So, earlier this evening I was out and about and figured I'd atop at the 'Shack to see if they had any of these babies. You can't get them online, only in the store, so I'm guessing that there is a clearance? I don't know - it doesn't say "clearance" online, so maybe it is only something that they are offering in the store for now. Anyways, I digress
Long story short, I picked them up. Came to a whopping $16 and change after tax. Later on in the evening (or morning if you would rather
) I took them out and gave them a once over before hooking them up. Decent weight, failry decent build, too. Push-pin hook ups (which I am not a big fan of, but I was expecting that for $16 and change), port on the backside, and grills that were kind of nice as well. These look nice with the grills on or off, although at least for now I like how they look off. Over all, fairly nice and a good impression thus far.
I hooked them up to my Kenwood Sovereign receiver with some 16 gauge speaker cable (which, surprisingly, is what the manual (yes, even more surprisingly they came with a manual) recommends) and slowly turned up the music a bit. At very first, the tuner was on and they really didn't sound too terrible all things considered - right out of the box on a station. Then, after letting them "warm up" for a few minutes, I switched to some CD's that I know very well.
I started with a Wind Ensemble recording that I was very familiar with and knew how it did sound and how it should sound. Mind you, it was close to 3 in the morning, so they were not loud at all, just enough to get them going a bit. This recording was done in a studio that picks up every little detail, both good and bad, and the depth and sensitivity and clarity of the ensemble was captured beautifully in this recording. There is also a generous but pleasant reverb in this recording. The Presidians are set up about 3ft off the ground and about 5ft apart, and they sounded just beautiful.
I was expecting something with (hopefully) decent highs but very tinny, especially at the volumes that I was playing them at. However, they gave me no such thing. There was an appropriate depth and roundness to the bass instruments without them being bloated, and an attention to detail that really surprised me. I was also VERY surprised at the middle voices and soundstage that these speakers presented. Being 2-ways, I wasn't expecting much for the middle end of things at all, especially considering price, but they were indeed there and realistically so. The highs did seem a bit exaggerated, but not so much that it took over and unbalanced the speaker. The bass very full all things considered (the fact that they were not driven very loudly at all), and gave an decent representation of what these instruments should sound like. I also listened to a few piano/choral pieces that I engineered the recordings for, so I know how they ought to sound too. I was very impressed again by the soundstage, especially with the choirs - I could hear those right in front of me, a little further behind, and off to the sides pretty well, which was amazing I thought. Also, the piano sounded incredible - VERY realistic and deep and well balanced throughout its spectrum.
That's all that I will say for right now until I get a chance to listen to them tomorrow/later on today with a bit more juice.
So far, quite good...
