[Ken Ross]

I heard these speakers today at a high end audio dealer. I was very impressed with the sound and the imaging....at least in his setup. Does anyone have any experience with these?

 

[Jake Sm]

I thought they sounded good until I heard them compared to the B&W FPM speakers.....

 

[Ken Ross]

Jake, that's funny, because my reaction was exactly the opposite. I thought the FPMs sounded very good but when I heard the Artisons, I thought it made the FPMs sound thin. To my ears the Artisons had a much fuller sound. The dealer agreed even though he carried both and the FPMs are more expensive. We tried both with and without a sub, playing the same material. It just shows how subjective the whole speaker thing is.


P.S. Listening again, I'm a bit concerned about the integrity of the center channel effect. Comparing a newscast for example, the dedicated center channel speaker seems to provide a more believable 'anchored' feeling than the Portraits' attempt at creating that center channel effect.

 

[Jake Sm]

I'll have to revisit my comparison, cause I wasn't exactly looking at the reciever settings x-over points, sub settings etc.

Maybe I'll just take the sub out of the equation... I have been toying with some of these for myself personally, but am now playing with the notion of Bohlander Graebener's on wall's ...will post more later, if I can

 

[Ken Ross]

In a subsequent test, I find that the center channel image is too dependent upon your seating position. Any position off center tends to result in a center image that shifts toward the speaker your closer to. Looks like I'm back to the B&Ws. My wife also thought the speakers made the plasma look too massive.

 

[7Below]

This has been rather popular at a local dealer in NY for plasma surround speakers: http://www.leonspeakers.com just another option...