Price Paid:  $200.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
Finally. I've found the speakers for me. My musical tastes have matured quite alot since I purchased my first surround sound system, and with it also my ear for sonic quality. The more I learned to love the intricacies and beauty of many different types of music, the more I yearned to hear it more clearly and accurately and thus began a seemingly endless cycle of buying something (recievers, full size speakers, satellites, subs, etc.) then not long thereafter becoming disappointed and wanting more, and better. Well, after owning these speakers, along with the AVP305 speaker set (alsofrom Celestion, it's a set of four of these without the fancy stands, and one double-wide center channel cpeaker-- minus the sub that normally comes with that set--I have a 12" polk which does it's job just fine) I can finally say that I am satisfied.

The clarity is near perfect, things sound as they should. From a good source, musical instruments sound strikingly similar to their real-life counterparts--not like speakers. They are very versatile as well, for instance if you are like I used to be in my teen years then you can turn your sub way up, and the resulting garbage would sound as good or better than any expensive six foot tall Nuance speaker can accomplish. You won't be throwing block parties with these but my ears give in before the speakers do (and that's saying alot).

Loud thumping bass is not where these shine--in fact, without a subwoofer you won't be thumping anything. However, they actually do go surprisingly low for such small speakers, and a good sub can fill out the sound beautifully. The frequencies which are high enough to localize do come from the speakers, anything under that, well, it doesn't matter--it just sounds like it's coming from the speakers even though it's in fact coming from a sub.

Movies, by the way, sound excellent on these. Explosions sound like explosions. A waterfall wont rattle the paintings off of your wall but it will, however, sound like a waterfall. Same goes for pretty much any other sound effect in a movie. Voices sound natural and realistic.

(Very cheap at Best Buy!)

Strengths:
Beautiful sound. Accurate, clear, transparent. What else do you want? They keep right up with expensive high end speakers and at Best Buy they're priced like a home theatre in a box.

Weaknesses:
Don't respond to really low frequencies. Get a sub, these are sattelite speakers!

Similar Products Used:
Alot.

xtmsports

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5, 9.00 votes

Price Paid:  $299.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
I am pretty critical of my audio/video equipment. When I was at Best Buys looking at digital camcorders, I ran across these beautiful speakers. The looks caught my eyes, the Celestion name grabbed my interest. And the sound had me sold. Not to mention the $299 closeout price for brand new Hi-Fi speakers. Buying these for $299 was like buying a BMW 740iL for $20K. Other stores and websites are selling them for 3-4 times the price. The sound is excellent and accurate. The highs are so smooth that you can crank it up and not feel like you have pins in your head. The vocals are as accurate as speakers that are $3-5K more. The low end is on the weak side since there is really no large woofer to produce the tight and deep bass. Problem was easily solved, I matched the speakers up with a Celestion S20 subwoofer and it was like night and day. Everything came alive. I also purchased the AVP303 matching surround and center channel to complete the set. My home theatre system sounds outright awesome.

Strengths:
Style, Clarity and Accuracy of the sound.

Weaknesses:
Bass is weak, but what do you expect from a small bookshelve speaker. But that is why they make subwoofers. Get a good tight subwoofer and your friends will be amazed at the clarity of the speakers at low and at HIGH volume. Your friends will indeed KNOW that these are expensive hi-end speakers.

Similar Products Used:
Infinity kaapa 8, AAD, Bose acoustimass10, Yamaha.

audiomarc1

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.38 of 5, 8.00 votes

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
I came upon these exquisite looking speakers while looking for a laptop at Best Buy. Upon listening to them on a crude set-up at the store, I knew they had some very special "audiophile" qualities. So, I bought them. Right out of the box, they were excellent. Visually, they are beautiful. Very rich and expensive looking - they should be because after checking with Celestion, I found out that their original cost was $1200. You have 30 days to demo, but I'm keeping mine. I sold my Boston Acoustics VRM 50 Lynnfield monitors they were so good.

Strengths:
The first thing that struck me was that their overall presentation was holographic or 3 dimensional. You could locate each instrument in their own space. Very smooth and clean midrange. The highs were not harsh or strident whatsoever. Very non-fatiguing - you can listen for hours. They image and soundstage like champs! The price reduced for closeout at best Buy - $299 - ridiculous! Celestion told me that they are still current, but Best Buy was closing out Celestion because they admittedly did not know how to market a british loudspeaker. Too much JBL and Klipsch to compete with!

Weaknesses:
Bass! You need a subwoofer! Not a cheap one either! Frequencey response is stated at 50hz - 22khz +/- 3db. They roll off quickly. So, you need the subwoofer for real deep bass and music foundation. I partnered mine with one from Polk's new high end series. I crossed over at about 75 hz for the Celestions and let the Polk do everything below that. Absolutely wonderful! $300 for Celestions and $600 for the Polk rivals many $5k systems I've listened to and owned!!

Similar Products Used:
Merlin, Alon, Spendor, Dunlavy. Close your eyes with the Celestions and listen...and you tell me how much they cost?

Gav_2000

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
2.09 of 5, 35.00 votes

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Richer Sounds

Summary:
I was hoping to replace my 'big black box' TDL speakers with something more stylish. Unfortunately, style is all the Celestion speakers have going for them as they sound absolutely terrible. The sound is thin and annoyingly metallic sounding. after 10 minutes I found them unlistenable. They will be returned to the dealer next weekend.

Strengths:
Great looks of the glass versions. Well made and very well packaged.

Weaknesses:
The worst sounding speakers I have heard for over 20 years, even the speakers of the cheap micro-system I have in my computer room sound better.

Similar Products Used:
TDL RTL3 speakers used for last 10 years. Sony micro-system purchased for £300 about 3 years ago