I haven't been this excited in a while!

@dseltz Apologies a Post made earlier should have been addressed to you.

@acresverde The New Speakers are being used at present with my CD Source> Custom Built Valve DAC - Prototype SS Pre (A simplified SS Channel which is belonging to my Custom Multi Valve - SS Pre being built for me) - Custom Built 845 Mono's - New Speakers.

I am yet to have a Vinyl Experience, as I am holding off until my Custom Design / Built SS Phonostage is brought home ( It is now ready for pick up ).  This will then be compared to two Custom Design Valve Phon's through the New Speakers and all available Power Amp's.

I own a 300b Power Amp yet to be heard in use with the Speakers.

I have a loaned Neurochrome Monoblock (Unique Design) SS Power Amp also yet to be heard with the Speakers.

I am also to loan and possibly acquire a SS DAC to enable the Full Valve and Full SS Source > Amp' experience being run through the New Speakers and some other owned Cabinet Speakers.

ESL's are Superseded and won't be reintroduced, unless at another time to enable a individual to have a ESL experience.

The New Speakers are not something I can give a accurate direction to, like all supporting ancillaries upstream of the CDT.

All audio equipment in use, is bespoke design /commission built for me over a very long period of time. Still being done at the current time as well. 

The Speakers as a finished product, are the result of a personal retirement project of a CEO of a Speaker Company that is no longer trading.

The Speaker Company had design support from a few individuals who are long-term with Careers working for the Speaker Industry, where their influences extend to Speaker Drive Unit Design for a few very well known Drive Unit Producers and also for a Selection of Speaker Companies that are with Speaker Models that command very large sums of money as a retail price.

Across Four Individuals, 'electronically', a State of the Art Speaker was designed to be the CEO's, ' Mother of all Speakers Builds ', for his and his Spouses retirement.

Well not all goes to plan in this wonderful world, and the CEO quite early in his retirement passed.

I was informed of the loss and that there was a notion to sell at some time some of the audio equipment that was excess. I assisted when the sales started and paid the Widow fair monies for a range of surplus audio equipment.

Prior to the Xmas Holiday 2025, I was contacted about the interest I may have had in the Grand Finale Speakers. With what I knew, I could not refuse, but did have to dig deep to find the monies to have a offer accepted.

I hope this assists with making the posts more clear.

I am in total acceptance of the comments made available from the Career Professionals who offered much design and final use support for these Speakers. I do not familiarise myself too often, if ever, with Speakers reaching up to £1/2 Million, but do know on very good authority these are the real McCoy to be very very worthy competition.

Imagine a retired engineers Kit Car was taken on as a redesign / build by a selection of Formula 1 and NASCAR Engineers and their available support. The end product would be recognisable but definitely not recognisable to the 'average joe' (which I am one ) for the quality of the thought that has been buried within it and the function on offer resulting from that thought. Only experiencing the End Product would supply answers.   

Imagine being given first refusal on such a vehicle, of course one seriously considers digging deep into their coffers. Especially, if it is most economic way to be fast tracked to the top experiences available from your most preferred and invested in hobby.   

I am not familiar with the C7ES2s specifically, but I did own the C7ES3s for a while. 
 

The latter was one of the most underwhelming and overrated speakers I have experienced, among dozens, at all price points below five figures. 
 

I briefly compared them to a pair of Epos Epic 2s that I acquired new for $400. The Epos were a significantly better speaker in all regards except for absolute midrange resolution and bass extension. Other than those two traits, the Epos were the “clear” winner, pardon the pun.

My subsequent experience is that Derek Hughes designs much better speakers for Graham, Spendor (of old) and Stirling Broadcast, even though these brands are less accurate by academic measure. They simply perform more similar to how sound actually propagates through realistic space, since all producers of sound (aside from the theoretically perfect speaker) are imperfect transducers.

There are speakers that easily achieve more resolution than the BBC derivatives (Harbeth et al.) but they tend to sound less “natural” over time, and do tend to cost more to some degree. Personally, I prefer to offset the weaknesses of latter described speaker with warmer upstream components, since the greatest strength of true high end speakers is bass definition and depth, not midrange or treble. 

Hello Dana,

Just out of curiosity, why do you believe you have done all of that box swapping? Some people just enjoy trying new components and putting together new systems, which is a perfectly fine sub-hobby. 

Are you looking to complete a system, or do you just enjoy trying new components and swapping things in and out?

Thank you. 

@helomech 

This experience with Harbeth will likely open my mind to consider a broader variety speaker designs in the future.  

@ronres 

In general, I enjoy the hunt for sure.  Being a big ARC fan from the beginning set me up for that as they have so many upgrade options over their portfolio.  One of the factors that keeps me searching for the next upgrade is that the recent upgrade improved the sound.  I am not sure if I will ever get a sound that makes me not want to ever change anything again.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I always try to make informed and smart purchases so I can sell something and move on.  This is not for the faint at heart!  One of my local audio friends got his system to a point he loves many years ago and he focuses his investment on vinyl and just enjoys the music/system he built.  When I tell him about the next purchase, he often says, you crazy, Alfalfa!