Interestingly, volume wasn't the problem: the TSS-800 could play nice and loud, but the dynamic punch was a nonevent. Turning up the subwoofer volume added more bass boom, which didn't help matters. Even after we carefully adjusted the sub's volume, it wasn't particularly powerful, deep, or defined. The percussion fueled hard rock music on the Blue Man Group's The Complex Tour Live concert DVD fell flat. Judged as a $900 home theater package, the TSS-800 wasn't cutting it.
We much preferred the sound on music with little or no bass. The speakers' exceptional clarity was a real boost on difficult material such as the Kronos Quartet's Dracula CD. String tone was excellent, and the speakers again were champs at delineating individual instruments within the stereo image.
Moving onto Yo La Tengo's I Am Not Afraid Of You... CD, the speakers' resolution of fine detail was superb, with each shimmer of a cymbal and plucking of a guitar string easy to discern. So far, so good, but when the band rocked out, the subwoofer's sound wasn't fully jelling with the satellites. That's too bad--the sats have a lot of potential but need a better subwoofer than the one that comes with the Infinity TSS-800.
