Review: Vidsonix DB-W40 Bookshelf Speakers
04-08-04, 03:33 PM
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Review: Vidsonix DB-W40 Bookshelf Speakers
A little over a week ago I posted a thread asking if anyone had any experience with a speaker manufacturer named Vidsonix No replies, so I thought I'd post a review of what I got.
Vidsonix seems to be primarily a manufacturer of gig gear and some studio stuff, that is starting to get into home theater gear. I'd first come across them selling their own gear on Ebay, didn't know to take that as a good sign or not. I tried doing some research on them online, but there wasn't a whole lot of info available either. I did find a couple of favorable reviews of their subwoofers, so I decided to take a chance on Ebay (considering the prices were so low) and see for myself.
While I had a few auctions out there, the only one I ended up winning was for a pair of bookshelve speakrs, the DB-W40 series, to be exact. Link (Note that you'll have to select them off the main page, no way to link directly to them.) Check out the specs there and let the manufacturer be responsible for their own technical data.
I didn't need bookshelves, but I figured their quality would probably speak for the rest of their speakers, and at a bargain price I could afford to experiment before deciding to go all the way on another one. I won the auction for about $20, with a shipping and handling (fed ex) the total spent was under $35.00 Not bad, and about as much as I'm willing to wager to find a bargain.
The speakers appear to be well built, the oak makes them fairly heavy. As you can see in the picture above, they look nice too. Props to Vidsonix in making an attractive product.
I plugged them into my receiver and picked out a couple of CD's to demo. One was big on accoustic guitar, the other heavy on bass.
The speakers fared poorly on both CD's. They couldn't do the highs or the lows, and they became muddled sounding when too much was going on sonically. When there wasn't a lot going on to seperate, the speakers were OK. They were clear, and seemed to be decent midrange speakers. With a 4" woofer, that really didn't really surprise me. They also had an over all tinniness I didn't like, but again I attribute that to their size.
For comparison I played the same CD's on a cheap bookshelf system I bought about 3 years ago for $99. I've never had much faith in that system until today. The bookshelf system's speakers with 3.5" woofers and fake tweeters smoked the Vidsonix speakers. It wasn't the greatest sounding thing in the world, but it was better than the Vidsonix.
To be fair, I went back to the receiver and Vidsonix speakers, and started to adjust what I could. I was able to have some luck in making the vidsonix sound almost decent, but really only after making radical tweaks to the bass and treble. To me, audio settings on a receiver should be use to fine tune an already good sound, not try to salvage what you can with a bad sound, which is what I was doing.
For $35, I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars, they sounded like speakers that cost under $50. If I'd spent their MSRP of $129, I think I'd be giving them 1 or 2 out of 5.
That said, I would like to try their larger speakers to see how they do. I think part of the problem with the sound was just the size of these speakers. If you notice on their website they use the same 4" woofer quite a bit, and I'll be sure to stay away from those should I take the chance again. Also, I was able to find a handful of favorable reviews for their subwoofers, which I'd be willing to try out also.
Vidsonix seems to be primarily a manufacturer of gig gear and some studio stuff, that is starting to get into home theater gear. I'd first come across them selling their own gear on Ebay, didn't know to take that as a good sign or not. I tried doing some research on them online, but there wasn't a whole lot of info available either. I did find a couple of favorable reviews of their subwoofers, so I decided to take a chance on Ebay (considering the prices were so low) and see for myself.
While I had a few auctions out there, the only one I ended up winning was for a pair of bookshelve speakrs, the DB-W40 series, to be exact. Link (Note that you'll have to select them off the main page, no way to link directly to them.) Check out the specs there and let the manufacturer be responsible for their own technical data.
I didn't need bookshelves, but I figured their quality would probably speak for the rest of their speakers, and at a bargain price I could afford to experiment before deciding to go all the way on another one. I won the auction for about $20, with a shipping and handling (fed ex) the total spent was under $35.00 Not bad, and about as much as I'm willing to wager to find a bargain.
The speakers appear to be well built, the oak makes them fairly heavy. As you can see in the picture above, they look nice too. Props to Vidsonix in making an attractive product.
I plugged them into my receiver and picked out a couple of CD's to demo. One was big on accoustic guitar, the other heavy on bass.
The speakers fared poorly on both CD's. They couldn't do the highs or the lows, and they became muddled sounding when too much was going on sonically. When there wasn't a lot going on to seperate, the speakers were OK. They were clear, and seemed to be decent midrange speakers. With a 4" woofer, that really didn't really surprise me. They also had an over all tinniness I didn't like, but again I attribute that to their size.
For comparison I played the same CD's on a cheap bookshelf system I bought about 3 years ago for $99. I've never had much faith in that system until today. The bookshelf system's speakers with 3.5" woofers and fake tweeters smoked the Vidsonix speakers. It wasn't the greatest sounding thing in the world, but it was better than the Vidsonix.
To be fair, I went back to the receiver and Vidsonix speakers, and started to adjust what I could. I was able to have some luck in making the vidsonix sound almost decent, but really only after making radical tweaks to the bass and treble. To me, audio settings on a receiver should be use to fine tune an already good sound, not try to salvage what you can with a bad sound, which is what I was doing.
For $35, I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars, they sounded like speakers that cost under $50. If I'd spent their MSRP of $129, I think I'd be giving them 1 or 2 out of 5.
That said, I would like to try their larger speakers to see how they do. I think part of the problem with the sound was just the size of these speakers. If you notice on their website they use the same 4" woofer quite a bit, and I'll be sure to stay away from those should I take the chance again. Also, I was able to find a handful of favorable reviews for their subwoofers, which I'd be willing to try out also.
