Opinion ko lang about the 9 series after owning them for sometime:
I have 3 pairs of 9.3s, 1 pair of 9.4, and 1 9.cm for my home theat, and 1 pair of 9.6 for my room hifi system. I think the entire lineup is an awesome value.
I like the 9.6 the most in this bunch. They don't image very well, but they produce a smooth and pleasing sound. As long as they're far from walls, they don't sound boomy. They're very happy running full range, but also integrate well with a separate sub if preferred (cross them low to get the most directional effect). This set injects obvious coloration and don't reveal much sonic detail, but is inoffensive and works great for background music or extended listening. I'm not sure if they really qualify as high fidelity, but they are very pleasant partners.
The 9.3 is ok for HT and for common music genres, but they benefit much from a sub taking over the last octave. Without a sub, they still play a wider range than most other bookshelves (and even some towers) but they do sound clearer with the woofer not doing the extreme lows - especially at higher volumes. I think they represent excellent value, as they sound quite big yet cost quite little. I like the fact that they roll-off smoothly in the lower registers, versus other bookshelves that put an obvious bump in the midbass to compensate for the lack of extreme lows. The 9.1 sings lovelier in the upper registers versus the 9.3, but they seem to inject that bump in the lows - plus I prefer crossing speakers lower.
The 9.4 is a nice looking compact tower set, but they really sound more like bookshelves on stands. There's nothing drastically wrong with them, as long as you look at them as bigger bookshelves. I do like them over the 9.5, which I also considered to get. I'm not sure if it was just room acoustics, but the 9.5 seemed to put emphasis on the 50-100Hz region. That made it sound undefined for me, but I'm sure many people would appreciate the punch. Ironically, the 9.5 sounds bassier than the 9.6 despite the size difference; the 9.6 is just able to play lower.
The 9.cm does center channel duty quite well, but sounds a little confused. It's big but it rolls off early. Despite the size, it prefers being crossed higher (80Hz or so). I like the dome mid (which seems to be the same unit in the 9.6), but the voices don't sound as "full" as they do in the 9.6 (or even the 9.3). I had to EQ the center channel a bit to get the chest and vocal texture that I wanted. I wish they made a bigger enclosure for the 6.5in drivers to get that out of the way (maybe they can concote 8" ones with a big box in the future).
The 10 series looks promising, but I hope they didn't drop the 8" woofers. The Opus series is still too costly hehehe.
