Excellent for HT. Small size.

A little weak for music

After much research and lot's of help from this web site I just set up my Take5 System. I have it mated with a Denon 1800 reciever (excellent by the way) and a Toshbia 2109 DVD player. The speakers are outstanding for surround sound movies. I have watched several movies the past week with Saving Private Ryan really blowing me away. This speaker can really handle anything a movie can throw at it with impressive results. I have the Energy 8" sub in a 15 x 15 room and it works fine.
As far as music is concerned, it will never fool you into thinking it's a tower speaker. If your like me and just listen to music as a casual listener it will satisfy. If on the other hand you are downsizing from some big towers and this will be your main listening device you could be disappointed.
For me this was a excellent choice, there small size and nice look really worked well into my listening area. They are well constructed with banana post and a great looking finish. I also got the stands and wall mounts which really finish things off nicely.
If you are looking to buy I would recommend Tony at PFLOOR1@AOL.COM. I did tons of research and he buy far will give you the best price along with great service. I paid $675.00 for everything, shipped in three days.
For a inexpensive introduction to the fun of surround sound you can not do any better than this speaker.

Excellent Sound, Beautiful Looks

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These are some great speakers! Admittedly, they can't defy the laws of physics and give the nice, deep, warm tone of your finer mains, but for casual radio & CD listening, what more could you want?...especially at this price! On the other hand, the home theater experience is excellent. Nice and bright without being overpowering...great sounding bass out of the e:XL-S8 sub. Most definitely enough for my small/medium sized condo. Those looking for big sounds in small areas, this is the ticket. Overall I am very pleased with my budget system.

Gear:
Onkyo TX-DS656 Receiver
Toshiba SD2109 DVD
Energy Take 5 HTS
AudioQuest Type 4+ Speaker Cable
Monster Interconnects
Monster Sub Cable
Adcom ACE-515 Power Conditioner

all

none

the energy take 5 are some rockin little speakers. I love them and would'nt trade them for anything. I looked at bose and did not like them as well.I have them hooked to an aiwa av-dv75 reciever and a aiwa ts-w9 sub and they go great together.I also am using a pioneer dv-414 dvd player and if you really want to hear some awesome sounds pop in saving private ryan on dvd. they were also $600.00 cheaper than bose.and that makes my wife real happy.

Similar Products Used:

looked at bose

Size, Price

Lack of mid-range, packaging

After reading several promising reviews on the take 5 package I purchased a set unheard from a California retailer, subbing an AR 12 inch for the sub. Immediately out of the box, I was unimpressed by the cheap plastic housing of the speakers. After hooking them up to my Pioneer Elite 26, I was unable to acheive the 'high quality' sound that many of the reviewers have commented on. The sound for movies was great, nice tight highs and an acceptable mid-range. It is the music that was a problem. These speakers just do not make the cut when you it comes to producing a full range for music. Admittedly, I did not give the speakers a proper chance to warm up, I only played them for about 24 hours before boxing them back up. I had a friend bring over his BA system 9000 speakers and we hooked them up to my system and there was a remarkable difference in sound quality. The BAs are certainly more, but I would definitely recommend the upgrade to anyone that just has to have satellites. I have decided to bypass size for a bigger sound and have purchased some towers. It seemed to make sense as the footprint of the satellites when on stands is almost the same as my towers.

Similar Products Used:

Boston Acoustics system 9000

Crystal clear high end, great surround sound, deep tight bass and a great price.

Forget about playing music!

