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I'm surprised no one else has posted anything about this speaker yet considering the hype and how many people have been posting here asking about them. I took a long time posting my review of the 5.2Fs so I'll try to redeem myself a bit by being the first to post my impressions of the 5.2C. I had good reasons though... I wasn't able to get much time with them at first due to circumstances beyond my control, plus it was my first Swans experience and I wanted to really get to know the speakers before posting anything about them. Now that I know (and love) the 5.2Fs rather well, evaluating the 5.2C is a much simpler proposition.
In case you're wondering if the 5.2C meets expectations and holds its own with the 5.2Fs, the answer is a very serious YES!! Yeah baby, it does indeed. :D
It's Tuesday night 9/12/06 and I've now had the new 5.2C since Friday. To my shock and delight, FedEx delivered early Friday afternoon instead of the estimated date of Monday! UPS has NEVER done that for me. Naturally I immediately and mysteriously developed a stiff neck, forcing me to cancel my evening plans and run out to Ikea to buy an appropriately sized shelf for the 5.2C. :wink: By late Friday evening it was up in its new home (took me a couple hours, I'm not very handy with stuff like hanging shelves and of course Ikea didn't have the necessary mounting hardware to go with the shelf so I had to drop by Home Depot...).
Per Jon Lane, all Swan speakers want ~ 100 hours break-in before really sounding their best, so this is just my first (pre-break-in) impressions of this speaker to go with my LONG review located here of the 5.2F mains. I'll be needing to update that review soon too since the 5.2 mains are now in their more or less permanent home (til I move) in my 11' x 11'9" x 7.5' bedroom. The space is too small for this system but it's cosy and sounds awesome so I'm good for now.
First let me answer a couple of the important questions we've all been asking Jon but for some reason he's been unable to answer (couldn't be a bit hyper-focused on the Aspen series, could he? ;)). The new 5.2C center channel speaker is a 2-way, 3-driver MTM design featuring a pair of the same 6.5" paper/kevlar mid-bass drivers used in the 5.2F mains, plus a center/flush-mounted (NOT top-mounted) silk dome tweeter. I assume it's essentially the same as the top-mounted tweeter used throughout the rest of the x.2 line, only flush in the baffle rather than top-mounted. I was a bit disappointed in this, though it is a big, beautiful speaker nonetheless. I was hoping (though not expecting) they would have decided to make this a 3-way speaker and fit the 5.25" midrange in there (wouldn't have been too hard if they'd made it a few inches wider and gave it the top-mounted tweeter design rather than a baffle-mounted one) but they didn't.
Of course the 5.2C features the same beautiful curved rosewood sides as the mains, with the black matte plastic baffle and rear piece. Mercifully, the binding posts are REAR-mounted! Woooo!! Of course it would have been even more stupid to bottom-mount this speaker's binding posts than it was on the mains. They are however the same rather undersized gold-plated binding posts used on the mains, and the speaker, like the mains, is not bi-ampable. I was rather hoping against hope that Swan would have realized this design was unpopular and (IMO) inadequate, but apparently not. (Sorry Jon, you know the binding post design is one of my few pet peeves about the x.2 series.)
The 5.2C is rear-ported with two small ports. I didn't measure them and I'd have to take the speaker down to do it, but I'm guessing they're about 2" wide.
Dimensions: 22.5" W x 12" D x 9" H. Shipping weight was 38 pounds. I did not weigh the speaker (too anxious to get it installed!) but I'd guess 35 pounds or less out of the box.
The speaker includes no feet of any kind, even little rubber stick-on joints. Since I have it mounted over my monitor (a 32" Westinghouse LCD HDTV), I tilted it down towards the listening position by simply propping up the back with several empty CD jewel cases. To keep it from sliding around I placed a piece of non-slip rubber matting under the leading edge, which works nicely. Were I a really handy type, I probably would have trimmed the shelf down to just the right size for the speaker, but since I'm not, I didn't. I could always do it in the future, since it's an unfinished shelf.
