Ok, I've had this system built and running for a while so its probably time I get around to posting a brief set of comments (a very mini review if you want to call it that).
1 pair of A/V-3 mains
1 A/V-3s center
1 pair of A/V-1RS surrounds
I'll try to get a few pictures snapped in the next little bit, but just as a heads up, these are in a dedicated HT room so I wanted a non-reflective look. The front three are plain MDF painted flat black. The 1RS' are painted very dark ivy green just like the walls so they blend in very well too. Both paints were left over from the walls and ceiling so it was low cost as an added bonus. Seen in full lighting they are unimpressive compared to some of the very nice finishing jobs I've seen on here lately. The finish does work very well for this room though. I was in there the other night and actually noticed that I could only barely see the mains with the lights off and projector going. The only thing that called out on all three in the front was a bit of glare on the center's glossy black woofers. That amount of glare is only a minor nuisance compared to my last speakers where everything was clearly visible and I actually had to cover the top of the center with heavy black felt to keep from washing out the picture.
Soundstage
One of the biggest things that I've noticed about these speakers is their amazing ability to get spatial cues right. Not just left/right imaging, but also the type of room for the original recording. With recordings of "live" music you can hear all of the original room’s ambiance. With movies this is obvious with dialog in larger rooms/halls. The new Star Wars movies have several good examples of this. Padme's bedroom is a cavernous room and I can hear the reverb/echo in voices. None of the speakers I've had before had this ability so at first I thought it was something my room induced, but I only hear it when the speakers in the movie are in rooms where there should be echo when you think about it. My wife's friend that comes over for movies often doesn't hear it at all, but I've taught my wife to listen for it too. It is really cool and greatly adds to the feeling of being there. The soundstage is huge, with the lights off and their flat black cabinets they just disappear. Nothing about the sound helps locate the speakers themselves.
Detail
So I really like the soundstage, but what about their detail? I think Danny has gotten an excellent balance between detail and not causing listener fatigue. These speakers are just nice and smooth, but without making you feel like something is missing. I can listen to these for hours at a time without having to gradually reduce the volume. Compared to the pair of Onix Ref1s we have in the house I don't feel like I'm losing any detail, but I can't listen to those on the HK at all. Even on tubes I can only handle the Refs for a while. When I first built the A/V 3s I wanted to try them out on the tubes in the den just for grins. They had a wonderful richness/lushness that I just don't get out the Ref1s in there. If I'd had other speakers suitable for HT mains they'd still be in that system. They had good warmth before, but on this tube integrated it was amazing. I'd been teasing my wife about upgrading her speakers in there for a while, but she always pushed back since she was happy with what she had (and didn't want to spend more money). Well once she came in the room I was told point blank with no prompting to sell the refs and build her another pair of those (the 3s).
Bass reach
As far as bass depth I think they are just fine for music as is. In the HT system they are crossed at 60Hz, but I also tested them with my DIY integrated running full range (testing it really
). On the digital amp with TVC volume control they were squeaky clean but not at all sterile. I still had a nice warmth and aliveness to the music. Overall I thought they sounded better on this gear than the tubes. It sounded so good I couldn't resist and cranked it pretty high. I actually put on some organ music playing around and I couldn't believe how good the bass sounded. Of course the woofers were pumping like crazy and when I held my hand up near the cone I couldn't believe how much air it was moving. I could be very happy with these in my new listening room, but I'm holding out for a line array.
System as a whole
As a HT system everything blends together very well. When I first installed the center I wasn't sure if maybe it was a little tonally different, but I don't notice it now. I'd been running the 3s for a couple of weeks so it was possibly break-in related. I also have my center channel on an adjustable angled stand and I've tweaked that angle quite a few times. Right out of the gate the stand would have been shooting a little low because it had housed a much bigger center. Speaker break-in, listener break-in, bad angle making it too off-axis, regardless it is all a good mesh now. At first I was a little dubious about the new surround design, but we're really enjoying them. I was going to give them a shot and if I didn't like it then I'd just turn them into normal A/V-1s, but they really do work well for the surround info. I can't pinpoint them which is good, but even though they are pointed at the ceiling it doesn't seem to sound muffled.
Equipment Used
HT system: (used to have separates, but QC issues ended up sending them packing. The HK is a stopgap, but its worked so well I may just leave it alone)
receiver: HK 635
sources: Denon 3910/Dish 811
power conditioning: BPT 3.5Sig
room: 15X20 with first reflection treatments and 6 bass traps
Den:
integrated: Onix SP3
source: Onix XCD88
power conditioning: none
room: open to kitchen and entry foyer so very irregular - no treatment because its a common area
Briefly used in HT system with DIY Hypex UCD400/S&B TX102 stereo integrated amp instead of HK [2 channel music testing only]
Value
I had the HT system crippled with just a pair of monitors in front for a month or so before these were built so it is not fair to reference too much to the earlier HT speakers I had in here, but I don't feel like I downgraded at all. Between "I built it myself" pride and short auditory memory I can't be sure and it isn't a fair comparison, but I think that this HT system is better than anything I had before. These aren't just cheap speakers made to sound good on cheap receivers, because each time I threw better amps at it, they just sounded better and better. Based on that I'd have a hard time believing they were the weakest point in the system. I think the A/V series is a crazy value. "Retail" on the previous system was $3300 and they replaced a $5000 system. Luckily I sold my last system before the bottom dropped out of that company's speaker resale value so I actually got more on the resale than the GR kits cost. Even after I finally get around to adding the last pair of speakers it should be under 75% of what I got from selling the others. Although I was frustrated at times building the cabinets overall it was fun and a good learning experience so I'm considering all of my time invested as free. Its cool when the upgrade puts money BACK in your pocket. When I sold my 2 10" subs and built a GR dual 12" sub I actually got a router and a little pocket change out of the deal so for me if I don't count my time DIY has been a great money saver for me.
Next steps
Unfortunately now I've got to decide what to do with the last two speakers. I only bought five at the time because I hadn't sold all of my old speakers yet and it was also a good way to make sure there were going to be a good match. I'd thought about getting two more A/V-1RS', but another pair of 3s isn't really that much more and that would be nice for DVD-A/SACD. Plus with another pair of 3s I could use the cabinet building/painting tricks I learned to get a better finish and swap with my current fronts. Any suggestions/recommendations from other A/V HT owners?
