Hi, I was living in UK, where I was digging the market for a set of good (A 2.1 with Crisp Sound, Tight bass for low volume listening and a unique product) speakers to buy, as I was planning for my return to India. After days of online search I closed in on the following: Audioengine A2/A5 Swans MK200 MKII Bose Companion 3 Altec MX 5021 (Discountinued Model) Due to luggage constraints I chose not to buy and carry, rather order a set from India. I was used to the bose system as one of my housemate had a pair and they were good, sound quality didn't surprise me as such, but were good. Market Research for Speakers: So after coming back to India/Bangalore I scanned shopping/electronic sites to find the products available. I have used creative and altec lancing speakers in the past and Altec is one of my all time favourite. So I was wondering if the new set could really stand out in terms of sound quality. After lot of research I was keen on the Swans MK200 MKII which is an import from US (sold by a site http://www.hifinage.com), but then was bit hesitant on investing that much amount when I may not stay home that long to use it and I may need to travel back to UK for work. So had a look at other cheaper models from Swans... Final Selection: ..and finalised on a model named M10. It's good looking pair of 2.1 desktop speaker system and the reviews online were highly positive. To be honest I couldn't find a single negative review of this product. Again the parent company of Swans is HiVi who are OE suppliers of drivers (what the speaker basically is made up of!) to premium brands, this I found a good credibility for Swans. So without much ado I placed an order with Hifinage.com through eBay. It cost me more due to additional eBay charges involved from sellers side, but I was able pay by card, which I wanted. So the whole process was great and got the product within 7 days as promised by the seller through Blue Dart courier (though I had to pick the parcel myself from the city warehouse, else they would have taken another 2 days to deliver to my door step). Unpacking & First Experience: Well after a week long wait I was pretty excited to test these new pair of Swans, especially after reading all the good words on their audio quality from all the forums. I connected the sattelites to the woofer and plugged my macbook pro and just played one track (a hindi one) and I was a bit surprised at the sound quality. It was faint and hazy. Before conluding speakers have some issue I recalled that the speakers needs to have a 'burn in' time of 16 hours(recommended). So I left it playing with some assorted playlist with bass set to full. Trust me after merely 30 mins or so, I couldn't believe when the sound quality started to get finer and crisper. Amazing it was. Bass level impoved drastically and sound quality was just amazing. Never experienced such stuff with Altec, not sure why. Now after 8 hours of play since they arrived, their sound just fill my mid-size hall superbly and I just wait for my work to get over so that I can get home and listen to the Swans:D It's not 16 hours yet, but the sound quality has hit the sweet spot already:) Really happy with this purchase and recommend highly. If you are an audiophile and have a bigger budget I recommend Swans M200 MKII/III. No matter which one you pick, I am sure you would be equally delighted! Cheers, Sid
