My usual final question – would I buy these speakers?
My unusual answer – yes, I probably would. Perhaps not straight out, but I would certainly put them near the very top of my shopping list in this class of speakers. I fault them for their lack of sting up there, but I admire and greatly enjoy their ambience capabilities. And I vouch that you won’t find many in this price class with similar capabilities. Yes, my JBL CM62 springs to mind, but while greatly enjoyable and with better bass lines, they are nevetheless not as linear as the 601s.
As for the bass lines, in all truth, anything I say about the 601s more or less equally applies to each and every speaker of similar size I have ever heard over the last 36 significant (audio) years of my life (I was bitten by the audio bug when I was just 11 and never recovered), bearing in mind its price bracket. I did replace the CM62s with the 601s on each side of the JBL Sub10, and as usual, the bass was improved no end.
That is my only suggestion to potential owners – buy these and do consider a subwoofer in the near future. Small enclosures allow extreme freedom of placement, and a subwoofer will rid you of their potential pseudo-bass, while offering the punch and gut shaking feeling of savage power you might require here and there. I would consider B&W subwoofers on grounds of same sound signature and philosophy (which is why with the JBL CM62s I have a JBL Sub10), but you might disagree.
This is not a speaker you will, in all probability, love at first hearing; this one takes a little time to grow on you, as is in my experience almost always the case with neutral products. What it will do is make you wonder why you didn’t buy it before, but that will take no less than a week (to settle them in), and probably more like a month or two. It requires, albeit silently, at least good quality, and preferably very good quality speaker cable to show all it is capable of, so don’t deny it this cable – which cable, of course, is a matter of personal choice.
A charming product, then, and an unusual blend of qualities and complete lack of vices not often heard in this price bracket. Deserves to be a bestseller.