By the way I've been running the 5.2s with grilles off due to the vibration at high volumes others have noticed, so I did the same with the 5.2C. I plan to try the fix another user cleverly posted a few months ago, using stick-on felt dots on the grille braces.
My equipment includes an Onkyo TX-SR702 100 watt/ch. receiver which I'm using as a pre-pro and to power my center and surrounds. I'm using a Blue Ice Z-5000 power amp to drive the 5.2Fs. Rated at 350 watts/chan. at 8 ohms, this pro DJ amp might not have quite the sweet polished sound that something upper mid-fi like a Rotel amp would have, but it's a good match for the 5.2s and quite reasonably priced. It sounds clean and provides plenty of clean power, something the 5.2s require. I found pretty quickly that the Onkyo's built-in amps weren't quite able to bring out the real potential of these big speakers; they would start choking a bit when I started pushing the volume. The Blue Ice utterly eliminated that problem. However in my weekend of listening, the Onkyo did just fine powering the 5.2C.
My DVD player is your basic Toshiba progressive scan whatever, connected with optical digital cable (plus 6 channels of Dayton Audio RCA cables from PartsExpress for multi-channel analog DVD-As, which I don't use too often). I also have my iPod hooked up to the receiver using a nice 3rd party "hifi" dock (meaning not the Apple one) that features gold-plated RCA connectors and no volume control (straight line-level connections) for listening to MP3s, which I pretty much exclusively do at 320 kbps VBR encoded with LAME for music listening. It's a nice, good-sounding solution for keeping my large music collection in one portable device while maintaining a high enough level of sound quality to satisfy me. However for the purpose of reviewing the 5.2C, I only used DVDs.
For sub duty I have an SVS PB10-ISD and a Hsu VTF-2 Mk 2 hooked up with a Dayton Audio Y-connector and cables from the receiver's sub output. Crossover is set at 80Hz, all speakers set to "small." I originally bought the Hsu for use in my mixing room and the SVS for my HT system, but now my recording gear and HT system are all integrated in this one system so it's a bit redundant considering the size of my little room. Yeah it's cool watching War of the Worlds or Poseidon or Lord of the Rings with TWO hot subs in one tiny room, but it's total overkill for music, plus the SVS really handles the bottom end quite nicely by itself in this room even on seriously heavy movies. I'm considering putting the Hsu, which is almost brand new in glossy piano black, on eBay and using the cash to pick up another set of bookshelf speakers... Another set of CBM-170SEs or maybe the Swans 2.1BC... :)
Prior to receiving the 5.2C, I was using one of my Ascend Acoustics CBM-170SEs as a center, and my SVS SBS-01s (small bookshelf speakers) as surrounds. This was fine for movies, not great but fine, but of course having the center located off to the side was distracting. Plus the CBM-170SE is a GREAT bookshelf speaker but just different enough from the sound of the Swans to notice it. Incidentally, while I like the SVS SBS-01s and think they would do fine in a complete 5.1 or 7.1 system in a small room as a cheap HT system that blows away any HTiB solution, I've never been thrilled with them as surrounds. I have to push them a lot hotter in the receiver's setup to get them loud enough due to their rather low sensitivity, plus they never really create a believable sound field behind me. I could always hear things happening in the left or the right rear speaker. This would mirror my impressions of them as mains, that they're really nice small cheap speakers but just don't image very well.
After I received the 5.2C, I decided to try the Ascends in the back as my surrounds instead of the SBS-01s. Getting the 5.2C up on its shelf centered above the monitor and the CBM-170SEs in back... Well, how shall I describe the improvement in my system performance? I traded in my very nice Toyota Camry for a brand new Mercedes? Yeah, something like that. :) I now have a beautiful, realistic soundfield all around me, not just in front. The Ascends (I know this is a Swan forum but I do love my Ascends) eliminated the distractions from the rear, where I'd hear one SBS-01 or the other doing something, and gave me a sweet, realistic surround field behind me, freeing me up to focus on the performance of the 5.2C.
