S2000 MTM

Customer Reviews

1. 
   High(-ish) Sensitivity Magic. review by John Booty on 3/23/2018

   Design

   Performance

   Value

   These are phenomenal.
   
   Bass is clear and deep, down into the 40hz range with a little help from room placement fairly close to a wall. Hip-hop sounds phenomenal. I tested with a wide variety of genres and these really have no weaknesses.
   
   Highs and mids are clear and detailed. Perhaps not the best I've heard, but quite nice and very good for this price range.
   
   Off-axis performance is quite good. There is a sweet spot for sure, but you don't pay a harsh penalty as you move about the room.
   
   Where these shine is their ridiculous output and sensitivity, given their relatively compact size. I have no idea where the limit of these speakers is. I pushed them hard with my Emotiva A-100 (a solid, low-distortion 80wpc into 4ohms) and these sounded like they wanted more. If you have never heard relatively high-sensitivity speakers like these, you may not know what you're missing. High-sensitivity speakers really make the music come alive, particularly with well-recorded music with a high dynamic range.
   
   Only time these speakers complained was with some particularly punishing tracks with bass down into the 20-30hz range. They didn't audibly distort or anything, but I sort of felt bad for the helpless speaker cones as they flopped around and tried to play frequencies they weren't physically capable of playing. Please understand: tracks like that are rare, and nothing you've ever heard on the radio has real content that deep.
   
   ~~ Recommendations ~~
   
   1. I tested with music only but unless you have a very large room, these speakers could be home theater monsters in anything resembling a typical middle-class residential home.
   2. If you cross them over to a subwoofer, use a fairly low crossover point so you don't waste their extremely potent midbass. Do NOT cross them any higher than 60hz, or I will find you and hurt you. =)
   3. For music use, you probably don't need a subwoofer.
   
   ~~ Compared To Other DIY Speaker Kits ~~
   
   Overnight Sensations MTM: Please, please please consider the S2000 instead. I like the OS MTM but for slightly more money, the S2000 MTM is better in every way.
   
   Classix II: The Classix II have a wider soundstage and more bass extension. In a small room at low to moderate they may be preferable to the S2000. However, the S2000 dwarf them when it comes to sheer output and power handling.
   
   Speedsters: In a small room, the Speedsters' on-axis performance is unrivaled in this price range... the ribbon tweeters are magic and the woofers are tiny miracles. However, their narrow dispersion (and therefore poor off-axis performance) makes them a tough sell.
   
   C-Notes: They're an insane value. At moderate volumes they compete well with the S2000 MTM. If you don't need the extra output of the S2000, the C-Notes may be a better choice, particularly if crossed over to a subwoofer.
   
   Ares TM/MTM and Apollo TM/MTM: Sadly I haven't built/listened to these. The Ares TM is certainly a very interesting alternative; going "by the numbers" it has deeper extension but is a full 6dB less sensitive.