I originally bought a Polk RM6500 system. Great construction but what a joke for home theatre! I found this web site, went back to my local store and listned to Dragon Heart (DTS) DVD movue on a take 5 system with an 8" I originally bought a Polk RM6500 system. Great construction but what a joke for home theatre! I found this web site, went back to my local dealer, listened to Dragon Heart DTS DVD movie and knew that I had bought the wrong sysem.I called Mark at Audio Shop in Canada and 5 days later I recieved my Take 5 system with a 10" sub for $300 less than my local Energy retailer. I have listened to Polk, Bose and Infinity. You cannot beat the Take 5 system with an energy sub fom Audio shop, even if you spent $1000. If you are buying this system for music CD's forget it. Go buy yoursel a regular pair of speakers! But if you want to impress your freinds and have movie theatre sound in your living room for a great price then order this system. I have them hooked up to a Yamaha V-595a reciever and I am very pleased. Mark was great to deal with and I am happy that I found this web site!

Thanks everyone!

Similar Products Used:

Polk RM6500

Sound and Price

Midrange

Purchased the Take 5 w/ 8" sub from Marc at audioshop about two weeks ago. Have been extremely happy with the sound, quality and price. My system currently consists of an Onyko TXDS-474, Technics 5-disc cd changer and soon to be added Panasonic A320 DVD.

Would highly recommend!

The discrete sounds in Dolby Digital 5.1 are fantastic.

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I sent the attached note to Energy and received the trailing interesting reply.
I thought I'd pass their reply through this BB to see if it sounds like a reasonable explaination from the Energy people. Also a good test of their customer service / technical expertise for after shelling out the $$$.
I'm very happy with the movie sound quality. In fact, I watched Track 17 of the movie White Squall utilizing Dolby Digital 5.1 and it nearly made me "sea sick".

Thanks for any / all replies.

Here's the note:
=================================================
I purchased the Take-5 w/XL-8 sub system within the last two weeks. The first day that I integrated them with my system: Sony DA50-ES 100W and Pioneer DVL-919 DVD I noticed an anomoly that I have been monitoring.
It appears that on an occasional basis when the system is loaded at about 40-50% power, I get a loud "snapping" sound that occurs only once and then does not occur again for some time. The "snap" sounds like an electrical discharge or "like glass breaking".
Other that this phenomenon that is occurring, I love the speakers. Coupled with my Sony AV Receiver they create great separation and sound quality.

Here's their reply:
=================================================
Hi,
Need to listen to the speakers seperately, it might be the woofer volume is set too high and under loud bass passages the voice coil is banging against back of magnet frame. If this is happening you have the settings too loud.

Great price, good sound, and a very small footprint.

Not much bass.

I'm very happy with my Energy Take 5 system. Every now and then I'll be listening to a movie or music and stop and realize just how good it sounds. These are great for a medium- to small-sized room and are small enough to not stand out if you don't like massive speakers being central to your decor. Be sure to get the subwoofer as they are too small to generate much bass. Also, they may sound a bit harsh out of the box but will get much warmer sounding after a few weeks break-in period. For accurate, ample sound they can't be beat. If, however, you prefer to blast your media at full volume you would do better to go with something bigger.

Similar Products Used:

None.

Value

weak midrange

I have these cute speakers for almost a month now and i'm very happy with it. Yes there's a lot of better speakers but very few could rival the take 5 in its class. The closest so far that i could think of is defenitive tech's procinema80.

Anyway, i bough the es-10 and don't know if i made the right decision or not. I listen more to music than play video. I just wonder if the es-8 would resonate much higher and gap that midrange hole. I also have bypassed the filter because the bass sounds more crisper than cascading the filter of my yamaha 595a receiver and that of the sub.

I love my take 5. For es-10, i wished it has a speaker level out so i could use the subs filter and adjust the filter upto 90-95Hz which will eliminate the midrange hole.

For now, i love the definitive tech pro cinema 80 as well. with larger woofer on satellites in a small box and a subwoofer that have speaker level out and 250watts max. whew, its good that buying speakers is like marriage. You could file a divorce hehhe.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 601s and 302s; Bose Acoustimass 15, Bose301.

After reading the reviews from this web site I finally decided to purchase the Energy Take 5 package. I definitely recommend these speakers to any body looking to purchase speakers for home theater purposes at a reasonable price. I purchased mine at big screen headquarters.com for $424.00, including shipping!