So how does the 5.2C sound? Well, unsurprisingly, to my professional ear it's a perfect match to the 5.2Fs. Pans across the front are seamless and a perfect tonal match. I can hear, when I focus on it, that the speaker is a bit higher over the LCD monitor than I'd like in a perfect world, but that was unavoidable due to the acoustic panel I have behind the monitor (mainly for studio mixing purposes). Otherwise, dialog in movies is crystal clear with no sibilance or harshness, just like the 5.2F mains. Voices are natural. It's easy to just watch the movie and get swept up in it without noticing the speakers at all. SMOOTH and FULL are two appropriate adjectives. Obviously the 5.2C has a much bigger sound than the Ascend CBM-170SE, as you'd expect.
I have been noticing a hint of boxiness on male voices, especially baritones, like when a male narrator with a deep voice is speaking, but again this doesn't surprise me at all and should soon be rectified. I've been reading extensively about acoustic treatments, and have mine almost but not quite finished. The 5.2C is located on a wooden shelf about 29" down from my ceiling, right against an untreated wall. I have a pair of 2' x 2' x 1" acoustic panels suspended about 5" from my ceiling between the Swans 5.2Fs and my studio monitors (the Ascends) which are located on small built-in shelves at either end of my desk (the LCD monitor sits on the desk), but these don't provide any coverage directly over or in front of the center channel speaker. There's another panel, 2' x 4' by 1", on the wall under the 5.2C shelf behind the LCD monitor, but that wouldn't do anything to help the sound of the 5.2C above it. I couldn't do anything to treat the top part of this wall until I had the 5.2C and its shelf installed. Now I'm planning to suspend another panel, probably 2" of rockwool wrapped in poly batting and burlap, at a 45 degree angle over the 5.2C so that it'll cover part of the ceiling and the wall behind it. I'm hoping it'll function as a mini bass trap to eliminate the slight boxy sound (which would be an emphasis in the upper bass region caused by the location with the ports blowing right into that back wall). Once I've ordered the rockwool and burlap I'll be finishing my 3 large DIY bass trap/broadband absorption panels too, which should clean up the bass and imaging even more in the room, which already sounds really nice (dead, but still nice). I'll treat the underside of the shelf too with more 1" acoustic paneling to keep my studio monitors from sounding boxy. For the moment I've dropped the 250Hz and 80Hz a dB or two on the 5.2C with the Onkyo's built-in 5-band EQ just to smooth the (very slight) problem out in the meantime. Placement and room acoustics are critical folks! :)
BTW here's what I've listened to (and watched) so far this weekend to test the 5.2C:
- Diana Krall, Live In Paris DVD concert. OMG does this sound AMAZING!!!! I've watched some of it several times before in various phases of my HT system setup, but I never finished it. This time I finished it. :) It's very easy to get utterly swept up in this DVD. The sound is so incredible and the performances are just so breathtaking, even if jazz isn't your favorite genre (it's not mine), and it's very difficult to get this concert to sound bad on any system. However with my Swans across the front and the Ascends in the rear with the SVS and Hsu subs both on, WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW. Yeah, it was that good. :shock: BTW, in the past with other center speakers (a BIC Venturi DV-62CLR-S with Ed Frias' crossover mods then the Ascend CBM-170SE), I've loved this concert but felt that there was just the slightest hint more sibilance on Diana's vocals than I'd prefer. I believe her mic was either a Neumann hand-held or a Beyer Dynamic, both great mics, but of course she's at the mercy of the engineer. However with the 5.2C, she still had all the clarity and detail that characterizes her voice, but the sibilance was almost entirely gone. Nice. I have a Phil Collins concert I need to rewatch now... Great sound but he uses a Shure beta wireless, a mic I HATE with a passion for its harsh sound. Should be a bit better on the 5.2C.
