Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Boston Acoustics CR8 Speakers by Tuneman

Model:	CR8
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$350.00
Description:	2 way bookshelf speakers with 1
Manufacturer URL:	Boston Acoustics
Manufacturer URL:	Boston Acoustics

Review by Tuneman on August 30, 2001 at 07:42:47
IP Address: 64.12.105.183

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I took a set of these speakers home to see if they were worthy of praise they have recceived in the past. I wanted to see how they stacked up against the Paradigm mini monitor, my entry level bookshelf speaker of reference. I was impressed at the way the vocals sounded on Sting's "Band new day", they had the depth of the mini monitor, yet the mid bass in CR8's was just a tad smoother in its presentation. I then put on The Dixie Chicks', "Wide Open spaces", the female vocals on "In your loving arms",lost some of the seperation in the Harmonies that the Mini Monitors had. The thing that stood out the most about the CR8's was how laid back in song "It's good to be king" from Tom Petty's Wildflowers cd, some of the Edginess was missing in the song, almost muted in a way. The highs ranged from a tad bit edgy, to a bit mellow, all depending on what I was listening to. Now it was on to the classical music. Cannon in D minor, a personal favorite of mine lost some of the highest parts of the violins in the upper midrange and the song sounded a bit dark and compressed. I thought I would hook the CR8's to my audiosource amp1 and sony CE275, as it would be a more realistic representation of what the average listener's equipment would be if they were to purchase an entry level 2-way bookshelf speaker. The harshness of this system was tammed quite nicely, but some of the details of the Bells were lost on the recording of "ColorBlind" from "This desert life", sort of a trade-off if you are using an enrty level set up. All in all, the CR8, is a fairly well balanced speaker for rock music featuring male vocals and can take the edge off some of those brighter recordings, but for female vocals and some classical music, you might want to look elsewhere.

Product Weakness: Not the best speaker for classical music with loads of detail.
Product Strengths: Could tame a bright sounding system, laid back and mellow sounding.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Pioneer VSX36, Audiosource AMP1
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	none
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Pioneer DV503, Sony CE275
Speakers:	Cr8, Studio 100, mini monitor, titans
Cables/Interconnects:	Monster xp, monster M550i, radio shack
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	classical, pop, rock, country, new wave
Room Size (LxWxH):	9 x 7 x 20
Room Comments/Treatments:	none
Time Period/Length of Audition:	2 days
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Monster HTS 1000
Type of Audition/Review:	Home Audition

Product Weakness:	Not the best speaker for classical music with loads of detail.
Product Strengths:	Could tame a bright sounding system, laid back and mellow sounding.