What a lame review. Typical lazyness from this site. I'll review for you people, since Tom's too busy "Working"...
The new ones almost compare to the older ones in all essence. Not quite though. They are made cheaper and are NOT as good. 14 watts RMS a channel, but also VERY different in amplifier design. The amplifier is totally redesigned for this series two model. It uses the TPA3001D1 (sometimes referred to as TPA3001) and it is a 20-W mono bridge-tied load (BTL) class-D audio power amplifier. The older one uses two. That one fet is not heatsinked like the older ones and when pushed to the limit, overheats and shuts down. This is under extreme circumstances though. I drove a two ohm load each channel instead of the factory 6 ohm woofers. The power is not the same. The older ones were built with higher quality components around it and put out more power, the lower the resitance went. The power supply on this new set is 27 volts at 1.7 amps, compared to the 12 volt, 2.9 amp transformer. That's 45.9 watts imput compared to 34.8. It's more efficient using the incomming power but, doe'snt help the amp generate quite the same power the old ones did. Overall the new amp does it's job unless you pull it apart and torture test it. I did have it cut out though, only under EXTREME use. You'd kill yourself with the distortion before problems occure. Mabey if your enviorment was 100+ degree's...
The speakers are the same, so you would think anyway. The woofer is a 6ohm midbass driver EXACTLY the same as before. The tweeter is revised, though. It's 4 ohms like the others, look the same from the front, but have a different magnet. The older ones seem to do more with the power given and sound cleaner to me. Just more accurate and sharper. I think these tweets are made cheaper. That's MY oppinion though.
The new series two is nice, and if I did'nt know ant better, I'm but them I like the black, the new dials, and the light is around the volume knob instead of an L.E.D. on the face like before. It's nice looking. The only grudge is you can see the light through the woofer cone, but only when it's dark. I don't think most would notice.
The port is oval, instead of round, and when testing it seems to be tuned higher than before. Around 70hz instead of 60hz. It sounds good though, but the new or old ones could'ent play that low anyway. 50hz and the output of the amp rolls off to nothing at around 20hz. These lil woofers and cabinets would'nt do it anyway if the amp sent signals that low.
Personally I would look for the older set, it sounds better to me, but does'nt look as good. They dropped the quality some, and it shows. There's small details here and there that show to my very critical eye...
I would rate a 9 still, because it's the BEST sounding 2.0 set you can find. I don't care wht you wanna spend. In this size these are #1. You can however get much better setups, but plan to shell out %500 bucks, and clear your desk, cuse you'll need the room.
Your's truley, George Srisomsak