AC Powered 2.1 Speaker System with Massive Subwoofer and Remote Control 140W Piano Black (AR508)

You know, it's not often that I take the time to come to a site just to rate some speakers (or anything for that matter) but these pair of Eagle Arion brand speakers deserve it. I will say this is my second pair of eagle speakers because the first one blew for absolutely no reason but I will get to that later. Now for the quality of these speakers, almost near perfect especially for the price. These bad boys deliver the definition of the best "bang" for your buck. I am in awe how well these 2.1 speakers perform. Owned quite of few good computer speakers and consider myself to be an audiophile and I am telling you, I guarantee you will not be disappointed when you purchase these. If you LOVE "bass" you will fall in love with these. These things will rattle your house if your not careful. And don't get me started if you pair these up with a high end sound card, these things will blow way more bass than you would ever need. I consider myself a bass junkie so that is saying something. I currently have these paired up with a "Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Series" sound card which gives you a whole lot of bass buttons to tweak with to deliver the best performance out of any speakers especially these. Bass is smooth, tight and has a great punch to it. Treble is average. But then again I don't expect high quality treble out of mid-ranged speakers around this price range but doesn't in any way take away the extraordinary quality of sound produced by these speakers. High quality treble will be found on the higher end speakers and suggest looking elsewhere if you plan on wanting a higher quality treble end component. Volume is nice and loud. Can't go beyond 40% or it will be too much. So considering the loudness of these speakers you wouldn't have an issue with. In fact, these speakers may be too loud and if you are not careful you might get a knock on the door (if you live close to residents such as an apartment) by the police. And any pair of speakers that can do that is good thing in my opinion. When I bought these, they were priced at $59.99 for amazon which is amazingly cheap considering the quality of these speakers. Seems amazon and other consumers took heed of the potentials of these bad boys and raised the price but even with that said it's still worthy of it's price range. Now for the replacement I talked about earlier these are my second eagle arion speakers. The first one blew out within a month of use, (1) day past the warranty. No sound would come out of the speakers and the sub-woofer seemed fried. It sure smelled fried. The smell that came from the sub smelled like the coils have buckled. Called eagle support and explained the situation to them and how unhappy I was about the issue and asked for a replacement. Customer service immediately sent in a new speaker set even though it was over the warranty, but I had to pay shipping charges to send back the broken speakers. For this, I give customer service thumbs up. So as far as reliability is concerned I am not lenient with. Had my 2nd pair of speakers well over a month now and have not experienced any problems so far yet so stayed tuned. The build quality seems nice and sturdy. Built over a wooden frame with a coated black finish to add better sound acoustics to overall bass and sound. Has a nice touch of extra features on the front of the sub-woofer that includes the tweaking of treble, bass, a master volume, a mute button and a reset button. Overall, these speakers deliver more sound then you will ever need. Unless you consider yourself a high end audiophile junkie person who wants nothing but top of the line sound quality, these will please most of the average wide audience looking for a great set of speakers to produce great sounds. Those looking for more will need to look into the high priced sets. But in all honesty I don't see why you would want more than what these speakers have to offer unless you are looking to create a theater or studio. You will have to double the price to find speakers that beat these. For a mid-ranged pair of speakers these are not bad at all and I dare say these actually qualify to compete with those speakers of the higher end. All in all, these are probably one of the best 2.1 speakers you will find on the market. Pros: - Excellent bass. Maybe too much for it's own tooty. - Nice solid frame build and the range of the remote that come with the speakers work pretty good. - CHEAP - Competes with higher end speaker systems even those of the surround sound build - Nice bonus of added extra features on the front of sub-woofer - Nice LCD display on sub-woofer - Able to satisfy even the most pickiest audiophile. Cons: - Power switch is on the back of the sub-woofer. Might be a pain if you have to put your sub underneath a desk and have crawl under it every time you want to turn it off. Should of put it on the front at least so whoever designed it that way deserves a *smack* on the face. - Crackling noises can be heard if speakers are left on for long periods of time during my experience using them. Restarting computer and turning them on and off seems to fix the issue. Can become quite irritating after awhile. Unless there is a fix for this I take a point off for this - Front speakers are pretty bulky. Will need a good amount of room to store these speakers. - Not wireless. Wires are not long enough for me to place the speakers where I want them. And where I want them is not that far... Minor issue is not major enough to be considered a point deduction, however an added feature of wireless technology for the speakers wouldn't have hurt - Would have been a good idea to add casing over the woofers on the front speakers. So be careful to set them somewhere safe. Other thoughts: - Rule of thumb: For best sound bass response and sound from these speakers I recommend placing the sub-woofer near the corner of the wall if possible. Corners heighten low frequency waves and gives it that thump. If not, the next best place would be to place them underneath the desk. Don't recommend it though considering how big the sub is and the overall quality of the bass sound is lossed, but will still provide you with better bass then you would get from regular computer speakers.