- The Butterfly Effect. Love this movie. Honestly I just got swept up in the movie, which I haven't watched in quite a while, and utterly ignored the speakers, including the 5.2C -- which is a very good sign. :) (Of course I did cast my PB10-ISD an affectionate glance or two during Ashton Kutcher's ventures into his past, hehe.)
- Brother Bear -- twice. hehe. OK laugh at me, I love Disney movies, and I think this one's really beautiful. A fine example of surround mix engineers who actually have a clue what to do with all those channels! All sorts of cool things happening all around you, great natural ambiance sounds, etc. Once again the 5.2C completed the seamless front soundstage while the Ascends perfectly filled in the rear. Not an abundance of bass effects on this movie, but it was OK. (The avalanche and stampede scenes really should have had MUCH heavier LFE effects but what can ya do. Maybe they figured all that rumbling might scare the kids too much...)
- Brother Bear 2. Too short dammit! I didn't realize it was only an hour long, being a direct-to-video release. Sad story but quite beautiful and again, wonderful surround mix (if a bit light on bass).
- Star Trek Nemesis. I'm a Trekkie, I admit it (though I've never attended a Trek convention or felt compelled to dress up as a Klingon, hehe) and I loved this movie. I was very disappointed in the soundtracks of several of the previous movies including Insurrection, but this one was vastly better. I do think the Trek audio engineers seriously need to watch Master and Commander, Terminator 2 and 3, Lord of the Rings, The Lion King Platinum Edition, any Pixar movie and a few other choice selections to really get schooled on what to do with your LFE track, but still quite good (but IMO, the highly paid engineers at Lucasfilm need to attend the same classes, dammit).
- Master and Commander, though I only watched a few of the opening scenes. I've watched this movie so many times, I just wasn't in the mood to see the whole thing again, much as I love it. With the 5.2C, it sounded better than I'd ever heard it before. I feel there are very few engineers who truly understand how to use the full potential of multichannel audio soundtracks; whoever mixed Master and Commander is one of those few. (Hopefully this will get better as the technology continues to mature.)
I'll update this review in time as the 5.2C gets broken in and I get my acoustic treatments finished. I'm already VERY pleased with this speaker though and I have no doubt that it's just going to get better and better. :)
For size reference, the LCD screen you see in this picture below the 5.2C is a 32" LCD monitor. The shelf is 31" x 14.25" from Ikea.
In case you're wondering if the 5.2C meets expectations and holds its own with the 5.2Fs, the answer is a very serious YES!! Yeah baby, it does indeed. :D
It's Tuesday night 9/12/06 and I've now had the new 5.2C since Friday. To my shock and delight, FedEx delivered early Friday afternoon instead of the estimated date of Monday! UPS has NEVER done that for me. Naturally I immediately and mysteriously developed a stiff neck, forcing me to cancel my evening plans and run out to Ikea to buy an appropriately sized shelf for the 5.2C. :wink: By late Friday evening it was up in its new home (took me a couple hours, I'm not very handy with stuff like hanging shelves and of course Ikea didn't have the necessary mounting hardware to go with the shelf so I had to drop by Home Depot...).
Per Jon Lane, all Swan speakers want ~ 100 hours break-in before really sounding their best, so this is just my first (pre-break-in) impressions of this speaker to go with my LONG review located here of the 5.2F mains. I'll be needing to update that review soon too since the 5.2 mains are now in their more or less permanent home (til I move) in my 11' x 11'9" x 7.5' bedroom. The space is too small for this system but it's cosy and sounds awesome so I'm good for now.
First let me answer a couple of the important questions we've all been asking Jon but for some reason he's been unable to answer (couldn't be a bit hyper-focused on the Aspen series, could he? ;)). The new 5.2C center channel speaker is a 2-way, 3-driver MTM design featuring a pair of the same 6.5" paper/kevlar mid-bass drivers used in the 5.2F mains, plus a center/flush-mounted (NOT top-mounted) silk dome tweeter. I assume it's essentially the same as the top-mounted tweeter used throughout the rest of the x.2 line, only flush in the baffle rather than top-mounted. I was a bit disappointed in this, though it is a big, beautiful speaker nonetheless. I was hoping (though not expecting) they would have decided to make this a 3-way speaker and fit the 5.25" midrange in there (wouldn't have been too hard if they'd made it a few inches wider and gave it the top-mounted tweeter design rather than a baffle-mounted one) but they didn't.
