mjarve

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $7.00 from Fund Raiser

Summary:
People, today you are talking to a changed man. For years, I've been something of an audiophile snob, preferring the likes of harman/kardon, (pre-IAG) Wharfedale, and McIntosh to that of Sony, Pioneer, and (cringe) RadioShack. The Shack was fine for solder and the odd connector I could not wait to get from Parts Express, but I never took their audio gear seriously. Even when Stereo Review and Audio wrote up glowing reviews of their Pro LX series (with Linaeum HFD), I chalked it up to some odd grading scale... "Of course they sound better than a Yorx boom-box, but they can't touch my SB-7000A's" was my prevailing thought. Fast forward 7 years. This morning while running some errands, I came across a fund-raising bazaar. Sitting under one table were two sets of Optimus speakers: a pair of Pro LX-7's and a pair of Pro LX-8's. Asking price was $10 per pair, or "$15 for all four", as the kindly lady told me. I bought them all, figuring I could use the tweeters for some project or another. When I got home, I decided to connect them up to my h/k 680i receiver. This was basically an after thought and meant mostly to see if the tweeters still worked. Two words: Mein Gott! I would never have expected this degree of high-quality and pleasurable sound from RadioShack. Beautiful, airy highs. Strong, tight bass. The only area they are lacking in, sonically, is slightly diminished mid-range; it is actually nice on some of my recordings where the mid-range glares a little. Absolutely wonderful sound, and easily comparable to some of the best speakers I have heard in their size range. I would have gladly paid 100 times what I did for them. A quick peak "under the hood" explained some things. Woofers are no less than Danish-made Peerless drivers. High-quality film capacitors in the crossovers, and Toshiba-built Linaeum tweeters. Good internal bracing and internal dampening. The only reminder of their low-end heritage is the very cheesy 5/8th-inch thick particleboard cabinet. Better than many speakers (Bose 201/301's, Sony, and others), but in some ways keeping them back. So now I am on a quest to find the Pro LX-10's, which were apparently the flagship of the line, with dual 7-inch drivers and Linaeum tweeter. Fortunately, many audiophiles share my former view of the series, so I should still be able to nab them up on the cheap... They're RadioShack, after all

Strengths:
Excellent imaging, good frequency response. Generally pleasurable to listen to.

Weaknesses:
Cabinet construction quality. Very fragile tweeter

Similar Products Used:
Wharfedale Emmerald 93, Wharfedale Diamond 7.2

Price Paid:  $180.00 from ebay

Summary:
I've gone into RS for a thing or two over the years and always been impressed with non-fatiguing sound of the Linaeum tweeter. Found this model on audioreview. Out of the box it's a 2 star. With mods it's a darn serious 4 star sound knocking on 5. It's 5 I give it (maybe 4.51)modded, but that's about what the ratings are on it on Audioreview these days. Like below reviewer, I stuffed it with Parts Express damping sheets...it looks nice, so I did it in AND out. Rewired with 10ga. cable. Put them on solid, sand filled 18" stands. Kept them 3' from back wall(important). Lined the corners with mortite rope caulk, stuffed with Parts Express poly fibrefill. Wow - what a difference! For kicks, I defeated internal crossover and biamp them electronically at 2.5K. No kidding, these are so non-fatiguing, they took my Vandersteens out of action. These are my main speakers now...and they are darn fine and cheap. Mods cost, maybe, $200 (with $90 stands included). Look forward to mating with a nice subwoofer someday. I think the Peerless woofer, once relieved of subterranean bass duties, will shine as a midrange.

Strengths:
Hilariously good imaging from omnidirectional tweeter, large bookshelf design has ok bass extension, some neat design on rear porting of woofer internally, very little 'chuffing' at port at higher volumes (strange, but nice). Subjective: found works best with solid state gear; tweeter is so easy on the ears already, tube pre made it too feathery and unenjoyable. Very nice pitch and tone to instruments that I'm sensitive to: piano (needs more bass extension tho), violin, & sax. Sounds good on all except hard rock (no matter, I'm getting old)

Weaknesses:
Pitifully cheap box construction, large bookshelf for many, may be advertised as bookshelf, but this is best as a standmount speaker (too much rearward tweeter diffraction on bookshelf). Subjective: not good on heavy rock; omni directional tweeter sounds wrong for this kind of music.

Similar Products Used:
Vandersteen, Quad, 3D Acoustics, JMLab

Price Paid:  $75.00 from Radio Shack

Summary:
i bought these speakers from Radio Shack as a discontinued item. the sound from the tweeter is awesume. i did notice how close the woofer is to the tweeter. well, i mounted the tweeter module on the bottom of the speaker and reversed it. now the woofer sits on the bottom and the port is at the top. i also lined the enclosures with dynamat and stuffed them with insulation. also they were rewired with 10 gauge monster cable. these modifications cost about 40 bucks a speaker but yields a speaker competitive with ones costing 5 times as much

Strengths:
Tweeter, imaging, soundstage, bang for the buck. radio shack speakers are great bargain for hobbists that like to tinker with their speakers.

Weaknesses:
cheap enclosure, needs dynamat and more insulation.weird size (too big for most bookshelfs

Similar Products Used:
all optimus pro series speakers optimus 990

Price Paid:  $100.00 from radio shack

Summary:
Placement is very important for these speakers. I have a small living room with no good place to position speakers. Nothing seemed to work, given that the speaker sound (as noted in other reviews)is very directional. You need to find the right position. I ended up placing mine in corners of the room, one behind a door, facing up, with the back of each speaker sitting on an upside-down plastic tub so that the speakers were off the floor. The result is excellent. Somehow the sound disperses beautifully throughout the room. I no longer had the feeling that the sound was "aimed" at me.

Strengths:
The tweeter is great on reproducing strings, especially harp, dulcimer, and other ringing instruments. Try playing a c.d. of Alan Stivell playing his celtic harp and you'll see what I mean.

Weaknesses:
Some dullness in midrange.

Similar Products Used:
Stocked up on the LX-5's for surrounds and remotes.

Price Paid:  $150.00 from radio shack

Summary:
i have a whole Home theater setup with the Linaum tweeter designed speakers from radio shack. i have PRO -LX10's as my front, a pro -CS 5 center speaker, Pro -LX-8's as my surround speakers(awesum) and Pro lx 5's as my back surround complemented with a velodyne cht 15 subwoofer. wow i can blow away most of the setups at circuit city or best buy.

Strengths:
great quality sound the highs are very clean and crisp

Weaknesses:
midrange is a little absent but not bad bass is not its strong point (with a velodyne sub who cares!) the build quality leaves a little to be desired. the backs of my speakers are visible so i touched them up with a little black satin oil based enamel and they look great now.

Similar Products Used:
realistic Mach 2 speakers (4 of them) i replaced the surrounds on them after they rotted out and all four of them now sit in the trunk of my mercury grand marquis talk about thump that goes bump