Tight chrisp sound. Good highs. Better sounds at louder volumes. Rock and Jazz sound good.

These speakers favor highs over lows. Higher Pitched New Age Music sounds a little hollow.

These speakers sound really good and tight. I'm using them in my bedroom on an cheap old Sony Reciever I bought in highschool (1990). I will primarily use them to play soothing nature sounds (brooks, ocean waves, thunderstorms, etc...)

For realistic nature sounds they are a bit muddy in the bass department and are a little hollow in the mid areas. A subwoofer or 2nd pair of towers is highly recommended for anyone who likes bass.

I also tested with come celtic music, rock, rap, and jazz. At reasonable volumes, the sound quality was very nice. And for the $74.00 for the pair, you could do a heck of a lot worse. For their size, they really are rather amazing.

If I didn't spend so much time hanging out in listening rooms drooling of speakers I can't afford, I'd consider these near perfect. I'd recommend these for highschool students, people buying systems for their parents, and people who but all-in-one stereo systems from a store & are looking to upgrade the factory speakers. Would also be great rear channel speakers if you are on a budget.

Bottom line: Good speakers. Cheap Price. If you don't like them, you can sell them to a friend who thinks you are a stereo God.

I replaced a pair of Optimus LX7's with these speakers. At $249 for the pair I am very pleased. Excellent bass response for this size speaker, decent midrange for a two way design, and the aerofoam tweeter gives excellent highs without grating on my ear. They perform very well for home theatre and will be even better sounding when my CS25HO gets to the house. I'll give 'em 4 for an excellent value.

Not a very liveable speaker. The tweeter is okay. The midrange is missing in clarity. The bass leans towards muddiness and the overall sound is bass heavy and hollow. I think they are okay but who wants speakers that are just okay. These don't sing and they are not toe tapping. Two things I consider very important. The list price is ridiculous on these but they sell I think for under $300. I listen to rock, rap, r&b, pop, piano, jazz quartets. Not recommended unless they are dirt cheap. ($150/pr)

They are discontinued. They can be have for as little as $200 from mail order.One problem is that they are way too big for as book shelf speakers.
They sounds good for classical music. A four star

I picked up a pair for $180 locally. it just sounds great. Very smooth and detail.
The speakers are well made just like other AR product.
with gold-plated binding posts just like any high qulity speakers.
I use them to listen to piano and they are perfect for the job.
Not a rock and roll speaker and may be it is not intended to at the beginning.

Ive had these speakers for about 9 months now and i cant say enough good things about them. they are hooked up to a HK AVR40 receiver and are mated to a JBL 10" sub. I use them for all types of music from rap to rock to james taylor and they really sound great. i guess the only bad thing i could say is that theyre really big for bookshelf speakers but theyre too small to be floorstanding so the placement might be tough in some spaces. i picked them up as floor models for $180 and id recomend anybody else to do the same in a second

Great value. Clean with good bottom.

Needs subwoofer.

Excellent value for the $$ I saw them at a shop, I'd been wanting them for awhile. The shop wanted $199/pair.

Went 'Full Monty', bought four (4) and a CS25 center channel... now all I need is a good Velodyne sub and I'm in music & movie heaven.


Overall an excellent bookshelf.

Similar Products Used:

Acoustic Research 308HO, Polk R10, Vienna Acoustics (the littlest ones)

I have found very few people that have heard this speaker, let alone auditioned it. I however have done so. At $300 per pair its hardly expensive. Buy we all know that you get what you pay for. This speaker is very good for a starter system. It has a decent soundstage, nothing to get excited about though. The bass response is quite good. I would have to say that it goes down to about 40 hz, which is also what AR says it will do. There are very few flaws in this speakers sound, however it ceases to blow me away. If you are interested in buying these speakers, spend the extra for the real wood. The "black ash" is only on the front and rear pannels. All of the sides are vynl!!!! This earns 3 stars for its value, and technically good sound. I an considering upgrading to a pair of Paradigm active 20's.

Price, Build Quality, fit and finish, and clarity

Bass, port noise, shrill highs at times and distortion in bass at high volumes

I purchased these my first year of college after I sold my older Kenwood "rack stereo" to a friend. I purchased these on sale for $150 because they are the cherry finish and for some reason they didn't sell as wel at my dealer. I purchased them a Denon AVR-1100 and Denon DCM-360 and an Energy EXL:S8 sub thinking I had a great setup. However, after about 9 months of this setup I got the urge to upgrade to bigger and better things so I sold my reciever and bought a Denon AVR-2700 which power these speakers a lot better and clearner. After that I upgraded to B&W 602S2 and put these things in the closet and forgot about them unit about a month ago when I needed speakers for my new appartment bedroom setup. They really don't match the B&W's or Paradigms in clarity, nutrality, imaging or dynamics. However they aren't that bad at all for the price. You can't even buy 1 602 for the price of the pair of 208's. They sound great at moderate volumes but, when pushed they get lost and shrill. Overall they are really a quality built speaker that benefits from nice stands, good cable to tame the highs and quality electronics. I can only imagine how they would sound on a Sony or Pioneer. But on my old Yamaha RX-V870 they sound very nice. If you can still find them for around $100 its a steal. To bad AR can't regain its image of upper mid-fi products because the build quality is definatly up there. Also if you considering bargain speakers from UBID such as Wharfedales or various JBL's I suggest you take a look at these bad boys. Just remember the sub and quality components up stream.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 602S2, Paradigm Studio 60 V.2, and Cerwin Vega E-310(Uck High School speakers)

These speakers are fantastic, I picked them up for $350 and they sound great. Great Bass, midrange and treble. Acoustic Research really is quality and I highly recommend these to everybody. I LOVE THESE SPEAKERS!