REVIEW: Swan T200B Desktop Monitors

In The Box

- T200B Speakers R/L
- RCA Cable R/L
- Two Power Cords
- Gloves
- Bass Tuning Plugs

Build Quality/Design

Oh man...have you ever seen something as beautiful as these speakers? They have this inverted triangle design along with this odd 3d effect. They are extremely unique in this sense, I've also become a bit accustomed to having the tweeter below the midwoofer, the sound seems to come from one area as opposed to hearing the high's higher in the sound stage and the lows lower. Its a very nice blend. The piano lacquer looks amazing, its just a very modern look. The orange of the woofer tends to blend in very nicely. The quality of the finish, is astonishing. I find my self admiring these beauties when I'm listening to music...its distracting to say the least.

Audio

These are active monitors, which means that they are both self powered. These are also considered professional reference monitors, as in they are more leaned towards reproducing a flat original sound, as opposed to a more colorful sound. Some prefer the first or the latter, the choice is yours. Personally, I prefer flat to an extent that its not boring, definitely more flat then I would want colorful.

These speakers took about 60 days to burn in, yes its long.

Build Quality/Design: ★★★★★

SETUP

iMac -> Vox OSX Player -> Flac files -> Toslink -> RX-V667 -> T200B

Bass

The bass on these is AMAZING. It's not going to rock your house, its not going shake windows or break glass, but it is extremely accurate and tight. The bass is enough where you can feel it (more like an in your gut feeling), it is reproduced quite efficiently and is tuned quite flat with the rest of the frequencies as to not over power the mid range or trebble. Is it worth it for $700 speakers? Eh, it plays down to 55hz, but in all honesty its rolloff ±3db at around the 70hz range. This means for heavy heavy dubstep songs, you may get some muted sounds (shambala 2008 for example). Songs like I Can't Stop and such are fine, just anything that involves that wobble synth on 80hz or lower, is going to have some volume issues. HOWEVER, if you do not need bass to go immensely low, the bass that is supplied on these is sufficient enough.

TL;DR
- Bass is accurate and tight
- Bassheads beware, everyone else enjoy

(Being that heavy dubstep is hard to reproduce anyway, I will be rating it for the general public)

Bass: ★★★★★

Mid-Range

Very very very very very DETAILED. The mid range on this is very very nice. Vocal's are extremely clear, the sound of a cello is articulate and accurate, and on the low notes you can really feel it resonate. Guitar sounds astonishing, sinks in perfect. The clarity is great, I can hear things I never knew existed in my songs. I will say however, that at certain times the mid range tends to recess a bit when other instruments come in, not to bad, but enough to take notice.

Mid-Range: ★★★★½

Treble

I don't have to say much, this tweeter is BLISS for anything thrown at it. Cymbols, synth, female voices, you name it. Its clarity is amazing, solos from guitar sound perfect, vocal clarity is ASTRONOMICAL. I never found the treble lacking, or ever asking for better. It's perfect.

Treble: ★★★★★

Audio Quality: ★★★★★

Imaging/Soundstage

Sound stage is nice, nothing to be proud of compared to others in it range, but it is a near field monitor after all, it focuses on clarity and detail more then its competitors. You can easily differentiate between each instrument, each drum, and what not, however the soundstage could be a bit bigger.

Imaging: ★★★★

VALUE FOR MONEY

Hmm, debatable. If your going to buy a DAC and need speakers, then yes

Value: ★★★★★

If you have a receiver like I do, you might as well buy $500-$700 speakers and use the amplifier, you'll get a better bang for your buck, not sure by how much however. The quality of these components is very good, it is more worth it if your receiver has a bad amplifier (in comparison).

Value: ★★★★

Home theater use is limited as these work better as near field monitors. They sound great, even on games like call of duty, but to fill a room with sound, expect to lose some detail.

Value: ★★★½

Final Thoughts

These speakers never let me down. I highly recommend them to anyone that loves to listen to trance/techno (anything electronic). If you are strictly rock, you may get a better experience form the Swan M200MKIII, but I can not vouch for that. Personally I think the T200B's are great for anything.

Final Scores

Design ★★★★★
Audio Quality ★★★★★
Bass ★★★★★
Mids ★★★★½
Highs ★★★★★
Imaging ★★★★
Build Quality ★★★★★
Value For Money ★★★★★ (Non-amplifier)(Strictly music)

Cumulative Score

Purchase: http://lockwaresystems.com/swant200b-67.html

Origin Site: http://www.swanspeaker.com/products/products.aspx?cid=5&sid=0&pid=29

If anyone's curious, my current setup is my T200B Speakers and my Emotiva Utlra 12 sub crossed at 80hz. I couldn't be happier xD.

