Size, value, binding post,DVD audio ready

none

I paid $175 Canadian. They work great as surrounds. clean crisp sound with DVD. my system: AR2262ps towers ARc225ps center channel AR215ps surrounds AR108ps 8 inch subs(I use two) Technics SADX 940 reciever Pana RP31 DVD

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Merak and JVC

Sound quality, Sound stage, 5 way binding port

Weakness!? You know~ You guys are very hard to please~~~

well, I just get it to day~ heee. It seems kind of to fast for a review. However, I get to say it is a good speaker for the price. First of all, the sound is very smoothm and warm. Also the profromance of the detial is clear as well. As the price, it is really an outstanding speaker. Receiver - Technics SA-AX7 DSP - Technics SH-AC500D DVD player - Sony DVP-F21 Media - Joni Mitchell: Both sides now: DVD-A - Fey Wang: Eyes on me: CD

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Sony SAV-815ED

They *are* inexpensive, for people that can't afford something better, or need some cheap surround channel speakers to fill in until they can afford the real surrounds.

They distort easily, and the saying "you get what you pay for" certainly holds true here.

I worked at Sears Brand Central, where these speakers are sold. I had about four months hands-on experience testing, evaluating, and pushing these speakers to their limits. I was never very impressed with their performance, and just wanted to steer consumers toward a better option. To me, it seemed their whole sound was muddled. Notice the unconventional woofer design. Well, when you consider that tiny port that will start huffing air when that big woofer starts shaking around, you've got distortion almost throughout the entire bass and midrange. Also, their high-end is almost unnoticeable, as these tweeters certainly don't "tweet" as much as they "honk." So if these are all you can afford, then God bless, but I really recommend, for the complete home theater experience, upgrading to a real speaker brand (that doesn't have to be too expensive either) like Klipsch, Atlantic Technology, or Miller and Kreisel (my personal favorite). So as I mentioned in "strengths," these are good *stand-in* speakers, but they'll bend over whenever you try to push them to perform with real components, and will ultimately need to be replaced when you can afford better.

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M&K LCR 750THX, M&K L/R 150THX

Clarity and highs

Build and looks

Picked these up for my parents who were looking to replace a mini-system. For the price Ubid was selling them I thought I'd try them. To my surprise they sound quite nice. Midrange and highs are clear. Better than my Tannoy M2 and perhaps NHT superzeros that I once owned. Lacks bass because of its small size and the midrange can get confused with some material and is slightly recessed. Definitely not as detailed as my Missions. But considering its size and cost they are a good value. They don't appear as efficient as advertised (89db) but overall I'm happy with them and hopefully my parents will be as well.

Nakamichi AV7
NAD CD 502
Mission 773e
Kimber Kable 4TC
Audioquest Interconnects

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Owned: NHT, Tannoy, Mirage, B&W; Auditioned: PSB, Paradigm, Klipsch, Definitive Tech, Hales, Energy, etc.
Owned: NHT, Tannoy, Mirage, B&W; Auditioned: PSB, Paradigm, Klipsch, Definitive Tech, Hales, Energy,
Owned: NHT, Tannoy, Mirage, B&W, Mission; Auditioned: PSB, Paradigm, Klipsch, Definitive Tech, Hales, Energy, and others

5 Year Warranty for one, which caught my attention. Second strength would be the 5-way binding post, which I have heard are only found on higher quality speakers, and these are very high quality.

Are you kidding? Of course you have to understand these are sall speakers, so they going to lack the real good bass. And I have been using these for less then 2 weeks.

These little baby's rock. I am shocked that such little 10" tall speakers can sound so sweet. In fact it sounded so beautiful, I just had to get me another pair. I now have 2 for the Front and 2 for the rear surrounds. Of course with any small speakers such as these, you must use a Subwoofer in order to get ther real lows. My system is as follows:
Sony STR-DE875 Receiver
Sony MDS-JE630 Mini Disc Player/Recorder Deck
Sony DVP-S560D DVD Player
Sony SLV-N679 VCR
Sony Kv-20FV12 20" WEGA Trinitron TV. The best tv there is in my book for a 20" It has one feature you won't find on any other 20" in it's claa, and that is an S-video. I highly recomend these Acoustic Researh AR-215PS speakers, if you can find any, because they were closeout at Crutchfield, and have been replace by AR-2052PS. By the way PS stands for Performane Series, and I might add, these little baby's perform

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none.

Smooth highs, good midrange, excellent sound detail. Nice weight for a small, affordable bookshelf.

Bottom end bass if that's a concern in a bookshelf.
They "walk" across my dorm shelves before they lose their smoothness - should come with double sided tape.

