy to drive, spatial & deep sound stage for it's size, bass, looks' sounds much better after break in period

Sqeeky highs, boomy when place is not right, a bit slow responding' long break-in period due to scanspeak drivers

I have been using the ProAc's for 4 months maybe 5. Sold due to a major gear upgrading. Gear used with the proac's: AMP: DENON PMA-2000IVR CD: Marantz CD-17KI mkII Speakers: Proac Studio 125 Interconnect: Kimber KCAG overall it was a very nice system, moved to real highend gear.

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some sony&denon stuff

1. Great dynamics and stereo imaging. 2. Amazing bass. 3. Neutral sound with vivid details.

Only weakness I can think of is that these speakers need a lot of room to breath and the placement is a bit tricky but once you find the right spot of placement, they are simply amazing.

This is my second review on this product after having it for around 3 months and upgrading to better electronics. I was a bit short of cash and bought NAD CD player and Amp. but it was totally impossible to get controlled bass performance no matter how far I was placing the speakers from the rear wall. After 2 weeks of frustration, I decided to listen to Arcam CD92/A85 combination with these speakers at the store and I was so tempted that I couldn't resist upgrading to ARCAM from NAD. After almost 2 months and about 80 hours of running in, the Studio 125s are sounding at their best and I am an absolutely satisfied customer. No wonder, Arcam unofficially suggests using Proac with their electronics. I've a pair of PMC TB2s with NAD C160/218THX combo and 541 CD player in another set-up. This combination sounds much more bright compared to the Proac/Arcam set-up. However, details are not at all lacking. Finally, I just want to say that I'm lucky to have found the right speaker/electronics combination that suits my taste.

Similar Products Used:

PMC TB2, B&W 603S2, AE Aegis3, TDL 3 etc.

Beautifully constructed enclosures producing high quality musical bass and midrange which sounds effortless. Excellent three dimensional soundstage. Definition within the stage is exceptional

Serious lack of upper treble. Quite expensive compared to competing products

This ProAc speaker produces deep and musical bass, even at low volumes, from a mere 6 inch bass/midrange woofer and outstanding cabinet design. Both rock and jazz is impressive as is the soundstage, both side to side. An impression of "layering" gives the srage audible depth. Individual instruments are subtly defined. But for classical music the upper treble response is noticeably limited. This is particularly so in solo acoustic piano where brightness at the upper keyboard extremes is seriously lacking and overtones seem to diappear. The piano sounds as if it is enclosed and lacks realism. This lack of upper treble is also noticeable in large orchestral recordings where cymbal clashes and side drum rolls blend in rather than dominate briefly. Compared to the soft dome tweeter used by KEF for many years the ProAc version is simply not adequate This can be overcome to some extent by bypassing any tone or loudness control from the amplifier.

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KEF Q5 Monitor Audio Bronze B4

Amazing bass and clarity without being bright.

Too selective about placement and room conditions.

Planning to move up from AE Aegis Three and PMC TB2 after relocating in Toronto, I was having PMC AB2 or FB1 in mind. However, after listening to these great floorstanders, I realised that these are the most suitable choice for my taste. The PMCs are a little on the bright side compared to the Studio 125s. I am a great fan of NAD products as they are usually worth much more than they cost. Although I was initially planning on Meridian, Bryston or Krell, I gave up the idea for the time-being and went with NAD C370 Integrated Amp and C541i CD Player. I have owned these equipment before and they are absolutely steal for their price. As I just bought these speakers around a week or so, its too early to comment as they haven't broken in as yet. My room is around 20'X 25' and the speakers are separated by around 8'. My listening position is around 12' from the speakers' plane and they are around 20" away from the rear wall. At this time, I've closed all the bass ports with foams supplied by ProAc to avoid boomy bass. I'll try different placements over the next few days and report again. I already bought a big carpet to dampen the bass effect. Let's see if I can come up with a more positive review after I try out all that I can.

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Owned PMC TB2s for more than a year and auditioned PMC AB2 & IB1, B&W Nautilus 801 & 803, KEF Reference One Two.

Sweet, deatiled, musical and good low bass. Very easy to drive.

Placement is important as it can sound boomy.

I have had these babies for 9 months, buying them on the spur of the moment. These are great speakers and I have since built my system around them feeling that they are the strongest link in my audio system. I have paired them with several amps, 2 SS and 2 valve amps. I ended up with an Audion Silver night which outputs 7W, yes 7W! The other amps were a Musical Fidelity A3 and a Nakamichi and a 22W SE valve amp. The Audion drives the speakers beautifully and I have to conclude that the 300B valves put out a lot more grunt than one would expect from 7W. The sound changed a lot over the first 3-6 months. The tweeter was a little bright at first but has since settled down to being just sweet. The bass was also boomy but speaker placement, moving them away from corners and closer together improved overall bass and imaging. Note that interconnects and speaker cables are important here as these speakers are so detailed you can hear audibly the change in sound when you use different interconnects. I found the Audio note ANV worked best with the Audion while the Alphacore Sapphire (silver Ribbon) which is extremely quiet but smooth produced the best sound with SS amps. I am totally happy with them and would strongly recommend them for SE amps especially 300Bs as the sound is detailed and full.