After reading other reviews on this product i was hesitant to order back in late march. I'm reviewing now approximately 3 months later to tell that my apprehensions were completely unfounded. I purchased these speakers with the intent of keeping them at my work, in the kitchen of an internationally franchised steakhouse, where they would be in use 5-14 hours a day/ 7 days a week. With this in mind, i kept the speakers at my home to properly break them in (not going above half volume for the speakers as well as the input device (5th gen ipod classic) for the first few hours of use) they are absolutely perfect for home use. i would hook the speakers up to my ipod and the speakers are powerful and rich enough to fill my entire house (a tri-level) while i clean. These speakers really stood out while studying, gaming, watching movies, and most importantly partying. I kept them at home for about a month before taking them to work where they are to this day. I haven't had any of the problems other people have claimed about the e.q. going out or one or both of the speakers going out. If you're wondering if the speakers will be effective for the kind of music you prefer, believe me when i say they will. I have played everything from brutal death metal, klezmer, afrobeat, hip-hop, classic rock, bluegrass to dubstep. All in all these speakers are amazing, the built in e.q. is great, especially at work when a manager comes back and says they can hear the rumble of the bass at the front of the restaurant, even over all the kitchen equipment. For the price, you won't find better speakers. If you're on a really tight budget (i understand i'm a student on my own with a mountain of bills) i would still recommend the et-ar506-bk which i purchased a few weeks ago to replace 508 for my home use (and as someone said about those speakers the mute button doesn't mute, it just takes the volume down to 1) But if you can shell out the extra 20 for the ar508, do it.

I purchased the AR508LR based on generally good reviews of the AR504 and AR506. I figured I would go ahead and get the next model up if the previous ones are pretty good. I tore down my old 2.0 speakers and cable management and moved my monitor a bit to accommodate the larger satellites. I found that the cable supplied was about a foot too short to place the sub where I originally imagined it so I moved things around even more. I finally got this all setup. I went into windows and dropped my volume to 50% and turned off my EQ effects. I turned on the speakers and found immediately that this system hums. Alot. I unplugged the input cables in ensure it was not from the audio source or cables themselves. The hum continued. What ever, I figured I'd deal with that later. Lets check the quality of my new speakers! I played a Windows test tone. Stereo is working and is not reversed, that's always good. The volume was very quiet. Note that the source volume was set to 50% and speaker system was at the default volume at power on. I turned the input volume to 80%. Test tone is at what I would consider an evening listening level, low-medium. I figure this would be a good starting point for testing before I start raising the systems volume and adjusting the EQ. I load up a song in the media player of choice. A song by the Hylian ensemble. This has good full range and should serve me well for testing. The song starts and at first all seems well. It doesn't sound great. Something seemed a bit off. First off, the high pass/low pass configured in the system is not great. The higher end of the bass range in my experience is better served coming through the full range speakers, however this system is serving them through the sub-woofer. It makes for "noisy" music listening due to a constant vibration of playing "music" through a low bass sub-woofer. I am not thrilled about that. There is no signs of adjustments for the low pass cut off like a high end home system or lowest of low end car audio system. Due to the noisiness of the music because of this "feature" I didn't notice immediately any other issues. I listened to a few songs to allow myself to adjust to what I was listening to. It seemed decent. I started to notice I was hearing some sort of distortion in the mid-range. I started putting my ear up to the full range satellites. It's coming from the left side. I put my ear to the bottom speaker. No issue. I check the top. It's rattling and distorting! I turned off the music and checked my connections. I made sure my audio cables weren't running along or near power cables. Nothing wrong. I start the music again. The distortion is still there. I then switched the left and right output cables. No difference. I switched the left and right input cables. Still no difference. I turned off the power to the system and very gently pressed on the cone. It's grinding! I mean grinding enough that it's vibrating the un-powered speaker and echoing loudly through the cone as it it moves gently in and out. I try the other 3 cones. The movement is very smooth and silent. I gave the speakers a light shake. I don't hear anything moving like loose cabled or broken plastic that may have made it's way into the speaker. It seems the voice coil is rubbing inside the speaker. I am super disappointed. I normally only purchase items with noticeably high reviews. The reviews for this were hard to determine. Instead of a slope of high good reviews to low good reviews it was more like 2 waves, but generally good. Unfortunately, Amazon groups similar products reviews into a single pile which is absolutely garbage of them. There were almost no reviews for the model I picked up but the other 2 models seemed to get overall good reviews and were all mixed in together so I took a chance. I even paid for 1 day shipping so I could receive and test this on my last day off. Now I have to send it back and find a replacement and hope that it works out better =(

