Wow, what a great week. This is my little experience with the Salk SoundScape 10s, in Mexican Ziricote - with the Sonicap Platinum bypass caps. Okay, time for some pictures!
Here's the moment of truth! The massive truck has arrived with my treasure.
I was too excited to unpack them and get them setup, so I skipped the "unboxing" shots. After I got the beasts up on their feet, I placed them on some Herbie's Audio Lab Giant Cone/Spike Decoupling Gliders.
Here's a photo of the tweeter switch on the top-backs of the SoundScapes. I found the middle setting to be best for my room (-1.5dB).
One of my favorite shots. Dead sexy shot from behind the top cabinet. 
The perfect twins. What a combo.
The lovely big brother.
Here's a full-shot of the beast. The lighting in my living room is not the greatest.
When it's all said and done! 
So, my thoughts? The Package:Setting them up was a breeze. The Salk Team provided great instructions on the minimal assembly required and everything was extremely well packed. If the boxes fell out of the back of the truck and a car drove by and did a barrel roll over top of one of the boxes, I'm sure the speakers would still be in tip-top shape. And with good reason, these things are drop-dead gorgeous and need protection! A quick note to Canadian customers, the customs duty fees alone on these things was a little over $1,600! And that is not including the cost of shipping. So I basically could have bought a SoundScape Center if you take away the shipping and customs costs. But as you read on, it was worth every penny! There's a number of goodies included in the package, consisting of: A Salk Demo CD, a sweet certificate of speaker birth, a SoundScape hat, some acoustic stuffing for the top cabinet, a cleaning cloth (in case you jump out of your seat from the musical excitement and launch your drink at your new speakers), transparent and solid grills for the option of sealing off the rear wave, and some solid information sheets to get you started. Great overall package guys!
Room Placement:The only work setting up these beasts is getting them on their feet and into the general position where you want them. These things are thick puppies. Since I have mine on Herbie's gliders, I got them into the general area and then I could slide them into exact position easily. I first set them up basically where my old speakers were. I initially had them closer to the front wall, but moved them out into the room more and it really made them disappear (like WOW). Current location, measured from wall to cabinet: 2ft away from side walls, 2.6ft away from front wall, 5.7ft between each cabinet, approx. 9.6ft from tweeter to listening position. Listening position is 4.5ft from back wall. I have tons of room treatment, 14 traps/panels and 2 QRD diffusers. The actual room is pretty small, but it works well with the treatment (11.2ft x 18.8ft x 7.6ft). Right off the bat, these things really sang. There was ZERO boominess from the bass, the highs were clear as heck and they were hidden in my room. I was mighty impressed on how they were interacting or NOT interacting with my room. I initially had them with basically zero toe-in. The soundstage is massive. The imaging was great, but I was kind of missing that dead center imaging. So I toed each speaker in SLIGHTLY, just wrestled them a bit in with a headlock. And then started listening again and the imaging was even better, perfect actually. Dead center, extended sides and the soundstage was just as massive and extending well beyond my room.
Listening Impressions:Comparing them to my previous setup: Klipsch RB-61 fronts and a Rythmik D15SE is not really a comparison. Sure I enjoyed music and thought it sounded damn good, but the SoundScapes boot-stomp them out the door. Or in this case, to the back of my room because they are now my surrounds and I only use the subwoofer as a backup for movies. The biggest differences I found were how the sound acts as a single unit with the SoundScapes. They have perfect integration with themselves and there's no limitations on what they can reproduce. I thought my subwoofer was integrated well with my bookshelves before, but the SoundScapes are perfection. The rear wave coming from the top cabinet is something really special. I never heard anything quite like it. It gives life to every recording I listen to and fills the room without ringing or fatigue. It's probably the one thing that blew me away right away. I love it. Midrange is tight and renders everything well and the bass is always seems perfect. You can notice every single level in the bass and you can distinguish every range. And these things dig deep, really deep. They'll carve you up like a pumpkin! It took about a day for the low end bass to really open up, I thought. After a day, the bass was really awesome and opened up quite a bit. After a few days, things were really settled in. I've been running the speakers 24/7 for almost a week, so they should be ready to take on anybody. Only the initial day was where I noticed the most difference in bass performance, the rest is minor and they are probably good to go after a day or so.
