My Bird's Eye maple Alnico monitors arrived yesterday. They are beautiful looking.
Sound right now is quite thin but very clear. Highs seem reticent. Soundstage is lower in the room than I have experienced with other speakers. I do not have stands yet and they are breaking in on the boxes (set up at 20"ht) they were shipped on. I should have the stands today. Currently I have a GR research 12'sealed sub in the middle. Soon I will have 2 of his fantastic OB subwoofers... one for each channel. How long and painful is the break in process?
If your speakers still sound thin after putting them on good stands, look at anything but the speaker. Amp, source, cabling, room, etc. Mine were sublime out of the box.
They want a high quality front end. Think flea powered SET, and source with at least 2VRMS output. The Decware Zen or Rachel will be a great match. Their new UFO OPT (which I've yet to hear) will go to 80,000Hz, and can be switched between 4 and 8 ohms. If you don't want to spend the extra $$ for the UFO, go with the 4ohm OPT option.
After listening to the RS5 for years, the top end on the Alnico seems more laid back, yet it extracts more information off a recording. In fact, I would call it smooth rather than laid back.
I hope it all works out.