For the price (around $230 via internet) this value cannot be beaten! The music was very pleasing to listen to. The 16's accurately reproduce highs and midrange sounds. The bass is also accurate, but only down to its rated range, about 50hz. Anything lower requires a subwoofer. Since I use this primarily as the rear speakers in an Home Theater, it was perfect! Easily outperforms other, more expensive and larger speakers. I give it 5 stars for its performance for the value factor.

I originally bought the Energy Take 5 system with the e:xls-10 Subwoofer. It sounded great when I first hooked it up. But then really missed mid range. Movies sounded great but music suffered. So I exhanged the Take 5 system for e:xl-16s, and the e:xl-center, and kept the e:xls-10 sub. Now I am really happy. Not only does the music sound amazing but the center channel is a major improvement for movies. Having the same mains and surrounds is great for DD 5.1 and DTS systems. Check out Telarc DTS Audio CD sampler, or Steely Dan-Gaucho DTS, to see (hear) what I mean.
If you are thinking about the Take 5 system, check out these first. The little bit extra in price is well worth it.

I purchased the Energy Exl-16's about 2 months ago and I'm still impressed. The highs are a bit sharp for some peole, but that is the way I like them. I compared the speakers to Monitors, Paradigm, NHT, Mirage (same company), Boston Acoustics and more. For the money (230.00 of the internet) you couldn't beat them. My favorite where the new Monitor bookshelfs, but the price was outrageous. I love music and movies, but don't have the pocket book for those types of prices, yet. Solid Bass, although a powered sub (pref. a ten inch) will help you reach lower frequencies and round out the sound. I have:4 x Energy Exl 16's
1 Energy Exl C
and 12' energy sub
Harmen K AVR 85

Sounds great. Especially for the money. I give them a solid 4 1/2 stars for sound and price.

I've had these now for a couple of months. I love them. Before buying I listened to the NHT Superones, Paradigm Minimonitors, Klipsh, B&W, and several others. I skipped on the NHT's because of the price, and the ammount of power required to push them. The minimonitors sounded harsh, metallic. The Klipsh and B&W sounded unlifelike compared to the Energy's. The ones I liked the best were actually the JBL HLS810's but I noticed a great deal of vertical coloration and the construction quality seemed cheap. The Energy's may be a bit bright but I like that, plus I've got a 10 band equilizer (Optimus, shoot me) that allows me to control the sound a great deal. Currently coupled with a Energy EXLS-8 and pushing with a HK AVR10 and HK FL8350 CD changer. The acoustics in my dorm room are horrible but they sound much better in here than the Jensen CS315's I had in here last year. A lot of high tech, very efficiant speaker for the money. Highly recommended.

I have had 4 XL-16's hooked up as my Mains and my Surrounds, along with the XL-C center channel and the Exl-10 Sub, for about 2 months now and they sound great!!!! They're being run on a Denon 3200. I looked for literally 2 months before settling on these and I love them. The Take 5's just didn't do it for me on the music side....not enough midrange. I listen to music and movies about 50/50...so I wanted something that would do BOTH WELL! The XL-16's deliver in style!
As a note: the XL-15's are NOT the same, but cheaper, speakers...they have a different tweeter and I would not recommend the XL-15's.

The XL-16's on the other hand, are superb!

Great sound, and moderate size

Need a sub to go with them for bass

I've had the Energy 16, center channel, and bipolar surrounds for about a year. They're GREAT. They do sound better after owning them for a little while--they were a little bit harsh on the high frequencies at first. A friend has full size Mirage speakers, and these are much better defined and crisp without eating a ton of space.

They don't have great low bass (as do NONE of the bookshelf or intermediate size), so shell out some $$ for a good sub and you'll have it all.

Superb clarity, excellent value, very power efficient

Styling is a bit different, but it grows on you. Dust tends to collect on the tweeter suspension ring (remove it with a camera brush)

Try them, you'll like them.

