AT-SP3X Active compact speakers

Was using Klipsch "The Sevens" powered speakers, which have good sound but are unreliable. First pair were DOA, second pair failed within two years. - Got these Audio-Technica AT-SP3X to fill the gap until the Klipsch can be fixed / replaced. With cheap bookshelf speakers, the question always is: will they turn out to be just thin, tinny computer speakers? - VERY FAR FROM IT! Immediately I got them fired up, just - wow!! I mainly listen to jazz and classical and they're more than loud enough with the volume knob not even half way around its travel. At full volume, they're WAY too loud for general listening! - They have a subtle, spacious, captivating sound - simply a pleasure to listen to. - I'm running them on heavy speaker stands, spiked through carpet into wood flooring, in a 2.5 meter equilateral triangle from the listening position, about 40 cm from the side walls (bookshelves), 2.5 meters from the back wall (bookshelves). - Sources are via Bluetooth from a laptop and wired phono from a CD player. Click the ON/OFF button to toggle the inputs through Bluetooth (two sources) and wired. (Holding the button down for 3 secs puts the speakers into standby.) A little LED on the button changes from blue for Bluetooth input (with a little boop-boop sound confirming connection), green for wired and red for standby. Bluetooth pairing is fuss-free. - They have the speaker pair's serial number on the back of each unit and manufacturing date on the bottom, i.e. they're likely matched pairs. - The only downsides I can see are: 1. Lack of a remote control means you have to walk over to the primary speaker to adjust volume or change input. 2. Primary (right) speaker, with controls and inputs, can't be switched from R to L. 3. Bluetooth running only the most basic SBC codec (although sounding absolutely fine). - At this price, Audio-Technica have pared them down to the essentials and made the right choices. - Bluetooth latency tests on youtube indicate about a 160 millisecond audio delay. - The AT-SP3X specs give frequency response as 55-20,000 Hz but, playing youtube speaker test tracks, 40 Hz is clearly audible. Response then gently falls away through 28 Hz (just audible) to 20 Hz, where the woofer cones are still vibrating but inaudible. - The listening reality, after they're fully burned in (several weeks), is that there's absolutely NO lack of bass from these speakers despite their ludicrously small size. Even classic 90s hip-hop CDs sound pretty good. The floor does vibrate... if maybe not quite the windows! - Search youtube for Grilled Cheese and Bacon Joey DeFrancesco for a bass-heavy jazz track. - Search youtube for Thomas Ospital A l'ombre des Halles for a brutal speaker workout. Starts mysterious, spooky... The madness begins around the 8 minute mark! - These speakers do expose poor recordings mercilessly (although poor recordings of amazing performances always trump amazing recordings of poor performances). With quality recordings, they shine - natural presentation, big sound, great staging. Their tiny size truly is deceptive. - The supplied inter-speaker connecting cable is only 2 meters long so I'm using an old 6.5 meters long Atlas Hyper 2.0 speaker cable to reach down to the floor and between the speaker stands. A bit long but works fine - no loss of volume or power. - (Banana plugs don't fit the AT-SP3X's cable clamps. An effective adaptation - banana plug to cable clamp: 1.75 mm Ø solid copper house wire wound around the banana plug prong a few times then bent parallel, the wire and prong shrouded with heat shrink tubing to prevent the plugs shorting together and the free wire end flattened down to about 1 mm thickness to maximise contact area when pushed into the AT-SP3X's cable clamps.) - My mind is blown by these speakers. Totally recommended. - Edit (twenty-three weeks later): If you want to impress your friends (or yourself) with gigantic, outrageously expensive speakers, these won't do it! Their compactness is so unassuming, doesn't dominate the room like larger speakers and, as near-point sources, must be contributing to their superb sound stage. - A reasonable measure of an audio system's quality is how much music you actually find yourself listening to on it. The AT-SP3X's sheer musicality just keeps drawing me in. These speakers just keep delivering. - Waste of time going back to the Klipsch now. These do it for me. Life is too short.

👍🏼

Très bien

Awesome speakers. I can't find anything to complain about. Just make sure to buy an rca to 3.5mm cable if you want plug in a phone or your zune.

Parfait..