When I first got the EV
Sonic XJR system, I was excited. With only three separate speakers, however, I was afraid the sound quality might not offer the definition (and power) I was hoping for.
At first, it seemed worse than I had feared. Turning on the unit resulted in distortion at very low volume, and turning the volume up not only led to a horrible buzzing sound, but noticeable fade. The volume dropped quite a bit, and quite quickly. Furthermore, the buzzing seemed to come from one of the satellite speakers - and it actually rattled when I shook it. I figured it must have been damaged in transit...
When I popped it open (4 screws) and had a look about, I discovered that nothing was broken inside of the speaker, but that the volume controls were very loosely installed inside of the speaker. A few turns of a pair of pliers (actually, quite a few) and replacing four screws, and we were in business...
And what a difference it made! The volume fade was gone (evidently, the control was vibrating and turning itself down) and all of the 'distortion' was gone (evidently solely the result of the loose control mechanism).
The reason for my description of my problems is primarily informative. I don't expect that all of the units are in that condition. Furthermore, if you do happen to buy one and it has a 'rattle' sound in the satellite speaker with the volume controls, it is so worth it to simply tighten the controls and keep the XJR's and use them. As I stated in Performance above, ''After the correction I made, the XJR's are possibly the best 3-speaker sound system I've reviewed. (And some of the 5-speaker systems have reason to worry...)''
