Summary:
I had these speakers for over 3 years, and I was pretty sattisfied with my Technics gear, untill few months ago when I entered the real hi-fi world buying an Arcam 7 cd and Arcam 8R amplifier with some StraightWire cables.I wasn't listening too many speakers, except some PSB's at dealler and a friend's JBL's, but it sounded different from my sb-m 500! Except bass wich goes pretty low, I can't tell anything good about them. At high levels the driver's membrane seems to fall apart and some resonances occurs. If you listen to dance and electronic music maybe you can live with them. Now I'm looking for some Dynaudio or Tannoy, the only major brands I can find in Romania, to replace it.

Strengths:
impressive bass

Weaknesses:
treble too soft,some lack of dynamics,mechanical resonances

Similar Products Used:
different Technics loudspeakers

Summary:
I got these loudspeakers for 500 $ and I use them with a Technics SL-PG590 CD Player and a Technics SU-A700Mk3 Amplifier. I used to listen through a pair of Polish speakers, Tonsil ZGB 65 (65W nominal, 45-18000Hz, 91dB). I read about the sophisticated push-pull woofer formula Technics developed and I wanted to see if it works. The SB-M500 look astonishing, tall, sleek, very profound and very heavy. They have a large passive radiator in the back and a black velvet layer round the tweeter and midrange speakers. The first time I tried the SB-M500 I was very disappointed, as they lacked the powerful bass and most of all they required almost twice as much power from the amplifier to sound like the old loudspeakers. Even the mid/treble lacked energy. After a while and after careful positioning I started to like the softer, much cleaner sound, and to appreciate the subliminal bass. These are very carefully crafted speakers, a pleasure for the eye and for the demanding ears. As one reviewer mentioned, though they are excellent with most types of music, it’s in jazz and classical that they reveal their unusual sensibility. Please note that they get easily saturated and I suppose the 80Watts Technics claims are a little exaggerated. I should also mention the bi-wiring facility and the huge gold plated terminals. A very decent gorgeous looking and sensible HiFi speaker at a fair price.

Summary:
Thought i might give an update now that i have had these speakers over a year.I have used them both for music and for stereo front speakers when watching movies, quite an experience!
It just gets better all the time , recently i been listening to a lot of
Mozarts wind instrument stuff and i couldnt believe how the sound just fell out
with ease, smooth and detailed.
For those who havent seen them the build quality is exceptional, Allen screws
are used to attach the speaker units and the tweeter is mounted with 8 of them!
Technics Speakers gets a rough ride in the audio newsgroups, and i wonder whether they have seen the better models?

Summary:
I listened to a lot of speakers in the shops and even considered buying some for about $600 a piece. But then I found these speakers for only $300 a piece! (Well, actually F600, but that's about the same :))
They have an amazing bass sound considering the size of the units. And one of the best things of this speaker: placement isn't VERY important. Some speakers only sound good in perfect surroundings on perfect spots. But this speakers gives a whopping base wherever you put it (and they're in a crammy, reverbing room at the moment so I know what I'm talking about :))

I think the treble is a tiny bit too low, but that's probably my personal preference. And turning the treble on my Sony TA-VE700 amplifier up a bit makes the sound just perfect, so no real complaint there.

My amplifier gives 2x90W, that sounds a bit much considering these speakers are rated 80W DIN, but they handle it with ease (although I haven't put the volume much higher than 55% :)). Technics claims they can handle 160W music, but I wouldn't put that much trough the speakers if your bass boost is still on :) Maybe it can be done with a flat equalizer.

Overall rating: VERY GOOD!!!

Summary:
It was with disbelief that i read some good reviews on the Technics SB-M500 speakers,since i always assumed that good Japanese speakers was just wishful thinking.Anyway i got some home and i was amazed,they outperformed my old Dali 450's both
with respect to Treble definition and the Bass is something like i never heard
from medium sized floor speakers.
They were run on a Sony TA-FA3ES amplifier which gives about 85 watts a channels
into 6 ohms. I would recommend at least 5O watts per channel and Dali Viper
Speaker cables.
A good allround speaker that will give you what you want!