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Sjofen The Clue speakers

I bought a pair of The Clues from Lars about a month ago for my bedroom system. I decided to break them in with my main system, which consists of a Modwright LS100 preamp and KWA 100SE amp, Oppo 105 CD player, Jolida FX Tube DAC, Jolida phono preamp, and a SOTA Star TT. My main speakers are Joseph Audio RM25XL floor mounts speakers, which are fantastic. I have had many stand mounts in my system over the past few years, including GMA Callisto's, EOS HD's, KEF LS50s's, Ascend Acoustics, Usher 718 Diamonds, and a couple others I now have forgotten.

I am simply blown away with the musicality of The Clues, particularly with their dynamic extension. These speakers go really low and are extremely well balanced. They perform optimally when placed directly against the back wall of your listening room.

After listening to them for a month, I will go out a limb and say they are nearly the sonic equal of my $4300 JA speaker! I could go on and on about how fine The Clues sound, but I will say that I have never had a stand mounts speakers in my system that performed as fine as these do. For $1000, they simply have no reason to sound as wonderful as they do, but they absolutely do. You owe it to yourself to give these little gems a listen. Friends that have heard them in my system have come to the same conclusion that I have: they are fabulous, full-range speakers that are modestly priced. Highly recommended!
whitestix
simao's avatar
simao
1,819 posts
 
Then again, any speaker that demands THAT much specificity and fussiness in regards to placement and context seems a bit short-sighted.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,198 posts
 
Reminds me of my $500/pr Triangle Titus XS speakers that are very average until you get them set up just right then wow. Also not bad close to rear wall. It mostly has to do with a more directional sound dispersion pattern with the tweeter than a typical surface mounted soft dome tweeter, I suspect.
rebbi
1,326 posts
 
This thread on S'phile's (the clue) review, which I started on AudioAsylum.com, is absolutely fascinating, especially since John Atkinson participates. He gives no ground to the idea that the review was a botched job and yet - IMHO - if you read between the lines, it pretty clearly was just that.
soix
9,456 posts
 
Thanks for the link Rebbi. I found Croft's response particularly interesting and seemed to make perfect sense, as I guess it should since he designed the things. By contrast JA's comments didn't quite pass the smell test and have more than a hint of ass-covering about them. Found it VERY telling that he did not respond at all to Croft's numerous cogent points about where both he and the reviewer screwed up. I totally agree with you the proper thing would to do a follow-up review, which they have done in the past in these circumstances. Doubt that will happen here though as there'd be far too much egg on S'pile's face as a result -- everything they did wrong and won't admit would be exposed and confirmed. Funny, the only people defending the review (other than JA) are those who haven't heard the speakers. Those who have know the review is pure garbage.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,218 posts
 
The reviewer heard the loudspeakers at an audio show, thought they sounded great and arranged for an review pair. He set them up in accordance with the manufacturer's detailed written instructions and never got them to sound acceptable. They were transparent, soundstaged well and were detailed without being analytical, but they were not tonally balanced. Those are the presented facts.

How different is that reviewer's circumstances from that of a typical buyer? If the review is any way near accurate, then I suspect a large number of buyers have also noted the loudspeaker's tonal imbalance. Whether or not the tonality is critical to them is another question.

Have any owners of the Clue used in a the double loudspeaker setup?
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