Review Details

Reference Series High Performance Two-way Bookshelf Surround Sound Speakers

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on November 2, 2016):

I purchased the XL7C last year and was very impressed with the sound quality for such a low price. I'm steadily building a full surround sound system again (first time in 20 years) but didn't want to break the bank. For $179 for the XL7S, I figured, why not? Reviews have been resoundingly good and if the speakers didn't meet expectations, I'd use them in a secondary TV room.I'm initially pairing these as my front channels with the Fluance center channel and an old Infinity PS12 subwoofer. After the required 10 hour break in time and a lot of tweaking, (primarily with the sub) I am pleasantly surprised with the quality of sound coming from these things. My favorite sound check is Hotel California, on the Eagles Hell Freezes Over disc. Crowd noise is clear and crisp and mid ranges are very well balanced throughout. Right now, I'm using the three speakers as a 3.1 setup and they appear to be very well balanced with seamless sound. And that's running out of my old, old, old JVC 8040 receiver crossed over at 80 Hz. I can only imagine what these will sound like with a quality amp (next on the upgrade list).I'll be rounding out the system with the XL7F towers soon but for the time being, these speakers fit the gap for fronts nicely. Heck, even my wife noticed the difference. I guess if you want to spend $1500 on a bookshelf speaker, have at it. Here you spend a 1/10 of the cost and you get two for the price. So, if you're an audiophile in a sound acoustically treated room cranking tunes out of your $10,000 amp, you'll likely be disappointed. For the rest of us that have to compete with college tuitions, making house upgrades, determining where to place your speakers (on the barbie shelf or the air hockey table), and mostly finding the time to enjoy it all, I think you'll find these to be money well spent.Oh and, give them their proper break in time (10 hrs). Out of the box they sound a little lifeless but a week later, they're spot on. - Verified Store