Peter, how does the Energy "Take" speakers sound in relation to Energy's other speakers...nameley the connoisuer and reference series, if you've heard those before. (I've heard those two but not the "Takes", I got the impression that they sound different from some of the posts here)
I have heard 3 different Energy lines. My circa 1997 Take 5's, a pair of Veritas 2.4i's about 4.5 years ago, and a pair of RC-70's about 2.5 years ago. This is extremely subjective, so take it for what it's worth....
The Take 5's and the 2.4i's are such wildly different speaker sizes that it's hard to really compare their sound. The T5's are perfectly capable 'cube' speakers, and when paired with a good sub they make a darn good system. At least, I think so. They put together a decent soundstage with pleasant highs and ok midrange (for their size). Let me put it this way, they blow the doors off of a similarly-sized Bose setup, and show that cube speakers can be good. But they're no substitute for good bookshelf speakers, let alone floor-standers.
Do bear in mind that the Take5's I have are *not* the same Take-series speakers that Energy sells today. Energy is a different company today (part of Klipsch) than it was in the 1990's. I've not heard the modern Take Classic series, so I have no idea if their sound is similar.
The 2.4i's were really great. I know that some around here don't like them but I thought they sounded absolutely lovely. Great clean bass, lovely midrange without being too warm, and crystal highs that weren't screechy. I liked them a lot. Great all around. But they were like $4k a pair, so way out of of my price range.
M80 vs. 2.4i The RC-70's were far less impressive. I considered them while shopping for M80's and it took about 10 seconds of listening to decide that I didn't like them. That's not enough time to really be able to describe here why I didn't like them, but it was enough for my bran to say, "nope, not these".
All I really remember is that they just sounded muffled to me. Highs weren't very good and the bass was muddy. Just sort of 'bleh'. They reminded me a lot of an old pair of Sony floor-standers that I had in college - which were like $149 each. I mean, they weren't *horrible*, but they just weren't in the same league as what I was shopping for.
