What about Meadowlark?

I was thinking Shearwater. I have heard both, however it was 2 years ago, and neither was "hot rodded". I remember a very "organic" sounding midrange, with surprising, but not earthshattering bass. Perhaps the paper cone has a nice sound, but I couldn't hepl but think that this, coupled with what I feel to be a dark treble, really made them sound a bit dark, and slightly colored. THe biggest problem I had with them was the HUGE difference in sound across the vertical axis, as in when you walk into a room, or are standing up, versus sweet spot listening. I think with my cables and preamp they would sound rather nice. Unfortunately, you never know untill you throw down the plastic and get them in your home. ANYBODY COMPARED SHEARWATER TO HR SHEARWATER?????

When you consider that the Kestrels are available at less than $1000 used (I paid $700) and to my ear were more "musical" than the Vandersteens, Thiels and JMLabs I compared them against, I think anyone auditioning speakers up to $1500 has to take them into account. The soft dome tweeter makes, to my ears, Joni, Joan and Margo sound very natural. It is true, however, that trumpets in the upper register, for example, especially soprano trumpet, don't have the bite that you hear in a hall, live. Life is compromise. Right out of the box they have excellent bass, the double bass line in the Vivaldi Flute Concerto in D on Telarc is suitably growly and rythymic. Likewise the electric bass lines on pop recordings have excellent pitch definition. Placing 25 pound bags of lead shot on top of the cabinets removes the wobblies from the terrible spikes they come with and further reinforces the bass. With all that said, one more point: in my community orchestra, our trombone section is equipped with a King 3B, really a tenor horn with F attachment and quite bright, a Conn 88H with an 8 1/2" "red brass" bell which is somewhat darker, and my own Reynolds Contempora bass with 10 1/2" bronze bell and large bore tubing which has a very dark sound. Sounds like speaker descriptions, right? And the bass isn't always played by such a dark instrument; the big Bach's and Benzes' are somewhat brighter and lighter. Which live performance are you trying to reproduce, the Reynolds or the Conn, the Fender or the Rickenbacker?

G13: I believe Soundstage has a very favorable review of the Shearwater HotRod and says that the extra money is worth it. I was very impressed with the Shearwater but ultimately went with Newform 645's (very hard to beat the value gained by cutting out the middleman.) Mike