I did not know if anyone over here was really interested in the Onix speakers but I just got the Ref 1's and I just hate them...
Seriously...very unimpressive speaker to look at right out of the box (Tongue planted firmly in cheek). I purchased black and the finish is outstanding but they are just rectangular boxes. For my money I wanted Nautilus type tweeters or maybe a dome midrange or maybe slanted baffles or maybe rounded edges or maybe (Tongue planted firmly in cheek again)....Oh well I decided that I might want to listen to them instead of just look at them and guess what, they sound incredible right out of the box. Not perfect mind you but incredible. The tweeter is a tad edgy even for my tastes( and I love NHT's) and the midrange is a bit forward and honky. I spoke to Sean and he assured me this will take care of itself in a few hours (about 100) of use. They will be run constantly over the next 3-4 days to fix this. Anyway aside from these things, the speakers sound incredible. Now I am a monitor person. I have had many monitors in my system since the late 80's like B&W 805s, Spica TC-50's, Linn Sara's, Celestion 700s, Paradigm Studio 20's, NEAR 15M's, PSB Minis, NHT 1.5s etc. I have lived with all these speakers; some for short trials and some for much longer. I would consider most all of these speakers outstanding in at least one area (imaging, soundstage, bass, midrange, highs etc) but the Ref's sound great in all areas. They sound much bigger than they look and the bass performance is incredible for such a small woofer. As a matter of fact, they do not need a subwoofer for my tastes in 2 channel. The imaging is very good and the soundstage extends well beyond the speakers, This is something I was not really hearing with my NHT's. Also I am hearing some pretty serious layering of instruments that I was not picking up. Overall these sound like serious speakers. The best description I can give is like when you walk into a high end dealer's showroom and you hear someting playing and you ask "what speakers are those playing" because you know immediately that they are expensive. Well thats what my den sounds like now. I will be following up with a full review in a couple of weeks but I will continue to post impressions as I come across them.
I have posted a very low rez picture of one of the speakers over at AVS. I can send pictures if anyone is inetersted, just email me.
Eric Awtry
War Eagle
Seriously...very unimpressive speaker to look at right out of the box (Tongue planted firmly in cheek). I purchased black and the finish is outstanding but they are just rectangular boxes. For my money I wanted Nautilus type tweeters or maybe a dome midrange or maybe slanted baffles or maybe rounded edges or maybe (Tongue planted firmly in cheek again)....Oh well I decided that I might want to listen to them instead of just look at them and guess what, they sound incredible right out of the box. Not perfect mind you but incredible. The tweeter is a tad edgy even for my tastes( and I love NHT's) and the midrange is a bit forward and honky. I spoke to Sean and he assured me this will take care of itself in a few hours (about 100) of use. They will be run constantly over the next 3-4 days to fix this. Anyway aside from these things, the speakers sound incredible. Now I am a monitor person. I have had many monitors in my system since the late 80's like B&W 805s, Spica TC-50's, Linn Sara's, Celestion 700s, Paradigm Studio 20's, NEAR 15M's, PSB Minis, NHT 1.5s etc. I have lived with all these speakers; some for short trials and some for much longer. I would consider most all of these speakers outstanding in at least one area (imaging, soundstage, bass, midrange, highs etc) but the Ref's sound great in all areas. They sound much bigger than they look and the bass performance is incredible for such a small woofer. As a matter of fact, they do not need a subwoofer for my tastes in 2 channel. The imaging is very good and the soundstage extends well beyond the speakers, This is something I was not really hearing with my NHT's. Also I am hearing some pretty serious layering of instruments that I was not picking up. Overall these sound like serious speakers. The best description I can give is like when you walk into a high end dealer's showroom and you hear someting playing and you ask "what speakers are those playing" because you know immediately that they are expensive. Well thats what my den sounds like now. I will be following up with a full review in a couple of weeks but I will continue to post impressions as I come across them.
I have posted a very low rez picture of one of the speakers over at AVS. I can send pictures if anyone is inetersted, just email me.
Eric Awtry
War Eagle
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