VR 2's, audes blues or eminent tecnology lft viii

After auditioning the VR2's and the Audes Blues back-to-back, it was clear to me that the VR2's sounded less distorted. I liked the clarity of the VR2's over the Audes Blues, especially while listening to jazz, vocals, and acoustic music. The Audes only nearly competed with the VR2's with rock music.

I think your fears of side mounted woofers are misplaced. The reflection issues are generally with tweeters and mids. Bass traps and diffusers are simple to apply for goos bass. The biggest challenge posed is with the ET's as already stated they need plenty of space to sound good. And with such they do sound good. The battle, for me, would be between the Audes and The VR's. Used Audes can go for $900. VR's are priced higher, somewhat by hype. Soliloquay is out of business and also can be had cheaply.

I think the VR-2's would work very well for the situation you describe. At the price they are going for new/demo/used they would not be expensive to try out.

I've spent plenty of time with the ETs and the Sols. The ETs do need plenty of current. As pointed out..they also need to be away from the walls maybe 3 feet or better. Other than that if setup properly they sound very good. You can adjust the treble on these speakers. The midrange and treble have that airy box less sound you expect from a planar. The woofers integrate pretty well(better than MLs). The further away you sit with in reason the better(maybe 10 to 12 ft) with hybrid speakers. This gives the drivers time to blend before the sound reaches you.

The Sols also need to be out in the room. Since they're rear ported.The Sols are very efficient and can be run off 25wpc no problems. I wouldn't use the Sols in a already "Bright room". The speakers can and do have some spikes in the upper frequencies. Not to take anything away....The Sols do sound good in their own right.

It would be nice if you could listen before you buy.
If I had to choose.. I would go with the ETs. It is a very laid back speaker in comparison to the Sols.

Good luck

The only problem with the Eminent Tech is if you cant pull it out far into the room, side reflections will be the least problem with these speakers, and ofcourse they are very power hungry.

Funny thing is the dealer pushing the ET's says they will be best for the bright echoy room. Its funny as he is also an Audes dealer and has sevral other interesting pair of used speakers in his store.
Have thought out the issues of the side firing woofer and need to scratch the Blues. Another dealer who I spoke with(who doesn't even handle speakers)suggested Soliloquey 5.3s as a much better value for the money than the VR2s
Its just getting more confusing
Bill

The Eminent Tech are di pole so that may create another problem in a already bright room, unless it can be pulled far into the room, they are also very power hungry, the most of the bunch. I have not heard the VonII, but have the IV jr and SR...great speakers....the Eminent Techs were pretty nice when I demeod them 2 years ago, great for the money.