melmar

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $600.00

Summary:
I felt I had to submit a review on these speakers, even though they are no longer manufactured. First off, I think these speakers are gems in the audio world. They may be plain looking, but their sound is phenomenal, never over emphasizing any part of the audio spectrum. They have an unbelievable bass response for their size. The bass is accurate and tight - not flabby sounding at all. They have no problem filling my mid sized family room with sound. The soundstage is wide and deep. They sound better with warmer sounding amplification. I am running them with a B&K ST 2020 150 watt per side stereo amp with a B&K PT 3 pre amp. I do have a Veloyne sub set very low only to fill in the lowest of notes. I am totally happy with this set up and feel that it is a shame that Pinnacle abandoned this speaker for other models. With a little advertising and hype, they could have had themselves a real winner on their hands. Anyway, five stars for this great, if relatively unknown speaker. It's simply a joy to listen to.

Strengths:
Deep, tight bass. Natural sound. High sensitivity (92db) makes it easy to drive with low powered amplification. Huge soundstage.

Weaknesses:
Benefits from a warmer sounding amp

Similar Products Used:
Acoustic Research HO312 - (yeech)
Platinum PT 808

Price Paid:  $300.00 from P.C. RICHARDS

Summary:
I have had the pleasure of owning pinnacle speakers as my first pair of adult owned speakers. I found these wonderful speakers at the P.C Richards warehouse in the clearance area. P.C Richards could not have known what diamonds lay around the clearance area. No one else would buy these speakers,because they wanted to go with the known name brands. I listened to these speakers and they out performed all speakers they had in the store. WOW!!! They had 3 pair, had I would have known I would have loved these so much, I would have purchased all. 1 Pair for $300 and the first pinnacle sub woofer for $150.00. I don't even use the sub due to the speakers deep rooted bass. I found on Ebay the bookshelf pinnacles for $139 and purchased them. I will team them up with the sub-woofer and enjoy another dynamic set of speakers. The subwoofer has the built in cross-over. Dynamic Speakers!!

Strengths:
Deep Bass

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
JBL, Advent - None match these

Price Paid:  $600.00 from Speaker-Hut.com

Summary:
First, let me say that I am extremely happy with these speakers. I, like most people reading these reviews, did not have a chance to listen to them before I laid out the cold hard credit. I ordered the Classic Gold Reference model which took about a week to get to my front door. The only real hassle was making sure I was home to sign for them. Placement did make a substantial difference in the way these speakers sounded. The closer I moved them to the wall, the more prominent the bass became. The low end seemed to lose a little definition if they were placed to close to the wall. I ended up with them about a foot from the wall and about fifteen feet apart. The sound reproduction is amazing. Everthing is equal, highs, mids and lows. I couldn't believe that my equipment was producing such a rich, full sound, the speakers being the only change. I never understood how a speaker could be "fatiguing" when turned up at high levels. My old speakers definitely had this problem. I am to embarrased to even mention what they were, but lets just say that they pretty much sucked. They were your standard three-way run of the mill 12" woofer, 5.25 mid, and 1" tweet. Anyway, as I turned up the volume, the Pinnacle's just sounded like everthing was getting closer, like it was wrapping around you. I have a 12" custom built 4th order bandpass enclosure that I only use for home theater now. After listening to the Pinnacle's for a few days, I kept turning the sub down to the point that I didn't need it anymore. At least not for music. Like I said before, these speakers are very well balanced and extra bass from another source tends to alter that balance. And this is coming from a former bass head who drove around with four 12's and two 15's all through college.

I have also watched several movies and am very pleased with their performance in this area as well. They sound so much better than my center channel that I will probably replace it with a Pinnacle center very soon.

Comparison:

I made a trip to Fry's electronics in Dallas to try and listen to a pair of Pinnacle's before I made my decision. What a terrible experience. Poor service, poor attitude, poor everthing. The speakers were out in the middle of the floor with what seemed like a thousand people standing around making noise. To top it all off, the speakers were not even hooked up, and the sales person made no attempt to fix this. I did manage to listen to (at other stores) Polk RT 800's ($800/pr), Infinity IL50 ($1000/pr) and some Paradigm towers ($1200/pr)of which I can't remember the model number. Of these three, the Paradigm's sounded very similar to the Pinnacle's, but at twice what I paid for mine. In all fairness, the Paradigm cabinets did have a better fit and finish, but the driver compliment was the same, which was two 6.5's and a tweeter per cabinet. The other two are good speakers, but in my opinion, are not in the same league as the Pinnacle's.

