Kanto YU6GR Powered Bookshelf Speakers with Bluetooth and Phono Preamp | Pair | Gloss Red

Just received and installed these on built in bookshelves, replacing 20 year old speakers. Short summary:SUMMARY: It’s early days, but so far, I like how they sound, and I think they’re good value for the money.TIMING: Received within 3 days of orderingPACKAGING: Package was in good shape when delivered. Amazon sends them in the “box-within-a-box” set up.INSTALLATION: Left speaker is the “smart” one, right is the “dumb” one. All power and audio signals go directly into the left speaker. That means you need to run speaker cable from the left to the right to activate the right speaker.SOUND: Always subjective, but to me, highs are reasonably bright when treble is turned all the way up (controlled by the remote that is included). Lows are somewhat lacking, but understandable given the woofer size. For the size of the room in which I installed these, a subwoofer (8” Kento) was a must. Note: The left speaker also includes the subwoofer out RCA jack. The mono RCA cable included with the Kento subwoofer is about 16’ long. I needed a greater length than that, so ordered a 20’ cable separately.APPEARENCE: Again, subjective, but I like the clean, simple look of the matte white cabinet. Rounded edges are a nice touch. And, the lack of screen over both the tweeter and woofer looks good to my eye. Overall, the speaker doesn’t appear to be “trying too hard” to look cool.USE: I’m using these primarily for TV audio. Thus, I have an optical cable running from the TV directly to the left “smart” speaker using the “OPT 1” jack. The remote control allows you to choose where the audio source is coming from: Optical 1, Optical 2, RCA, AUX, Bluetooth. Of course, with the TV off, you can still turn the speakers on, select “Bluetooth” on the remote, and pair them with Bluetooth devices. The speakers show up quickly on your Bluetooth device list.

First time I've had such a product and it is fantastic. Mine are connected to my computer system, even though the sound from my monitor is fairly good. I exclusively use these whenever I'm working on the computer.

Great set of speakers. I use them with a turntable and bluetooth audio and work well with either. Built in phono preamp sounds pretty good IMO. I paired with a cheap sub and sounds great.

I’m guessing many of you are looking around for speakers to go with a turntable, or like me, something for my desktop computer. I was a fairly active audiophile for quite a while and wanted to provide some real-world comparisons to a couple of what I believe are contenders in this range of speaker. I had an extended listening session today between The PeachTree M24’s (yes I know it is smaller), the Klipsch R-51PM, and the YU6. The first thing I noticed is the soundstage on the YU6 really beat everything else in terms of width and height. I did not have to toe the speakers in like I did with the other two. The tweeter puts out an aggressive sound compared to the same size tweeter on the Peachtree. The Peachtree is a little more balanced in that regard. The Klipsch are pretty much right in your face with what I would call a fatiguing treble. As I moved to the midrange, I was really surprised by a couple of things. The YU6 tended to put midrange things farther back in the soundstage, so it was not as pronounced as what I’m used to with the Peachtrees. I lost some of the detail out of instruments unless it strayed up into treble where it gained more detail than the Peachtrees. Klipsch had a very flat soundstage to me except the tweeter was really out in front of the soundstage. On to the mid-bass / bass. The YU6 has some funky mid-bass resonance that muddies it a bit. The bass can be a little more “boomy” than the Peachtrees I’m assuming because of the cabinet size difference. The Klipsch was definitely the most “boomy” and had even more resonance in the mid-bass, so I dismissed the Klipsch from the session. So, between the M24’s and the YU6, here are my conclusions. Keep in mind I’m about 4-5 feet from the speakers.1. Midrange is a little recessed on the YU6. I like the Peachtree better there.2. I get a lot more detail from the treble / tweeter on the YU6 without it being fatiguing.3. The YU6 kills the M24 on soundstage in all directions and the change of what you hear is not as drastic when you move closer or farther away4. The M24 had tighter bass to me but again, that may be because of the smaller cabinet and woofer.5. The sub out works great on both – I have two 12” Bic F-12’s and they work great with both speakers although I’d say the F12’s are definitely a better HT subwoofer than a musical one.6. Build quality on both are outstanding.7. I like the larger sound and soundstage from the YU6 compared to the M24.I’m going to keep the YU6 on the desktop for now and let them break in well. I have the Peachtree M25’s coming so that will be a more fair comparison but I’m really curious if the M25’s can match the soundstage. And room filling capabilities of the YU6.Hope this helps someone that may be comparing these two speakers like I was. The YU 6 could be a really great speaker if they could knock out some of that cabinet resonance and push the mids a bit farther forward in the soundstage, but I rate these a solid 4/5.Thought I'd add to this a bit. I stepped back from a long listening session yesterday and thought about the things I heard on each speaker. I ended up putting the M24's back on my desktop. The thing that bugged me most about the Kanto was the cabinet resonance. It's just not there with the M24's. I still like the width, depth, and height of the soundstage with the Kanto but I'd say the Peachtree M24's are a more lively and balanced speaker. Another thing I noticed is that the sub out on the M24's drives the subs hotter, which I like because I can turn down the actual sub volume a bit. The M25's and now the YU4 from Kanto is on the way, so it should be fun to compare all of those.

I am completely happy with the sound and the multi-functionality but there are some important aspects that are extremely poorly designed that make using it unenjoyable and at this price point thats not acceptable to me so i am going to give it one star. Biggest gripes are the remote; you must be pointing it EXACTLY at the little signal light for it to work, my apple tv which costs half what this did can pick up a signal from the remote in another room so this is just insulting to me that they would include such a crummy and non functioning remote. The bluetooth; it is constantly sending out a bluetooth signal whether bluetooth mode is selected or not. So when i turn it on and am using RCA for my record player my phone will auto connect and i have to turn bluetooth from my iphone off manually to disconnecting and then guess what, that means it won’t auto connect the next time i want to use bluetooth. Both these issues are just sheer laziness in design and nothing else. On the fence about if i will be returning or jot because of these terrible features