The good news is that you can get really good sound from these. The bad news is that you can be very disappointed. So far, my experience is that the satellites are very directional. Most tweeters are, but these are especially so. My setup is on the same desk that my son had his Klipsch. So are these as good? No. Very much "no" if you do not have yourself and your speakers aligned just so. But actually pretty close if you do. With the Klipsch, you could move around a bit and not dramatically change the sound. Not so with these. If you don't like the way they sound, just move a bit. It will change. I found that they sound best to me where the tweeters directly at my head, as one would expect. The sub sits on the desk between them, with room on either side for the sub's speaker and base port to push the air. All this to say, you need to experiment to get the sound you like. If these cost what the Klipsch do, I'd send them back. Don't fool yourself. They are not of that quality. But they fit what I wanted, which is something clearly better than the cheap 2.1 sets, but less expensive than the Klipsch and their competitors. Am I happy? Yes. Am I thrilled and eager to put them up against my son's? No. My other "hits" on these: 1. Satelite cables are way too short, unless you can put the sub directly between them. 2. They state there is an equalizer. Bull! you can control bass and treble. I don't consider that at equalizer, and I don't know anyone who does... other than Eagle Tech. 3. No stands for the speakers. If you want them to point right at you (and you do), you have to find something to tilt them or raise them. I have some old CD storage towers which are perfect, but stands would be better. On the good side: 1. Solid wood cabinetry. Looks good. Suggests quality. Likely helps sound quality. 2. Handy mute button for when my wife walks in to talk to me, the phone rings, or some other interruption. 3. Kind of impressive visually. Not that this really matters when what you want is sound quality and quantity. But it doesn't hurt. SIDE NOTE: My first set had a bad left speaker. I set up the return on-line with Amazon. They had the replacement out the next day. UPS picked up the defective one. Amazon makes this as hassle-free as possible.

I've only had it one day, but here's my initial impressions. It really sounds good, considering the price. To compare it to a high end stereo system with a big amp, speakers and sub is simply unfair, but the sound is surprisingly good. This system was added to a Sanyo 32" TV installed in a 30' 5th wheel RV. The remote control is cheap, flimsy, and you have to really press the 'buttons' to get them to do anything. The volume buttons act weird, sometimes if you press volume down button, the volume goes up, you have to press the volume up button once or twice before the volume down button works as it should. But I think it's the receiver in the subwoofer that is at fault, because the TV remote is on the same frequency, and the up - down confusion happens with that remote too. ( the reason i purchased this sound system is because the TV speakers are awful, and I wanted a aux sound system with a remote because the TV audio out is continuous, not affected by its own remote ) That being said, it seems the receiver gets confused on what either remote tells it. When using an iPad to feed sound, I tested the quality of the system with what I think is the best test, the song 'Time' on Pink Floyd's album 'Dark Side of the Moon', since it starts with treble from bells and chimes, followed with deep bass tones, then vocals for the mid tones. It's a perfect test song. With the reset button pressed to null the bass and treble output, the system outputs a flat, dull sound. But bringing the treble up, it really comes to life. Adding bass adds the right sound, and you can overdrive the bass by too much. It really sounds great. I'm a believer that subwoofers and high end headphones need at least 40 hours of play before they really deliver their best sound. After just 6 hours, the bass sounds noticeably clearer, smoother, well defined. Based on sound alone, I'd give it five stars. But the cheapy remote, and the remote's receiver volume confusion make me wonder where else the cut corners in quality. After reading reviews here about complete failure in mere days, low quality soldering, etc makes me wonder about how it will perform down the road. The speaker wire coming out of the L & R speakers is hard wired inside, and way too short, even in an RV. More corners cut, more cause for concern down the road. Also, I've heard that Amazon will not permit returns on the systems made by this manufacturer due to hazardous materials content. Amazon doesn't determine that, the manufacturer does. Is the manufacturer doing that to stop having to take them back and absorb financial loss from a high frequency of failure? Why else would they say hazmat exists, when it doesn't? Hmmm. Seems FTC should look closer at this whole hazmat lie, whoever is saying it. Overall, I like the sound. But after looking closer, I think I would have bought something with less complaints. I expect I'll be back here to add to this review.

