![]() ![]() (Almost immediately I figured out that typical box-store sat & sub combos just don’t cut it.) I auditioned $200-$400 Polk, Jamo, Kef, Boston Acoustics, and Paradigm units in stores, and did a two-week, in-home A/B comparo with the Axiom M3ti (driven by a Denon AVR-2803). The idea was to find the best bookshelf speaker to be the basis of a 5.1 system for 60/40 music/movies. U2’s “Elevation” was a sonic thrill ride, especially with a Hsu STF-2 bringing the thunder. They're no slouch in the rock dept., either. Acoustic piano, sax, trumpet, and clarinet reproduce brilliantly, as do male and female vocals. They are marvelously rich, detailed, and musical. ![]() I was ready to rationalize even mediocre sound from the M60s from the moment I opened the box.įortunately, I didn’t have to. I’m a sucker for interesting, sophisticated design, so these pretty much won me over before I ever hooked them up. In all fairness, it’s not just how speakers look to my wife and sound to me. And they make everything else look downright homely.īefore you dismiss me as too easily wooed by pretty cabinetry, let me tell you about the Olympian level of WAF (wife approval factor) you face when you live with an interior designer: I considered trying a pair of Aperions but, despite their genuine cherry veneers and liberal no-risk return policy, she nixed them over "those ugly black grilles." The pictures on the web site don’t do them justice in real life, the wood is so inviting, you can’t help but touch them. (They’re also available in a rich mahogany.) Plus their cool, stylish grille design and fabric color perfectly complement our retro-mod décor. In fact, I first got interested in the Newton series because they could be had with not only real veneer, but blonde maple, a real rarity in this range. The first thing you notice about them is that they are gorgeous. That said, the M60s turned out to be a huge surprise and, for my part, not a compromise at all. Or you can accept it as a fact of life, and move on. A guy could go crazy trying to puzzle out why. If you're happily married and want to stay that way, all A/V purchases are going to be compromises, right? I have since orderd a pair of M80's to replace my M60's as the front speakers in my HT, and I am going to move the M60's to replace the surrounds. I placed the Jethro Toll ablum back on the LP and I was amazed at the ease they moved through Fat Man, and Thick As a Brick. By 8am the next day they where playing like I had heard in the store. When I had returned latter that night the speakers where sounding better but I could tell it was working, I decided to check on them in the morning. By playing a program for a extended period of time at moderate levels you can get the speakers to brake in quicker, say in a day or two verses a month, depending on how much you listen to them. This is something that is common practice on highend componets and subs for cars, because the suspention on the cones are so stiff. The reason for this is to get the speakers brokend in. So I decided to set a CD of Jazz on repet and left them while I went out to dinner. I started to pack them back up when I rembered something from my experence with Car Stereo Insallation. I checked all the settings and nothing was a miss. Once they where hooked up, I put in my favorit LP Jethro Toll The best of M.U., I was disaponted, the seemed strained, like they didn't want to perform as they had on display. When I had made my desicion I brought them home. They image perfectly, and really draw you in. They seem as if the just effortlessly flow form them. Where these really shine though is the Vocals and highs. The CSW M60's have tight solid bass, while not over powering, it is enough. While this was still a step up, I just couldn't see spending the less for them over the CSW. The highs seemed like they where straining. The mids where clear but lacked any warmth. The Polk offerd a good bottom end some where between tight and boomy, but not solid. When It came down to the desision between speakers I was debating between the Polk Bookself (can't remember the model) and the CSW. I wanted the vocals clear and unrestricted, and the highs quick enough to follow a guitar's solo, but not as harsh at to crackel on a sysmbol. I knew what I wanted out of the speakers, I really didn't need deep booming bass, but tight and solid bass. I looked at Sony, Yahmaha, Polk, Bose (don't even get me started), CSW, Infinity, and JBL. So I set out to see what all there was avalible in my price range that would give the exacting detail that I wanted. While they performed better than anything in there class at the time, it was becoming apparent that they could no longer keep up with my growing HT system. However up untill a year ago I hadn't benable to get the detail I wanted out of the Sony SS MF-515 that I longed for. My interest in these speaker stems from my interest in listenting its self.
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