I received the Astonia SC300 a couple of weeks back.
It was packed well. The original box was put into a larger cardboard box with thermocol fillers. There was no documentation apart from a single page that listed the specifications and warranty details (6 months).
The amp looks quite allright (
Astonia audio) but is not put together well. On inspection one can see uneven gaps between the front panel and the metal plate that covers the top and sides. A little pressure on the top, back or front causes the plates to move and the gap to widen.
I took the amp to Music Square Indiranagar. They did not have the 8390 and I was asked to audition other comparable Floor standers. I do not remember the exact models but think one of them was F140. The sales person first hooked up their supposedly-cheapest FS (~22K) to the Astonia and I heard Hotel California, some trance kind-of music and then a scene from the Hulk. The sound was generally very good (to my untrained ears ;-) but bass was not quite tight (especially during the start of Hotel California) as compared to the best system I had heard (it was at Cinebels, ~6 months back, the whole system had cost around 1 lakh). I was happy to buy these but wanted to compare the amp with a Yamaha amp, so he hooked up these speakers with a Yamaha amp (something that cost ~25K) and the sound was almost the same (I couldn't sense any difference). While listening to this, the sales supervisor came in and asked for another pair of FS to be tried for better bass. These actually sounded much better than the first pair - the bass in Hotel California was tighter, the conversation in the Hulk scene was more comprehensible despite all the bullets and bombs going off. I then asked for it to be hooked up to the Astonia, again they sounded really very good.
I was quite happy but assumed these would be way outside my budget. To my surprise, this second FS was cheaper (~20K), the sales supervisor told me that it was an older model and said that the newer models are not quite built well in spite of being priced higher.
I then asked him about the 8390, he said those FS were even better but I'd have to wait for atleast a month for them. He said they cost 17.5K and as with other speakers, he could offer a 10% discount. I asked for a final price and he said 15K and atleast one month for delivery.
I asked him what he thought about the Amp - he had never heard of Astonia and said that they sounded quite good. He was clearly very impressed when I told him that these cost only 3.5K.
Anyway I couldn't wait for a month. So I left planning to audition the other speakers suggested above before making up my mind.
Next day I was to go for lunch near Whitefield and on my way back, I luckily decided to stop over at Hyper City. They had the 8390 and I thought it sounded very good with a Yamaha Amp (this was a mall and it was difficult to judge sound quality with all the background noise). The price was 13.5K and they said they could deliver the very next day. I was happy to go with this but while making the payment they informed me that they did not have these in their godown and would need to get it from Mumbai (1 week delay). I asked whether I could use the demo pieces until then and whether i could get a further discount. To my surprise, they agreed for a Rs1000 discount while also allowing me to take the demo speakers with me (until I got they get the new ones). The total cost was hence 12.5K ;-)
The speakers did not fit into the boot of my car so I had to place them in the back seat of my Optra. Got home and hooked it up to my Astonia. I first hooked the audio from my media player to the Astonia and heard some old Hindi songs, then some master piece collections from Beethoven, Mozart and the sort, Hotel California (my favourite while auditioning audio systems). I was very happy with the richness of the sound.
I then connected the TV Audio out to the Astonia. The media player, HTiB and Airtel HD setup box were all connected over HDMI to teh TV and teh XBox360 over plain RCB. I set my TV to use external speakers and then played battleship on my Philips HTiB. I switched off the Amp and listened to a couple of scenes (one conversation and one action scene) on my HTiB speakers, and then I muted the HTiB and switched on the Amp and played the same two scenes. I couldn't believe my ears but both scenes sounded much better on the yamaha speakers than on my HTiB. I had expected the action scenes to atleast sound better in the surround system but it was not so! I was now very happy with my purchase.
Since then I have been listening to the Astonia+Yamaha for over a week now and have been even more impressed than on the first day. While watching Mad Men (Media Player), I could hear background sounds (office, traffic) that I had never heard until now, I even went back to older episodes to confirm the same. My wife too made the same observation, so its not just me! One can't make out too much difference while watching something from Airtel DTH but the TV shows that I have downloaded on my media player surely sound much better now - more background details and the voice too is much more clearer. We used to turn on subtitles for some serials like Boardwalk Empire - no longer needed now!
Anyway, my biggest complaint with the Astonia+Yamaha system is the lack of remote for controlling volume while using Airtel as the source. I can use the media player remote to control the volume while using it as a source, but on the Airtel set top box, the volume cannot be changed using the Airtel remote or the TV remote - operation not allowed.
They took back the old speakers and delivered the new speakers today evening. I will hook them up later today!
PS. I am running out of time so could not write more details about the specific songs and movie clips that I listened to, also sorry for typos, if any.
.. NS8390 is costing 13.5k here in Hyderabad.
