So I realize I'm resurrecting this thread but I figured I'd jump in since it looks like my Onkyo E-200s might be only the second sighting of these speakers here on Audiokarma. The internet is pretty silent on these and I honestly owe it to this thread that I even own a pair. That said little has been said about the actual sound quality of these so I will share my opinions.
These are a pretty unnassuming pair of speakers that could easily pass for just another pair of 70's-80's crap speakers coming out of Japan. I came across mine on craiglist and almost blew past them but the leaf tweeters intrigued me. So I looked them up and came across this thread. After seeing the quality components--drivers with cast baskets, substantial magnet, sealed midrange, leaf tweeter, decent looking crossover, etc--I contacted the guy and went down to have a look.
My initial impressions were not good. These looked like the crappy speakers that show up at your local GW: vinyl instead of veneer, somewhere between 1/2" and 3/4" particleboard, relatively shallow cabinets, cheapy spring clips on the back... This particular pair didn't look too hot either. They were nicked up, the covers needed to be re-clothed, something was splattered over one of the speakers and some of it got on the woofer cone. Honestly they didn't look like anything I wanted to bother with but I'd already driven a half hour to see them so I asked the seller to fire them up. He had them hooked up to some dinky Sony bookshelf receiver that looked like crap.
... but to my surprise they sounded
good. Surprisingly good. I paid the seller more than I really wanted to and took them home. Purchasing these was a gamble that I don't regret.
Honestly, these speakers are an anomaly to me. They have surprised everyone that's listened to them because they sound a lot better than they have any right to. Honestly, it is a shame that Onkyo put such nice components in such a shoddy low-fi cabinet.
The first thing I did was hook these up to my Kenwood component system (Basic M2 Amp, C2 pre-amp, connected to media pc with Asus Xonar soundcard and a Magnavox cd player) to play them. My room is filled with carpet and pretty warm sounding. Not having any place to put them intially, I had them just sitting on the floor about 1.5 feet in front of anything and reasonably spaced apart.
One of the first things I noticed is that these are warm, almost bass heavy speakers and having them on the floor was amplifying this characteristic. I continued to listen for awhile and my consensus was that they sounded pretty good but the bass frequencies were definitely creating some resonance in their boxy enclosures. Lots of somewhat loose, resonant bass doesn't sound too great. Haha, so I pulled the woofers out to have a look inside. I saw no internal bracing and minimal stuffing. They only lined the side and back wall. No damping on the front baffle, bottom, etc. To me that is just cheap.
So since these are sealed cabinets, I stuffed the heck out of them, top to bottom with poly-fill. What a difference that made!
The resonance all but disappeared, the bass tightened up and it generally opened everything up without taking away any of the musical properties of the speaker. It's amazing what a properly stuffed cabinet can do.
Make no mistake, this is not what I would ever describe as a neutral sounding speaker. They are not clinical sounding, flat sounding, or recording studio material. But they are a joy to listen to and they won't fatigue your ears. These speakers are warm sounding in a good way.
I've owned them for several months now and have tested them in three different rooms with three different systems. I had them hooked up to the main system (the Kenwood stuff) in my naturally warm family room, a JVC SR-600 in the harshest room I've ever dealt with (large window, tile flooring, bare walls), and the NAD 7045 in my bedroom. These speakers sound good everywhere and with every system they've been hooked up to. They aren't particularly sensitive however, and might not pair well with low power tube setups. Otherwise, they seem to be pretty forgiving of what electronics you run. That said, they still need to be placed properly. Here's what I've come to prefer with these:
Because they already have ample bass naturally, I find these do best with some space (ie, not backed into a wall) and raised off the floor. They should be raised anyways, because they are short and bookshelf-ish and you don't want the tweets and mids firing at your legs. Stands are ideal for these. I've found that the stereo sweet spot for these is fairly wide, horizontally (those leaf tweeters are forgiving if you aren't sitting directly between the speaks) but fairly narrow, vertically. The high-end suffers if your ear level is significantly above or below the leaf tweeters.
