great sound for the money

Made in China

I too bought mine on UBID. I got the black pair, and they do weigh 47 lbs each. A friend got the rosewoods and they sound the same as mine. UBID frequently messes up shipping charges, so I'm guessing they didn't correct the error on the Black ones yet. When the rosewoods first came up, they were listed @ 22lbs each also.

I am somewhat of a speaker addict. I've had more than 30 pairs of speakers in the past 10 years. These did sound pretty bad when I first got them. It took 40 hours until they started sounding good. Now, they are quite respectable, beating anything else I've seen for this price. I've tried them with 3 different amplifiers, and having some extra headroom makes a big difference. I've got them hooked up to a vintage sansui 9090db right now, which seems to be a good match.

I'm a little dissappointed that almost all major speaker manufacturers are making at least some of there speakers in China now. Build quality is definitely not as good as you would expect for a speakers that list for $1400 a pair, but it's decent. One of my tweeters is slightly off center with the molded flare, but it dosn't seem to make a big difference.

Overall, a great speaker for the money. If you are expecting these to be as good as $1400 speakers should be, you might be a little disappointed.

Similar Products Used:

JBL, Advent, AR, Altec, Aura, BIC, Cerwin Vega, Infinity

maybe cheap?... I don't know

midrange/high, looks, weight, easy to tip over

Since someone e-mail me about my update on MFM7 review last week, I thought it is time for me to write it. I really don't like MFM7. Unless my unit is defective(which I did check and each driver *seems* to work), MFM7 has an attitude against vocals.... Especially, female vocals.... I listen to some Japanese anime soundtracks, it is very obvious that particular frequency for female vocals has been attenuated. The vocals aren't bright as it should and sounds dull. The instruments over powers the vocals. The speaker sounds good for classical musics. I guess some reviewer say it is "lay back" it means that it attenuate the the "higher pitch" sounds. It is good for some music,and bad for others. I think it is heavily colored, but not obvious without comparing it with other speaker... still it sounds dull.

I like MFM5 better. Eventhough they seem to use the same driver as MFM7, the sound seems to be a bit more even. N28 is pretty good, but it is a bit bright and "metal" like. It is clearly colored but it really doesn't sound too bad. N28 clearly lack of bass, and a sub-woofer is prob. needed.

I don't want to comment on the previous reviewer since he didn't say much except for bashing the others... However, I do question the other reviews since my MFM7 doesn't sound good at all(unless my MFM7 is defected). I'll rate it as the same class as all other "cheap" speakers... For sure, it's no better than N28!

As for the looks and construction, I wouldn't say it looks good since I think it looks ugly. However, I can say that the construction is definitely cheap. (The grills can break easily. My MFM5 came as defected...)

The bottom line is:
It seems to me that I paid for what I got it for....

For $200 a pair shipped, I'll give it a 4 stars. For $300, I'll give it a 3 stars...since I can go down to best buy and pick up a pair with the same performance for the same price. For more than that, I'll give it a 2 star.

Similar Products Used:

JBL N28, MFM5

Lots :)

Longer than expected break-in time

OK I have finally bi-wired the MFMs and moved them to the main system. We have used several movies ( Titan AE Jurrasic Park and a few others) on DVD and tried all the new CDs out on them and I will say the Bi-Wiring does make a BIG diff. I was wondering if some people are wiring these wrong who have a tinny bass and mid range? They have held their own against the Dahlquist speakers ( which were upgraded thru Regnar).It will take approx 80-120 hours to break them in and for gods sake don't try to blast the bass at first ! I would put them against any speaker up to the 2,000 range . Yes ITS A CHALLENGE! When they have enough power and are wired correctly they sound amazing! His and lows with a very very very large sound stage. Finally Etta James sounded liek she was driving a motorcycle thru our living room... even our guests at the NYE party were amazed! BUY THEM! I upgraded my ratings on these bad boys

Similar Products Used:

DQ10s and DQ20s

Full and warm midrange/bass

High

I was kind of tricked by UBid into the auction game. If Dave is right, I was lucky enough to get a pair of rosewood ones without knowing the difference from black ones. They do weigh 47lb each, and shipping cost was a killing $90. UBid is well known of outrageous shipping charge. And quite often there are suspicious bids (in quantities of hundreds) that push price high.

Nevertheless, these turn out to be good speakers, but not fantastic. Rosewood finishing looks nice (to me) too. Grille is cheap but I don't put it on anyway. Driven by NAD 3020, a nice but not very powerful amp rated at 25w/ch, mid/low sounds full and warmer than the bookshelves I had listened to. The high is not as definitive, though. Build quality seems fine, though the binding posts could and should be gold plated.

At $99 each, they can be a great deal if you must have floorstandings. Unfortunately they were actually $150 each after shipping. I think one can definitely find much better bookshelves at similar or slightly higher price range. The point I learned is that shopping audio gears online is real risky, not to mention such retailer like UBid with "reputation" of bad business practice and customer service. Next time, I'll definitely go to local stores where I can see, feel, and listen.

Similar Products Used:

Never had floorstanding before.
Only bookshelves like Infinity RS2 and Klipsh SB2.

Great sound especially when bi-wired. Great price.

Cheap grills.

These speakers are great especially since I paid $275 including shipping. It takes a while to break in but after that, they sound great. In fact I also purchased the MFM5 for my rear speakers. I have bi-wired all of them and the sound is incredible. I have gone out and I can't find any speakers for this price that sound this good.

Products used with speakers:
Onkyo TX-DS777 A/V Receiver
Onkyo DV-M301 DVD/CD Changer
Wharfedale MFM5
Whaffedale Modus Center
Onkyo DX-RD511 CD Recorder/Player
JBL PSW-D112 Subwoofer

Similar Products Used:

Bose 301, yamaha, JBL ND310

price! price! bass at low volume, and looks.

midrage is not good for a speaker that has a msrp $1400 but for $200 very good. the midrage driver has to much movement tends to distort music. rear ports come out easy.