For the price, one absolutely cannot go wrong purchasing these speakers. Clean, crisp design. Much better sounding than I could imagine for the price. I'm running these as external speakers from a Samsung 55" 1080p LED TV (2 audio outputs). Here's the interesting and fantastic part and this DOES compliment these speakers beyond belief giving you an audio experience worth thousands of dollars. After the audio exits the TV, I have output cables entering another unit before going to the ●●ARION LEGACY SPEAKERS●●. This unit is: The ●●ΒEHRINGER COMPOSER PRO-XL MDX2600●● (Amazon purchase) With German precision, Behringer of Willich, Germany manufactures the highest quality audio and lighting equipment. The PRO-XL MDX2600 is a fantastic audio enhancer known as a **Reference-Class 2-Channel Expander-Gate-Compressor-Peak Limiter with Integrated De-Esser, Dynamic Enhancer and Tube Simulation.** Basically it cleans up sound. ►Inaudible noise suppression. ►Prevents "pumping" due to low-frequency dominated compression ►Removes excessive sibilance (clears muffled voices) A little known secret I got from someone in music recording... this works extremely well with standard audio (stereos & TVs). These speakers are so well-built that the Behringer Composer works as if it were designed for them. ►COMMERCIALS: You will eliminate the annoying blast from commercials as db goes up. The Composer intercepts the extra loudness and compresses it. The same happens with any movie or TV show. No more reaching for the remote to adjust volume. The process was having ►Two (2) HOSA Dual 1/4 Inch To RCA Cables from TV to Composer (Amazon). ►Two (2) Hosa Cable GPR101 RCA To 1/4 Inch TS Adaptors (Amazon) from Behringer Composer to Arion Legacy Speakers. Fine-tune the Behringer to your liking and see what beautiful sounds come out.

So i had been looking for easy to set up, loud, strong bass, cheap, and good looking speakers. At first i had the Ikross illuminating speakers (previously GoGroove Bass Pulse 2.1). They were excellent, but didnt have the power i was looking for. So after time i gave them to my dad and picked up the Eagle Arion 2.1. Oh my... I wasnt expecting to find speakers as excelent as these... I went to best buy a few days later and tested all the leading brands and none sounded as good as these. I want a set in every room i am in they are so amazing. Great priced too!!! PS: all the people that say, oh they blow in like a few days or weeks, were playing them with the bass all the way up and the volume all the way up. Of course your going to blow them.... Pros: -Great bass, loud, good sound quality, good look, remote. Cons: Remote Range, Glue showing, thats it!

so i must say, while these worked, they were great. im a college student, and in my dorm room, they were pretty loud. the bass is actually a lot more substantial than i thought it would be, considering i was just looking for some computer speakers to play music out of. when i moved into an apartment, i put them in the living room (12'x20', and it opens up into the kitchen) and they were still loud enough to create a pretty cool atmosphere. If not for the sub (which, by 2.1 system standards, is huge), this system would be a let down. Like some other reviews said, the remote is pretty shitty. i can attest to that, its pretty annoying. i had to be within 5 feet of the sub to be able to change anything. the power switch on the back (and the inability to turn on/off without that switch) is also pretty annoying. if you can get past that (and i did), then this is a pretty great 2.1 setup. dont expect audiophile quality sound, because it wont give you that. youll get loud music with a lot of bass. so luckily, i feel like i got my money's worth (got them for 75$) before the seemingly inevitable happened. the other night i was just listening to some music, and it seems like maybe the amplifier blew? the sub wont do anything but make a very loud hum. and i mean EXTREMELY loud. no music came out. In short, great product, if what youre looking for is decently loud music with a lot of bass. if you dont mind risking having to buy new speakers in 10 months (like i now have to), then go for it.