idest76

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.40 of 5, 5.00 votes

Price Paid:  $450.00 from Second Hand

Summary:
Description: floorstanding speakers, 4 drivers including 1 x 250mm side-mounted woofer, 95dB SPL sensitivity, 8 -ohms nominal, 200Wrms, bi-wirable, 94x25x43cm.
I bought these floor-standers to use with my Sonic Impact T-Amp, a 2 x 10W class-D amp. The speakers have high sensitivity (95dB SPL), a good nominal impedance (8ohms), and the reviews on AudioReview.com said they sounded great, so I bought a pair online for $NZ450 (~US$250)
Keenly anticipating instant karma I hooked them up to my T-Amp and DVD-player. The sound was gross. There was very little bass from the side-firing 10" woofer, regardless of where I positioned these rear-vented speakers. What was the point of such a large cabinet???
I tried out some CDs: Bjork "Post", Radiohead "OK Computer". Vocals, and the mid-range were very forward. The Kronos quartet lacked "stringiness". The treble rolled off too early, so cymbals lacked bite and definition. Furthermore, the difference in the amount of treble between on-axis response, and *just*-off-axis was large. There was no way I could use these for home theatre, with the poor off-axis treble the sound-staging was crap!
The T-amp sounded much more defined driving my old AR M3s with 90dB SPL sens. There was off-axis "air" and sound-staging for my audience co-members.
I also swapped out the cheapo DVD player for my vintage Philips CD850, with no improvement in sound.

Watching a movie, I got so sick of the sound from the 310HO's that I swapped them out for my Mirage M790's floor-standers. These are merely 87dB SPL & 6ohms, with a tweeter and a single 8" woofer, but even THEY got the low bass a-growling from my beloved T-Amp. I mean, what the f***??!

I also tried the 310HOs in my main system, with a 2 x 100Wrms high-current amp (Rotel Michi RHB05). The sound was pretty much the same. However, I did find one positive point: that with a big amp the 310HOs REALLY CRANK UP LOUD - cleanly too, with no fuss. But the bass STILL lacked impact.

What I learnt:
(1) What lies beneath... Beware if a speaker manufacturer fuses the grille to the cabinet to prevent you from directly viewing the drivers; it probably is better for you if you didn't know what was hiding there. Wouldn't YOU be suspicious if Toyota sold a car where you weren't allowed to see under the hood?
(2) I must differentiate between reviews given by those who use Kenwood receivers, and those who use other stuff ;o)


Associated equipment:
Transonic DVD player (cheap!)
Philips CD850 (CDM-4 mechanism)
Audio Alchemy DDE v2.0 D/A converter
DIY relay-driven 12-step attenuator & input selector
Rotel "Michi" RHB-05 power amp (100w/160w)
Sonic Impact T-Amp powered by sealed lead acid battery
Mirage M790 floorstanders
Acoustic Research M3

Strengths:
Great power handling & sensivity. With 100 quality watts they will go VERY LOUD cleanly, without compression. Bloody impressive, but bass still lacks impact.

Weaknesses:
Turns music into mush. No floor-spikes. Treble has awful off-axis response and also rolls off too early. Different timbres can be indistinct, mid-range is over-emphasied. Goes VERY LOUD but sound is bad! What should be rendered as smooth bass-lines, are not portrayed as such. No off-axis soundstaging.

Similar Products Used:
Mirage M790 floorstanders
Acoustic Research Holograhic Imaging M3 stand-mounts
B&W P5 floorstanders
Mission 731iLe stand-mounts

Price Paid:  $568.00 from New Dehing, Antwerp

Summary:
I was looking for a pair of affordable floor-standers with an all-round sound and great looks. The AR 310 HO combines them in a very pleasing way. I got mine 6 months ago and use them as Home Theater fronts and for relaxed and concentrated music-listening. I hooked them up to a Kenwood KRX-1000 THX-receiver which provides 2 x 130 W at 8 ohm's. I listen to all forms of music and mostly beat-driven music, for which they sound great. There might be better choices for classical music though. Since the beginning I loved the straight-forward 5'mids which make voices just sound great and natural (e.g. Dire Straits, Joe Cocker etc... sound exquisite) and the clear and non-fatiguiging highs. They also stage very well but are because of this sensitive to their emplacement. Also bass reproduction is dependent of location (don't put them to close to the back-wall). Bass lines are reproduced very well and with a lot of realism, maybe just to much realism, I admit I do like a fat bass sometimes... anyway, the side-mounted woofer (ah, the looks!) provides a fair, deep-going and controlled bass wich is still audible at low volumes. Compared to a similar type of speaker like the Jamo Cornet 195, the AR's perform better in every way (little bit more expensive of course too). The bass on the Jamo's is very lousy and not at all controlled, even with two 8' woofers on board. My sound improved exponentially with the AR's!!

When having home-parties you might also be amazed by their general dynamics with low distortion, these guys can kick hard if you want them to! Efficiency is OK, they're not hard to drive.

No experience yet with bi-wiring them. If I ever get to it (lack of time nowadays) I will publish if I hear significant differences.

In Home Cinema they perform marvellously alltough I mostly focus on having an excellent Center-channel, which lifts up your entire system, believe me. If Home Cinema and not music is your thing and if you love action-packed movies like Mission Impossible etc. put your money in a decent center that goes deep and has a short 'attack' instead of buying these beauties only for this purpose.

I might say that for this money, you won't get much better speakers. It's no high-end but you're heading in the right direction. I'm keeping them anyway...

Strengths:
Highs, mids, staging, built, looks and power handling.

Weaknesses:
Bass is very accurate but just that little bit to weak, just a bit, could be the amp too...

Similar Products Used:
Jamo Cornet 195

Summary:
Mooi presterende box met een prettig klankkarakter.
Mooie detailering en een mooi open en ruimtelijk beeld.
Bas zou iets prominenter aanwezig mogen zijn.

Strengths:
Prima detailering,mooi open geluidsbeeld

Weaknesses:
bas prestaties

Similar Products Used:
Hepta-Klipsch-ASW-Mission-SystemAudio

Summary:
This AR 310 speakers have an amazing clean mid and high when I bi-wire with my Denon AVR2700 but still lack of bass. I am going to bi-amp this speakers with NHT SA-2 mono Subwoofer amplifer which rated 120w per channel. I listened it at the local store and it sound great.

I will give 5 star if the bass can be deeper.

p.s.: Anybody can you please give any ideal or email me if you biamp this speakers with NHT or other brand Subwoofer amplifer, thanks!

Strengths:
Clear midrange and good build quality

Weaknesses:
Lack of Bass

Summary:
These have sounded better and better since I got them. I guess it's true that even speakers have to break in. I imagine they could even sound better if I did some room acoustic enhancements. ( have hard wood floors ) Would buy them again!

Strengths:
clear, strong sound. Great for HT

Weaknesses:
Could be better for music, but not much.