I think that anybody with an itch to spend 600 rocks and passion for music and movies can't go wrong with the Classic Gold Reference. A truly great value for such a good sounding speaker.

Strengths:
Great Soundstage. True to life bass.

Weaknesses:
Finish.

Price Paid:  $660.00 from Netmarket.com

Summary:
These speakers are GREAT, and much more than I had bargained for, particularly in this price range. The rear ports looked "gimmicky", but after hearing them, I didn't care WHAT they looked like! The two 6.5" mid/bass drivers do a GREAT job of handling bass all the way down to just under 30Hz. And there is no discernable mid-bass boominess with these speakers (which I can't stand). The bass is clean, as is the midrange and the highs. These speakers are almost as "transparent" as the Advent Legacys they replaced (which is saying a LOT), and they definitely do a better job (IMHO) with the low end. In fact, I removed my subwoofer (10" JBL/100W) after installing the Pinnacles since I no longer needed it due to the bass extension of the Pinnacles. The bass was also much cleaner and much more musical than with the JBL sub, which sounded "muddy" and not so musical to me.

I didn't think I would find a viable replacement for my Advent Legacys, which are very musical and transparent speakers. But I had to do something after purchasing a new large, direct view television since the Legacys were not well shielded and threw off the color purity at the the edges of the screen. After using the Pinnacles for several months now, I am happy to report that I am happier with these new speakers than I was with the Legacys. They do everything the Advent Legacys were renown for, AND they're less intrusive, AND they have superior low-end response.

I auditioned a number of other speakers before settling on the Classic Gold Reference, particularly since I did not have the opportunity to listen to them prior to my purchase. (The only thing I had to go on were the numerous reviews I could find on the web.) I was not very impressed with other speakers I had auditioned, including those from Polk Audio and Klipsch - some of which were twice the price of the Pinnacles. The only other speaker I listened to (within my budget) that I found to be pleasing was a 6.5", 2-way model by Mission which, ironically, sounded more accurate than their 8", 2-way model (which sounded boomy to me - at least in the setup they had at the store). I went with the Pinnacles because of the rave reviews, and because of what I was hearing (auditioning) in the stores. (I was able to audition the comparably-priced Klipsch speakers in a friends home, but did not enjoy the "horn" tweeter sound that Klipsch is so famous for.)

In my book, the Pinnacle Gold Reference speaker is a real winner!

Strengths:
Well-balanced, full range sound

Weaknesses:
Not necessarily "pretty", but if you like all-black, they're great!

Similar Products Used:
Replaced my Advent Legacy speakers.

Price Paid:  $590.00 from Local HIFI store in North Dallas

Summary:
When I bought my speakers I was somewhat dissapointed: the bass was limited and booming, the midrange was 'shouting' and the high was sharp and colored.
Replacing my vintage Yamaha 810 amplifier by a NAD 314 improved the sound and specially adding DH-Labs Interconnect and DH-Labs speaker cable (replacement of Monstercable) upgradedmy speakers a lot. Now the sound was quite nice: better bass controll, more open sound stage and sweeter treable. Replacing my (not so old) Sony CDP 500 CD player by the fabulous Njoe Tjoeb 4000 (tube) CD player upgraded my system to a whole new level. Now my system sounds perfect with rock solid bass, very open, detailed midrange and exciting, but never harsh, treable. The speakers need carefull set up, specially because of the large ducts at the rear of the speaker.

I have good experences with customer service: An accident with a glass table deestroyed my tweeter and grille. The customer service rep was very friendly and within a week I had my replacement parts. The build quality could be a notch better, but the accident with my speaker left big holes is my drywall and only a small scratch on the speaker cabinet.

I'm now very satisfied with my (modest) system and I would give 5 stars for the value and 4 stars for build quility, but overall I think the Pinnacle gold ref. is a great speaker (with the right equipment a location).

Strengths:
Exciting, detailed sound with excellent bass, open midrange and smooth high (but see comments!)

Weaknesses:
needs careful set up and matching equipment. Used thin speaker wire. Grille to loose attached to speaker

Similar Products Used:
KEF speakers, Magnat, Spendor (from the UK), Infinity