Sorry for the late review, I was on spring break and was out of town when the ht2-tl's arrived last monday. Today i went and got them from the fed-ex and let me say they have been well worth the wait. First off i do apologize in advance because this is my first audio review and being my age and my experience I feel like a little kid amongst all of the audiophiles out there, but i consider privileged to have the opportunity to own such a fine set of speakers this early in my life.
I feel a little repetitive but the boxes they are packed in are amazing, I worked for a retail electronics store for two years and this kind of packaging is second to none. I also like the envelope that came with them with the instructions, birth certificate, and cd. Jim I have to commend you for such a great customer service experience, I will be a customer for life and recommend you to anyone looking for high end audio.
Once i managed to dismantle the package I got my first look at the gorgeous veneer that lied underneath. I do not think it could be more perfect for my tastes ( and I say MY TASTES understanding that not everyone loves every look out there
). With a lot of light in the room the 'fireburst' finish really shines its great, and under my normal low lighting its much more subtle and does not demand all of the attention in the room.
For my review I am using a handful of cd's and music dvd/blu rays that will be played through my playstation 3 that is connected via HDMI to my Denon 988 that is my preamp. Powering the speakers are a pair of 500 watt wyred for sound mono amplifiers and Im using 12awg bluejeans cable and gls audio bandanna plugs. I did as jim recommended and put in his cd to see what these things were capable of, and let me tell you my jaw hit the floor. One thing that i did before i hooked up the new speakers was to play jims demo cd with my boston acoustics vr2 towers. The difference was amazing, all of the vocals seem to be compressed with the bostons and with the ht2's it sounded like a filter had been removed and I now had breathtakingly clear vocals. I decided after listening to the cd to put in something more familiar so I put in the cd moving pictures by rush (re-mastered version). My favorite track is yyz because there seems to be alot going on, the first thing that I notice is how much more separated the instruments are. I can clearly focus on each aspect of the song and hear every little detail. The drums in this song are incredible as they move across the soundstage if feels like they are right in front of you. As a side note the special effect noises sound amazing on the song tom sawyer, in the words of my girlfriend "this sounds incredible".
The second thing i listened to was the blue man group dvd how to be a megastar. The second scene or track is titled drumbone, and It starts off with just them playing on pvc pipe like a trombone then the song transitions into the rest of the band and a wave of sound just engulfs the room. I have to say when I heard this I knew i was in love. Everything seemed to be in perfect balance, the midrange was crystal clear, highs were flawless revealing every little detail, and the bass was unlike I could have imagined it was very deep and accurate. One thing i remembered from auditioning the songtowers at Chad's was that I felt like i was missing some on bass, with these I can't imagine needing any more for music reproduction, they just play loud and deep.
the last thing im going to put in my review which i didn't intend to but It sounded so good i could not resist was my experience playing guitar hero world tour. I always thought the tracks were very well recorded and even heard somewhere that they are re-mastered just for the game but im not sure of that. Anyway, I was first blown away when listening to the song love spreads. Once again everything sounded so much more separated and it is probably the closest experience that i will ever have to playing a guitar
. I was playing the song freak on a leash by Korn, this is not the best recording song or necessarily my favorite type of music but the bass was INCREDIBLE. So good that my neighbor shortly after knocked on the door complaining how loud it was.
The one thing that I know is restricting my performance is the fact that I am in a condo not a house (hopefully getting one for Sr. year), and the layout ( I have everything infront of a window area) combined with the size is less than ideal but i knew i wanted speakers to last for a long time.
I hope this review has been somewhat helpful to everyone, and not painful to read either. All in all I have to say I am now a satisfied salk customer and look forward to rediscovering my collection of music.
p.s. pics will be coming very soon
