Tweeter smoothness and imaging, solid build, excellent mid and upper midrange. Good bass extension.

Midbass (300-800 Hz) very slightly muddled droning, flimsy grilles.

After reading the reviews on here, and being a regular Ubid user, I was interested. I decided to bid on a pair, figuring that if I didn't like the sound I would put them in my den. I ended up winning the auction for $117 each, delivered to my door for $260/pair. I won the auction on Monday, on Thursday they were at my door! Thanks Ubid, and UPD didn't put a scratch on them.

Immediately I pulled them out of the box and hooked them up to my Sony STR-1070AV Receiver (140 wpc) and fired them up. Immediately I noticed the smoother high as compared to my Paradigm Phantoms. The low end seemed stonger also. The only detraction in sound was the low bass resonates slightly, and the midbass was a little muddy. These flaws were corrected easy with a little equalization however. I was expecting the grilles to be stonger unfortunately, and broke one of the many tabs off the first time I took it off...DOH!

A week later, I'm still feeling smug for snatching this incredible deal! These are easily better than the setup I have now, and the Phantoms will be going in the den. I just bought a Rotel 5x110 amp and will be bi-wiring them soon. I imagine sound quality will increase drasticly. I'm still shopping for a sub to match with them. They do need a little more on the low end, but don't all mains?

In all, I couldn't be more happy with my purchase. Thank god for the internet!

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, B&W, NHT

This speaker was my first entry into the "high-end" range of audio last year. I had spent all my summer job aquiring a nice stereo system. I saw these like everybody else on Ubid and decided that picking these up for 250 bucks including shipping was a good bargin so I bought a pair. A couple weeks later they arrived out here in snowy Moscow and hooked them up to my Pioneer Elite VSX-26TX reciever and Pioneer DVD-525 DVD/CD Player. I was imediatly taken by how much greater separation it had over my old Infinity speakers and much, much clearer highs and bass. Imaging was excellent and the speakers are creepy because they are so transparent. The REAL good point came when I decided to bi-wire the speakers up to the reciever on A and B speaker ports and WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOO, that was AMAZING the difference! Now remeber when you do this to take off that little metal connecting bit between the two sets of binding posts cause otherwise it doesn't work (took me a min to figure that out). The Bass and Treble and midrange just opened up even more with that 100 THX Ultra-certified Watts times 2 for each speaker, violating the 150 watt limit but sounded so good I didn't care.....they handled it and I would probobly have to hook up the entire US electrical grid to it before I fried something, those crossovers are built like tanks! Anyway, I plan soon to get a dedicated Bass amp because it is sort of annoying that I can't have Dolby Digital going on when I have both A and B on at the same time because otherwise all I get is either midrange and bass or only treble so or maybe go to the extreme of geting Bi-wire cable (heavens no!). Anyway, to break it down for ya, get these speakers if you can from U-bid and bi-wire those suckers and enjoy heaven on earth through speakers........bliss, pure bliss.

Similar Products Used:

Wharfedale Opal 100, Wharfedale Opal 90

Great separation of highs and lows. Great warranty and service.

The grills are horrible.

I also got them at ubid for around $300. I was very disappointed when I got them, because of the crappy packing job. Both were packed in coffin size boxes and packing peanuts and both speakers tweaters were smashed off. It took me about a week before I finally picked up all those peanuts. Anyway, I called IAG America and they did not hesitate to send me new tweets. I did not even have to wait on hold! Great Service and the 3 year warranty is very nice. I got them about 3 days later and bi-wired them to my Denon receiver and they sound excellent for $300. These are definately the best speakers for that price. I would have payed $1000 for these.

detail, bass smmoth high ends

none that i can hear

Just purchased these from ubid for 117 each plus shipping. They sound great. Nice detail and solid bass. In fact I had to tone it down it a couple of clicks. I listened to a pair of $1800 ARs at a local store, I must say they sound just as good if not better. The highs don't appear to be quite as bright as some I've heard but that suits me just fine. The only weakness that I see is that the mid-range seems to become washed out at higher volumes. If you can get em buy em.

Sherwood Newcastle 925
Yamaha cdc 775

Similar Products Used:

compared to high end AR.

Sound Quality!

NONE

I just got these in today. WOW! They sound great. Although one of them has a slight rattle when it is cranked up. Called tech support and they are sending me a brand new unit. Mucho impressed! And I got them for $107 a piece from u-bid.com..............

Get some if you can!

Price

Cheap looks

I got these at Ubid for $250 plus another $120 shipping (Ubid's shipping charges are a rip-off).
They are definitely worth the money I spent and I'd clasify them as mid-fi speakers. Good clarity, decent tight bass, suspect midrange but not overly so.
I shy away from using big audiophile words since I doubt any of the people using them know what the hell they're mouthing off - so I'll just say that these speakers are sufficent performers for both music and HT and a good bargain if you don't want to break the bank. I have a suspicion though that people below giving them 5 stars are either Ubid employees or first timers.

Can be found very cheap online, very good power, very clean sound

Grill is flimsy as hell, shoddy construction on some units

Well, I got these on ubid for 117 each. Was a bit skeptical about them, but I found a local electronics shop that carried the Modus 6's and I was pretty happy with how these sounded, as I wanted something nice and powerfull without spending the outrageous 5000+ for audiphile speakers. After all, I wanted more clarity of sound than volume living in an Apt complex and trying to not piss off the neighbors.

