Richer Sounds have these at a rather good price at the moment so treated myself to a pair to replace the Wharfedale 802s which currently have responsibility for the left and right channels of my surround system.
Arrived by post well packaged, basic spec is a floorstanding speaker some 3 feet in height, twin 165mm cones for bass and mid and a 25mm tweeter. 230W power into 8 ohms, can be bi-wired.
Started playing by using them on their own as music speakers. Playing music allows me to explore what they are capable of in a controlled manner and is something I always do to new speakers - they have to be run in anyway so may as well have a listen.
First impressions were of a very neutral sound reproduced with clinical precision across the two channels. Plenty of bass punch without dialling up the loud pedal (
bye-bye subwoofer!) delivered with no loss of control or overbearing harmonics.
They can decipher the complexities of Genesis (Dance on a Volcano), Dire Straits (Telegraph Road) and Pink Floyd (Comfortably Numb) very well leading to an absorbing sound stage. Pick any instrument and your ears can follow it quite easily without losing it among the others. I do not have them bi-wired but crossover appears seamless to my ears, the tweeter is a good tonal match to the main cones and does not ring or distort.
Female vocals (Kathryn Jenkins, Eva Cassidy) are reproduced very well, all the warmth and rounded tones of the mid range are there rising to the almost harsh edge in the upper tones without sounding at all strident. Tracks such as Dire Straits’ Private Investigations where there is an empty soundstage with two instruments in counterpoint were delivered perfectly, as they need to be or the track becomes a jumble and loses rhythm.
Switching to Dolby/DTS input on 5 channels they are neutral enough to work well (tonally) with the existing Wharfedale centre and rears, although the 802s will be picking up the job of the latter now. Sound moves around within each channel as well as across the full soundstage, making for and extremely realistic experience. Again I was impressed with the tonal balance and the apparent lack of crossover as well as the delivery of deep bass without distortion or boom. Action sequences from Transformers and Top Gun were delivered effortlessly, the speakers never lost the plot or became muddled. Music content is still delivered faithfully but does not have the attack of stereo delivery - my personal taste is for stereo recording and so this could be my ears at fault not the speakers.
All in all I am very impressed and I know there is better to come once they have been on for 48 hours or so at low volume and loosened up a bit. I was using a mid-range Sony surround amp so they are not that difficult to power, I get the impression however that hooked up to a powerful amp with a good clean stereo source they are capable of stunning results.
All in all 5 stars from me, if you are in the market for new bins well worth a look.
