Bonger

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $355.00 from justelectronics

Summary:
Won these speakers on Ebay and was dissappointed to discover speakers were not new as advertised...so be careful when buying online. Bought these speakers for mainly HT use and occasional music listening in a small apartment living room. My hifi system is Totem Arros with a tube amp which provides for comparison to HT system. Equipment used on the Take's are powered by my NAD T742 amp & a 10" Dayton sub. Initially speakers sounded "boxy" and lacked smoothness. Seems that "break-in" period and adjusting amp to "large" speakers improved the sound along with using speaker level input for connecting sub. First HT test was watching Band of Bros. The whizzing of bullets provided a good test of surround sound capability and would say the Take's were cohesive & blended well together. Speech on the center channel was good but did not match my old Energy AC300. Next test was 5.1 music with Eagles Freeze Over. Again, clarity was excellent, soundstage well defined but music lacked the true power of hearing a DVD concert from tower speakers. Last test was music in stereo mode which was enjoyable but did lack the soundstage, resolution of a true hifi only system. Playing pop, rock, dance music was OK, but once you play jazz/classical the limitations of a small speaker set become apparent. In summary, it's a recommended package if you want a good quality small speakers in a limited space for mainly HT and casual music listening.

Strengths:
excellent highs, looks, price,

Weaknesses:
missing mid-range, cannot produce high volumes

oliver kuo

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $450.00 from www.justelectronics.

Summary:
I got these 3 weeks ago. At first they sounded pretty cheap, like a sound coming out of a can, worse than my klipsch promedias on my pc. Left them playing for around 5 hours a day, and by the end of the week there was a marked improvement, but the upper bass was still just not right. Regardless of how I set it up, bass was either boomy, or not there at all. After ditching the sub cable (using energy es-10 sub btw), and used the speaker level inputs instead. The difference was night and day, bass was tight, and strong, and blended with the speakers perfectly after some tweaking of the sub's xover and volume. All in all a great value considering what I paid, including the energy es10 sub, I paid $450 total. Nothing in that price range would probably come close. I was also looking at the athena point 5 system, which seemed similiar, and are actually owned by the same parent company, but since I had an energy sub already, I went with energy.

Strengths:
Neutral sound reproduction Can do movies and music equally well, but obviously not the best at both. Movies in paticular are done very well. Can be found for extremely cheap now that energy ACT6 has replaced it.

Weaknesses:
Can't go that loud, but to be expected at this price point and size.

Similar Products Used:
bose lifestyle 35 klipsch promedias cheapo rca htib

Gary Bitters

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $400.00 from ?

Summary:
I helped my uncle build a system on a limited budget. I chose these speakers because of the Take 5.1 sound quality. They are just as good as the Take 5.1, but will play much louder. I love the speaker mounting system. They sound very smooth and much larger then you would think. I chose the larger EXL 10.2 sub instead of the 8.2 smaller less powerful sub. I found that hooking the fronts into the suwoofer with speaker wire only, worked better. I enjoyed a very well balanced sound stage for their price point here. I used a Denon AVR-1603 to power these wonderful little speakers. Oh I Chose gloss black, very classy. If your budget is $700 or less this is a very nice choice with the 10.2 sub. They shine with Movies and play music very well for such a small system.

Strengths:
Geat Home Theater performance. Looks, price!

Weaknesses:
Mid Range not as full as larger speakers. Rear speakers were defective and had to order two new ones.

Similar Products Used:
Energy Take 5.1, Energy EXL-C, EXL-15, Bose AM-5 & 7s, Definitive Technology Pro Cinema 400, 200, 100, C-2, BP200TL, C/L/R2002, Pro-sub 200,100, PF15TL

Price Paid:  $510.00 from Good Guys Retail

Summary:
These are an amazing set of micro-satellites that provide a huge soundstage, especially for their size. They were a tiny bit bright when I first hooked them up, but that has already faded and now paired with a Denon AVR-683, the system sounds incredible. The clarity is amazing on these little guys, with vocals in movie soundtracks clearer than any setup I have heard. Thanks to well matched drivers (indentical) pans and fly bys are extremely convincing. I think you will have a very hard time finding a system at this price that performs so well and looks so good doing it (I got the piano gloss black by the way.) This system also blends very well with my Velodyne CHT-8 subwoofer. The CHT-8 goes high enough to compensate for the little satellites, yet is much more powerful than the one typically sold with the Take 5.2 system (and at nearly twice the weight it should be).

Strengths:
Very Accurate Sound Great Aesthetics Very Nice, Large Soundstage Free Wall Mounts

Weaknesses:
Shy on bass for pure stereo listening if not wired through a subwoofer, but if you likely stereo listening, why wouldn't you do this.

Price Paid:  $625.00 from hookedontronics.com

Summary:
I have a small to medium size family room I initially thought of buying towers, but the kids’ toys seem to take up most of the room so I thought I would get a sub/satellite speaker system. After a year plus of researching and listening to speakers I chose the Energy Take 5.2 system. My short list consisted of the Polk RM6600/67000, Take 5.2s and Klipsh Quintets. A while back I picked up a pair of Quintets from UBID dirt-cheap to play with and test. First, I must say after listening to the Polk RM6700 they sound great but I found Polks cost more within their category and I had a limited budget. My wife liked the Canadian Maple/Silver Take 5.2s and not having a chance to listen to them I went on good reviews, blind faith and purchased them from hookedontronics.com. My first impression when I opened the box was these are nice looking speakers and I found the sound to live up to its good reviews. I hooked the speakers up to my Denon AVR-1803 and did some minor tweaking of the cross-overs and these little things come alive. I decided to compare the 2-Quintets to 2-Take 2.2s side-by-side (no subwoofer) and I can tell you the Take 2.2s were noticeably more balanced/neutral, better forward sounding and had greater mid-base presence. The 2.2s were little bright at times but adjusting the treble took care of this. The Quintets on other hand sounded muffled and took an effort to hear the voices. The only thing the Quintets had over the Take 2.2 was the dynamic punch at discomforting listening levels. As for the size vs. sound, the Take 2.2 seems to overcome some of the physical limitation and makes them nothing short of worthy. This is also true for the Polk RM6700. I listen to music maybe 10 percent of the time but this did not keep me from popping in a few CDs to test the music quality. As with any sub/satellite system the music is acceptable but if you are an avid music listener you may want to consider towers to get a fuller sound. On the other hand, if you consider the price point for these speakers, the music quality is good and I really have no complaints. I popped in a few DVD movies and this is where the Take 5.2 system shines, the fun starts and you truly get a home theater experience. I also like the convenient controls on the front of the s8.2 subwoofer to adjust for adjustment. Anyone who is into home theater/music will tell you the speakers will make or break your system. The bottom line is these speakers will meet your budget, won’t break your system and you get the best price to performance. If I had to choose the RM6700 over the Take 5.2, I might as well spend the extra money on larger Energy bookshelf speakers. I also listened to the Paradigm Cinema series and the Boston Acoustics System 9000 but they sounded way too “tinny” for my liking. If the Take 5.2 sound this good, I can’t wait until after the break-in period.

Strengths:
Neutral balance of sound. Good contruction. Mounts included.

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Speakers too old to mention.