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Duntech PL10, JBL, B&W

Clear and sweet sound all round, good base.

Need good adjustment of equipment and positioning, It takes 3 months to warn up. But you will in love with it after.

BeforeI brought the speakers, I listened to Grand panio and Misucal Factility (a floodstander, I forgot the model). Each has their excellences. ProAc studio 125 pleased me most, because it sounded great and delicate in most types of music, even now I use it as the main in AV listening.

My system:

Jadis Orchestra amp, C.E.C belt drive CD transport w/ decoder, Marantz CD-62SE CD-player; AV receiver Onkyo TX575; centre speaker KEF 90c, Bose model 100 rear speakers; Yamaha YST-60 subwoofer and Poineer DV-525 DVD player. Connection include Kimber cables, audioquest and Taralabs biwire speaker wires.

detailed, deep soundstage, natural

sensetive to room positioning - can result in boomy bass if not positioned correctly.

this speaker has the best mid and highs you can buy for this kind of money.
furthermore, the bass is absolutly amzing - it digs so low, you think somebody left the subwoofer on.
in fact, the bass can somtimes be too strong !
only after carefull positioning i was able to balance the bass (keep away from corners...)
once positioned correctly and hooked up to high qulity components - this speaker sounds better than any $4000 designs i have heard.

Similar Products Used:

sonus faber, B&W nautilus 804, Dynaudio 1.3

I've listened to many speakers between $1,000-2,000. These were one of the best. They have a Proac sound, but more bass than the Tablettes and Tablette Signatures. (I think they are the drivers of a Tablette 2000 in a floorstanding box.)
They were sweeter and less boomy than the Meadlowlark Kestral Hot Rods, though with less presence.

Their pluses -- good soundstange and imaging, balanced, open sound, accurate reproduction of music.

Minuses -- a little less "presence" and bite than some other speakers. Perhaps not quite as tight as the Proac Tablette Signatures.

I liked them a lot.

Sound, Consistent Impedance curve, Cabinetry/Build quality/ Wife-pleasing looks

None so far

Recently upgraded my amplifier from a Hafler P1500 to an AudioElectronicSupply AE-25 super amp (built from a kit). Spent a lot of time trying to find a good 8-ohm speaker that would work well with the AE-25. In my travels I audiotioned the AudioPhysics, B&W, and Snell. Also tried my KEF Q's with the amp. Being 6-ohms the KEFs did not sound good with this amp at all, being much happier with their Parasound 1203 in their HT setup. All the speakers I demo'd sounded very good, but all were driven with either solid state or tube gear with much more than the 25 wpc that the AE-25 put out. The B&W dealer made a point of telling me how anemic the ProACs were on the low end, and good bass response is something I was trying to achieve. I spoke with AudioElectronicSupply (CARY Audio) about what high efficency speakers to use with their amp and they recommended ProAcs because of their very solid 8-ohm load. They use ProAcs in the deveolpment of their products. I was skeptical since the ProAcs were the most inefficient speakers I auditioned.

While the ProAcs have not been fully broken in, their bass response is noticeably deeper with the AE-25 than with the Hafler. The imaging is consistent with that of the Q 65's, however the coupling of high/mid and low end is virtually seemless with the ProAcs. The Kestrels were much darker than any of the speakers I listened to. The ProAcs and the Audiophysic Sparks were quite close. The B&Ws seemed to have the best low frequency response, but the speaker seemed much to forward for me. Snells are a good buy for the money, but not a good choice for me as they were a two and a half way design. The AE-25 works best with a two-way. Overall the pairing of the AE-25 to the ProAcs Studio 125 has exceeded my expectations.

System:
SONY CDP XA20ES
Monarch DIP
Parasound D/AC 1100 HD (upgraded BurrBrowns PCM63Ks)
Jensen Transformers PIR2X single end to balanced converter
Balanced Hero's to
Parasound PLD 2000
Homegrown Audio Silver Lace balanced to
AES AE-25 with Copper-in-oil Jensen caps and Svetlana 6550Cs

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Own KEF Q65, Q15, Cresta2. Demo'd B&W CDM7, Snell QBX25, Audiophysic Spark, Meadowlark Kestrel, JM Lab Cobalt 815