Stereophile review of Escalante Fremont


Has anyone read Stereophile review (Feb '08) of Escalante Design Fremont spkrs ?
Reviewed by Larry Greenhill & measured by Jon Atkinson .

How come they make a review of the spkrs without proper setup :
- LG didn't attached the stand spikes because of his new wood floor & put some bad comments (nasal / coloured tonal).
- JA measured the spkrs with above condition .
- No information if the spkrs burned-in

In my experience , result could be very sensitive for full range spkrs setup ( freq. resp : 18 hz - 50 khz ) .

How can such a great magazine editor allow to publish review with above condition ?

Really different with Positive-Feedback (by Greg Weaver) & Stereo Times (by Dave Thomas & Greg Petan) reviews .
This three reviewers has bought Fremont after made the review .

Seems our international respectable Stereophile magazine has a lot of degradation in their quality .
Is there politics inside this magazine ?
What a waste review ... i think ...
riwin_h
As for what might cause it to sound muted - I have no idea - in general I would think that a silk dome should almost always sound muted or "polite" relative to a metal one. Generally a more "etched" or exciting sound is the way I describe how light weight cones tend to sound but this is a generalization.

I think the drummer might be holding the cymbal (which is what I meant by muting it). Usually I hear that effect mostly in the decay of the cymbal hit, but it seems like the attack isn't all there, or something in the attack seems off. I don't remember having that issue on the W/P8, and I won't have anyone around until this Saturday to switch the two again. I guess I could play them on my studio monitors, since they use a different material tweeter as well (Duh! I should have thought of that earlier...)

Thanks.
JKalman,

I checked out Signe "Eric Clapton" Unplugged (first track on CD).

I found almost no difference between AKG 240 headphones and my speakers...apart from the obvious that the sound was in my head with the headphones. I guess it does not mean much except that I obviously chose both for the sound is what a like and I guess I am consistent in my preferences..

Conclusion - I hear very little if any cymbals at all in this track. For me I hear high hat closed throughout (with the odd brief hit part open - for accent). I hear a wood block and I hear a triangle...but that is it for percussion.

No crash - certainly nothing bigger than 5 or 8 inch is being hit...a little ride at the beginning.

So in answer to your question - I think you will find the WP 8 will simply confirm what you are hearing with the Salons (mostly muted or closed hi-hat) when you swap them this weekend!!
Jkalman,

If you want nicely recorded drums...try particularly DoctorFunk "Can't fight the funk" or to a lesser extent ToP "Oakland Zone" or Strokeland Superband "Jump on the Millenium" - I forget which ones were arranged by Chester Thompson (legendary drummer) but as you can imagine with David Garibaldi on drums they want you to hear every sublime detail...and you CAN!!!