Best Buy's Best Buy
Written: Jun 17 '04 (Updated Jun 20 '04)
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Pros: Outstanding price for performance. Company has a long heritage of building great sounding speakers.
Cons: May not produce as much bass as you might want.
The Bottom Line: Looks sharp and sound marvelous.
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| harveyny's Full Review: Celestion AVF302 Main / Stereo Speaker |
Hurry to Best Buy before these are gone. Retail price is anywhere from $749 - $799 and Best Buy use to sell these for $699. In last Sunday's ads, these were advertised as discontinued for $299 plus you have 30 days to return the speakers for a full refund.
A little history about Celestion. Currently, Celestion is owned by the same company that owns Kef. Both of these companies have produced some very fine sounding speakers since the 1970's, which was when I first heard their speakers. Celestion is also well known by guitar players, because Marshall and other guitar amp manufactures, use Celestion drivers in their cabinets. Celestion also builds speakers for PA systems.
Those of you who have read my past reviews are aware that I'm an audio nut, but I demand a great deal of performance for my dollars spent. $299 for a pair of $799 "audiophile" speakers is a good value. The speaker wires that I have attached to these speakers cost more than the speakers.
When I first saw these speakers at Best Buy ($699), I was attacted to their appearance. In my view, they are a product that you would expect Sharper Image to market.
So, how do these speakers sound. They reproduce the treble and midrange very accurately. They also vanish when set up correctly, but they image too low for my tastes. I am still trying to figure out an attractive way of raising these speakers up about 6-7". They do not produce as much bass as other audiophile speakers in the $299 price range, but they do a very good job of reproducing music that does not contain a great deal of bass. Obviously, you could always invest in a decent sub-woofer and end up with a very impressive audio system. You should be aware that these speakers are very revealing of the weaknesses in your electronics.
As mentioned above, you can take 30 days to see if these speakers work well with your system.
One Week Later
I'm more impressed with these speakers now. If anyone is interested, they do sound better if you raise the front of the speaker by the distance of 2 VHS tapes. I am currently using the plastic containers that Fuji 35mm film comes in. Stand the canisters on end, 2 under the front of each speaker. If you want something more elegant, you could always go to your local glass shop and have them make something.
As for the speaker wires, I'm now using wires made from Home Depot 14 gauge extension cord. Amplifier is a Sonic Impact 5066 which sells for about $30 at Target. The CD player is a Toshiba 3950 DVD player. Interconnect wires are made with CAT 5 plenum wire with Radio Shack ends.
There are a few other little "tricks", but those listed above would be easy for anyone to use, if interested.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 299.00
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Epinions.com ID:
harveyny
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 - Top 1000 |
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Location: IL
Reviews written: 88
Trusted by: 6 members
About Me:
My main interest is QUALITY. This affects the way I evaluate everything.
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