Decided to Upgrade (By Accident!)

[Qman]

Well Omerome, have you received your shipment yet? I'm outta popcorn! :-)

[omerome]

My shipment should be coming in tomorrow. I wish I could just wish it here now though!

[Qman]

Any updates? The curious grow restless!

[omerome]

Any updates? The curious grow restless!

So here are my thoughts. Now, it may sound like I'm going all over the place as you read on and it's because I am! It's hard to put these thoughts in order because I didn't have any! The speakers arrived on Thursday afternoon and I greeted the UPS guy before he even ran my doorbell lol. I immediately grabbed them and started to unbox them and put them together. I originally mounted the 2EXs on my old SF30s just to try them out, and yes, it was a little too high so I just ordered the SF26s to bring them to ear level. And I think that was probably the reason why my initial impression was mildly impressive. Once I got past the boring assembly of the SF26s when they came in on Saturday, it was back to listening. Now to be fair, my old Energy speakers are still in their own right very good at what they do, but I have to say, the 2EXs have detail that I didn't expect and I was seriously impressed as I listened to more content. I mean, how in the world are the 2EX speakers outputting so much sound?! I mean, it is really something else. I started to hear what it is hard to explain, but in my opinion as more detailed bass in some songs in the mid-range and I hope I am explaining this right. But I found previously in some songs where the bass from the mids have sounded like one note - almost muddy. But I was hearing several different thumps - like I was hearing more of the notes I should be hearing - and in some cases, quick thumps, instead of everything blending together as one. So I started listening to different albums in my music collection (Mariah Carey, Tamia, Usher, etc., and even some Jazz) and I was just impressed with parts of the song I don't remember hearing even after having many of those songs on repeat over the years! Also, what I really like about these speakers is that I can actually see myself falling asleep while listening to music! It's so relaxing and not fatiguing. Now I see why my dad used to do this while I was a kid.

Anyways, it wasn't just in music. I also listened to some movies, watched some TV shows, and played video games and like the 2EXs, I was mildly impressed with the Duo center at first. It sounded thin, but started to sound clearer with the more content I started to play through it. Call me crazy, but watching Dunkirk even at -16 was more than audible for me and that movie if you haven't watched it really can shake a room and these speakers did that with my SB13 Ultra sub. It really makes me wonder how some of you all listen to reference levels!

The HTM 200s as my surround speakers were every bit as good as I hoped. I just had a bit of an issue unrelated to the speakers themselves, in that I had to extend my speaker wire a bit more because it was about 4-5 inches too short to connect to the new surrounds since the RC-10s were a direct replacement and they were deeper. But once I got over that problem, I loved the smaller stature of these speakers while at the same time liked just how well they blended in with everything. Playing FF7 Remake and panning the camera side to side to hear the voices change from left to right so seamlessly without sounding overbearing was amazing.

[Pogre]

So here are my thoughts. Now, it may sound like I'm going all over the place as you read on and it's because I am! It's hard to put these thoughts in order because I didn't have any! The speakers arrived on Thursday afternoon and I greeted the UPS guy before he even ran my doorbell lol. I immediately grabbed them and started to unbox them and put them together. I originally mounted the 2EXs on my old SF30s just to try them out, and yes, it was a little too high so I just ordered the SF26s to bring them to ear level. And I think that was probably the reason why my initial impression was mildly impressive. Once I got past the boring assembly of the SF26s when they came in on Saturday, it was back to listening. Now to be fair, my old Energy speakers are still in their own right very good at what they do, but I have to say, the 2EXs have detail that I didn't expect and I was seriously impressed as I listened to more content. I mean, how in the world are the 2EX speakers outputting so much sound?! I mean, it is really something else. I started to hear what it is hard to explain, but in my opinion as more detailed bass in some songs in the mid-range and I hope I am explaining this right. But I found previously in some songs where the bass from the mids have sounded like one note - almost muddy. But I was hearing several different thumps - like I was hearing more of the notes I should be hearing - and in some cases, quick thumps, instead of everything blending together as one. So I started listening to different albums in my music collection (Mariah Carey, Tamia, Usher, etc., and even some Jazz) and I was just impressed with parts of the song I don't remember hearing even after having many of those songs on repeat over the years! Also, what I really like about these speakers is that I can actually see myself falling asleep while listening to music! It's so relaxing and not fatiguing. Now I see why my dad used to do this while I was a kid.

Anyways, it wasn't just in music. I also listened to some movies, watched some TV shows, and played video games and like the 2EXs, I was mildly impressed with the Duo center at first. It sounded thin, but started to sound clearer with the more content I started to play through it. Call me crazy, but watching Dunkirk even at -16 was more than audible for me and that movie if you haven't watched it really can shake a room and these speakers did that with my SB13 Ultra sub. It really makes me wonder how some of you all listen to reference levels!

The HTM 200s as my surround speakers were every bit as good as I hoped. I just had a bit of an issue unrelated to the speakers themselves, in that I had to extend my speaker wire a bit more because it was about 4-5 inches too short to connect to the new surrounds since the RC-10s were a direct replacement and they were deeper. But once I got over that problem, I loved the smaller stature of these speakers while at the same time liked just how well they blended in with everything. Playing FF7 Remake and panning the camera side to side to hear the voices change from left to right so seamlessly without sounding overbearing was amazing.

I think you did a great job describing what you heard. The way you're describing the bass is what I would call "texture".

I have the Sierra 2s and am really impressed with their bass performance for a speaker that size. I can only imagine the EX versions being even better.

[omerome]

I think you did a great job describing what you heard. The way you're describing the bass is what I would call "texture".

I have the Sierra 2s and am really impressed with their bass performance for a speaker that size. I can only imagine the EX versions being even better.

Yes, that's it. It felt like I was listening to music in layers. There are some songs by Mariah Carey that start off with a high note from a piano or a harp and it's like it's enveloping me as the listener instead of just being notes.

[SunByrne]

I have the Sierra 2s and am really impressed with their bass performance for a speaker that size. I can only imagine the EX versions being even better.

The EX is generally a better speaker than the S2 (except for the highs, where it's basically the same thing), but the place where it's really pronounced is the low end. Dave broke physics with these. There's just no way speakers that size with a 6" driver can produce lows like that... but they do.

[Pogre]

The EX is generally a better speaker than the S2 (except for the highs, where it's basically the same thing), but the place where it's really pronounced is the low end. Dave broke physics with these. There's just no way speakers that size with a 6" driver can produce lows like that... but they do.

I considered the EX kit for my 2s but my room is large and I sit too far from my speakers to hit the spl I like sometimes so I opted for the towers, and boy I'm glad I did. My normal listening range is 70 - 75 dB for music, but I'll bump up to reference for a song every once in a while. I've had the drivers in these towers jumping a few times now, lol.

[racrawford65]

TOOL song ?

[SunByrne]

I considered the EX kit for my 2s but my room is large and I sit too far from my speakers to hit the spl I like sometimes so I opted for the towers, and boy I'm glad I did.

Well, sure, the Towers are even better than the EXs... but they're Towers. What's amazing is that the EXs have similar bass extension to the Towers, despite the single driver doing both bass and mids (as opposed to two dedicated bas drivers) and the much smaller volume. But yes, of course the Towers are awesome.