Current Setup (Not used during review, during review the speakers were spread out on stands across a different wall, due to limitations, it was only temporary, I will be moving back to that setup by the end of the summer.) (Receiver is under the glass desk (no point in a picture))

*The spoiler is my old review, I kept it here as a reference; it is no longer accurate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by juman231 

Hey, thanks for the review. I was hoping someone would post an actual review of the swan speakers. I have a question though. Have you heard some tracks w/ cello parts in it? I'm considering buying the m200mkiii in summer, and that's already stretching the budget.  I'm hoping to get a feel of how it will do since it seems you've heard both(or you've heard the mkii?)?

Honestly speaking, I've only hear the MKII's however it was for about a week. The MKIII's from what I've heard have a bigger soundstage, and a more defined sound, but its more or less just a minor improvement of everything overall.

As for cello, I didn't necessarily listen to much on my MK's, however I am listening to this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glIV7XWRM-w (Youtube = bad quality, i have a much better recording.)

On my T200B's they are very very detailed and clear (Towards the end of the song you can hear just the strings.) and I can only imagine similar performance from the MK's. In my experience the T200B's tend to sound more detailed, however the MK's have a bigger soundstage and their midrange was a bit louder. They also have different drivers so I can't be the most accurate judge. From the experience that I remember, you should be very satisfied with the MK's and they are a bit more colorful when it comes to the cellos, however if you want a more natural defined sound, the T200B's would also be great.

Any song in particular you want me to try?

Quote:

Originally Posted by juman231 

Oh I would be very grateful. The link to the track is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU0t50wjb6g

 

I've checked your signature, but I don't know what headphones you have to better describe the sound I like by making references, but I think the sound I'm looking for speakers (with this particular track) would be the visceral, textured (it doesn't have to be boomy) bass that conveys the resonating cello body that I can feel, with enough mids that would not be covered up by the bass so I can hear what notes are being played... From your descriptions, I think I'd opt for the mkii's instead for the better mids. 

 

Aside from the slight overpowering of the bass, did you ever feel it could go lower?

 

I listened to it, and btw, when I was talking about the MK I was comparing the MKIII to the T200B (although I owned the MKII). I want to make it clear that the MKIII is better then the MKII, when I said better mids, I was referring to the MK vs T200B. If you are going to get one of the MK's, and you can opt for the MKIII, trust me and do it. The MKIII will improve over everything I heard from the MKII's. Also, when I said the mid-range was better, I'd like to be a little more clear. The T200B's mid-range is much more designed, much more flat, and much more natural. The MKIII's is a bit more colorful as its mid-range tends to be a little louder and tends to handle the low-mid frequencies better. Again, I never owned the MKIII and the MKII is similar except less power and different tuning. If you can stretch it and get the MKIII's, from what I've heard from people that have tried both, the MKIII will be noticeably better if you were standing in front of both and attempting to compare. I also attempted to research the comparison between MKII and MKIII on chinese forums (Google translation) and most, if not all, agree that the MKIII destroys the MKII (LOL, that was word for word what one of the guys said xD).

As for what I heard with the T200B's and this song, you can definitely feel the cello resonating, and you can clearly hear the notes. The bass on this was not over-powering by any chance, it was pretty flat sounding, however if you like a lot of bass (not overpowering but just a bit stronger, and you do not want to EQ) the MKIII may produce a bit more bass by default. Keep in mind this is a youtube vid, I'm sure you have a much better sounding file.

Btw, from what I have heard, swan has seemed to be moving towards drivers that produce better low frequencies. That's why the new MK series tends to be better in that department then the T200B. From what it seems however, the Mid-range in the T200B is better, however, if you want to get the full extent of what it can do, adding a sub that will take over the lower frequencies, allow the T200B to really shine.

I'll be willing to help if you still have any questions.

EDIT: This pretty much sums it up (Google Translate):

Source: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://blog.zol.com.cn/1652/article_1651655.html&ei=CrXOTZrvEaPr0gGv1tiODg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CGQQ7gEwBg&prev=/search%3Fq%3DMKIII%2Bvs%2BT200B%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3Dd5I%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26prmd%3Divns

Its a bit interesting to read the whole thing too, he compares the T200B and MKIII pretty well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 

you seriously need a bigger desk

haha, I know, but I actually tried this really spread out, as in like fronts for my entire room, they sound similar except because they have to get louder they lose a bit of detail. Plus when you listen to them closely, they tend to make ambient sounds really noticeably.

In the summer I'm changing up my entire room, so until then xD
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by sizzlincok 

Man, those songs you chose are soft bass tests.

 

You need REAL man bass test music.

 

Google up "Ultimate subwoofer test".

 

I used to slam that everyday back in 2006. Hahaha. I love it.

 

There are so many different subwoofer songs/tests out there. 

Look around from them.

 

I had a BUNCH on an ext hdd, but it failed on me, and I lost 6 years of stuff on it.

But these aren't subs xD. Shambala was a good test, surprisingly, when I played that song on my MK, it handled it quite well. On these, it muted 1/6.