Of course the 5.2C features the same beautiful curved rosewood sides as the mains, with the black matte plastic baffle and rear piece. Mercifully, the binding posts are REAR-mounted! Woooo!! Of course it would have been even more stupid to bottom-mount this speaker's binding posts than it was on the mains. They are however the same rather undersized gold-plated binding posts used on the mains, and the speaker, like the mains, is not bi-ampable. I was rather hoping against hope that Swan would have realized this design was unpopular and (IMO) inadequate, but apparently not. (Sorry Jon, you know the binding post design is one of my few pet peeves about the x.2 series.)
The 5.2C is rear-ported with two small ports. I didn't measure them and I'd have to take the speaker down to do it, but I'm guessing they're about 2" wide.
Dimensions: 22.5" W x 12" D x 9" H. Shipping weight was 38 pounds. I did not weigh the speaker (too anxious to get it installed!) but I'd guess 35 pounds or less out of the box.
The speaker includes no feet of any kind, even little rubber stick-on joints. Since I have it mounted over my monitor (a 32" Westinghouse LCD HDTV), I tilted it down towards the listening position by simply propping up the back with several empty CD jewel cases. To keep it from sliding around I placed a piece of non-slip rubber matting under the leading edge, which works nicely. Were I a really handy type, I probably would have trimmed the shelf down to just the right size for the speaker, but since I'm not, I didn't. I could always do it in the future, since it's an unfinished shelf.
By the way I've been running the 5.2s with grilles off due to the vibration at high volumes others have noticed, so I did the same with the 5.2C. I plan to try the fix another user cleverly posted a few months ago, using stick-on felt dots on the grille braces.
My equipment includes an Onkyo TX-SR702 100 watt/ch. receiver which I'm using as a pre-pro and to power my center and surrounds. I'm using a Blue Ice Z-5000 power amp to drive the 5.2Fs. Rated at 350 watts/chan. at 8 ohms, this pro DJ amp might not have quite the sweet polished sound that something upper mid-fi like a Rotel amp would have, but it's a good match for the 5.2s and quite reasonably priced. It sounds clean and provides plenty of clean power, something the 5.2s require. I found pretty quickly that the Onkyo's built-in amps weren't quite able to bring out the real potential of these big speakers; they would start choking a bit when I started pushing the volume. The Blue Ice utterly eliminated that problem. However in my weekend of listening, the Onkyo did just fine powering the 5.2C.
My DVD player is your basic Toshiba progressive scan whatever, connected with optical digital cable (plus 6 channels of Dayton Audio RCA cables from PartsExpress for multi-channel analog DVD-As, which I don't use too often). I also have my iPod hooked up to the receiver using a nice 3rd party "hifi" dock (meaning not the Apple one) that features gold-plated RCA connectors and no volume control (straight line-level connections) for listening to MP3s, which I pretty much exclusively do at 320 kbps VBR encoded with LAME for music listening. It's a nice, good-sounding solution for keeping my large music collection in one portable device while maintaining a high enough level of sound quality to satisfy me. However for the purpose of reviewing the 5.2C, I only used DVDs.
