Ernie- I just can't get over how different our experience with these speakers is. When two audiophile friends and I returned from the show in Montreal last weekend we came to one of my friends homes and listened to his parsifal encores, his are about 7-8 feet from the rear wall- the rest of his system is first rate(tenor amps, audio aero cap. mk II cdp, basis 2500 table(graham 2.2 arm and koetsu rosewood signiture platinum cartridge), aesthetix IO and Jena Labs wiring through out. We were listening to his system and couldn't get over how bad it sounded, lack of coherency, slow and just didn't really seem to do any thing right, the next day he traded his speakers in and ordered something new. We tried many different locations, woofer cabinets front firing, rear firing it just never really came together.
He just couldn't take it anymore, I have heard these speakers in 4 real world rooms(i.e. not dealers and at shows- they never sound good at shows) including my own and they are enjoyable but they just seem to be lacking. There is something VERY unnatural about the lower midrange(the very audible crossover point) it is a nice sound, but after a lot of listening to these speakers they just don't sound like music. You will notice this varies from my experience last September because that is before I had this speakers in my room and was living with them, I found it to be unenjoyable- all in all they didn't get me as close to the music as I had thought they would have. They may be great for some people, they are at an interesting price point- which makes them very attractive but there are many other choices at or near there price that would seem like good choices to consider as well- that is to my ears and the other 2 audiophiles who were listening to this system as with all things audio your experience may be different, but 3 out of 3 on what seems to be a first rate system seems pretty convincing to me.....