I just got these a couple of days ago so I wont comment to much on the bass. I played these right next to my kef 103/4 and they have a very different sound to them the kef are much more clean in upper and mid ranges and the wharfedale lows seems to over power the speaker even 3 feet away from the wall. I am using a acurus a250 amp, adcom pre, sony es cd, cal labs a/d, but when I hook up my nak av8 (which is a steal at ubid has good as sound as acurus no joke! great amp section) and sony all by it self it my the speaker a little brighter and sound good!
This is a very good speaker for the price ($200) as long as you dont try to hook it up to good sperates and expect alot of it but they sound great with jap products that dont produce alot of good bass and are bright. For $200 bucks to your door you cant go wrong hell I paid $175 for my computer speakers.

Sweet highs, mids and bass. Sounds good right out of the box !!

grills, finishing (I should not complaint since I only pay $99 each !)

I owned Modus 1.6 for about 6 months, and just ordered the MFM 7 last month. Since it was so cheap at ubid and most reviews here seem to like it, so I ordered two to replace my 15 years old AR speaker at the back. These AR speakers still sound great as rear speaker.

Both Modus 1.6 and MFM 7 use the same type of tweeter, mid and bass unit. The 1.6 is front ported, the MFM 7 is rear ported. The MFM7 has 2 bass units and it does product more bass than the 1.6. However, overall, the 1.6 produce a louder sound than the MFM 7. The 1.6 is rated 170Watt Max into 8 ohms with 93db sensitivity. The MFM 7 is rated at 150Watt Max into 6 ohms with 91db sensitivity. My Yamaha receiver drives all speakers at 8 ohms, I wonder what is the effect on the MFM 7 speakers ? Do I get 20% more efficiency from MFM 7 ? Very soon, I will get the Denon 3801 to replace the Yamaha.

I like both speakers. At this price, nothing can compare to it. If it is made in UK, I do not mind to pay $1000 for them. If you like more bass, get the MFM 7. If you like to enjoy the highs and the mids more, get the Modus 1.6.

I tried the Sapphire 89 for severals days but returned it because its sound is not as sweet as these MFM and Modus. Its bass is also much weaker than MFM and Modus.

Now, I want to try the new Pacific model. I hope it will show up on ubid...... Are they still made in China ?

Happy new year to all. If you want to get more info, go to www.iagamerica.com

Similar Products Used:

Wharfedale Sapphire 89, Modus 1.6

Solid look and feel - when dialed in - sound is sweet

Not as popular as I would like to see, so I can't tell what the reliability is going to be like

Bought these at Ubid - paid 200/pr + 40 to ship - do yourself a favor and don't pay more than that - trust me, there will be more tomorrow. Excellent speakers, so far - for the price, I couldn't not buy them - Was looking at DefTech's, but couldn't justify the price difference without giving these a shot - they may not be DefTech's, but I paid 25% of what I would have with DefTech's, and got what I feel is a solid sound. I did a fair amount of research before buying these, but finding comparable models online was pretty shaky - all in all, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop - right now they are too good to be true. Best of luck - the Rosewoods of this model are sweet looking, and don't be a rube like the other night - I saw a guy buy 10 at 540 a piece - I imagine he wanted 10 at $54, but who knows with Ubid. Shipping was quick, but they do stick you pretty good. Good luck.

I just got these today. They sound okay. I've read everyone saying they take a bit time out of the box to get broken in. I was wondering about how long--most people say about 40 hours--and if anyone else has or had a hiss in the tweater. Just curious.

Size, bass, bi-wire/bi-amp ability, power handling, sheer size of soundstage, look great with griles off!

damm griles!

Wow, the first thing I though when I saw these thing was WOAH, these things are MONSTERS! And they are, they weigh 50 pounds each, so be careful when moving them around! Next thing is just the sheer size of soundstage, it's huge and completely dwarfs my old Modus 8's in that area. They also have the wonderful bi-wire/bi-amp ability with these speakers and please, please do your self a favor and do it because they sound 300% better when you do (take out the little metal connectors to do this, don't leave them in!). Also, unlike the Wharfedale Opal 90's and 100's, the bass is powerful and punchy but does not overpower the midrange. When you bi-wire the speaker, the bass only increases and really makes a difference in terms of tightness. One thing I would recommend for all owners is to break in these speakers with nice bassy tunes to get the bass drivers to open up. I left my stero on blaring rap music for about 12 hours while I was away at work and came back to find the bass much nice, I recommend the same for everybody! Next area, imaging! Imaging on these speakers are good, but the speakers need to be spaced out about 15 to 20 feet in order to get the widest, deepest soundstage possible. The voices seem to float and the seperation is wonderful with no muddy anything. The high's on this speaker are nice, but it does not have the movable tweeter like the Modus 8 speaker which was nice for small rooms, but you can just toe the speaker in and get the same result. I think my only complaint about these speakers is the build quality....I got my pair from Ubid for 300 bucks and the plastic baffles were falling off when they got to me...I didn't really mind since all I had to do was span them back into place, but for people who pay retail of 1500 bucks, that is serious money and for the people who pay 1.5 grand the baffles should at least stay in by glue or something. Well, if you got some money to spare on some wonderful new speakers, I heartily recommend the MFM-7's to you if you want to enjoy not only home theater but music as well!

Dan Augustine
Override Web Design
http://www.splat-attack.com/Override/

Similar Products Used:

Wharfedale Modus 8, Wharfedale Opal 90's and 100's.