Excellent speakers for the money - or flat out excellent speakers in my opinion. These speakers are nice and small(I've seen some "bookshelf" models that would fill freezer). In the limited space of my dorm room I could not imagine a better combination of size and preformance. I have 4 of these speakers with a powered 12in AR sub. The speakers are powered by an NAD 7250PE amplifier. In hindsight, I did not need the subwoofer and would have been much better with and 8in. I have heard a much more expensive pair of NHT speakers through this amp (formerly owned by my neighbor) and I have to say that I much prefer the ARs. I also have let my friends use this amp occasionally because we all love the sound of "NAD watts" - all prefer my small AR speakers to any other. As much as I hate to jump into a 5/5 review, these speakers deserve it. I woke my RA up one morning - he thought a band was playing outside.

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Boston Acoustics, Infinity, Bose(ugh) bookshelf speakers

Good sound, good price

none, but is not a "top of the line"

Ok, while I have not received mine yet, I have heard this model. And honestly, I think Tim McPretentious is completely a flawed assumption.

First of all, these are decent speakers! I have been to various sears locations, and have found all of them to have very poor set-ups as far as sound reproduction, in particular the bookshelf models.

One thing that he has mistaken about, that I noticed right out was the critique on the "unicone" design. This design is being used for in higher-end systems, and is far superior as far as distortion goes. Second, the port. While I have not gotten down to measure the port size, I do know that their is a direct relationship betwene port diameter and driver diameter.

While it is true that a too small a port on a too large a driver will produce a "puffing" noise, unless a proper "decompression" area is provided, too large a port will decrease the air-mass to the point where the port is less efficiant. If I remember properly, the canned diameter for 4-5.5" drivers IS small, and around 1/2 inch, in general.

If you are a reader, please ignore Tim's review, as it is not an accurate potrayal of this speaker. Yes, it is inexpensive, however, AR is a good brand, the unicone design IS supperior and established, and small speaker DO require small ports!

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various

Crystal-clear highs, subtle midrange, smooth and relatively flat bass down to ~100Hz (guessing), broad sound stage, small, cheeeeeap!

Obviously lack of low end bass

I found myself disagreeing with my girlfriend on this one . . . she preferred the Klipsch SB 1.1, while I liked the "openness" of the AR 215. I listened to them in my own living room (23'x16'x9', carpeted and drywall, rectangle) side by side with my KEF C35s and the Klipsch SB 1.1s I bought for comparison, and later auditioned them in her large loft (30'x32'x12', wooden floor and concrete walls, rectangle).

Obviously, these are small and hence any attempt to play some dance music or even Kid Rock doesn't knock you off your seat (but who expects that with a tiny speaker?). What I did notice is that in MY space (samller and softer) the AR 215 had excellent high-end extension and a very natural voice - the entier midrange and high end is so accurate, I found myself re-listening to the Buena Vista Social Club and Loreena McKennitt CDs. They are a bit "boosted" in the upper end compared to my KEF C35 "oldies" (which required +4 dB treble to pull even), but every bit as accurate. In comparison, the Klipsch SB 1.1 was more "forward" in the upper midrange, but didn't extend nearly as high as the AR. Switching between the Klipsch and AR, the AR seemed like it had a general emphasis on smooth highs with linear and expected rolloff in the 100Hz range, while the Klipsch was almost "harsh" in teh upper midrange yet sounded "veiled" in the 5kHz+ range.

Additionally, the Klipsch, though sounding a tad "bigger" than the AR by putting out more mid-bass, seemed slightly "muddy" compared to the AR - just enough to not sound "live", but like they were behind a blanket. Switching back to the ARs put the performers right back into the living room - and isn't that what speakers are supposed to do?!?

When I transplanted both of these speakers to the larger loft space, the added bass of the Klipsch helped it pull a little closer, but specifically acoustic guitar, voice and even brass instruments again sounded "veiled" on the Klipsch. By using a hard corner properly, the Klipsch almost had enough bass to fill the bill without a subwoofer (which, when combined with the added Klipsch efficiency, won over my girlfriend's ears), but the accuracy of the AR kept me from liking the Klipsch SB 1.1s when compared side by side.

All in all, I think the AR 215 is an excellent speaker with a response curve that slopes gently uphill toward the high end, with very good far treble extension and fairly linear bass. It's amazing how much sound can come out of these without distorting the port, too - you can literally FEEL the air move 36" from the port without hearing any "whooshing" as I could on the Klipsches. We'll be keeping these and I'm adding the AR 8" subwoofer to her system - that should suffice for casual listening (we do not care about home theater and/or the oh-so popular "booming" and "thumping" bass that seems to have taken over the review world - I'd rather not have pictures coming off my wall. ;-)

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Direct comparison to KEF C35 and Klipsch SB 1.1

not M&K

Hi, my name is Tim. I don't really know what I'm talking about.
Tim Neal? more like Tim McSuck.

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stock computer speakers

solid performing bookshelf, GP binding posts

none for the price

AR has discontinued this line of speakers. These are great surround bookshelf speakers to complement your HT/ stereo system. The construction is solid and I was quite surprised that the 215s came with binding posts. In HT use, the 215s performed well (as good as my AR11s) as rear surrounds. When playing music, they sounded very strong considering their size. The bass and mids played fairly loud w/o stress. At $59/Of course the price was so good that I got 4 of them.