After a bit more than a year with my eXL 16's, I can say I'm totally satisfied. They still amaze me with the clear, open, and well defined soundstage they produce - even in a less then optimal environment! You see, I'm using the eXL's as desktop computer speakers, so I sit a bit too close to them for optimal listening. Yet they still manage to perform superbly. (The desk is a good size, about 30" deep by 5' wide)

Everyone that comes into my home office and hears this system is *amazed* by these little Energy speakers. From Bach to Steve Vai, when teamed with a decent sub they will outperform many commercially sold speaker speaker systems, and with a cost savings to boot!

As far as computer gaming goes, teamed with a good sound card this setup ROCKS. Compared to the "high end" speaker setups for computers (like the Altec Lansing, Cambridge Soundworks, etc.) there's no beating a real component system setup, even a modestly powered one like mine!
(most of the computer speaker setups seem to suffer from really wimpy or poor quality amplifiers for the main speakers)

Like other reviewers, I too noticed that the Energy setup was bright, sometimes harsh. I broke them in over the period of a weekend, playing a test CD and turning the volume up fairly loud (my cat now freaks every time he hears anything remotely resembling a frequency sweep). The break in seemed to cure the harshness of the speakers. While they're still a bit bright, I find that desireable as I mostly listen to them at moderate or low volume levels.

I've mated my eXL's to an ancient (circa 1978) Marantz 2015 reciever. This is one of the orginal Marantz units, not the crappy SA stuff. It only puts out 15 watts a channel, but it's built quite well, and sounds superb when matched to a set of efficeint speakers. I've also built a small 6.5" powered sub (6.5" because it's a computer setup, and needs to fit under the desk). I've been struggling to tune the sub box properly to the eXL's, and may just go buy a small matching Energy sub to go with them some day.

Overall: superb sound and superb value

Similar Products Used:

Auditioned: Infinity, Yamaha, Polk

Price, sound, value.

Looks.

I came upon these speakers by default and I am amazed. I've heard set-ups costing in excess of $30,000 (only in dealer's showrooms, don't hang out with the rich set) and have been to many live concerts as well as having season tickets to the Chicago Symphony. Therefore, with that as my background I'll stick my neck out and say YES! These speakers can be of audiophile quality. I think it depends if you have audiophile quality gear up-stream of these little suckers. I love all the reviews here on the eXL: 16 and agree with most of you that this is one heck of a speaker. However, I feel like I'm in the wrong chat room. I have a very low interest in home theater and most of the speakers I was considering are in a different league than what you consider as comparable products. At the same time, true audiophiles will wonder what I'm smoking because I will equate these speakers with much higher cost competitors. I did say I was going to stick my neck out here.

After 17 years of service, my old Mission 700 speakers were slowly overcome by foam rot. It was my intention at that time to replace only the speakers and had budgeted $1,000-$2,000 to buy a nice pair of stereo speakers. I called up four audio stores and brought home four pairs of speakers for a weekend of listening. They were Linn Keidlh (pronounced KayLee) $1,200, ProAc Tablette 2000 Signature $1,500, Soliloquy 5.3 $1,700 and, ProAc Studio 125 $1,750US a pair. However, during my weekend of listening my 18 year old amp's phono stage decided to die so I was left to only my CD's and rethinking my priorities.

After a few weeks of thinking of how to divide up my $2,000 budget I decided to buy a Rega Mira integrated amp $800 and a Rega Planet CD player $700US. That left me with $500 for speakers. I mentioned this to the store where I had decided to buy the Rega equipment and his best choice was the regular ProAc Tablette 2000 (not Signatures) that he could let go for $950. Then he pulled out the eXL 16's saying "I forgot we had these. We don't normally sell them just as a pair of stereo speakers but you may be surprised by the sound"…and I WAS. We compared the eXL16's to the ProAc Tablettes using the Rega equipment and there was no question in my mind that the eXL16's were better than the speaker costing $570 more. While I did not do a direct comparison of the ProAc Tablette 2000 Signatures, it is my indirect recollection that the eXL 16's were only slightly lacking to these fine speakers, at a price that is more than $1,200 less!

