Site Details:

Male Spectrum is a grand network for sure. They are known for good quality productions, hot looking guys and also for delivering on their promises. So when you come across a site that's part of this company you know you are going to be well looked after. This is what happens with Top Shelf Studs, one of their newer offerings to us porn fanatics. Check the tour and the join page in particular and you will see that with your access to this one site comes free and unlimited access to seven others; including the well known Twinks For Cash and Hot Muscle Dudes. So right off the bat you're getting value for money. There are a couple of trial offers available but the standard monthly fee, though slightly higher than some, is very reasonable when you consider the large amount of content you're getting in return.

Top Shelf Studs is setting out to bring you good looking guys that you won't have seen on line before. These are hunky, chiselled, well put together men with a passion for hardcore sex. We're also told that some of these guys are trying gay sex for the first time although this isn't one of those 'straights go gay for pay' sites, it is simply about hot studs and hard sex. You'll find some younger guys in here too, some smooth, some hairy and generally a good variety of first timers and some making repeat performances. It's also about bringing you exclusive movies and good quality ones too - members are well taken care of with viewing options as we'll see, and there are regular updates promised.

The members' area here is really in two parts. Your main home page will bring you the latest scene right at the top and, when you click the 'view all episodes' link a new window will appear - that's the second part of the site. Here you have your main featured content and the home page is still open behind it. This makes it easy to navigate around and get back to home to check out the other features on offer.

Such features as: the search engine where you can search by a star's name or a keyword; you can select a random episode; there is a members' poll running; you can request an episode to be made; there are links to the bonus sites, feed sites and some shopping opportunities. You also have good update news with loads of information about what has been added where. There is an 'add to favourites' function and your favourites area is found in the top menu. Also up there you find links to the pages that hold your bonus content, there's a 'how it works' page and a link to customer services if you need it.

When it comes to viewing the content you have a great choice: You can download or stream in Flash, you can choose clips or the full scene and you have resolutions suitable for all. The dial up one comes in at 285kbps @ 428 x 240, there are then DSL, Broadband and a T1 version and the top quality high definition version streams at 5.15mbps @ 1068 x 600, which is pretty impressive to say the least. So, no worries with quality there!

You also find that each episode comes with a well stocked gallery of images that are 800 x 534 in size. This is a good way of browsing a scene before you commit to a download or a stream. You'll get a good taste for the tasty guys here, the first time, hung and spunky boys who turn up, roll over and take it like a man. These scenes are sizzling, they are hot and sexy, well filmed, well edited and totally worth keeping which is easy enough to do as there were no DRM restrictions. As well as being able to view the movie content in all those choices of resolutions, you have the gallery available to click through one by one or you can use PicLens or download a file of all the images in one go. The only problem I encountered here was with the Flash viewer as it was dropping off the bottom of my screen and I couldn't lift it up. This meant I only saw half a photo (and Flash stream actually) at a time - but using the other viewing options was fine.

There were 29 of these exclusive episodes when I called in and, as they usually had two studs per show, that means around 50 hunky guys to drool over. Some scenes are solos but others are threesomes so you get even more hard cock for your cash, and you really get the impression that these guys love what they are doing. It's fun and sexy though they take the cock sucking and the ass fucking very seriously when they get to it. Movies run for a good, standard length of time at around 20 minutes and you have a basic description with each one. You can also make comments, read comments, rate a scene and add it to your favourites area.

Meanwhile, back on your home page… You have seven bonus reality sites to check in to. These include the His First… series (Huge Cock, Gay Sex and Facial) and for more first timers you have Gay Blind Date Sex and Twinks For Cash. For stud lovers you've got access to Hot Muscle Dudes and for orgy-cum-college dudes you have Gay College Sex Parties. Each works in the same was at Top Shelf Studs in that they open in a new widow and have the same viewing options. You may notice some shared episodes, for example I found at least one guy in Twinks For Cash with the same episode being shown in Top Shelf Studs, but we are told there are 915 Network episodes in total and who are we to argue.

Members also get access to 17 good quality feed sites for more general porn including bears, Asians and Latino content and these pages come with update news which is a neat little extra - many sites don't bother about their feeds, they just bung them up and leave it at that. But it's typical of the quality of service for Male Spectrum that they go that little bit further.

Pros:

• Exclusive and well made content;
• Some great looking guys;
• Plenty of bonuses and extras;
• Good viewing options;
• Easy to navigate and use.

Cons:

• Some episodes are shared around the network;
• There are only 29 Top Shelf Studs movies at the moment;
• Some problems when viewing in Flash.

Just as I expected from Male Spectrum you get what you are promised and it's all good quality. From the sexy first timers to the choice of viewing options everything shines here. There is good attention to detail, you're getting plenty of porn for your money and you get good update news too - so an ongoing membership is going to be worth while. It would be good to see some more episodes but you can't complain at what is currently there; the guys are new and fresh, the movies are well made and easy to access and the images are good digital quality. When you add on all your extras you start to see just what great value Top Shelf Studs is.

I wasn't too sure what the 'theme' of the site was - just more hunks and sex?

There are five choices to view each movie so even dial-uppers won't have a problem. That's great to see. I love this network.

I had the same Flash problem, so I viewed in WMV, which was fine. More episodes please and more details about the guys. A model index would be nice.