While poking around on the web looking for speaker designs and what all, I ran across a site I've never seen before. The company appears to offer a wide variety of unrelated equipment and wholesales it to the public. It was there I saw this simple two-way small tower speaker kit.

The price seemed too good to be true and even more so when I read the ad again and found out they were offering a pair of speakers for approximately $25.00 not including shipping. I thought c'mon, what can they sound like? The picture of the cabinets and the speaker drivers looked OK, so why not? Cheap at twice the price and maybe they will make a simple speaker for a bedroom.

I placed my order and selected the least expensive shipping offered via UPS ground. First of many welcome surprises; once they had the order, within the same day I received an email notice confirming my order. Later I received a notice that they had sent all electronic shipping info to UPS. I had the new speakers within three days.

I realized a few things upon examination. The supplied drivers were better than expected and that was to become obvious after they were assembled and connected to my receiver.

The cabinets were good looking in overall appearance but clearly they could be damaged very easily and that's where my own mistake made this problem worse. During assembly I placed the first speaker on a chair with the woofer firmly fit in the cutout of the cabinet. I got a call on my cell and turned away briefly soon to hear the crash of the speaker and cabinet on the carpeted floor. The corner of the cabinet just had to hit the speaker diaphragm thereby not only damaging the corner of the cabinet but also cracking the speaker cone.

After calling myself an idiot and other not so choice names, I thought of what I could do to patch things up. I found the flexible Goop and applied a very thin coat to the back side of the woofer cone. I went to the shop and grabbed my carpenter’s wood glue and put the damaged corner back into place. I later sanded it and applied a little flat black paint.

I first did a fitting and found it necessary to trim the plastic grained laminate stuff away from the holes so you could get the speakers in the pre-cutout holes. That's where I learned how top heavy these cabinets become when speakers are installed and must be handled carefully on a stable platform so as to not tip over.

I trimmed away excess laminate from the font surface of the cabinet with a hobby razor knife once I fitted in the speaker.
So after fitting, trimming, stuffing mounting, connecting and screwing were completed, and no there’s not a Congressman joke lurking in there somewhere, I decided it’s time to listen. Once assembled, they look nice and better still if you aren't clumsy.

How do they sound?

Here’s the surprise, because of the price I wasn’t expecting much. At first I was disappointed with the lack of bass. I allowed my subwoofer to turn on and then they didn’t sound too bad; perhaps a little too much treble but not terribly good on imaging. I was about to pack it in for awhile after listening to some of the female vocalist recordings I have. They usually reveal whether a speaker has the focus and clarity required to appreciate a decent speaker. I looked at how I connected them and then another obvious mistake on my part showed its ugly head; I connected the polarity of the speaker wires opposite from the receiver to each connection in the back.

After executing fist to head, I reconnected the speaker wire to the back of each box and listened to the same music. Wow! Now that sounds much better. Second fist to head. I listened to Patricia Kaas, Diana Krall and Natalie Cole. Now I found out what a real bargain these speakers are. They have excellent detail, clean highs with a reserved midrange. No nasal, cup your hands in front of your mouth sound that many cheap speakers present. The bass isn’t bad but they still sound better with a subwoofer. What’s there for bass isn’t muddy or boomy and you can hear it but not at this size, feel it. C’mon, you don’t really expect a small speaker to produce chest thumping bass do you?

Recommend Yes/No?

Oh I most definitely recommend these speakers at this price. Absolutely no regrets. Yes the cabinets leave a little to be desired in robust construction but if that bothers you, buy this kit anyway and put the speakers in a cabinet you can purchase online or build yourself; you will still have a good sounding bargain. One other thing about the cabinet, the bottom roughly 1/3 is sealed off so the actual cabinet volume doesn’t extend much lower than the port.

I will say one last thing about dealing with Electro Mavin, this was a simple, quick delivery purchase online with a better value than advertised; isn’t that a rarity these days? I’m impressed to purchase something again from them, maybe that Avio Helicopter gearbox if only I had a spare $65,000 laying around.