Boston Acoustics A-250 5.1 Package

In my sound room I have a Boston Acoustic system set up with the Yamaha RX-A810 and BD-S671 Blu Ray Player. Much has been said by many reviewers world wide about the A-Series from Boston Acoustic. They obviously have stiff competition from the likes of Monitor Audio Bronze and Jamo on the entry level theatre packages. So before me on a 47" Hitachi LED I will review this speaker package. Packing out is a breeze, but when you take it out of the box, you do not want to put them back, not because it a the most awesome speaker ever, it is because you need to be a rocket scientist with the packaging to put it back in, a total of 12 polystyrene pieces PER BOX.)

The configuration of speakers I have is as follows:

A250 Floorstander 2-half way speaker
A225C Centre Speaker
A25 Bookshelf
ASW250 250W Subwoofer

Looks


It is a cheapish speaker for a high end market, about R6000 for the floorstander, R15 600 for full package. For the price it looks very well put together. It is 1000% better than the Classic Series (old CS range which it replaced), there is no comparison, CS designer should have been shot. The A-Series' workmanship is of high standard, the black finish is very nice. The grills uses magnets to keep it to the mothership (something all speaker should have IMHO). They did not try to make it look too interesting or to modern, there is a nice balance between style and tradition. Your wife wont beat you half dead for getting this system, it can be used for a love songs as well, so if used wisely she will forget you ever bought it.

Performance


 One thing I love about this package is that it sound very good with little power, the Yamaha RX-A810 is sufficient to drive them nicely and to impress a potential buyer. I inserted Iron Man 2 to the Blu Ray Player, skipped to the final fighting scene with the machines. So they start talking, argues who's gun is the biggest (shocking really), and then the machine fell from the sky waiting to shoot the living hell out of Iron Man and friend.It handles that part quite well. So the masks closes and they started to shoot World War 2 worth of ammunition per second. The speakers keeps up with the crushing of steel, lasers from Iron Man. The Sub woofer keeps a smooth but intense atmosphere, WOW, this from an entry speaker system from Boston Acoustic.

Very excited I loaded Hitman from David Foster. So I choose Josh Groban with Bryan Mcnight. It starts, I am confused that this just so powerful speaker system sounds a bit...average. Why is it? Very simple, very weak centre speaker. It is cheap, R2500, but it really does not deserve to be in the same package as the A250 and A25. On the musical side the the A250 does a brilliant job, I can not fault it on its performance, looks or quality. The sub woofer tends to get a bit boomy,  but for being down firing and well priced it is not a bad sub woofer at all. The A25 it self is a very good speaker, and for a surround it does a great job (I thought even it might be a good idea to use the A25 for a centre speaker).

So concluding some other music and movie disc, there is a lot of good things and one bad thing with the performance.

Good - The speaker package can keep up with ferocious pace, the mains have big sound and heart for a small floor stander, the sub is aggressive but can keep the pace and atmosphere. The A250 on stereo sounds brilliant for the size and price.

Bad - Centre Speaker

Conclusion


I must say I like the Boston Acoustic A-Series. It is really an impressive speaker package for the price and for the fact that you do not need huge power to drive them. The looks are well balanced, it is not conceived from an Orc pit. If it was not for the centre speaker I this would have been a very impressive speaker system in every way, but it was not to be a brilliant one.

Looks and build quality: 9/10
Performance : 7/10
Value for money : 8/10