Anyone in Vegas listen to the Gilmore speakers???

A planar speaker it is not. At least not in the traditional sense of the word. Four 12" woofers do not planar equal.

As for the continued touting of their 115db output, I hardly see the point. If loud is what you want, it can be achieved for a LOT less money. A pair of Altec Voice The Theaters would get you there and STILL look better.

The consensus amongst the audiophile crowd who AREN'T personal friends of Mr. Gilmore or business associates who stand to gain monetarily from the sale of these monstrosities, is that they sound "okay" but do NOTHING to justify their high cost. And...of course...they look like a cooktop. For that money, I'd take a nice 48 or 60" Viking Range any day.

I count myself in the "audiophile camp", not being a friend of Mr. Gilmore or someone financially dependent on his success.
I think these speakers are more than "O. K." but do agree that these, and most hi-end products, are grossly overpriced.
I laugh when I see Wilson and Alon speakers costing as much as a Ferrari.
Ten years ago or so $8000 was really pushing the cost ceiling. Today, this is considered mid-range.
I'd like to see a manufacturer try to justify the prices they charge with a cost analysis.
The mind-set today is: "Why do something if it doesn't put a Porche in the garage of my house on the hill?".
Give us poor music lovers a break!

My wife and I heard the larger model displayed at the St Tropez. To me they did sound pretty good. They certainly go loud without compressing and at the distance we listened, they were coherent enough, and the truth of timbre was pretty good too, but(and it is a BIG one) the looks are far too industrial. I'm a fan of big speakers(I think the Apogee Diva is elegant despite being sort of avantegarde in appearance and I think the Maggie 3.6 and 20.1 are lovely) but these babies are badly in need of an extreme makeover. If they looked more like the lovely Linda O'Neil I'd think you'd have a hit!

Sorry to disappoint you folks. First off, we were in the back room when that dude showed up and played the system at such a volume. However, For the record, temporary exposure to 115 db does not damage hearing unless your ears have some previous damage. I hope that you will re-read my previous post and see that 115 sound pressures were NOT used during my consideration of the speaker.

For your money, you could get a cooktop but I don't see how you would be able to play music with that :)

Some people don't think of the speaker as a planar speaker, but it most definately is. The way you can tell is that it really makes no difference how close to the speaker you are- the volume you get from it seems the same at any distance in the room. The only speakers I have seen do that are planars.

As for 'standing to profit': for the record, although I have known Mark for close to ten years, and found him to be one of the nicer, straight-shooting guys you could hope to meet in this hobby, I have no interests in the speaker whatsoever. Ya know, all you have to do is ask either me or Mark by email rather then have to drag this stuff out ad nauseum just to find out something that a simple question on the email would answer. I have to say (again) I have seen all sorts of stuff said about Mark on this and other forums, and from talking to him, I know that not one of those individuals *ever* called or emailed Mark to ask him *anything*. Sorry to say this, but if you want to be a troll, go ahead and repeat the same behaviour. If not, call him or email him and bring this stuff up with him. You will find him to be a fine gentleman.

Over the years, a lot of people have told me that they 'don't care what it looks like as long as it sounds good'. I have found that generally that is not actually the case, but I have also found that, at least in the case of the gear I make, that when the form follows the function it is easier to build a higher performing product.

Its been about a week and a half since CES ended and we had to pack up. In the meantime, it occurred to me that a lot of people have asked me what I thought about the speaker and how it sounded. It seemed appropriate to put my thoughts down on paper, so to speak, as most people have no idea what the Gilmore is like. I have to say I was very curious as well. Although disappointing on the first two days as I mentioned previously, this was the result if inadequate break-in. Afterwords the speaker did the job right.Anyway, since I had been thinking about all the people that asked my opinion I thought I would offer it. I hope that I have not offended anyone by making these points.

Not at allm Atmasphere. Although some hear are suspicious of anonymous shilling, no way could you be considered anonymous. Also some pretty heavy hype from the marketing dept came through here, as well. But all viewpoints are welcome IMO, and you are right. Ask the man if you have a question. Unfortunately, some initial questions seem to have been answered in a less than accurate fashion. And I think the point about the cooktop comments is that at the asking prices, you can buy a universally admired more conventional speaker (Vandy 5As) and a pro stove. If Corian is the key in terms of its performance, than I for one am OK with that, but what about using solid colors?