With the sheer quantity of inexpensive speakers out there and the lack
of reviews as to their quality, I thought it might be helpful to
provide a review of speakers I recently purchased.

The speakers are the Pisces PB-651 V2.0 speakers made by AER Acoustic.
There's weren't any reviews online about how they sounded so I
purchased them based upon #1 Real wood finish, #2 Price, and #3
looks/design. These were purchased to be used as surround sound
speakers.

When I took them out of the box I was immediately impressed by their
finish. At first I was thinking that the statement about a real wood
veneer was untrue since the finish surface was so perfect. After
closer inspection, it is indeed a real wood veneer. My only
dissappointment was that the wood finish was considerably darker than
the picture on the website. It appears to be a lightly finished
walnut. I emailed to ask about this and they stated that the
different wood grain finishes are due to the differences in wood lots
used in cabinet production - with some being lighter and others darker
than the picture shown (I imagine this keeps costs down). I was told
that this could be preselected based on my preference. I wasn't
willing to pay shipping both ways again so I didn't bother exchanging
them.

With the speakers out of the box, the next thing I did was to hook
them up as my primary speakers and test them out on my $6k stereo
system. I have Vandersteen 3A and 2W speakers, a Naim Nait 3
integrated preamp/amp, and an upgraded Audio Alchemy DAC/DTI.

My jaw dropped! For under $200 speakers I was not expecting this
level of performance. I listened to some HDCDs and was amazed at the
depth of the soundstage. Imaging is spectacular for speakers in this
price range. I haven't heard speakers under $500 that can create such
a coherent soundstage. I believe the key to such transparent highs is
the seperate top-mounted tweeter arrangement and the narrow front
baffle design for the woofer.

While the Pisces PB-651 V2.0 speakers present a detailed and open
sound, they get slightly congested in the mid-bass area. An excellent
example can be found on Chris Isaak's CD, Baja Sessions. In his lower
vocal range, the speakers begin to sound muddy. As far as bass under
100Hz, the speakers were only used in conjunction with a Vandersteen
2W sub, so it is difficult to judge, but the speakers seemed to do
quite well for single 6.5" woofers.

Often times speakers begin to sound better after the speaker cones
have been played for a while. After playing for 40 hours at high
volume levels (I'm actually amazed at the volume levels these speakers
can produce), a few things happened. The first was that a nasty buzz
started to occur. I tracked this down to the tweeter mounting ring.
It was vibrating against its mount at high volume levels. I inserted
a piece of felt cloth inbetween and the vibration dissappeared. As
far as the mid-bass performance, after breaking-in, it did not
improve, and if anything, actually seemed more noticable.

Being the naturally curious person that I am, I decided to see how the
speakers were constructed. I unscrewed the 6.5" woofer and was
immediately impressed by how the cabinets were built. The face plate
was an inch thick and the sides appeared to be about 3/4" thick. The
material wasn't typical MDF, instead if was composed of a softer
fibreboard (less glue, more fibre - somewhere between low and medium
density). Taking a look at the 6.5" driver showed me everything I
needed to know about the bass performance. While this driver has a
great appearance, the magnet structure is typical for speakers in this
price range. The crossover is also average and uses typical
electrolytic caps.

Speaker cabinets are normally over 65% of the cost of the finished
speaker. In this case, I would say an even higher percentage went to
building these cabinets. While they could have been built with higher
density to be absolutely perfect, their construction is considerably
better than any speaker I have seen near this price point. Purchasing
better empty cabinets would far exceed the price of these completed
speakers.

With that said, I think it's a shame that these speakers aren't
available at a higher price-point with better 6.5" woofers. Although,
for some, this may be a benefit. I can imagine these speakers might
sell quite well with DIY speaker-builders. It's impossible to build
speaker cabinets of this quality for anywhere near this price. With
new crossovers, a pair of Seas 6.5" P17REX/P, and perhaps Morel MDT-41
top-mounting tweeters (optional since the existing tweeters are good)
installed in these cabinets, these would truly be high-end looking and
sounding speakers. Of course the list price of these drivers is far
above the price of these speakers. And that brings us to the
conclusion:

These speakers are incredible for this price point. Most people
without high-end systems will simply think that these speakers look
like thousand dollar speakers and sound good. And for those of us
audiophiles that want high-end speakers cheap, spending another $150
and putting in the SEAS P17REX/P drivers and upgrading the crossovers
would make these speakers both look and sound like high-end speakers.