Anyway, I got 4 of these speakers. Upon opening the boxes, I was rather dismayed to see one of the speakers didnt have the tweeter mounted and connected. No big deal, but it should not have been like that. So I put it on and notice the grill's are pretty flimsy on all of them. I just took these off as I dont have kids/pets to worry about getting into the cones and screwing something up. I set these up bi-wired onto my Sony STR-DB930 and procedded to adjust everything. This is a great receiver for the price (usually 400 can be quoted on buyingedge.com) but is a pain in the butt to get everything setup the first time. Once it's ready though it really shines. SO I spent about 6 hours with everything in the apt unplugged to get THE perfect audio setup. I dont have a sub currently, but these units pump out enough bass for now that it's OK. For centers I got a nice Klipsch that I also got on ubid that has very clean sound, although it's bass is a bit lacking. Usable since these speakers output a ncie bass rumble and I have them all around. Anyway, after setting everythign up I started to test with a few DVD's. Playing back Spawn, I was discovering a whole new feeling to the audio on this DVD. Also The Fifth Elemenet sounded VERY nice. I was pretty impressed.

So I feel if you can get these speakers fer the price I got them from (ubid rocks guys) they are a most excellent buy. If I had paid the retail on these though i would have been very pissed at the build quality. The boxes are solid enough, just the detailing seem's pretty sloppy. Overall, Ahm happy with them though.

Value is 5 stars if ya pay cheap. Anything over 300 bucks though and drop the value a notch.

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Similar priced speakers from Polk, Ar

Great sound, good bass, really clear sound

Bass is a little overpowering

I replaced a pair of vintage style Klipsch Heresey speakers with these. The Klipsch had a blown tweeter in one of them. They still sounded excellent. They were not big on bass even though they were big speakers (12" with a mid-range horn and a horn tweeter).

Anyways, back to the Wharfedale's. I think I remember hearing about these a while back. Seems like I remember hearing about an OLD pair or somehting, thats what made me think they are decent speakers. I was still a bit sceptacle of buying some speakers I couldn't hear before buying. I took my chances with them though. I got a pair from uBid at a decent price.

The lower frequency part of the speaker blew me away seeing as how they are just 6 1/2's basically. I would even say that they are a little over-powering. I like a lot of bass in my music. I like to feel what I hear. To give you an idea of what I am talking about, I have a pair of 12's in my car strapped to a HUGE amp that is pushing about 200 watts per 12. This is enough to move your hair on your head when turned up. The Wharfedale's provide lots of bass. They won't exactly rattle windows, or move the hair on your head (although they might if you get really close to them) they still provide enough bass to fill my whole apartment up with big, clear sound.

I have never had a pair of hi-fi speakers, as I don't understand spending a grand or two on a pair of spekaers. I do know the difference between good, clear sound and poor muddy sounding speakers. These pass my test. I think that I am going to make my HT all Wharfedale now after hearing these speakers and seeing how well they sound.

I recieved both of them with the tweeters off (someone got rough with it???) The better one was dangling by a wire, the otehr was completely off. This one is scratched up a bit. I went to the iagamerica.com site and filed out the service request form. So far they are going to replace the scratched up tweeter for me. They have good support, I would suggest trying them for jacked up tweeters, grills, anything else. I think they should maybe package the tweeters off of the speakers in a seperate styrofoam chamber maybe. They just snap in place, wouldn't be much for a consumer to have to do. I would rather have to do that than have a jacked up tweeter and still have to put it back on.

Overall, I am very pleased with my new speakers. The bass response is very impressive, mids were there, no complaints about them (very clear, the highs could be slightly stronger and it wouldn't bother me. The speakers overall are very nice. I think they are well worth the money paid for them. I am glad that I didn't get some comparably priced KLH's now.

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Vintage Klipsch ??

Price point, bass

what midrange?

After receiving a set of speakers that didn't work, IAG kindly sent in replacements. Please note that I'm still breaking these babies in, so the review is slightly tainted.

Imaging:
Moderately handled. Compared to the Silverline SR-12 reference speakers, these Modus 8's don't separate instrumentals at all. Soundstage is minor in comparision with other mid/hi-range speakers. I define good speakers in part with their ability to make the speakers invisible. So far, they aren't even trying to hide.

Audio:
Good bass (a bit overpowering in some cases) and solid high-end capability but as others have stated, the midrange is lacking quite a bit. Almost muffled.

Would I recommend them right now? Maybe. It's definately an affordable speaker and if don't mind the flimsy grill and are just looking for HT speakers, this should work.

Definately not of audiophile caliber. If you're an audiophile, look elsewhere.

My slanted view for audiophile speakers are the Silverline series SR-12, SR-17 and Panatella (the latter may not be in production any longer due to the introduction of two other floor standing speakers). Quite a bit higher on the price scale, but you get solid quality from the company and the owner is a down-to-earth individual.

Similar Products Used:

Energy Take 5, Silverline SR-12

Good Sound

None yet

Mine came well packaged and totally undamaged; maybe i got lucky. After plugging them in I thought they sounded great, though I have admittedly little experience with expensive speakers. If they get better with time like a lot of these reviews indicate I'm going to be a VERY happy person. They seem to have good imaging, and pretty good bass, especially for music.
I bi-wired mine but couldn't readily notice any huge improvement in sound quality... I'll try moving them to the living room in my apartment to see if I can notice the differences better. For $211 including shipping (UBID) I think they may be one of the better deals out there. I am also reassured by everyone's comments on how personable and friendly the company is. (3 year warranty)

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Sony SS-MF315