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Review 1 of 2
Price Paid:
$200.00
from Best Buy Canada Summary:
I originally bought these speakers on sale (the subwoofer was not included, though the $200 is in Canadian Dollars so it was still a great deal) to replace the sub standard speakers that came with my HTIB. I was surprised that even powered by a lousy HTIB reciever they sounded quite good, the only problem was the reciever wasn't sending them any of the low-mid and low frequencies, though the high's and mid's were crystal clear. After replacing the HTIB reciever with an Onkyo TX-SR600 and replacing the lousy active subwoofer with a mid-range powered sub, I was simply amazed by the quality of sound these speakers put out (they sounded great even without the sub and lacked only the extreme lows that a subwoofer can provide). The difference between my new system (components purchased at different times to catch sales, $700 CAD all told) to my old system is remeniscent of comparing a walmart special keyboard's piano synth to a well tuned grand piano. At times I can close my eyes and, if I didn't know better, I'd swear there was a musician playing a quality instrument in the room with me. This is not surprising as Celestion speakers are known (though not as widely as they should be) for producing sophisticated sound.
My system now matches my friend's $4000+ CAD Bose system in terms of sonic quality and exceeds it in terms of style. These speakers are elegant and truly unique and classy in appearance: for those concerned with style. For those concerned with performance, well, my system won't shake my window pains loose but to me, volumes at that level are more annoying than anything. I prefer my music and movies to have accurately reproduced sounds, this means no insanely loud and unnarutal thumping base. I'm not an old man who can't stand loud noises either; I like my music loud but i also like my bass in proportion to the rest of the frequencies. For those who like ridiculously loud thumping bass, I'm sure you could buy an enormous subwoofer and increase it's volume and still have a great system with these. I have my sub at a low-mid volume level and the crossover set close to it's minimum and the result is outstandingly true to life sound.
For those looking for a good system, I would definetely recomment the Celestion AVP305 set. Though I have not heard the subwoofer perform, I have no doubt it would be as good as the rest of the set. For the price I paid, they are an outstanding value and from what I've seen their regular price isn't very bad either. Make sure to buy a good quality reciever to go with them or you'll bottleneck the speakers true potential (though they absolutely shattered the HTIB speakers that they originally replaced both in terms of effeciency and sonic quality on the HTIB reciever). I would recommend HK, Onkyo, Denon, or others with a good record for quality. If all you can afford is a Home Theatre In a Box system, then for Heaven's sake save up some more and buy the Celestion AVP305 set and a good reciever anyways. I may not be a true audiophile but I demand the most out of everything I buy and these have not left me full of regret; not even one ounce of it.
Strengths:
Excellent sonic quality. Hands down among the best I've heard for sattelite speakers and pretty close to the best altogether.
Effecient; I listened to music on an 18-22 out of 40 volume level with my old speakers, after hooking these up it was 9-12 (on the same reciever; before I replaced it)
Aesthetically great. Classy, non-intrusive, even beautiful; the driver cones appear almost luminescent (they're slightly reflective).
All around great quality. Well designed and well built. They sound excellent, look beautiful, don't take up tons of space like floor standing speakers - Because of these I'm now a fan of Celestion speakers. Weaknesses:
None that I have found- I will post any future complaints about them here, though I doubt there will be any. Similar Products Used:
Researched and tested many sattelite speaker sets in-store.
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5 of 5
