Hello Emperor Chris
I have about 200 hours on them now....and, from the get-go until now, I haven't found
anything particularly troubling about them.
The direct, top-mounted tweeter gives off the necessary air and ambiance to make music sound more realistic, it seems extended and I don't hear any objectionable peakiness or ringing. The direct firing design actually works better in my room as I have so many hard surfaces, windows, etc. Neither is it overly soft - it seems well enough integrated to the 6.5" woven kevlar woofer.
It's a poly dome...which I realize are pretty cheap usually, but it sounds
better than almost all the aluminum and titanium tweeters I've heard, and it's
not fatiguing.
I'm pretty lousy at evaluating speakers - about the only thing I have conclusively found objectionable are aluminum and titanium convex domed tweeters in the past - this tweeter works for me, at least.
The cabinet is commendably dense...the front baffle seems thicker (deeper thunk to the knuckle wrap test) than the sides. Commendable, too, is that only the front and rear panels are paralell...the others are curved in some way. The port is dimpled (a la B & W 800-series) - I don't know if it's purely cosmetic or it has some basis in fact, but it sure looks purdy
I think the speaker could use more wattage...I'm just guessing at that....but the Bell 10 watt 6V6 monoblocks seem to be inadequate. I hope to hook up the 50 watt Dukane mono's soon to see. It's recommended wattage range is 10-120 watts.....despite being crossover-less, it's not suited for SET's. The woven kevlar woofer isn't sensitive/efficient versus true single driver paper/hemp types, it seems.
I'll find out soon about the wattage.
Overall, I'd be impressed if I paid $600+ for these....but very happy at $189 delivered
Oddly, break-in has been less of an issue than other speakers I've owned. I would have though the driver(s) needed mucho time to break in....but in previous speakers I've owned it may well have been wiring (the teflon dialectric, more than anything) and the crossover components that may have been breaking in.
I hope to open these up soon and begin charting a 'tweek' course for them. They probably have stamped steel woofer baskets...so they're gonna' get Plast-i-Clay'ed (amazing what it does for cheap steel baskets). They probably use cheap wiring....I'll change out to decent OFC, at least. As you never can have a box that is too non-resonant, they'll probably get a some No-Res (from Danny at GR Research) acoustical damping treatment on the inner walls soon, too.
A lot of what this speaker likely gives up to pricier designs is less resonant box design...taking care of that will likely pay off rich dividends
Ciao - your humble servant - John
