Hello all, these are excellent posts...and I want to respond to many of the points made, but don't have time right this second (I'm supposed to be working)... One things for sure...speakers or no...this is an excellent forum!!!!

I will take every bit of advice I've received here to heart and will be putting these speakers through their paces this weekend -- who knows if I even have a CD that could be considered a quality recording...but...we'll see. I'm actually surprised...noone balked at the fact that I was just listening to the CD through a run-of-the-mill toshiba DVD player...instead of a high end Denon 2900 or something similar.

Anyway...thanks all for the responses...they're outstanding!! I will update soon with further impressions -- and I should add, that I ordered the SVS PB1-ISD sub today... I bet that will fill things out.

One question -- someone mentioned calibrating (I have planned to do that, in fact had already purchased the digital spl meter from Rad Shack even before I received the speakers), but ...right now I'm auditioning with only the mains....is calibration of any kind really that important in that configuration???