Price, size, sound

You really can't shield magnetisim.

The XTS-10 became the XTS-20 and now has the RCA moniker.
The new RCA speakers are just as good and continue to amaze me with their overall sonic quality. I have added another home theatre, hooked up to my PC, an purchased more of these fine speakers.

My wife wanted a living room, so out goes the big Klipsch horns... now that we are mature adults.

A few weeks ago I visited the Bose showroom in downtown Portland and auditioned their various swivel speakers along with their sub.

Overall I felt the Bose RA sound was distorted. I asked the salesperson to turn down the sound to a conversational level, instead of loud, and the sound was harsh on the Bose.

I don't mean to demean Bose, I love their 501 / 901 series speakers, but their cubes are overpriced garbage.

You must couple the twisties with a decent sub. I have a Tannoy sub, placed dead center under my TV monitor, in the living room. In the PC room, I will soon add a subwoofer, it may be the small 8" RCA sub that sells for about $90. In both cases, we have placed the 5 twisties at about 4.5 feet high, around the rooms.

Please note that the twisties are not as magnetically shielded as claimed. After searching web sites, I sopke with an MRI technician and they use galvanized steel shields. I have a furnace shop make a plate of galvanized steel to place my center speaker on, other wise my monitor would have color distortion.

In the computer room, my PC monitor does not have the problem with the center on top of the monitor.

If you are not in the habit of really cranking up the tunes with the Greatful Dead, these are great musical and home theatre speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Bose

Price, clarity

thin in mids & lows, highs can be harsh (perhaps what the audiophiles call "bright"?)

This speaker has changed names, monikers and numbers (it's now the RCA XTS-60AV) but seems to have an unchanged configuration and performance. I bought three pair of these (total $150!) along with a 100 watt sub (clearance - $100) for a trial setup with my new Onkyo txds595 and a pioneer cv503 Dvd/CD changer. I wasn't disappointed. To my unsophisticated ear, they sounded great with more detail than I'd ever heard before. I listened to more music and DVDs in a week than I had in the previous year.

After a week began to realize that the sound was starting to grate on me. I couldn't put my finger on it until I hooked up an old pair of B&Ws (model unknown, but pretty good speakers from about 15 yrs ago) and went two channel direct for A/B comparisons. The B&Ws were richer, more detailed but also much more listenable in the higher end. By comparison the XTS-60s seemed harsh in the highs and really thin in the mids and lows.

They are still a great value and provide unusual clarity, and for a second system for occasional use they might be perfect.

Since I usually stop by about once a week at Radio Shack (hey they have some pretty neat stuff and I'm on their mailing list), I thought I would tell all of you budget buying home theater fans who really want BOSE AM series speakers but couldn't afford it about a very similar product out there (KLH makes another similar product as well as some other companies) called the XTS-10 swivelling satellites. Unlike BOSE, RS does state the frequency range (170-20000hz), has dampening materials (at least these are stated in the catalog), has an actual mid-range/tweeter arrangement (3.5"/2.5" respectively) for a more accurate sound. It also has a mounting hole on the back so you can hang it on a wall bracket or pole-stand. It is rated at a humble 30w RMS and 60w MAX per channel. It also suggests using a sub-woofer if used as front mains (I suggest two for each side of the room to make it harder for sub localization that plagues both BOSE and this speaker) in stereo or hometheater. The two main thing I like about this product is that RS gives some useful information for hometheater setup and of course the price (when it's on sale it only costs $49/pair so wait when you buy if you are wise and patient).
I have not personally tried this at home but I have actually heard it hooked up correctly at the RS near me (because I set it up myself since I'm a regular customer who has bought several speakers from them) using their AVR which is very similar to my Pioneer at home (which Pioneer makes for RS). Testing the SW-14P (this is the item I wanted to buy but I used the XTS-10 for the mains) passive sub and XTS-10 for mains and setting the AVR for stereo I played ID4 (can't wait for the DVD) on their VCR. At 48:30 into the tape (where the White House, Empire State, and some building in LA gets it) when all the real action happens I was amazed at the bass of the SW-14P (hey you don't listen to this scene for the screams do you?) clean, powerful, and authoritive (couldn't turn it loud enough to be boomy because of the sats limitation) while the sats did a pretty impressive job of all the directionality with no distortion (actually they were quite loud, about as loud as the BOSE but much cleaner on the higher treble) its dynamics were really limited due to size (most micro speakers are). If I didn't already use better rear speakers (PRO-LX8 for the main room and PRO-LX5 for the bedroom) I would actually consider this maybe for the bedroom (the only reason why is that it could not sustain 105dbl for long which is DD reference level) knowing that it would still need a sub for the low end (wouldn't need it for DPL because of the limited bandwidth sent for rear ambiance but in DD you need a full range capable because of the full 20-20K hz bandwidth). I know I could recommend this to people on a budget because this actually sounds pretty decent for the price and should get a very easy approval from the spouse who likes tiny speakers with high but not loud sound. A major note of caution this thing really needs a sub (preferably 2, one for each side of the room) as it produces no noticible bass without one. If you do get the SW-14P, try to place it in between the two XTS-10 (or underneath the front right and left respectively if you buy two) so you won't localize the sub (same advice about the KLH and BOSE AM series) as this will significantly improve the sound stage and bass effect tremendously (and most 19" TVs will sit on the sub easily). Without a sub I rate this a 2 for vesatility and ease of placement, with one sub I rate this a 3 if the sub is centered between the pair, with 2 subs and 2 pair of these for mains/rear I think for a budget it deserves a 4, and last if it is mated with an AVR that could do 2 center channel (like the Technics SA-AX6) using 3 pairs with 3 subs positioned correctly I would rate this system a 4 again because you could instead buy the discontinued line of Lineaum tweeter speakers with better dynamics and cleaner sound (I never give high praise to stupidity when a cheaper better system can be had). I rate this a speaker higher than the BOSE equivalent because of price for similar performance.