... with my Blue Sky eXo 2.1 system!
I went to the Apple store the other day and left with both the harmon kardon SoundSticks II and the Bose Companion 3 set. I find that it's very difficult to test speakers in store. So, I took them both home for an in-depth listening test.
Soundsticks ... decent sound reproduction. Just a hint of listening fatigue after a few hours, at anything but the lowest volumes. They seem a little bright to me, but overall I was impressed. Of course, the satellites have only 10w power per. That's just not enough volume to fill a decent size room. I'm going to keep them for use exclusively in my bedroom. They sound fairly nice in that room, and I won't generally want a lot of volume in there. Two slight annoyances in this speaker system: no headphone jack (again, not to much of a big deal in the bedroom) and the volume control leaves A LOT to be desired. There's no visual representation of the volume, which could cause problems if you forget to turn the speakers down every time you use them.
The Bose Companion system ... just don't waste your money, folks! For the sound quality, these speakers shouldn't cost any more than $100-$150. They retail for $250. The bass is muddy, and way too much information gets lost in the mids and highs. The speakers produce a lot of volume for their size, but these speakers FAILED in 2 music tests ... jazz and house. It became really hard to pick out individual loops and lines and instruments in the music. It was an incomprehensible mess! Most music files ended up sounding as if they were an extremely low bitrate file, like 96 or 120 kpbs. The mids and treble sound flat and lack depth. It's especially inexcusable that the bass should be so muddy. They look nice ... they're tiny and cute, and if you have NO ROOM on your desk, then I can see how they'd be attractive. Again, though, no visual representation of volume, which can be a problem, though the volume interface is nice and is a separate wheel you can place on your desk with a headphone jack right in the front.
For the same money as that very, very crappy and disappointing Bose Companion set ... I have monitors capable of giving me goosebumps with their clarity of sound. Everything I've played on them sounds amazing. Thanks so much to whomever posted the review here. I did more research on these speakers and found out that they won a Remix contest for best low cost studio monitors. I can see why. There's a deep and rich bass response and there's enough room for the mids and treble to come out and play. There has to be ... they were designed for desktop production work, after all!
It's great having such flexibility on the connection types. I can play my jazz and rnb collections on my turntable since the sub box includes an RCA connection!!! Whee! The remote control desktop box puts the sub and gain knobs within easy reach. The minijack and headphone jack connections are also there within easy reach so you're not constantly reaching behind the sub to plug and unplug different audio sources or fiddle with the sub output.
These speakers were designed with production work in mind. They are a thing of beauty and every bit worth the $260 I paid for them at Guitar Center. Note though, if you buy from Guitar Center, you should try them out in the store. I had to get one of the salepeople to dig a set out of the warehouse so I could take them for a test drive. The reason I did that is because GC charges a 15% restocking fee for open box returns. Another note ... the sub is fairly big ... the cone is like 8" across. To me, it's well worth the space to have the greater richness in the bass.
I honestly couldn't be happier.
