Musical. Realistic. The sound takes care of you.

None. Bass could be a little more amazing, maybe. But hey, you want really flat-out amazing bass, get a sub.

This speaker is very, very musical. It's a little BIG for some living rooms, but i don't think you can do better for sheer WOW factor under $5,000. And of course, it's strikingly beautiful (assuming you get rosewood, which is the only finish to get). I am very picky about speakers. Basically they almost all sound like sh&t to me. These speakers don't - they sound fantastic. I have owned a nice little pair of Rogersound Labs speakers for 13 years. Hearing Beethoven's at a friend's house recently was the first time in 13 years that i have said, "wow, this person's speakers are WAY better than mine."

Clarity, bass, imaging. A very musical speaker.

Sensitive to room placement, would not work in a satisfactory manner with cheap amps.

Bought a pair after listening to a friend''s setup. He has them hooked to a Rotel amp. They sounded very transparent and clear, but subjectively there wasn''t enough bass. As I mainly listen to classical and jazz, I went ahead anyway. With my old Marantz amp they sound the same -- very clear and airy with not enough bass. Changed the Marantz to a Densen Beat 100 and couldn''t believe the difference. Huge, but very fast and articulated bass, plus a vastly improved imaging. These speakers are quite a difficult load for an amplifier to drive. I tried Rotel and NAD before settling with Densen, and both sounded very similar to my old Marantz. I wouldn''t be surprised with disappointing sound when they are driven by budget amps or by those high end amps where all the manufacturing budget went into machining the front panel. If you have a decent amp, Beethovens are probably a great bargain. Speakers sounding same or slightly better usually cost around 3-5 times more.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Monitor Audio

Quality of rosewood, sweet highs, solid mids at low volume, and good (not great bass)at most levels on almost all music.

Grill cover holes seemed to slip by quality control, begin to sound artificial on heavy rock (kick drum sounds thin w/ little impact, mids get sucked out). A subwoofer didn''t solve this.

After spending a grueling 6 months of a love/hate relationship with these speakers, I have decided to look elsewhere for a mate. As far as appearance, the matching finished rosewood is perfect with outstanding grain. On the other hand, the holes drilled for the grill covers must have been done by a hungover greasemonkey with a dull spoon. More importantly, the sound is what really gave me the Prozac moments. On light jazz recordings, acoustic material, and solo vocals, I have yet to hear anything better in this price range. They are spacious, deep,clear, and exhibit superb extension. Conversely, when you feel like stretching things with some heavy rock or techno, they just don''t have enough "slam". They seem to lose their extension, becoming compressed and unable to truthfully reproduce deep bass and mid-bass. My current amp is the Sunfire Grand Sig. w/ 425 watts @ 8ohms and 850@ 4ohms. Several amps sound slightly better but not at twice the price. My preamp is by Musical Fidelity. Overall, if you do not listen to heavy music or care for impact, these are one of the finest.

Similar Products Used:

several B&W''s, Ariel''s, Martin Logan''s,NHT''s,

Musicality

Relative to other speakers in its range none

I normally wouldn''t write a review but I am doing so to balance out what was obviously a totally bogus rating submitted recently by the individual with the 6 year old Sherwood reciever. The Beethovens are excellant speakers and simply don''t deserve a 1 star rating.

Similar Products Used:

Apogee Duetta Signatures

Tight not "boomy" bass, clear mid and smooth highs.

None

After I read the last review below, he has no idea what he was talking about, he is in a very low budget audio world, more like Geo Metro vs Cadillac. Does he know what pre/pro and power amp mean? if he is bright enough, he should not waste his time shopping for high end speakers, he should get a Jensen subwoofer for his Sh**wood.

Similar Products Used:

KEF, Sonus Faber, Linn, B&W.

Detail, warmth, dynamics, imageing and great tight Bass.

None

This is a feeback for the last review (ikom44) below, If I were the salesman, I would not even let you borrow it, because you are using piece of Sh**wood receiver, you are in the low budget audio world. If you are after boomy bass go buy 5 or 6 Jensen Subwoofers and listen to Puff Daddy. You are talking 2 different worlds here, low end equipment and high end speakers (Greo Metro vs Cadillac). If you are in the receiver world, you should not waste your time trying another high end speaker (B&W), because the Sh**wood will get you nowhere.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Revel, Linn, Sonus Faber, KEF.

When I heard them in the store they sounded phenomenal. The mid to upper range were alive. At home they didn''t sound as well. I thought it was my Marantz. It wasn''t. I blew two midranges (both were the lower midrange (blame it on NIN)) and after each was repaired, they sounded phenomenal again.

Coherent, effortless, open, well-finished.

Limited, vailed frequency response.

I have heard better speakers but not for the price. They do not give the typical impression of a disjoionted multi-driver speaker, instead they sound full blooded, smooth and easy going. Their frequency responce has a dip in the upper midrange but when playing music they sound fine! They have a fast, tunefull attitude with a soft inclination towards classical/acoustic music. On the other hand their low fequency output is tight and good enough for all kinds of music. As for the negative reviews, on their lower octaves, by others here in audio_review, I must admit to missing a few synthesizer bars but hell! if you crave for mad bass, go and buy yourself a pair of those ugly, huge american speakers and sleep inside! Tata!

Similar Products Used:

ProAc, SonusFaber, ATC;

I have heard these in a clients system.
Amplification was Electrocompaniet (top of the Range Mono-blocks and Pre)....

The client felt they where good but also, that his system did not really deliver the > $14,000 of money sitting there.

After re-arranging the Speakers, we got a fairly decent Bass, excellent soundstaging with a total disappearance of the Speakers.

They lack the last few Hz in bass extension (so do my own Speakers) and the Tweeter is a bit relentless....

Still, at the price they are excellent. They do seem to need very controlled Solid State Amp's though, otherwise the Bass is not so hot...

Also, the finish and fit of these Speakers is absolutely stunning....

The 5 Star rating is really 4 Stars for sound, 5 Stars for Finish and 5 Stars for percieved value. Overall it would make it 4.5 Stars as sound gets the highest weighting of course....

Recently got these wonderful speakers. My first pair had a defect in that one of the speakers' woofers didn't fire. Replacement set is working just fine tho:). Aside from that minor annoyance, I am quite pleased. The Beethoven's are a much more musical speaker to my ears than the Mirage OM-6's they replaced. The Beethovens have great clarity and musicality up and down the dynamic range with the tweeter sound being softer on the ears than the Mirage (perhaps due to the silk-dome design?). The only thing the Mirage has over these is the very very low bass (no built in sub), however, for Music (as distinguished from Home Theater subwoofer territory) the Beethoven's are, to me, noticeably better and worth the price of admission. They work quite well for HT as well (bass down to 30 hz) and have quite a large soundstage. They are a four ohm load to drive, fyi.
-Steve O,