Allright! Moved to $&S for money talk! Well, better mention actual figures then: The guy was originally asking 75$ for them, I ultimately paid 40$. As you guys were saying, it might not be a very popular brand when it comes to selling...
Anyhow, I got them home and gave them a little wash: cabinets are not in a so good state, a few scratches, but nothing serious, but one of them unfortunately has some sort of liquid damage. If it were an iPhone, warranty would be void for sure.... Anyway, I used a damp cloth for the bulk and q-tips for the more intricate work (like the tweeter that had some sort of sticky brownish stuff on it...). The veneer has a little water damage...
Let's talk sound now : boy does it sound good! I've only been listening to these speakers for about an hour and a half and I am very pleased (my neighbours might not be as impressed as I am though).
I started off with some Ratatat - LP3 to see what they were capable of in terms of oomph and how it would handle the very saturated electronic music that Ratatat makes. I can say that I was pleased: they do a very good job at not loosing any details even when the tracks are very saturated with heavy electronic bass and synthesised highs.
After that I listened to some Pink Floyd. I started off with Echoes, that rollercoaster of a masterpiece. The speakers give a very good rendition of the guitar (and the guitar in this song is everything) and Roger Waters voice is clear and bright, although not too bright. You can close your eyes and feel like you are in a submarine underwater at some point... (Though this might be only me)
"Hey You" showed again how the speakers were able in the Highs department, but I noticed that something was lacking in the bass: Although it might be that I was too excited and that the volume and Bass settings were too high, I felt the woofers were holding back in the kick drum... I turned down the bass setting a little bit...
In "The great Gig in the Sky", all the warmth of the wonderful Clare Torry's voice shone. It really is a delight to listen to this track at high volume when a speaker can deliver it right.
I moved on to some Massive Attack - Mezzanine for the very bassy, "atmospheric" and dark sound. You feel surrounded by Massive Attack's music and it can be quite demanding on a speaker at some point. The Mordaunt Short delivered; This album was created with the idea of incorporating different abstract sounds and everyday sounds and thus can easily fuse with whatever you are doing. I felt the MS didn't skew or overemphasized the highs or the lows or the mids and it was quite seamless.
Finally, I decided to give the 7th of Beethoven (by the BBC Philharmonic orchestra) a try. Still on this piece, actually. The sound is very detailed; the gentle flute and the big booms of the timpani are well placed and the soundstage in general is appreciable. I would say though that I found the brass to be a little thin at some point; athough I am willing to put this on the recording... On the other hand, I was able to clearly hear the little sounds that are not supposed to be in there but that you can't do without: the coughing, the page-turning, the keys being pushed...
Overall a great speaker, rich sound and good clarity. Very good treble, lacking overhead in the bass. Might not be the perfect choice for symphonic music, although really not disagreeable for a 2-way speaker. I would also steer clear of the rap and hip hop, but I am not a big fan, so...
I hooked them up to a NAD 7155 receiver, they will ultimately be hooked to a Rotel receiver. I might try to hook them to a NAD PE 2200 amp, but I really don't think it will be of great help...
Anyway, thank you guys for the comments, I am not disappointed by the MS!