I have had my new setup for two weeks now and there is plenty of breaking in left to do for all of the equipment. I feel strongly that my situation is good proof that money is better spent on quality source and amplification components. No speaker can retrieve information if the CD player does not pick it up and the amplifier looses it along the way. I've read here from some of you that the speakers are bright. However, I will say that for percussion instruments like cymbals and triangle, and for synthesizer, they are perfect. On orchestral stringed instruments what some would call bright I would call a very slight tinny-ness in tambour. However, overall the eXL 16's do a fine job of revealing the scale and emotion of classical music and I think the tinny-ness will become less pronounced with further break in. On a purely audiophile level, the eXL 16's have a somewhat shut in sound. While the placement of instruments is good, there is a lack of depth to the sound. The sound seems to come from a flat plain without revealing if some musicians are closer or further away from me. However, I have not tried to fiddle with speaker placement to see if this could be improved. On some CD's such as Paul Simon's Rhythm of the Saints, I do yearn for just a little more bass but then I put on Santana Supernatural and hear all the bass I want from these little guys. This leaves me to believe that the whole system is good enough to reveal the quality of the original recording. I do not think that Paul Simon wanted a lot of bass, and those recordings that demand good bass, the eXL 16's can provide it in ample quantities that belay there small size.

The only negative is these speakers are ugly. While they are put together well, you are not going to fine real wood veneers here and I wish the front grill covered the whole speaker so I did not have to look at the tweeter and the plastic surround. This probably explains a good part of the eXL 16's low price. Where the ProAc Tablette 2000 Signatures have a high quality wood veneer finish, it also probably adds $400-600 to the price of the pair. But it still does not go all the way to explain the $1,200 price difference.

YES! These speakers are darn good. While my audiophile friends snicker at me when they see them. Those snickers go away once I start playing their favorite music. I truly believe that the eXL 16's set new standards as to what budget speakers are capable of doing. On the value rating, I would give them seven stars if I could. On a purely audiophile rating they would get four stars for sound, but given their intended use and price, its five stars all the way.

Associated equipment:

Rega Planet CD player
Rega Panar 2 turntable
Rega RB 300 tone arm
Rega Elys cartridge
Rega Mira integrated amp.
Monster Cable speaker wire
Rega standard interconnects
Linn Kan speaker stands (spikes on floor, BluTack on speakers)

Brilliant Highs, good separation.

Lack of bass....

I can't offer a thorough review at this time as I have only had them a week. So far, I am very pleased with the speakers. They are a bit tinny and cold at first, but I have been told (and read) that they will warm up nicely after a break in period. They lack any bass punch due to thier size, but that is also expected from a bookshelf speaker. I have an Energy Xl-C2 center speaker and a Sony subwoofer. The sub makes up for what the speakers lack in bass power.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, HK.

Price, Soundstage

none for price range and speaker type

System:
Yamaha 795a a/v receiver
Energy eXL-26 Main
Energy eXL-C Center

Price I paid for eXL-16: $280 US

I paid too much, but I didn't feel like haggling. The salesman did give me 115 feet of 12 gauge Original Monster Cable for $40, though. I only needed 70 ft, which is what the price was set for. Pretty nice of him if it was intentional.

I'm using the 16's for my rear surrounds. I've only used them for Prologic Surround so far, but I'm very pleased with them. I have them mounted on the walls using the mounts advertised at the Energy site. The mounts are decent but VERY overpriced and they don't even come with wood screws for mounting into the studs--kinda' pathetic for $50.

When I first got these home I plugged them into my receiver in place of my XL-26s. They sounded great, only lacking a little bass as usual for smaller speakers, but they had a nice punch, nonetheless. Soundstage and accuracy were both decent.

I wish these speakers possessed slightly higher efficiency, but that's getting greedy, as they are already rated at 91dB. The mains are 94db and I notice the difference. I've pumped up the power to the rears by 5dB to compensate.

I look forward to purchasing a DVD player and putting them to the ultimate test.

Similar Products Used:

none (first bookshelf used)