The Carnival 2 from Mordaunt-Short is a punchy and substantial speaker which is ideal for bookshelf mounting but comes into its own when you place it on a high-quality stand. You"ll be surprised the big, full-spectrum sound it produces rivaling the performance of larger, more expensive speakers. "The Mordaunt-Short Carnival 2 speakers reproduce music with an uncommon, delicate finesse and transparency," reports About.com. "In fact, the Carnival 2s may be one of the best-kept secrets in recent memory." Unlike many similarly sized speakers, the Carnival 2 offers an incredibly rich performance coupled with a deep sound. It features a 5.5" woven composite cone woofer for impressive bass down to 55 Hz, plus a 1" soft dome tweeter for smooth, realistic highs. The quality two-way first-order crossover uses premium polypropylene capacitors. "The Carnival series offers the best performance, notes a June 2006 review in What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision (Korea). "No speaker package at this price level can beat Carnival." The magnetically shielded Carnival 2 has a recommended power handling of 15 to 100 watts. It measures 12.6" high, 6.3" wide, 8.6" deep, has a frequency response of 55 Hz to 20 kHz and 90 dB sensitivity.