Shahinian Speakers

Do you mean the Shahinian Obelisk? Despite their audiophile cult following, I don't get it. A friend of mine traded in a wonderful pair of Apogee Stages and bought these and they were one of the least impressive things I have ever heard. Sounded like an ordinary, dynamically driven, mid fi ish box speaker to my ears other than the weird -- its supposed to be holographic but its actually vague and muddied, sounds like it could almost be out of phase -- "imaging." Don't mean to discourage you as maybe it was the set up, room or associated components, but to my ears I would no more compare these speakers to Quad and Magnepan than I would compare Spam to Kobe beef.

I too have tried them and was disappointed. But I know people that like them for the way they float a soundstage of an orchestra, with some of the diffuse sound of the real thing, and the way the strings soar with impressive power. But if you like, say Ella, or any other close-miked vocals, you will be unimpressed. By the way, Plinius uses Shahinian speakers in their voicing of their product, for what it is worth.

I've got to disagree with the above posts.

I bought ESL-63's and sold them a month later after hearing the Obelisks.

When I first saw them, I was totally unimpressed by their size. But the sound surprised me. I found them to have a transparency that I thought only electrostatics possessed. Yet, the Obelisks did things that I heard no pure electrostatic do.

They are dynamic, project a vivid soundstage, and, if you like, are holographic. To truly appreciate them, you need to be able to turn off the visual cues and see with your ears. The Absolute Sound recently described these speakers in glowing terms. (Email me and I'll look for the article).

This is less so with the Shahinian Diapasons, which are large and make a much more dramatic statement. I frequently get lost in the music they recreate.

Anyway, here are other Audiogon threads that discuss Shahinian speakers...

http://audiogo1.iserver.net/cgi-bin/forum5.pl?cspkr&977643877&read

http://audiogo1.iserver.net/cgi-bin/forum5.pl?cspkr&955224099&read

Hi Mister_g. The people I know that love their Shahinians listen almost exclusively to orchestral music - where they do indeed shine, and where I do not disagree with you. How do you find them on say Jazz or solo vocal music?