How good are these?

The lack of bass is not an issue They are designed to produce very high volumes for parties and DJing. In a normal room they will not be clear sounding with movie and TV soundtracks unless you crank them way up. Then when the sound gets loud they will be too loud so you have to turn them down. You can't watch a movie without understanding the dialogue so you will be doing this all the time. It's really a mistake to buy speakers without listening to them first. If those are your only choices then the 1530 would be preferred but check out Polk and Andrew David designed Pioneer speakers in that same price range.