Ok now for how they
sound:
As I have already said, these speakers are quite warm and you will not be lacking bass in any capacity. There is absolutely no reason for a sub with these. Seriously these things move a lot of air and I could get more bass quantity from these than from my old Cerwin H15s. That said, the E-200's don't sound muddy or dark. Bass is full and punchy and I'd say I was hearing usable frequencies down below 40hz. Below 35hz it rolls off significantly. That said, the bass is still not as tight and detailed as other speakers I've heard like Sony SS-M7's, Snell Type D's or Monitor Audio Silver 9i's or my personal favorites, the Bozak 302a's.
The midrange is natural and comes through clearly and authoritatively. The mid frequencies also don't sound too aggressive and forward (like Sansui SP300's or various Klipsch I've heard) or too veiled or recessed (like Cerwin Vega's). It's a nice balance and instruments and vocals sound crisp. In fact, separation and imaging are really good with these. I'm going to assume the nice crossovers in these has a lot to do with that. They created a soundstage that had nice depth and extended beyond the speakers. These speakers did a fantastic job of filling the room with sound. They sound
way bigger than they are. A lot of people often describe a speaker as sounding larger than it is but I've only found that to be overtly true with two speakers--these and the Silver 9i's.
The highs are easily one of the greatest strengths of these Onkyo speakers. That leaf tweeter sounds fantastic. Highs are silky, detailed and incredibly airy. The top end airiness is definitely remeniscent of the high frequency quality you normally get on higher end speakers. You can hear
everything on the top end with these but they never sound harsh or sibilant regardless of whether you have the speakers facing straight or toed in some. My mainstay speakers are Bozak 302a's which are widely known to have rolled off highs (due to tweeter and crossover design). The Bozak's have very clear highs but don't hit those upper, upper frequencies so I was hearing more in my music with these Onkyo's than the Bozak's could reveal.
All aspects of the sound aside, these Onkyo's have a lush, full-bodied sound that is to die for. They sound good with all genres (I listen primarily to jazz, rock, classical, electronic, and folk). They have powerful bass, natural midrange, silky and airy highs, and nice soundstaging and imaging. I would not have bothered to write so much about them if I was not impressed. I have tons of speakers enter into the rotation only to be replaced a month or two later. But these have made the permanent rotation and I won't be selling them any time soon. Currently they sit on my dresser and provide the sound to my bedroom (powered off the NAD 7045).
I'm not going to suggest these are giant killers. But the leap in sound quality between these and other great speaks I'm familiar with like the Sony SS-M7, Bozak 302a, Snell Type D, Monitor Audio Silver 9i is shockingly small. I could happily live with these. Everyone's ears are different but the Onkyo E-200's have that rare something that makes me want to just sit down and listen to music for hours. They are not perfect speakers but they are a
joy to listen to.
So here's the Pro's:
- Relatively compact size may be good for smaller rooms and space constraints. The "size" of the sound is large, though.
- There's no need for a sub with these. I imagine these could handle movies just fine.
- Mids sound great and don't get overwhelmed by the bass
- Stereo imaging and soundstaging is great
- The leaf tweeters are great and the beautiful highs are probably the E200's strongest point. Onkyo got it right with this.
- They are very musical and non-fatiguing to listen to.
And the Con's:
- Rare and unobtanium. If anything fails, good luck finding relplacement drivers.
- Resale value of these speakers will be low due to the rareness (no one knows about these) and the fact that Onkyo is not known for their speakers.
- Bass is prominent and relatively tight but not as tight and detailed when compared to better speakers.
- The mids are natural but an a/b test against the Bozak's (which are famous for their aluminum midrange drivers) show there is some slight coloration. This is hard to notice without a/bing against something better though.
- The overall balance is not neutral and is pretty definitively on the warm-end of the spectrum.
- The cabinets are low quality when compared to the components. I'm actually looking at building these better cabinets myself.
