Artison Sketch LCR Setup and Listening Tests

Each speaker is designated as right or left. This is important because you want the top, DualMono center channels firing inward and the lower left/right channels firing outward. Of course, if you flipped them you'd be doing some serious surgery to get them to attach, but that's beside the point. The speakers have 2 sets of gold-plated push post terminals for the center and main drives. Once installed, you connect a speaker wire (included) between the two center channel speaker terminals to create the DualMono center. With the included wire, it was a tight fit to also insert a 12-gauge speaker wire into the push post, but I managed. You may want to twist the ends together to create a single bundled end for insertion.

At the top and bottom of each speaker is an adjustment knob. This is used to make final adjustments and assure that the speakers are an equal and appropriate distance away from the television set before placing the grill covers on. This made installation a breeze as you didn't have to be perfectly precise when laying the rear guide bars into the horizontal mounting bracket that attach to the display.

Speaking of those bars, the speakers came with felt-covered flat pieces of powder-coated metal which inserted into a horizontal mounting bracket which secured to the rear of the flat panel. The felt lining made sliding the speakers incredibly easy and smooth and also did a nice job of protecting all of the involved components in the process. By carrying the width of the center mounting bracket and adjusting the sliding positions of each speaker, display sizes from 40" - 63" can be accommodated (the minimum height of their shortest grille is 23.8".)

This review is a bit unique in that Artison supplied us with a pair of Sketch speakers but not a complete 5.1 system. In order to test the center DualMono channel we needed to pop in some 5.1 content and, presumably, add a sub. Because this would obviously introduce a lot more elements into the mix, we decided to begin our listening sessions with two channel material and add in the DualMono speaker afterwards. When we did do 5.1 listening, we greatly de-emphasized the surround speaker volume and focused on the front three channels 舑 paying particular attention to the DualMono center.

I queued up the title track of this excellently recorded piano piece and settled back to hear the two-channel capabilities of the Sketch system. I could clearly discern the soundstage and was listening for the ability of these speakers to fill the room with music and allow sound to "escape" the confines of the two boxes. The Sketch speakers are quite transparent. In fact, the raw piano keystrokes sounded as if they were being played right in front of me. Reverb sounded natural in its smooth decay and the top end attack of the upright bass was crisp. Brushes were used on the drums and their texture could almost be felt. This system definitely succeeds in producing plenty of high frequency detail.

Track 3 "Early in the Morning" served up more of the same great soundstage, this time narrower due to the particular mix 舑 but clear nonetheless. Acoustics bass entered more distinctly after about 2 minutes into the song and the Artison's lent themselves very well to reproducing the sound of that instrument within the mix. The Sketch speakers also blended well with the RBH Sound SI-1010/P subwoofer utilized in the listening room. With this system a decent subwoofer is going to be a necessary item for anyone desiring to get full bodied sound from these speakers.

For something a bit more contemporary I popped in Sting's Ten Summoner's Tales album and pressed 'Play'. Right off the bat I noticed that the upper frequency response was ultra clear and crisp, but I wanted a bit more out of the midrange - it just wasn't present with enough gusto to liberate this track to its potential. Artison stated that this is a result of crossover voicing as opposed to driver size. They indicated that you may have to introduce and raise the center channel level during set up to balance to a particular preference. As I was doing 2-channel listening tests, I suppose the suggestion here is to introduce Pro Logic II Music modes and adjust to taste. This track was also much more compressed (indeed, so is the album) which carries its own set of challenges. "Fields of Gold" had more breathing room in the mix and sounded very full on the Sketch speakers. The short guitar solo about two minutes into the song was distinct and crisply detailed. Background music elements could easily be differentiated within the mix and I never felt that the loudspeakers were compressing the tracks for lack of dynamics. "Seven Days" is the final track I evaluated and I selected it for its ultra-wide reverberant mix. This came through completely whereas other speakers I have heard collapsed the soundstage for inability to deliver the necessary decay time and detail. This is particularly important as you cannot exactly toe-in these speakers (or any flat panel speakers we know of) to compensate for poor off-axis upper frequency response. With the Artisons, you don't need to.

In testing the Artison Sketch speakers' DualMono center channel I lined up several multi-channel music discs and recalibrated the entire system for levels and crossover, but then backed off the surrounds by about 6dB. In this way I was able to concentrate on the DualMono center channel performance when utilized with multi-channel audio tracks

The first song I played off this DTS album was "I Can't Tell You Why". This disc is more of a live concert mix, having most of the music content up front and making lots of use of the center channel. Vocals were smooth, but laid back and I found that I preferred raising the center channel level about 1-2 dB to get a better presence. The Sketch speakers did not seem to have a problem imaging, but it was much narrower on this mix than I have heard on other box speakers. "New York Minute" introduced some distinct piano which did seem to transcend the boundaries of the loudspeakers and extend towards to the side walls. The top end of the bass was crisp and reverb held a nice long decay.

"Turn It Up Salvadore" from the Toy Matinee DTS disc brought guitars to the forefront as well as a snare with a nice, tight snap. Both sounded very good and imaged well with the DualMono center channel. The soundstage on this disc was about as wide as the display and center channel content was clearly and cleanly anchored in the center of the screen. Vocals on this track and the next, "Things She Said", were a tad lacking in midrange detail. It was almost as if the 4.5" midrange drivers were outclassed by the Vifa tweeters. Again, I felt as if this was a necessary design limitation and it still left a pleasing overall experience.