I've always favoured subtitled anime over dubbed anime, especially in the early years when dubs were particularly bad.
Generally speaking, the quality of dubbed anime has seen a marked improvement since then. Studios began to listen to the criticism of their fans and paid closer attention to their voice acting talent. But this English dub of Haruhi seems to have taken several steps backwards.
No disrespect meant towards Crispin Freeman, who is a great voice actor, but in my opinion his voice sounds just too mature for Kyon.
Haruhi's voice grates on me. Sorry, Wendee Lee! What little chirps I've heard from Mikuru, voiced by Stephanie Sheh, sounded alright but I need to hear some dialogue before a final verdict is rendered.
Here's the English trailer. You be the judge.
EDIT (11:18): I found a dub preview with more dialogue. Okay, I take back some of what I said. It's not that bad. But I still think Haruhi and Kyon's voices aren't quite right.
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