Dishwalla Live: Greetings from the Flow State (DualDisc) 

Dishwalla's Live DualDisc was a recent review of mine that I was occasionally popping in to revisit to answer questions Gene and Clint had. It is a fairly good album that fans will enjoy and people with a passing knowledge of the band won't hate. I used this album to test the speaker's ability to handle music and clapping under less than ideal recording conditions. Imaging was decent in the sweet spot and nothing sounded overly harsh to me. The guitar did sound a little bloated at times but other than that I found the experience to emulate my original listening session with my Axioms.

Porcupine Tree - Deadwing (DTS) 

Porcupine Tree - Deadwing (DTS) is really a reference album for surround implementation. The more you listen to this album, the more surround elements you can discover. The depth of the album consistently astounds me. I use this album mostly to test movement between speakers, soundstaging, and to determine speaker placement. I found in more than one song that as long as I sat in the right spot, surround elements (movement across the front of the room for the most part) sounded great. If I moved my head a little or if one of the speakers wasn't pointed right at me, suddenly, the sound would seem to fall out of the movement just to appear in another speaker later. For example, in Track 4 - "Halo", there are a number of elements that start in surround left and move around the front of the room and end up in surround right. If one of the mains wasn't positioned right, it would "skip" that speaker, seeming to get lost in the soundstage, only to regain its focus as it moved to the next. Some of the ballads on this album have some amazing sound quality - especially of the acoustic guitar. The elara speakers (all of them - not just the mains) did a fantastic job of creating a lifelike sound. I love it when you can hear the pick on the guitar strings and almost discern the type of pick used.

Blue Man Group - The Complex (DTS) 

The Blue Man Group - The Complex (DTS) is a great album for a number of reasons - not all of which I'll mention here. I am extremely familiar with this album as it is a favorite with my two and a half year old (along with Elmo, Bob the Builder , and Thomas the Train ). The Complex is one of the only albums I own that truly has low bass. I use it mostly to set crossover points and to test the extension of the speakers. I even ran these speakers in full range without the sub to see how they would react. In all fairness, they did pretty good. I wouldn't recommend it, but for most of the music that is out there, you wouldn't be missing a lot more than the kick drum. Now for Movies - you'd definitely not want to do that.

Conclusions and Overall Perceptions

What do you say about speakers at this price range? They sound pretty darn good to my ears and I think that many would be pleased as punch to own them. The aesthetics are way above average though a bit higher quality veneer would have been appreciated. I can definitely see these working in a bachelor pad where you'd like to impress your friends without breaking the bank and you don't have to share the sweet spot with anyone.