joeywang

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $600.00 from audio excellent

Summary:
i bought them second hand from a local dealer . using them as second pair speaker in basement with a denon cdplayer ,twenty years old sansui amplifer and qed silver biwired cable . pretty good balance ,deep base , very detail , even better than my b&w 801 . i feel lucky bought them in a good price . i think they would better if use better amps . made in canada

Strengths:
deep base , good balance .

Weaknesses:
heavy 60 pounds each . not very clear in high level .

Similar Products Used:
b&w 801 . totem rainmaker . yamaha ( forgot model but they are trash )

Price Paid:  $1225.00 from Audio Video Alternat

Summary:
These speakers are new, and I'm using them in the Master Bedroom (approx 17x17). I drive them with an original Naim Nait Integrated Amplifier, and use a NAD 512 CD Player. Sound is very good, with deeper bass and a punchier sound than I had expected. Room acoustics probably come into play. Try "Stanley Clarke & Friends Live at the Greek" if you're concerned about kick drum and deep bass. Plenty of it on this well-recorded CD. Nearly too much in my room. Very pleased overall with the sound.

Strengths:
Good balance, very musical sounding. Not "in your face" which I like.

Weaknesses:
None that bother me. Well, they are pretty heavy. Haven't compared much with other speakers in this category, though liked better than Snell and B&W.

Price Paid:  $1200.00 from Bay Area Audio (San

Summary:
I have had these speakers for 5 years now, and have loved them from day one (I bought demo units, so they were broken in). They sounded awesome with modest electronics (NAD 3155 integrated amp), but at each improvement to my electronics they just get better. Good speaker cables are a must. I just chopped my Kimber Cables (not sure which model) in half and am using them in a bi-wire configuration. Makes a minor improvement. The bass is tight and articulate. I play bass, and really like to be able to hear all the details going on. Upgrading to a good power amp (Acurus A250) made it even better. The upper end is very listenable. Not overly detailed, which is good if you listen to a digital source. I would probably get even better bass if I used spikes, but I don''t want to damage my floor.

Strengths:
Makes me want to listen more and more and more. Tight bass.

Weaknesses:
Upper mids and trebble not as detailed as some more expensive speakers. plastic feet are hard to level.

Price Paid:  $2000.00 from Trutone Electronics

Summary:
This is a follow up review. I had the Silvers for about three years. I''ve read the other reviews here and agree with the posistive comments on the speakers. As for the negitive remarks it sounds like those are due to equipment mis-matching. No argument the Silvers are a bit forward, but that is easily fixed when pair with the right partners. Bryston electrnoics are hot and I wouldn''t recommend them with the Silvers. Don''t get me wrong. I love Bryston, and will probably purchase a Bryston amp, but I would use it with the Silvers. The tweeter and mids sound too aggresive and hot. Bryston amps work great with the Golds beacuase the Golds sound warmer than the Silvers. You should hook up the Silvers to warm sounding electronics and cables. I had great success hooking up my Silvers to Marantz''s SR-18. The SR-18 is is very nuetral with a slight push towards warm sound. Cables will also affect the outcome of the sound. When I was using Ultralink interconnects, my sytem sounded somewhat laid back. When I switched to Monster cables my system sounded a lot more detailed and a bit forward. I have a preferance towards warm sound which I don''t think is completely accurate. I believe the combination of the SR-18 and Monster calbles is the correct balance. When I purchase the Silvers I had heard them hooked up to Adcom''s reference CD player, a pair of Cary mono block tube amps, a Cary tube pre-amp and Transparent interconnects. No one listening to this set-up can tell me they hear any edge, brightness of forward sound with that set-up. When I heard what the Silvers sounded with those partners I knew these were great speakers. With $10,000 of equipment they will wow you. But that''s one of their greatest strenghts, you can push themwith a modestly priced receiver or run them with premium components. The better the components and care matching them the more they will reward you. For those of you complaining they sound bright, forward, too boomy or lack of bass, try different electronics or moving them a couple of inches or even a couple of feet around your room. Because when you get right, man do these speakers sound awesome.

Strengths:
Imaging, soundstage, transparent, potent bass

Weaknesses:
Placement sensitive, carefull matching with electronics and cables.

Similar Products Used:
Kef Q series, Paradigm Monitor/Reference, NHT, Tannoy, Kilipsh.

Price Paid:  $1000.00 from Great Metropolitan Sound, Toronto

Summary:
I've used Stratus Silvers in my system for about 5 years now. They have generous bottom-end, and a slightly bright top end, particularly while sitting in line with the tweeter. (This is cured somewhat by facing them towed in only slightly inward--roughly half-way between flat-to-the-wall and facing the listener.) Their biggest weakness overall is in their mids, which are forward in the mix (particularly lower mids,) and not extremely neutral. That being said, few speakers I've heard anywhere near their price can compete with them. They do go a bit below 4 ohms somewhere in the upper bass/lower mids range, so they can heat up some amps noticeably (like my Bryston B60.) My experiments with biwiring them didn't seem to make much difference; I imagine bi-amping would make more of a difference, but maybe at the cost of some of their good timing on complex music. They can play quite LOUD and they rarely distort or clip noticeably with this amp (which offers about 110 W into their 4 ohm nominal load.) I suspect their crossover (4th order, I think) is more designed to protect the tweeters, than to provide a neutral sound--just one of the trade-offs in speaker design--you can't have it all! I'm in the process of replacing them now and I'm having to look at about double the price to find a noticeable difference.

Strengths:
Price/quality. Generous and fairly accurate bass. Ability to play loud. Good soundstaging.

Weaknesses:
Mid-range colouration (sic)

Similar Products Used:
Paradigm, ProAc, Royd.