(Valkor's Note: This is a slightly edited
version of my original review. Many thanks Chris of SoundMatters,
for pointing out the mistakes. It's what I always tell Krush,
"Hey when I'm writing, I don't see these things." lol)
Hey folks Valkor here, introducing you guys to a new company and
2 new products that fought their way through Val-cave testing
and surpassed all my expectations and then some. The company is
called SoundMatters and the products in question are the FULLstageHD
speakers by the company SoundMatters.
First off these babies were meant to replace your 2.1 set up. And hey if you add an additional MAINstage, you will get a kinda 6.1 one thing going. But since I only had one MAINstage, I can’t really talk about that. But what I can say is that this set easily replaced my 2.1 Altec Lansing easily and believe me if you didn’t pay attention you wouldn’t think all that good sound was comin out of two speakers. But the kicker for me was the SUBstage subwoofer. The damn thing is eerie because the bass kicks in when it needs to and when it doesn’t it turns itself off. This doesn’t happen during CD play, but on certain DVD’s like “Pirates of the Caribbean: Deadman’s chest” or even “Batman Begins”, also during tv shows or movies, when things get going the bass is there, and when things get all mellow, no bass. I’m not hatin’ on it, I actually enjoyed the speakers more because of it since there are times when you really don’t need thumpin bass.
But overall when watching movies or listening to CD audio, sounds are richer and more detailed than when I was listening through my Altec Lansings. The first film I watched was Star wars: A New Hope and right at the opening with the fanfare you can hear more of the instruments being played accentuated with the bass. There were background noises I had never heard before, like during the Cantina scene where you can hear more bar chatter. Throughout the entire film you can make out the attention to detail in the sound and you can see how much attention went into remastering the film. With Batman Begins…. The only thing you need to know is that the chase scene, you know the one where their chasing Batman on rooftops, was like watching it all over again. Police chatter, sirens, the roar of the Batmobile… It was insane!
But then the ultimate test await:. How would MAINstage work with the creative X-FI?? Let me just start off by saying that Creative has touted the X-FI soundcard as being the card that brings details back to MP3’s and make movie watching a whole new experience. With MAINstage, I finally and truly see what they mean. I mean I’ve always known the power behind X-FI, but to see it used in tandem with the MAINstage was amazing. Listening to MP3’s I see what the guys at Creative were saying how it opens up an MP3 bringing back it’s clarity, and how it separates the music from the voice. Amazing! How about movies? I had to go to my one and only sound reference DVD that I use to test most speakers “The Polar Express”. I won’t say it passed with flying colors, but I will say that overall the experience was worthwhile. Every detail in sound was enhanced from something simple as a bell ringing to the sound of the actual train as it shoots along the tracks. Not only that but dialog is crystal clear, you will literally not miss a word. However as far as positioning goes, there isn’t too much, so everything is mainly centered, nothing ever really expands left or right. But overall X-FI plus MAINstage equals freakin sweet!
Overall true believers, you can’t go wrong if you decide to pick up SoundMatter's FULLstageHD speakers, it’s a one two combination that puts to shame most 2.1 speakers sets. The FULLstageHD goes for $599, I know it sounds expensive as all hell, but take it from me…. It’s worth it. Both products have been Valkor tested and TOV approved.