Speaker Reviews

The Aeon's 37 x 8-inch electrostatic line-source panel uses MartinLogan's familiar CLS (curvilinear line source) technology, designed to widen the optimum listening zone with its relatively open (yet still controlled) horizontal dispersion pattern, yet...

1 expert reviews | 2 user reviews

Small footprint, Good sound, Built in FM radio, Small footprint, Good sound, Built in FM radio

2 expert reviews

In its quest for continuous quality improvement a couple of decades ago, the U.S. business community fell in love with a cobbled-together phrase known as paradigm shifting. The phrase comes from Thomas Kuhn's book The Structure of Scientific...

4 expert reviews

The SS line of subwoofers is the more affordable part of the Critical Mass family of subs that includes the acclaimed UL...

2 expert reviews

Feeling Horny?So what is a "horn speaker" anyway? Basically it's a speaker whose driver has a horn in front of it. Technically speaking, a horn's job is to match the impedance of a driver with the impedance of the room. How does a horn audibly affect...

3 expert reviews

Released from the boxes of thousands upon thousands of plasma and LCD TVs was a nasty disease that's induced feverish thoughts of flatness and smallness in the minds of otherwise good and decent people, making them forget how important audio is to a...

3 expert reviews

The Newton T100 is an engineering success, but (for very understandable reasons) a marketing failure. The idea behind them - other than the marketing dept's desire to fill a void in the lineup - is simple: With the advent of home theater more and more...

2 user reviews

The LC265i-IP is a two-and-a-half-way speaker with one 6.5-inch woofer, one 6.5-inch midwoofer, and a 1-inch ring radiator mounted on a pivot that you can angle up to 15 degrees. It is a triamplified speaker with 100 watts for the bass driver, 75 watts...

2 expert reviews

To stand out from the crowd, a speaker (or any product) needs to have a gimmick. "Gimmick" is too harsh of a word, really. "Unique element of differentiation" is too clinical but more on the mark. Maybe I should say, "thingamajig." On-wall speakers...

3 expert reviews

Hecht is definitely not new to the speaker business. His legendary father, Bill Hecht, founded Phase Tech's parent company, United Speaker Systems, in 1955 and began building speakers for Avery Fisher (another legendary name). In 1967, the elder Hecht...

3 expert reviews

But it's no secret that Japanese speakers are a tough sell in both North America and Europe, where the domestic competition is fierce. It isn't easy getting noticed amid the noise of 300 (or is it 500) other speaker manufacturers clamoring for attention.

3 expert reviews

How would you feel if you woke up one day in a perfect body? You'd pull back the blanket and look down on a perfectly flat tummy (something I haven't seen in years, although heaven knows I'm trying). Combination skin is a thing of the past—you seem to...

3 expert reviews

Neil Young was on NPR chatting about his new movie, Heart of Gold, when he uttered a line that stuck with me: "The art of singing is making a sound that comes from your heart." Thanks Neil, I'm co-opting the idea to describe what distinguishes great...

3 expert reviews

$1,550/ea. 10" powered subwoofer with 1,250-Watt Tracking Downconverter amplifier, self-diagnostic EQ, single-ended and balanced line level inputs Bob's latest subwoofer uses a single front-firing 10" driver and over a thousands watts of power to...

2 expert reviews

A year ago I reviewed Infinity's terrific- sounding $749 TSS-750 surround speaker system, and it quickly became one of my favorites in its price class—a surefire recommendation for entry-level surround sound systems. But much though I admired that...

3 expert reviews

British specialist manufacturer ATC (Acoustic Transducer Company) outfits some of the world's elite recording studios, mastering facilities, and concert halls with its powered, or “active,” monitoring speakers. But the company's pro reputation has...

2 expert reviews

I replaced AR's in 1998, been hooked on Kef since then. Driving 9.2 and 90's hard with 1st a Rotel amp, then Technics Surround. Very solid, detailed 3D sound filling a large living room. Used mainly for rock, classical, movies like Inception,...

4 user reviews

The audiophile and the ecstasy. Bowers & Wilkins offers an impressive range of speakers in nearly every size and price category, but they're best known for models that demonstrate the company's continuing pursuit of the state of the art. Just last...

2 expert reviews

The CSC55 was measured on a 6-foot stand, which gives anechoic results to approximately 200 Hz. Except for the subwoofer, all measurements are taken at a full 2 meters, which emulates a typical listening distance, allows the outputs of large speakers...

3 expert reviews

I've reviewed many excel- lent in-wall speakers, but none quite like the new Radia R-800 in-wall speaker from BG. With 24 drivers in each speaker, this giant stands almost 7 feet tall and is clearly designed for extreme listening—extremely satisfying...

3 expert reviews

Out of the box, these speakers had an unusually rich, robust, beautiful sound, an authority, a majesty even, that greatly impressed me. Unlike some other recently touted and really expensive big speakers that, to these ears, have sounded dead and...

1 expert reviews | 1 user reviews

Even if Thiel hadn't given their new subwoofer line the slick name of SmartSub, I'd still say most subwoofers are stupid. Make that stoopid. Granted, I've had some good ones in the last few years, and that's no accident, since no reviewer would...

2 expert reviews

The K7 is a neutral monitor in the true sense. It is the smallest in the Snell's new series 7 line. The K7 is designed to perform, regardless of placement, and integrate with most decor. Based on newly developed, high performance drivers from...

2 expert reviews

Anthony Gallo Acoustics' speakers had me thinking about the old Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme. If you'll recall, after Humpty took a nasty fall and was smashed to pieces, all of the king's horses and men could never make him whole again. Following my...

3 expert reviews

First-generation THX blossomed in the high-end sphere. The first companies to make THX-certified speakers were already making great ones, with or without certification. Even now, the list of THX speaker makers reads like an industry honor roll. That...

3 expert reviews