I'm the Production Manager for the UGA Performing Arts Center, so I had my Stage Manager and Production Asst over for dinner and a critique of these speakers before the holiday break in December. Below is the write up I gave, using my staff's notes, to these speakers on another forum.
{We listened to many different styles of music: moderne'; wind ensemble; rock; orchestral; chamber; country; blues; bluegrass; a capella; and ended the night with the title track from Pink Floyd's WISH YOU WERE HERE. The drivers had about 35 hours on them at the beginning of the evening. They were definitely smoother and balanced then when I first fired these things up last Saturday night.
My Production Asst started out the night feeling that the low end was not as full as he would like, but by the end of the night he had changed his mind. He hasn't done much critical listening so far, so my guess is his ears are more conditioned to what he hears on the radio. He liked the sound of the drums and guitar with Green Day. Bluegrass got a checkmark with the banjo sound getting 2 checkmarks (this was the Stage Manager's CD and neither of them wrote down the artist). Dixie Chicks (female vocals over all) were very well liked. A capella got two checkmarks with a note that he could tell the St. Petersburg Male Choir was definitely recorded in our main concert hall. Pink Floyd WYWH: "best I have heard that song."
Stage Manager has more recording/critical listening experience and he didn't write down each track. He just wrote notes as the night went along. "-frequency response is awesome - no perceived directionality - I'm jealous - *tympany (+drums in general) sound very crisp - great shimmer on cymbals (smaller rolls) - no noticable loss in HF - 15" woofer is NOT muddy - trombone popped out a bit in wind ensemble - mandolin, guitar, banjo sound life like - female vocals sound natural + good throughout - vocals (a capella)!!! - heard every detail in intro to WYWH"}
I haven't stopped listening to these since our write-up and they have really settled in nicely. All the presence and detail are still there, but with a smoother over-all sound. The 4in drivers on a 16in baffle work very nicely and the footprint of each speaker is 16inX17in, which really doesn't take up much real estate.
I think these are definitely a success story. The only variable that I have found is the cross-over frequency. I found a person who thought that 200Hz was too high on his 15in Alphas and dropped it down to 125Hz (which I believe is the recommended point). I found another guy who ran his 15in Alphas straight w/ no cross-over. I'm very happy with the finished project and may experiment here, since my components are in the open on the back, but it's going to take some self-convincing to get that initiative up. These sound REALLY SWEET as they are.
