Friday, March 26, 1999
Energy e:XL Surround Speaker System Puts Out In Stereo and Surround
A combination of high performance, low price, relative compactness, and sleek styling add up to tremendous value in this e:XL surround speaker system from Energy, one of Audio Product International’s three brand names. Each of the three API brands (also including Mirage and Sound Dynamics) has a separate design chief. The Energy e:XL series bears the distinctive sonic signature of John Tchilinguirian, and it is one of the few surround speaker sets that works as well in stereo as in surround — slightly better, in fact.
While the e:XL series includes speakers of various sizes, this set consists of two slender floorstanding stereo towers, a horizontal center speaker in the common woofer-tweeter-woofer configuration, and modestly-sized rear-surround speakers in a dipole array (identical drivers facing in opposite directions). Among the most noteworthy features are the aluminum dome tweeters that animate each speaker and knit the bunch together. Since the towers anchoring the front left/right channels can stand on their own in a two-channel system, they are available in expanded cosmetic options, with two wood veneers joining the basic black.
For more information, go to
www.energy-speakers.com/
.