I received my SongTowers (and a SongCenter) two weekends ago, on Friday. They were well-packaged, with enough styrofoam and a foam bag around each speaker to ensure they arrived in perfect condition. I got everything unpacked and set up Friday evening (except for the center channel -- I did that on Saturday). I cut my own speaker wire to length from a roll of 12AWG copper wire, and used gold-plate banana plugs, all from Monoprice. I'm running everything through a Pioneer VSX-1018AH-K receiver and Emotiva UPA-7 amplifier. Music is from a Squeezebox (what's now called the Classic model), and everything is ripped to FLAC. I'm running the receiver in Pure Direct mode for music (so it does no extra processing/correction). The SongTowers are the RT version (ribbon tweeter), in satin black, with silver-painted aluminum baffles (the aluminum baffles are part of the RT upgrade, and can be painted in various colors -- I've seen both black & silver, and I assume Jim could do other colors if desired).
I only had time to listen to a couple of the demo tracks Friday evening, but they sounded wonderful. I thought they were very clear and well-articulated. My wife commented that even at low volumes the speakers seemed very powerful, which I thought was a good description. They don't have to be loud, but they still feel very dynamic, and produce a very clear and rich sound.
Saturday evening my wife and I sat down to listen to the whole demo CD (while we didn't have champagne, as Jim's setup directions suggested; we did have a glass of sake each, which is our preferred alcohol). Jim chose a really nice selection of music. The CD did a really nice job of showing off the speakers, and had a good variety of music. The SongTower RTs reproduced everything extremely well, with a very nice balance among all the frequencies; in particular, I find the bass to be very well integrated, and in good proportion to the mids and highs -- no overwhelming booming, or weak low-end. While I'm planning to get a subwoofer for home theater use, I don't know if I'll feel a need to use it for 2-channel music listening. Instruments were clear and distinct; female vocals were reproduced very well, sounding articulate and true. My wife noticed some new bits in the Santana song that she hadn't heard before. Overall, a wonderful experience.
Since then, I've listened to a variety of music. I notice more variations in recording quality now, and have identified a few CDs that really impressed me on these speakers that I had not thought much about before. I have also noticed something of the effect of the loudness war (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war). On one CD in particular, the quiet songs sounded too close in volume to the loud songs (a lack of dynamic range from the source). In general, most contemporary rock is still fun to listen to; but it feels more noisy to me -- I appreciate stuff that has more well-defined instrumental separation, and often stuff that has fewer parts so I can hear each instrument or part without everything smearing together (not that things are really smeared; the SongTowers do a wonderful job with separation; but some songs are just so busy that it is hard to hear the individual parts). Overall, though, I haven't had appreciable problems with any recordings. Some don't stand out compared to the really good recordings; but I haven't found anything that sounds worse than on my old speakers. It might cause my preferences to shift to different CDs; but I think I will still enjoy listening to all my music.
I'm still playing with positioning a bit. I originally had guessed at placement, and they did sound good; but I moved them a bit so the back inside corner is 18" from the corner of the bookshelf behind each one; which also puts them at the same distance into the room (I think about three feet). I also moved the toe out just a bit to try and encompass two chairs (for my wife and I). I think it is pretty close, but maybe not perfectly balanced for both positions. It probably doesn't help that the whole right side of the room is open to the dining room; so in reality the speakers aren't even from the side walls.
I haven't done extensive testing with home theater. I've only watched a few things, and while they sound better than they ever have, I don't think the sources are particularly special. I also need to aim the center channel properly -- it is almost at floor level now, underneath the TV; I'm planning to build a basic stand out of some 2x4s to tilt it at the proper angle, which will probably improve imaging. I have also played a little bit of Rock Band with them; and while there was quite a bit of background noise, and I was focused on playing my part, it did sound really good. From what I understand, the game developers have essentially remastered the tracks, in addition to splitting the channels more cleanly; so I can believe that the sound is very high-quality. It is a really fun experience with these speakers.
Some pictures:
Full room
Single speaker with grill:
Closeup of baffle:
Closeup of base:
Gallery with more pictures & larger sizes:
http://meikon.dnsalias.net:8080/gallery2/main.php/v/homes/rosewood/speakers/