For sub duty I have an SVS PB10-ISD and a Hsu VTF-2 Mk 2 hooked up with a Dayton Audio Y-connector and cables from the receiver's sub output. Crossover is set at 80Hz, all speakers set to "small." I originally bought the Hsu for use in my mixing room and the SVS for my HT system, but now my recording gear and HT system are all integrated in this one system so it's a bit redundant considering the size of my little room. Yeah it's cool watching War of the Worlds or Poseidon or Lord of the Rings with TWO hot subs in one tiny room, but it's total overkill for music, plus the SVS really handles the bottom end quite nicely by itself in this room even on seriously heavy movies. I'm considering putting the Hsu, which is almost brand new in glossy piano black, on eBay and using the cash to pick up another set of bookshelf speakers... Another set of CBM-170SEs or maybe the Swans 2.1BC... :)
Prior to receiving the 5.2C, I was using one of my Ascend Acoustics CBM-170SEs as a center, and my SVS SBS-01s (small bookshelf speakers) as surrounds. This was fine for movies, not great but fine, but of course having the center located off to the side was distracting. Plus the CBM-170SE is a GREAT bookshelf speaker but just different enough from the sound of the Swans to notice it. Incidentally, while I like the SVS SBS-01s and think they would do fine in a complete 5.1 or 7.1 system in a small room as a cheap HT system that blows away any HTiB solution, I've never been thrilled with them as surrounds. I have to push them a lot hotter in the receiver's setup to get them loud enough due to their rather low sensitivity, plus they never really create a believable sound field behind me. I could always hear things happening in the left or the right rear speaker. This would mirror my impressions of them as mains, that they're really nice small cheap speakers but just don't image very well.
After I received the 5.2C, I decided to try the Ascends in the back as my surrounds instead of the SBS-01s. Getting the 5.2C up on its shelf centered above the monitor and the CBM-170SEs in back... Well, how shall I describe the improvement in my system performance? I traded in my very nice Toyota Camry for a brand new Mercedes? Yeah, something like that. :) I now have a beautiful, realistic soundfield all around me, not just in front. The Ascends (I know this is a Swan forum but I do love my Ascends) eliminated the distractions from the rear, where I'd hear one SBS-01 or the other doing something, and gave me a sweet, realistic surround field behind me, freeing me up to focus on the performance of the 5.2C.
So how does the 5.2C sound? Well, unsurprisingly, to my professional ear it's a perfect match to the 5.2Fs. Pans across the front are seamless and a perfect tonal match. I can hear, when I focus on it, that the speaker is a bit higher over the LCD monitor than I'd like in a perfect world, but that was unavoidable due to the acoustic panel I have behind the monitor (mainly for studio mixing purposes). Otherwise, dialog in movies is crystal clear with no sibilance or harshness, just like the 5.2F mains. Voices are natural. It's easy to just watch the movie and get swept up in it without noticing the speakers at all. SMOOTH and FULL are two appropriate adjectives. Obviously the 5.2C has a much bigger sound than the Ascend CBM-170SE, as you'd expect.
I have been noticing a hint of boxiness on male voices, especially baritones, like when a male narrator with a deep voice is speaking, but again this doesn't surprise me at all and should soon be rectified. I've been reading extensively about acoustic treatments, and have mine almost but not quite finished. The 5.2C is located on a wooden shelf about 29" down from my ceiling, right against an untreated wall. I have a pair of 2' x 2' x 1" acoustic panels suspended about 5" from my ceiling between the Swans 5.2Fs and my studio monitors (the Ascends) which are located on small built-in shelves at either end of my desk (the LCD monitor sits on the desk), but these don't provide any coverage directly over or in front of the center channel speaker. There's another panel, 2' x 4' by 1", on the wall under the 5.2C shelf behind the LCD monitor, but that wouldn't do anything to help the sound of the 5.2C above it. I couldn't do anything to treat the top part of this wall until I had the 5.2C and its shelf installed. Now I'm planning to suspend another panel, probably 2" of rockwool wrapped in poly batting and burlap, at a 45 degree angle over the 5.2C so that it'll cover part of the ceiling and the wall behind it. I'm hoping it'll function as a mini bass trap to eliminate the slight boxy sound (which would be an emphasis in the upper bass region caused by the location with the ports blowing right into that back wall). Once I've ordered the rockwool and burlap I'll be finishing my 3 large DIY bass trap/broadband absorption panels too, which should clean up the bass and imaging even more in the room, which already sounds really nice (dead, but still nice). I'll treat the underside of the shelf too with more 1" acoustic paneling to keep my studio monitors from sounding boxy. For the moment I've dropped the 250Hz and 80Hz a dB or two on the 5.2C with the Onkyo's built-in 5-band EQ just to smooth the (very slight) problem out in the meantime. Placement and room acoustics are critical folks! :)
