HiFi News reviewers have not been overly kind to Eclipse TD loudspeakers, espcially the 510s. I have 712z and 510s and have been very pleased with them, but are the reviewers biased?

I think reviews have been mixed. I've heard the 712 and was impressed/interested.

I think they do one thing really well which is imaging which is probably one of the most important things in hifi. Once you have the placement of sounds in a soundfield, you've gone a long way towards creating a sense of a 'real' event regardless of any resolution capabilities.

There are some problems with them though. They are very insensitive for a speaker without a crossover. Usually, when you get rid of the crossover, you're looking at a large increase in sensitivity because of the inneficiency of passive crossovers but that doesn't happen here.

Secondly, they are definitely not linear in response. They don't measure that way and they certainly don't sound that way. I would have been interested to have heard them with a sub. The top was clearly rolled off.

I do think they're really good speakers though. I use mini monitors (LS3/5a V2) primarily because of their imaging capabilities and I thought the Fujitsu Ten Eclipse were in advance of the LS3/5a in that respect - certainly an achievement. I think they're not for everyone though.

When I heard them, it was at a Fujitsu Ten demo and they regulated the conditions quite tightly. Only one person sitting in the auditioning seat at a time and the room set up very well with the speakers in free space roughly 1/3 of the way down a shoe box shaped room and listening in near field. A very well run demo.

I would not disagree with a lot of Christopher's comments. I sit in a not quite shoe box room, with the 712zs firing across the width and the soundstage is superb. Although they reach low frequencies well, I have added a sub - a B&W PV1. This combination is excellent for the classical records and soundtracks I play. Yes, they are not as linear as some small speakers, but if Christopher cares to read Ken Kessler's review of the Sonus Faber Memento, which he give 20/20 to and if he compares the frequency response to that of the 712z review, I think he will find the latter slightly more linear! (Both reviews in HiFi News asnd watch out for the confusing vertical dB scales!).

I think the Eclipse sound polarises people. They either love them or hate them. There's no middle ground. Fujitsu Ten patently handed them to the wrong guy. There have been some excellent reviews of the speaker systems. And the new sub, too. It might look like a big blah box, but it's the only sub to have the speed to match the 'satellites' and still have depth.