I had recently been looking to purchase a pair of small speakers, both in size and price, to replace my 15 year old Bose 301 speakers. My wife and I recently purchased our first home and the only place I could easily put the speakers without rewiring the house was on the mantle in our living room. As soon as I put the speakers up there my wife said "you don't think those are going to stay up there, do you"?
She had a point. The mantle was the most prominent feature of the room and although the Bose 301s are called "bookshelf" speakers they are quite bulky. Besides, they have been moved from place to place about 5 times over the years and were really starting to show some wear.
Always wanting to turn a positive into a negative, I decided that this was a pefect opporunity to buy some new speakers. My wife does not share my enthusiasm for audio equipment so I knew I had to find a pair of speakers that were unobtrusive and inexpensive to satisfy her and musical sounding to satisfy me. I do not have a very high end stereo. My HT setup consists of hooking the up the TV audio output to an Onkyo TX-822 receiver (also about 15 years old) and a Sony DVP-ND400D - decidedly budget DVD/CD player. Nevertheless, I do plan on upgrading the system slowly so I wanted speakers that were both good enough so as not to be the bottleneck when I decide to make the jump to a new amp, yet would not be overkill in my current configuration.
Searching around both the internet and the "real world" I had great difficulty finding something suitable. I was very close to purchasing a pair of Focal-JMLabs 705S Chorus speakers, but the size, aesthetics and price were not ideal. However, at least when I demoed them in the shop, I did like the sound.
Luckily, before plunking down my money on the 705S speakers, I found the RAD Micros. These little guys are perfect for my application and are certainly easy on the wallet, especially the "older" model with the spring loaded bindings. I gave Brian a call and after a very pleasant half hour conversation that ranged from audio to home renovation I decided to purchase a pair of RAD Micros.
The Micros arrived within a week of placing my original order and came very well packed. Upon opening the wrapping I was impressed with the build quality and surprised by the weight of the units. Despite truly being micro in size the speakers were solidly constucted and were surprisingly heavy. I hooked them up to the stereo and placed them on the mantle. This received no objections from my wife and I think they are extremely unobtrusive, although the wires are still visible. However, if you're sitting down you can't see them at all.
I had never owned a speaker with full range drivers before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Brian had told me on the phone that because there is no woofer that I shouldn't expect them to go very low. He also warned of some harshness in the midrange, especially at higher volumes. With a pregnant wife and a toddler at home, I am not known to crank up the music as much as I used to. So I figured these limitations would be an acceptable compromise for a $75 speaker. At that price what could I reasonably expect?
Well, I definitley got a lot more than I paid for! I was completely surprised to find that although there was no ultra low bass, the sound was extremely full. There is plenty of midbass information presented, although I think the sound will greatly benefit from a subwoofer. The midrange is very clear, especially horn instruments. I do find the treble to be a bit rolled off so sometimes this gives me the impression of a hump in the midrange frequencies. I can easily adjust this by increasing the treble a bit on the receiver and may well be a function of my amp, which I believe is a bit warm sounding for solid state. This may be because the amp is old and probably needs a good cleaning. Perhaps, when I finally spring for a new amp the sound will open up a bit more.
Compared to the Bose 301 sound, the Micros have a much better soundstage. The reflective nature of Bose speakers always seemed to smear the sound to my ears. I have never had the vitriol for Bose that some people exhibit, yet I never found them to be overly satisfying either. Imaging is much better with the Micros with a much faster attack. In the midrange, the RADs are much clearer, although they don't fully represent the complete frequency range as well as the Bose.
All in all, I'm very pleased with my RAD Micros. For $150 I certainly could not have done any better and would have to spend twice the price anywhere else to match sound quality. Even then, I would have ended up with a speaker bigger than I actually wanted.
Thank you Rutledge Audio Design for the perfect solution!