BTW here's what I've listened to (and watched) so far this weekend to test the 5.2C:
- Diana Krall, Live In Paris DVD concert. OMG does this sound AMAZING!!!! I've watched some of it several times before in various phases of my HT system setup, but I never finished it. This time I finished it. :) It's very easy to get utterly swept up in this DVD. The sound is so incredible and the performances are just so breathtaking, even if jazz isn't your favorite genre (it's not mine), and it's very difficult to get this concert to sound bad on any system. However with my Swans across the front and the Ascends in the rear with the SVS and Hsu subs both on, WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW. Yeah, it was that good. :shock: BTW, in the past with other center speakers (a BIC Venturi DV-62CLR-S with Ed Frias' crossover mods then the Ascend CBM-170SE), I've loved this concert but felt that there was just the slightest hint more sibilance on Diana's vocals than I'd prefer. I believe her mic was either a Neumann hand-held or a Beyer Dynamic, both great mics, but of course she's at the mercy of the engineer. However with the 5.2C, she still had all the clarity and detail that characterizes her voice, but the sibilance was almost entirely gone. Nice. I have a Phil Collins concert I need to rewatch now... Great sound but he uses a Shure beta wireless, a mic I HATE with a passion for its harsh sound. Should be a bit better on the 5.2C.
- The Butterfly Effect. Love this movie. Honestly I just got swept up in the movie, which I haven't watched in quite a while, and utterly ignored the speakers, including the 5.2C -- which is a very good sign. :) (Of course I did cast my PB10-ISD an affectionate glance or two during Ashton Kutcher's ventures into his past, hehe.)
- Brother Bear -- twice. hehe. OK laugh at me, I love Disney movies, and I think this one's really beautiful. A fine example of surround mix engineers who actually have a clue what to do with all those channels! All sorts of cool things happening all around you, great natural ambiance sounds, etc. Once again the 5.2C completed the seamless front soundstage while the Ascends perfectly filled in the rear. Not an abundance of bass effects on this movie, but it was OK. (The avalanche and stampede scenes really should have had MUCH heavier LFE effects but what can ya do. Maybe they figured all that rumbling might scare the kids too much...)
- Brother Bear 2. Too short dammit! I didn't realize it was only an hour long, being a direct-to-video release. Sad story but quite beautiful and again, wonderful surround mix (if a bit light on bass).
- Star Trek Nemesis. I'm a Trekkie, I admit it (though I've never attended a Trek convention or felt compelled to dress up as a Klingon, hehe) and I loved this movie. I was very disappointed in the soundtracks of several of the previous movies including Insurrection, but this one was vastly better. I do think the Trek audio engineers seriously need to watch Master and Commander, Terminator 2 and 3, Lord of the Rings, The Lion King Platinum Edition, any Pixar movie and a few other choice selections to really get schooled on what to do with your LFE track, but still quite good (but IMO, the highly paid engineers at Lucasfilm need to attend the same classes, dammit).
- Master and Commander, though I only watched a few of the opening scenes. I've watched this movie so many times, I just wasn't in the mood to see the whole thing again, much as I love it. With the 5.2C, it sounded better than I'd ever heard it before. I feel there are very few engineers who truly understand how to use the full potential of multichannel audio soundtracks; whoever mixed Master and Commander is one of those few. (Hopefully this will get better as the technology continues to mature.)
I'll update this review in time as the 5.2C gets broken in and I get my acoustic treatments finished. I'm already VERY pleased with this speaker though and I have no doubt that it's just going to get better and better. :)
For size reference, the LCD screen you see in this picture below the 5.2C is a 32" LCD monitor. The shelf is 31" x 14.25" from Ikea.
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