A quick note on the DAC. We originally were listening to the SoundScapes with the Mac Mini -> USB -> Wyred4Sound DAC-2. While I was enjoying everything the speakers had to offer, I knew something was missing from the sound. The rendering, high freq. smoothness... Oh ya, we needed the Tranquility SE. After a few minutes, I swapped the USB cable into the Tranquility SE DAC and things began to really take off. I'll be posting a DAC comparison in the review thread in a day or so, so more on that if you want to read further into the DAC differences.
Also a note about the rear wave and tweeter switch. In my room, and my preferences, I have no stuffing in the top cabinet and no closed grill. I love it open. It sounds amazing and extends highs in godlike fashion, while sounding natural. I do have bass traps behind each speaker, so they do help with reflections. And the diffusion panels on my back wall probably help as well, as well as 2 acoustic panels hanging from the ceiling. I have the tweeter switch at -1.5dB (the middle setting), as I found it to sound the best in my room. I haven't changed it lately, so I might experiment more with it in the upcoming days. The great thing about the SoundScapes is how configurable they are. I bet they can blend into almost any room. You can tweak them super easy, and dial them in exactly how you prefer to have things sound. Bonus!
Alright, so enough of that. The provided Salk Demo CD shows off the ranges of musical content pretty well. Most of it was not my cup of tea, but I did find some great qualities in each song and a few songs that I really liked. The legendary Nils Lofgren live track, Keith Don't Go was mighty impressive. Definately some wow moments when you hear this beautiful guitar rendered like that, and then when the crowd comes out of the black background and fills the room. Some great stuff. I had my friend over, showing off my twin towers, and after that song finished, he said: "That was the most realistic, real, natural sounding GEE-TAR I have ever heard."
Also, the Jazz Variants track on the CD was one of my favorites. Super dynamic and shows off the speed of the SoundScapes and how well it renders high freq. like a breeze and slams down when it has to. I love the ambiance it gives off and you can just hear the high freq. extend forever and fade out so smoothly.
Some great tracks I took notes on. I'll provide links to samples so I can share some unique tunes with some of you. I love great electronic music, but the styles vary from everything to everything:
Vangelis - Main Titles (From the Blade Runner Trilogy, 25th Anniversary OST): I've always loved when the "sparkle" sounds come in out of the pitch black, but I was really blown away with the SoundScapes. Wide soundstage, perfect clarity on all sound effects and instruments, the sound was very holographic or 3D. You can really feel the rumbling in the low bass, it was like my livingroom was going to take off into the sky! Beautiful track. Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZSgz00ojpYFeist - Mushaboom (Postal Service Mix): Whoo. Right at the beginning of the song, that initial sound felt like my room "flexed" and I got poked in the chest. Great bass with no bloom, very fast and accurate highs and isolation of sounds. Great vocals as well. Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRZ_SWA_SbAHow To Destroy Angels - The Believers (24/44 version FLAC download): Now this is direct copy from the digital studio master. Perfect pitch black background and crystal clear in all its glory. Huge soundstage, perfect isolation of all instruments and sound effects, great imaging, surround-like room filling sound, perfect blend of electronic and organic sounds. This is what Trent Reznor does on the weekend.
Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPnFnobccfIArchitect - Fast Lane (Freeze Frame): One of the biggest, baddest soundstages and bass you'll come to love. Fills the entire room and then some, the ranges in bass are fantastic (Something that really sets it apart from my subwoofer before. You can really tell and feel all the different ranges in the bass and it's so even and balanced). High freq. sounds seem to extend forever and have no limitations, they just eeze up into the sky and fade. Love it! Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgzzlOS0m7oJimmy Edgar - LBLB Detroit: Speaking of bass! This baby will fill your room and your socks full of bass and warm your body right up. Some of the deepest bass I have heard, and it just fills the room and your stomach. Great background sounds as well. Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE1FZNdgpZUHans Zimmer - Time (From the Inception OST): Now this is what I call perfection. Just before my Salks arrived, I thought to myself, how in the hell are these new speakers going to sound any better than this? This song just sounded so perfect. But now, THIS, this is perfection. The Salks out-do themselves on this one. Highs extend into the heavens and never ring or expose the speaker, the huge soundstage makes your room and everything disappear, awesome dynamics and you can feel the levels of bass throughout your body. This really shows off how the SoundScapes create the perfect ambiance with the rear wave. Wow. A must listen. Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srrAm9EiqcwNine Inch Nails - Just Like You Imagined: I think this song is where I could detect the most differences and new aspects compared to my old speakers. It's just a master work. Various layers can be detected in the song, all blending masterfully and have wonderful texture, it's a great blend of organic texture and electronic spice, the sounds swarm around you and the soundstage grabs your attention. Reznor, oh Reznor. Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erm19Kdplz4Tyler Bates - The Theme From Get Carter (From the Get Carter OST): Oh boy, talk about shimmering sounds, extended across the room. Wow, Tyler Bates, you shouldn't have! Great soundstage and effects. Awesome dynamics in this track with a real show-off for the rear wave of the SoundScapes. Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTvItUs99LMAs this is already the longest post in history, I'll just shortly list out the various other songs I noted down.
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing: Great imaging, one of my favorite guitars, awesome build-up and dynamics, solid drums. Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwDDswGsJ60A Perfect Circle - Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums: Great sound where it is like a knife is panning across the room going to cut your eyes, awesome textures, terrific bass, whew. Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D_q2tS4WHAYes - And You And I: Awesome rock tune, great rendering guitar, sweet clarity in the sound effects, fading extended highs. Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuiI0kV4joQNine Inch Nails - 28 Ghosts IV: Awesome tune on the SoundScapes, well defined different levels of bass, lovely soundstage, layers of sound, sweet ambiance, sounds go higher than the ceiling. Sample -->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASFFsXL2IqgConclusion / The Future:I am just bloody impressed and thankful I have these in my home. I'm 24 years old and I never would have thought I would get to this level so soon. A huge thanks to Jim and the Salk team for everything. The entire package is beautiful and the build quality on these things is amazing. The performance is everything I could hope for and extends beyond what I thought I was going to get. Most notable things about these bad boys: The high freq. performance is really something special. The ambiance from the rear wave is awesome and adds to much to the music. Probably my favorite addition to my music. The midrange is perfect and renders everything very well. The bass is so clean, detailed and just extends out of the cabinet. I swear these things don't even have a cabinet. The music just flows out from nowhere and there are no limitations. None. The only limitation is the quality of the recording you are listening to and the electronic equipment making it happen.
And it's only going to get better with time, and new equipment etc. My next step for my system is to add some tubes. I have ZERO experience with tubes and I haven't even heard a tube system. I am thinking about the Purity Audio line of pre-amps. Either the Purity One or Purity Reference. If what I hear about tubes is correct, I think this will give me a special edge into the music. After that, I am thinking of grabbing some DAC Cherry Monoblocks to really drive the SoundScapes. I never felt I was limited by the Cherry Jr. when listening to the SoundScapes (it has 380w or more into 8ohm), but more power never hurts and the higher quality parts in the monoblocks, as well as the isolation should extend things further. I am also on the WyWires tour list so it's possible I'll picking up some premium cables if they prove to be good in my system.
Another GIANT thanks to Jim and the Salk team for everything. It was well worth the wait, money, everything. I recommend anyone looking at speakers in this range, seriously consider them. I bought them un-heard and bought them based on 3 years of searching for the speaker I wanted and all the user feedback on the forums, as well as the Salk reputation. I couldn't be happier and it's time for some more listening!
Best,
Clayton
