I own these speakers, and I just read the review. My reaction was that HP overall really liked the Total Victories, but found a couple of areas where their peerformance wasn't to his taste. Fair enough, though it says something about his perspective when he characterizes a $12,000 speaker as being essentially in the middle of the pack :-/
Do I agree with his assessment? Well, I've never identified the shortcomings he described (a problem in the low range of the tweeter, and another glitch around 100 Hz) in my own system. This could be due to several factors. My highly damped 12x18 room is probably very different from his. My amps (Wavelength Tritons) are very different from anything he tried. My digital front end (an Audio Note 4.1x Balanced Signature) sounds better through the entire treble range than any other DAC I've heard. My preamp (a Bent Audio TVC) adds very little character to the signal. My cables (Argent Audio Pursang) are by a wide margin the very best I've heard.
There are other reasons I may not have heard these shortcomings. I certainly don't have the experience or standards for comparison that HP does, and it might also be that the music I play doesn't highlight the problems.
So, it could be that the problems he discusses just aren't there in my system, or maybe they are there but I can't identify them. I really can't say which is more likely (though I know which I "want" to say is more likely...).
I had a get-together with four other audiophiles over the weekend, all of whom are very experienced (TAS Issue 1 subscriber types) who have extensive exposure to various models of Israel's speakers. The consensus was that my system is doing pretty much everything right.
So what can I say? HP is one man, albeit a very experenced and astute one, listening in the context of his own systems and his own expectations. In the context of my system and my expectations, I find the TVs to be utterly satisfying, even magical music-makers. IMO they're worth every nickel of $12,000. And anyone who takes the printed word of one man over their own judgement is missing the point of this hobby.
Do I agree with his assessment? Well, I've never identified the shortcomings he described (a problem in the low range of the tweeter, and another glitch around 100 Hz) in my own system. This could be due to several factors. My highly damped 12x18 room is probably very different from his. My amps (Wavelength Tritons) are very different from anything he tried. My digital front end (an Audio Note 4.1x Balanced Signature) sounds better through the entire treble range than any other DAC I've heard. My preamp (a Bent Audio TVC) adds very little character to the signal. My cables (Argent Audio Pursang) are by a wide margin the very best I've heard.
There are other reasons I may not have heard these shortcomings. I certainly don't have the experience or standards for comparison that HP does, and it might also be that the music I play doesn't highlight the problems.
So, it could be that the problems he discusses just aren't there in my system, or maybe they are there but I can't identify them. I really can't say which is more likely (though I know which I "want" to say is more likely...).
I had a get-together with four other audiophiles over the weekend, all of whom are very experienced (TAS Issue 1 subscriber types) who have extensive exposure to various models of Israel's speakers. The consensus was that my system is doing pretty much everything right.
So what can I say? HP is one man, albeit a very experenced and astute one, listening in the context of his own systems and his own expectations. In the context of my system and my expectations, I find the TVs to be utterly satisfying, even magical music-makers. IMO they're worth every nickel of $12,000. And anyone who takes the printed word of one man over their own judgement is missing the point of this hobby.
