I finally got my kit put together, and I have to say that it exceeded my expectations. I was forcing myself to get them completely esthetically finished before listening to them because I have a tendency to stop once I get them sounding good.
It is hard to buy something online without a critical listening, but after all of the research I've done over the years, especially in the past few weeks online, the $220 I spent for the AV-1 kit has been money well spent. All of the specs, the design philosophy looked like it would work just right. And now I know in actual experience that it does work very well.
Because of the small, compact boxes, and good dispersion qualities of the drivers, the speakers project a very expansive stereo image. The bass is pretty good, even without a sub. That little 5.5-inch driver is amazing. You can't really see any cone flapping, but prodigious amounts of good, fast bass and exquisitely detailed midrange are coming from the boxes. The tweeter is very detailed, but not harsh in the least.
I only have a $60-buck EBay late 70's Kenwood amp on them, and it is driving them quite nicely, effortlessly.
I have sampled a wide variety of music on them tonight, from Steve Earle to Oingo Boingo, very mushy Nat King Cole, technopop, Blood Sweat & Tears, etc. etc and they were very listenable, musical, and detailed.
The only think I wish for, and only on some cuts, is a bit more extremly low bass, so the next project is adding a sub to to this. But I think I can live with it just fine without this for a while. I'm on a very short budget but so far I've got a lot of bang for my limited budget.