ECLIPSE TD-M1 IMPRESSIONS
Okay, so this is my first short impressions write up/ review on head-fi so take it with a grain of salt.
First I want to say thank you to Todd for letting us try out these speakers, I had a lot of great listening time with them.
BUILD QUALITY AND PACKAGING
-When I first received my pair in the mail, the first thing I noticed was how big the box was and how heavy it was. Pictures of these do not do them justice. I've never had time with Eclipse speakers before.
-The packaging was well done, with dense foam, came in 3 boxes and also a cloth bag material around each speaker. -Nice touch.
-The thing I was skeptical about from the original photos was the build quality, but let me tell you, these things are built like tanks, the stand is all metal and the plastic is high density and feels substantial in hand. Personally I liked the Ovid shaped design in person. They look like something out of the future to me. (my wife does not agree)- lol
-The speaker grilles are a nice touch, they are magnetic detachable, very easy to take on and off- also a nice touch. (I prefer the look with them off, could not really tell a difference sound wise) I guess you could say everything had a premium feel to it. Which isn't surprising for the price range. (apparently $1300)
-The box came with basic power adapter, etc. The aux cable coming from the left speaker is terminated into the speaker. No USB was included but I may have had a review unit, I'm not sure if the retail unit will include that.
FEATURES
-Air play wi-fi (which I didn't use) but seems really convenient.
-Also over Air Play you can turn your phone into a remote control. -again, didn't use this but sounds convenient.
-On board class D amp and DAC capable of 192/24 playback (mounted on the inside of the stand).
-Touch sensitive front panel you can slide your finger to control volume levels, LEDs light up and dim depending on the volume levels. Also you tap to turn the unit on or off. (as you can see in the photos) I personally found this rather frustrating to use and would rather just use my computer to control the volume or use my mobile device.
-The metal stand is on a very sturdy tilt system latch which can easily be adjusted up or down.
-Overall a very easy to use system, great for high quality music listening even over airplay. Airplay's playback is 44.1/16 which is really nice if you want to listen wireless with your phone/ tablet/ laptop.
SOUND
This will be the hardest part for me to write because I'm not a near field monitor guy, I don't have KEF LS50's on hand to compare but I have heard them, but not for very long.
The best near field type loudspeakers I've lived with are Audioengine A5+ which aren't anywhere near the same price range. So really I don't have a reference point for this price range, but I will try to describe the experience as best I can.
-My setup was the on board DAC and Class D amp, I did
NOT use any other source.
-I listened to mostly 192/24 .FLAC files through Foobar, also some of the music included on the little flash drive Todd included.
So after letting the speakers burn in for about 15-20 hours I was ready for some serious listening time. I'm not the type of person that will write a whole bunch of impressions from each song I listened to, nor am I really that good at describing the sound with audiophile hyperbole. But WOW. These speakers sound amazing. The sheer amount of detail is spot on for a reference class speaker. I could compare them more to my HE-500s than the Audioengine's. The instrument separation and micro detail can be heard very easily. I was actually surprised because I've never heard loud-speakers as detailed as these before. (besides the KEF LS50) But I really haven't had any time to listen to them in a quiet environment so I can't compare. Also I know these are loud speakers, but the sound stage was something I've never heard before coming from speakers. On par if not better than other headphones I've heard. You can easily without effort pick up little nuances of the track and pick apart where different instruments are being played. Reminded me of being at a concert front row. The bass wasn't really hard hitting which is pretty obvious here. I unfortunately didn't have a sub to pair with these. But if you do, I'm sure it's even more incredible.
Finishing up, I'm mostly a headphone guy as probably most of you guy's are too. But if you're looking for a reference class speaker setup that's (all-in-one) to save space and has the convenience of a wireless system, with the sound quality of a near field monitor, then this is a great buy in my humble opinion.
Thanks for reading guys.
-James
Here's the photos I took, pretty self explanatory.
Just thought the color looked good next to my case
