Sjofen The Clue speakers

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.

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.

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.

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?

I'm guessing you've not heard the speakers Onhwy61? Those are only some of the facts. The most relevant facts are that these speakers depend more than most on being set up properly for a given room, and that both buyers and reviewers are offered access to the manufacturer to help them get it right. And the reviewer knew this going into the review. When they're not set up right they will sound bad in exactly the way he described, and that's the review we got. Hence, the review is no way near accurate as you assume. That the speakers performed poorly precisely in the areas where they are supposed to overachieve (and they do) is a big red flag for a reviewer. Again, there is no excuse for the reviewer not at least contacting the manufacturer to see if something either A) might be wrong with the speakers or B) needs to be changed in setup or associated equipment. It's just common sense of you want to make sure you're providing an accurate assessment of a piece. Further, all the owners and reviews I've seen have nothing but glowingly positive impressions of the speaker. In fact, other than this turd of a review I've never seen a negative comment about these speakers. If they exist they are in the vast minority. Yet another red flag that would've led a competent reviewer to at least ask some questions. So your suspicion that a large number of buyers have noted the tonal imbalance is also unfounded.

I know plenty of reviewers and they all say almost all equipment that gets to the point of a review these days is at least decent or very good and very rarely does something sound significantly flawed to the level stated in this review. No publisher wants to review crap when there's so much good stuff out there. If something sounds that off they always check with the manufacturer or distributor to check on A and B mentioned above to make sure they're reviewing properly functioning equipment the way it's designed to be used.

To answer your question, I heard the speakers at a show in the stacked configuration in a horribly configured hotel room. I thought there's no way something that looked like that could possibly sound coherent or even decent in that room, but they sounded downright incredible. I agree with you in most instances that if a reviewer does what this guy did it should result in a fair assessment of a product, and since you probably haven't heard the speakers I certainly understand your skepticism. But this is a different kind of product where something a little more than the standard review tactics were required. And what's worse, the reviewer heard the speakers before and was so impressed he asked to review them, so he already KNEW going in how they were capable of sounding. Any more competent or seasoned reviewer would've caught this and the review would've turned out quite different. The saddest thing is that this piece of crap review could end up seriously damaging a small company that's putting out a truly outstanding and innovative product at an incredibly affordable price point. Again, S'pile should be seriously ashamed of themselves.