I thought it would be helpful to start a separate thread on the XTZ cinema series so that they don't just get buried in the general XTZ owners thread. My original comments can be found here.
The XTZ Speaker Owner's Thread Part II | Page 35 | AVForums
As a quick copy and paste reference.
Well I'm just back from Jag's house having auditioned the cinema series. Firstly I should say what a thoroughly nice chap he is, an enthusiast through and through.
Secondly I should make clear what my goal is. For a number of years I had a fairly large non dedicated room with very large floor standing speakers and centre all fired by some fairly decent amplification. My left, right and centre retail in excess of £7k.
I've now part built a new dedicated room and it is much smaller at 3m by 5m. I want to keep my existing speakers in another room for just hi fi and so needed new LCR speakers to go behind a new AT screen.
Now here comes the difficult part. I wanted speakers that sounded as good as my MA platinum speakers. But not only do they have to be much cheaper (I don't have another £7k to spend) they need to be much smaller due to room size and the AT screen.
In my heart of hearts I knew it was highly unlikely that I could replicate the sound experience of my MA platinums in a box about a tenth of the size and a fifth of the price.
I auditioned some in wall speakers last week that cost about £450 each and that audition confirmed that at that size and price I was never going to get the sort of sound I had been used to. They lacked detail and the sound stage was very small.
Right then, the simple answer is that these speakers are nothing short of amazing. Not just at the price point they are at but at any price point. I wasn't expecting this, I was expecting something good but not this good. These things sound at least as good if not better than my MA platinum set up.
I played scenes that I'm very familiar with from The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight ie ones I've used many times to set up/calibrate my own system in the past. To be honest within five minutes of listening to these speakers I had decided I would be buying them. It wasn't a case of trying hard to listen to whether they were any good, they were right in my face from the get go.
Jag's room is huge, probably three times the size of mine. The speakers filled the whole room and I mean really filled it in a way that frankly beggars belief given their modest size. Dialogue sounds far better than my MA PL150.
Everything sounds right. The sound is so open, so coherent, so undistorted. The sound stage is huge and I mean huge. It really sounds like what you would hear at a high quality cinema.
I don't often gush about about AV things because I've become used to the law of diminishing returns. Some things are very good but are so expensive that they become irrelevant to all but the mega rich. And many things are priced very high but give mediocre results. Even though I own some very nice kit I am very careful how I spend my cash.
For the first time in a very long time I've experienced a product that I feel gives more than it takes. These speakers give a full on high end cinema sound at a price point that is almost entry level.
I defy anybody to listen to these and not be blown away unless you are in the market for £10k+ speakers.
I'll give one caveat though. When I listened to the system the bass was a bit light for my liking but I'm assuming this was down to the quick set up Jag had to do and the subs rather than the speakers.
Overall, I am absolutely stunned and amazed by what these speakers can do. I'd feel that way even if they cost twice as much but at the price they are it's unbelievable.
The XTZ Speaker Owner's Thread Part II | Page 35 | AVForums
As a quick copy and paste reference.
Well I'm just back from Jag's house having auditioned the cinema series. Firstly I should say what a thoroughly nice chap he is, an enthusiast through and through.
Secondly I should make clear what my goal is. For a number of years I had a fairly large non dedicated room with very large floor standing speakers and centre all fired by some fairly decent amplification. My left, right and centre retail in excess of £7k.
I've now part built a new dedicated room and it is much smaller at 3m by 5m. I want to keep my existing speakers in another room for just hi fi and so needed new LCR speakers to go behind a new AT screen.
Now here comes the difficult part. I wanted speakers that sounded as good as my MA platinum speakers. But not only do they have to be much cheaper (I don't have another £7k to spend) they need to be much smaller due to room size and the AT screen.
In my heart of hearts I knew it was highly unlikely that I could replicate the sound experience of my MA platinums in a box about a tenth of the size and a fifth of the price.
I auditioned some in wall speakers last week that cost about £450 each and that audition confirmed that at that size and price I was never going to get the sort of sound I had been used to. They lacked detail and the sound stage was very small.
Right then, the simple answer is that these speakers are nothing short of amazing. Not just at the price point they are at but at any price point. I wasn't expecting this, I was expecting something good but not this good. These things sound at least as good if not better than my MA platinum set up.
I played scenes that I'm very familiar with from The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight ie ones I've used many times to set up/calibrate my own system in the past. To be honest within five minutes of listening to these speakers I had decided I would be buying them. It wasn't a case of trying hard to listen to whether they were any good, they were right in my face from the get go.
Jag's room is huge, probably three times the size of mine. The speakers filled the whole room and I mean really filled it in a way that frankly beggars belief given their modest size. Dialogue sounds far better than my MA PL150.
Everything sounds right. The sound is so open, so coherent, so undistorted. The sound stage is huge and I mean huge. It really sounds like what you would hear at a high quality cinema.
I don't often gush about about AV things because I've become used to the law of diminishing returns. Some things are very good but are so expensive that they become irrelevant to all but the mega rich. And many things are priced very high but give mediocre results. Even though I own some very nice kit I am very careful how I spend my cash.
For the first time in a very long time I've experienced a product that I feel gives more than it takes. These speakers give a full on high end cinema sound at a price point that is almost entry level.
I defy anybody to listen to these and not be blown away unless you are in the market for £10k+ speakers.
I'll give one caveat though. When I listened to the system the bass was a bit light for my liking but I'm assuming this was down to the quick set up Jag had to do and the subs rather than the speakers.
Overall, I am absolutely stunned and amazed by what these speakers can do. I'd feel that way even if they cost twice as much but at the price they are it's unbelievable.
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