Jamo - Studio 8 5" 160-Watt Passive 2-Way Bookshelf Speakers (Pair) - Black

I just finished up building a 5.1.2 system. I used Elac Debut 6.2's and their Debut center up front, polk vt60's for the atmos, and a HSU VFT-2 MK5 subwoofer. When my wife saw the Elacs she pretty much made me cancel the second order for Elac rears. So I started shopping for speakers that looked nicer for the rears. I needed front port because they would be up against back walls and I needed a good design for the "Wife Acceptance Factor" (WAF). These fit my needs. They look great, the sound quality is excellent. They are known for having boosted bass and treble and I can confirm that over the Elac Debuts I also ordered. These are brighter than Polk TSI-200s I also own. They never felt harsh to me, and once I went through the audio calibration my receiver made them pretty flat. I have these powered with a Denon AVR-X1600H which is 80 watts RMS advertised and it pairs just fine. I think build quality is their only weakness for me, they look good, but feel maybe like that is an area they saved money on. The grills are very thin fabric and moves with bass far more than I've seen before. The feet aren't particularly high quality feeling either. For fun, when I got these I first set them up on an old Philips stereo to get a full range sound preview and break them in. They will chuff with a lot of bass, and fairly easily. On my receiver with a sub, I set the crossover to 80hz and it hasn't been an issue. These are not "audiophile" speakers as those typically have a flatter response, although they seem recommended frequently in the community. They are what I consider a step above budget. I would buy these again and recommend them for 2.0 channel setups as well.