totem arro

I have owned the Arros for about two years now. In my experience they are not bright, but can sound bright or warm or whatever depending upon the electronics used with them. They are also very easy to set up and sound good close to the wall.

Their only real limitations, in my opinion, are bass, dynamics, and spl. The bass is surprisingly good for their size and better than my old B&W monitors that used a 7" midbass driver, but if you are a bass freak (and I now think that I may be one) you probably won't be satisfied with these or any other similarly sized speaker. As far as dynamics and spl go, you can mitigate the Arros inherent limitations by using proper amplification, which, in my opinion, would be something slightly warm that increased output into lower impedances, the more watts the merrier.

So basically, I think that the Arros are great if you don't care about bass slam, don't listen at high volumes, and use the right amplifier.

Hope this helps.

Agree with EthanH.

That is consistent with what I've read in pro reviews as well.

After all, they are tiny little beasts....only so much is possible. They do push it to the max very well though for their size.

Sorry for my late response but I have been an owner of these great mini towers since 1999. I am on my 2nd pair due to the one of the first pair being slightly blemished by a fall.

Strengths:
Holographic palpable imaging & soundstaging
Realistic Tone
Musical
Involving (like you are there at the recording venue)
Resolving of fine details

Weaknesses:
Limited dynamic range
Limited Bass in the visceral sense
BUT these weaknesses can be almost eliminated with the addition of the Dreamcatcher powered subwoofer which blends seamlessly with the Arros thus my long term satisfaction and pleasure with them.

The Arros are very nice speakers, but I like the Ohm Walsh Micro Talls and Sjofn HiFi's Guru QM 10's even better. They are both more dynamic and sound bigger to my ears.

I've heard the Arros sound as "big" as and competitive with speakers from PSB, which I also like very much, and McIntosh that were significantly bigger and cost 3-4 times as much.

They are definitely overachievers for their size. They do seem to like a lot of power to do this though. Their thirst for power and current was surprising to me given their size, but feed them properly and you are rewarded.

Of course I like the OHM line very much too and believe they are an even better value in many cases, but they are a different breed (omnis) that may take many some time to get used to at first.

Interesting cabinet design on the QM 10s. Never heard them but would like to.