These are my first impressions. They are up against some highish end home theater speakers, SVS MTS-01s.
 
I want to like these things, but so far, they are failing to amaze me. Their imaging in fine, but I'd say only on par with what the SVS speakers have. Maybe a touch better, but I dunno, really doesn't seem like it. Given all the ranting n' raving about imaging and the coax advantage with that regard, I was expecting something better.
 
Sound quality is very good, I don't hear any honk from the horn or anything like that, but again, I'm not really hearing any improvement against my SVS speakers that I can detect. Is there less distortion? I dunno, maybe, if there is it is really hard to tell (the SVS are supposedly very low distortion).
 
They sound a bit more linear, maybe. I can't really hear much voicing difference in music. In a frequency sweep it seems like they are a little more linear, but it isn't much if it is.
 
Bass is hard to accurately compare since the SVS speakers are so much larger and hit lower. In general the Sceptres seem to do ok for their size, and the bass seems clean. I don't know that it is any more clean than the SVS speakers though. Like I said, hard to tell what with the difference in response.
 
Then the final issue: They hiss. They have an audible hiss in my room, even with their input gain set at minimum, and the soundcard disconnected. It's not super loud or anything, but it is audible and I likes me a nice and silent room. I stuck a better amp on my SVS speakers just for that reason.
 
So if you are thinking about these...... I dunno, try and listen to them first. They really don't seem to live up to the hype. They aren't bad, by any stretch of the imagination, but they don't seem to be any better than other good speakers.

Ya, it's official, they are going back :(. They aren't bad, but they aren't any better in any of the ways I'd hoped.
 
As a final test I gave them the benefit of a better room. My computer and speakers are in a tiny lil' room, 10'x11' and though it has some treatment it is not the best sounding (which is part of why I'm after different speakers). So I put the Sceptres in my great room which is massive, has slanted ceilings, and so on. They got to stand a good distance from the walls or any other boundaries on their stands (MS-80s with mopads on them if you were wondering, used in both rooms). Again, didn't sound bad, but did nothing to impress me.
 
So if you are looking at these, well, look at others in the same price range too. They just don't seem to have anything special here. They've certainly made coaxial work, no issues at all that I can tell like you'd usually see, but they just don't seem to be anything special for having it. They are just good speakers, not amazing ones.

I recently upgraded Samson Resolv 6.5a studio monitors to JBL LSR308's.  Very happy with these.

I was going to mention your square shaped room, and then I saw that you did. I think that room is going to be a problem for you. You are probably a good candidate for a technology like ARC.
 
I see you have mentioned "hiss". I get excited by these newly introduced, self powered designs, but every time I get close to buying something I look for a photo of the "amp plate" on the rear of the speaker. When I see "made in China", I put my wallet away.
 
It seems to me that all the latest assembly technologies have reduced the price of electronic appliance assembly to a point where domestic assembly and domestic quality control can happen affordably, but it seems as if vendors want to keep the price much lower than affordable. My guess is that they know that people will only pay so much for speakers because they have aspirations to own every plug in known to man. :-)
 
My powered speakers and my power amps were assembled domestically. I think that quality control gets a little more attention when the people who make the stuff are the very same people who will be asked to fix the stuff if it doesn't work real well.

Well speaking of ARC that is a spoiler I wasn't thinking about: The SVS speakers have digital room correction being applied. Specifically Audyssey MultEQ, which is a low resolution versions of ARC (basically ARC has a 64x larger filter). So they did have that benefit that the Sceptres did not. I suppose I could jury rig something to do correction on the Sceptres but it would be a pain (since they can't do unbalanced connections and the receiver that does MultEQ is unbalanced only).
 
However that aside, the hiss just bothers me too much. Stupid maybe, since it is pretty low level, but I value having speakers that are perceptibly silent at idle, so back they go.
 
You are right about the room being a problem, this much I know. That is part of the reason I decided to look at different speakers, see if they worked a little better in it. Given my failure there, I think I'm going to throw another grand or two at acoustic treatment of the room, then go from there.
 
I might revisit active speakers, but not the Sceptres :P.
 
In terms of domestic assembly I hear that, but it is hard to find. Hell my Rotel amp that powers the SVS speakers was made in China (though I've no complaints, it is silent as can be). Heck Event Opal speakers are made in Australia, not the US.

you've already returned them, so this will be too little to late, but did you carefully adjust the gain throughout your monitoring signal chain? When I hear hiss in monitors (with stand-alone or built-in amplifiers) it is almost always a case of poor gain settings trashing the S/N ratio.
 
Just a thought...
 
I'm still awaiting my demo of the S8s.

I didn't send them back yet but yes, I was pretty careful. I had their inputs set to minimum and my Focusrite turned up about 35-40% of the way (which was what was required to level match with my existing speakers).
 
The thing is, the noise persisted even with the Focusrite off, and even with the cables disconnected. It was worse at higher level settings on the Sceptres. It was for sure something in the speakers themselves. Also from doing a bit of research, it seems this is not a defective pair, but rather just what they do. A few people have noted it.
 
It isn't loud, but I have a pretty quiet room, so it is audible and I'm fussy about such things :/.

Thanks for sharing the additional details.

SycraftI didn't send them back yet but yes, I was pretty careful. I had their inputs set to minimum and my Focusrite turned up about 35-40% of the way (which was what was required to level match with my existing speakers).

 
Well that's certainly the standard starting point.
 

SycraftThe thing is, the noise persisted even with the Focusrite off, and even with the cables disconnected. It was worse at higher level settings on the Sceptres. It was for sure something in the speakers themselves. Also from doing a bit of research, it seems this is not a defective pair, but rather just what they do. A few people have noted it.

 
That's a bit more telling, and a bit unsettling. I will certainly be listening for that when I get my pair.
 

SycraftIt isn't loud, but I have a pretty quiet room, so it is audible and I'm fussy about such things :/.

That is why you get the big bucks, as they say. We have to be picky!

wst3
 
That is why you get the big bucks, as they say. We have to be picky!

No bucks here, this is just a hobby. I do not sell services. Heck, most of the time it the system is used for playing video games (really) :). I just like good sound, always have.