Gasp. Ever wanted to be buried in a speaker casing? Considered the ramifications of dismemberment to do so? Oh you will!! Rosewood timber veneer with layers of laquer (I mean trowelled on). Nasty shiny little spikes on a piano gloss black base. Gentle,subtle grille (yes they are all a bit flimsy. Why is everyone always so surprised that grilles are flimsy when I read reviews? They are tiny, thin and plastic or MDF usually.) Once you have admired and wept a bit over the stunning beauty of these (1/2 to 1 hour roughly) you will dare to connect them. I expected instant reward as I purchased on special and strongly suspected they were ex-demo, hence instant gratification. I thought I was correct, and was very pleased with myself and what I thought was their best sound. Then on day 6 or so (about 30 hours), they sprang even more to life. I wept again. They were short of broken in I assume. They tightened and sang and all the world was wonderful.

The sound is flabergastingly, stunningly sublime. Chuck Norris would cry hearing Vicki Brown on Jon Lord's 'Before I Forget' (Say It's All right). They eat Von Karajan's rendering of The Ninth with the Berliner Philharmoniker for breakfast. They are equally at home with AC/DC, Spiderbait and Buddha Bar. They grin at it all. They glow white hot with vocal and instrumental though. Clarity, precision, accuracy, separation, superlatives galore. All the usual sounds I hadn't heard before (love a dollar for every review that says that, but it's true). Yes I have to re-listen some 18 000 songs and will possibly spend the rest of my days doing so.

If you have a chance to grab a set of these - do so. For the mid range buyer they are superb. They dig low and ring high and accurately represent everything between, separating the sound like layers of your Nana's finest sponge cake. Do yourself a favour.