Dayton Audio Classic B65 Bookshelf Speakers, 6.5" Woofer & 1" Tweeter, Passive 2-Way Design, 60W RMS, for Music, TV & Home Audio Systems – Black

Excellent sound but a bit lacking in the audio midsection. The highs are fine and the lows are surprising, but even with equalization the middle is thin. I think a 2" speaker and a coil to the woofer and capacitor to the tweeter would improve the clarity a lot.

If you're searching for that warmer '80s speaker sound, stop right here. There's been other comments about quality, at this price point, It is what it is. But don't let that fool you. Fosi BT20 amp.

Generally you get what you pay for in terms of sound and finish, but these punch above their weight in both. All budget speaker design is a series of demanding tradeoffs, and Dayton Audio made phenomenal choices with these. Build quality is a notch above of what they needed to be. These could not be a better fit for a starter system, in an office, or to do something better than one of those all-in-one record players (please never, ever, ever use them). Clarity is solid, bass response is respectable for bookshelves this size and being sealed. The fact it's sealed means you have more placement options and theoretically could even use them on an actual bookshelf. I would say, "Especially if you use room correction," but if you're using room correction, you're probably also spending more on speakers. Unless you're a weirdo like me and have fun using budget gear with way-overdone electronics. Five stars for the price, four stars to knock folks who think these are high-end killers down a peg.

I bought these alongside the Dayton AMT mini 8 prior to listening to these speakers as they were built. I modified the original tweeter hole to accept the AMT mini 8 and the clarity in the mids and highs are superb and do sound amazing for the price. Mind you these enclosures aren't winning any appearance awards but atleast with my tweeter modification goes, these speakers are a no trainer to buy and modify. I have these for my front and rear channels for my theater with absolutely zero complaints on clarity lows to highs. Obviously they're not hard hitting 6.5s but what the 6.5s do produce, it's clean. Would recommend for a 2.1 system or higher. I did make a mess of the glue application but it is only visual and is hidden by the cover.

Using these for surround and they sound good especially for the price!

Highly recommend. Very nice. The B65’s are great and the C40 center channel is pretty good I’d say don’t bother with the B40 bookshelves they aren’t anything special . I would also recommend a decent receiver and a subwoofer to pair with them and you’ll be set.

The good: Easily the best sounding bookshelf speakers I've heard in a long time that were not hugely expensive. I tested a set out running a Fosi Audio BT30D and found them to be much more lively than I had expected. Great sound for a budget friendly 2.1 channel home stereo system that provided room filling mids and highs as well as a decent amount of bass kick from the 6.5 woofer. Vocals and instruments were represented very well in my opinion. The bad: I purchased a set with every intention of placing them on their respective bookshelves to avoid the cost of buying or building speaker stands for them. Unfortunately, without the open air to breathe, the whole range of sound suffered, but especially those previously room filling mids and about 90% of bass response. So, if you have the space and the budget to make the proper accommodations for a set of these bookshelf speakers, they are fantastic and I would not hesitate to rely on them for the bulk of my music listening outside of the car. But without a more open environment to place the speakers where they seem to really shine, they are a pass.

Outstanding value for the money in stock form. Nice-looking textured wood-grain vinyl. However, there's a slight but annoying buzz in the high midrange at anything more than medium volume, most noticeable any raspy sound, like gravelly voices, or guitars with any degree of distortion. And cymbals sound like sandpaper. It doesn't seem to have bothered most reviewers, but it's fixable if it bothers you. The required mod is simple, but it's complicated by some really tenacious glue. It probably also voids the speakers' 5-year limited warranty, which I was willing to risk, given their low cost. For the technically inclined, the full two-way crossover -- Really? At this price? Yes. -- uses a 3rd order Butterworth filter on the tweeter (two capacitors in series on either side of one inductor to ground), and a first order on the woofer (one series inductor). The tweeter is connected in reverse phase from the woofer. Replacing the two cheap electrolytic capacitors (4uf and 8uf) with better ~ same-value film capacitors from Parts Express eliminated the buzz and made the sound smoother, wider, and deeper. Cymbals became recognizable as cymbals. Parts Express retails Jantzen 8050 (3.9uf) and 8090 (8.2uf) Compact MKT Metalized Polyester Film Capacitors that fit in the space for the original cheap electrolytics. As of February 2025, two of each for a pair of B65's cost $9.24, plus tax and shipping. The speaker's two resistors and two inductors are easily accessible on a circuit board screwed to the inside of the rear binding-post panel. They're attached to the board by their soldered leads and some very hard-to-cut clear glue, not silicone, that I couldn't detach with a razor blade. I eventually sawed through it using a miniature flush-cut saw inserted between the resistors and the board. The component values are printed on the circuit board. Daunted by the glue, I decided to leave the iron-core inductors alone instead of trying to replace them with air-core upgrades. I couldn't see, and didn't check, the inductor values. While I was at it, I unscrewed the woofer from the front panel, and glued 1.5" of rock wool to the 5 panels other than the front panel. I used water-based contact cement to avoid the risk of solvent fumes damaging speaker surrounds or other components in the sealed cabinet. The additional damping tightened the bloom-y sounding woofer from the midrange on down and further improved the speaker's clarity and imaging.

Speakers look and sound great. High quality at a reasonable price. Recommended by audiophiles on YouTube.