i bought mine used from a fellow pdvd member here. let's just say he gave it to me at a price i can't resist.
the unit is in mint condition, not perfect but you won't notice unless you really gave it a closer inspection. it's more of a test buy really coz his unit is rosewood while my preference (and the system i have to match it with) is cherry, so if i didn't like it i could always dispose of it. don't want to buy a new unit and then not be able to like it, then have to sell at sacrifice prices. also, my primary purpose is to be able to home audition it to decide nga whether to go with my cherry purchase.
during the audition, i just played some vocal dominated tracks (emi fujita). there are some really deep bass tracks in there too... but when i played it i noticed the low response to be quite timid. i'm familiar with the track and it's really thumping and rolling with my 9.5 without sub assistance. i noticed that the amp we're using seems to be a low wattage yamaha amp so i thought it might be the culprit. anyway, since what i heard so far are passable naman notwithstanding the not so ideal conditions, we packed the pair up with some huffing and puffing and off i go with a hope for much better results with my home setup.
after hooking up with my gear at home... i had mixed emotions since as i've said previously the sound seems confused. the mids are not what i expected from such a dedicated mid driver... as the bass response too from such large drivers. i was tempted to swap it again with my 9.5, but the weight of these monsters prevented me from doing so at that moment. i just told myself i'm giving them a few more days to see/hear if anything will change for the better.
i didn't have to wait that long pala coz after several hours of play they began to open up and sound coherent already. maybe they weren't properly broken in with the previous owner but since they already got some months of play with him all i need is to "form" the drivers a bit more. now they're sounding so good i have dug up my few music collections to listen to them again through these beauties. be that as it may, i'm still sure that they will give their true potential when driven with a more powerful amp, say 120wpc or more. the hk5550 is 85w true rms power per channel in stereo mode but i feel the low end will still greatly benefit from a more powerful amp.
so for those who has this pair connected to an entry-level amp and feel they sound great already... wait till you hear them being properly driven by a more capable amp.