This is Drew. Jim, the SS 9.5s are fabulous. Indeed I bought them "sound unheard," but not without considerable review of my room and current setup with you, and you were so gracious with your time.
Here's what I would like to share about their sound:
- The beryllium tweeter is a worthy successor to the ribbon tweeter. It avoids the bad aspects of a metal dome, and has vertical dispersion that I believe to be superior to a ribbon tweeter. It also happens to have a very wide and wonderful horizontal dispersion.
- These speakers can handle power! I am driving them with a McIntosh MA8900, whose "Binghamton Blue" you can see glowing in the photo below. I feel like they are a worthy match for one another. In all respects, the Salks take advantage of what the McIntosh amp has to offer. Just a great combination. In particular, the passive radiator design allows the bass to scale with volume in a way that a ported design is more challenged to do.
- When I spoke with Jim, I shared details about the room that these would sit in - it's a wonderful 11x22 sunroom (right now filled with many wintering plants) that has a great visual environment, but there are plenty of hard surfaces, including two walls of windows, skylights, etc. The speakers I had prior were too bright and forward with my McIntosh amp (which has a very airy top end) in this environment. Jim advised me that the Audio Technology midrange would not be as overly analytical as my prior speakers were, and he was right. The top end of these is beautifully blended and crisp, and a much better match for the airy amp in this room. Frankly, I can't imagine these would sound bad in any room, but in this room, they were worth the bet I took on them!
- This is anecdotal, but they also seem more efficient than the numbers indicate, in comparison to other speakers I have driven with that amp.
- There is a complete effortlessness to their character - they handle anything, with seemingly no distortion - which I have never been able to achieve in my home before.
I listened to Joe Walsh's "Confessor" and "Life's Been Good" for my first two tracks, and I fell to my knees in disbelief when the latter track played. Words fail.
Of course, they are beautiful to boot. I am a fan of natural cherry, and I know these will continue to look richer with age.
This represents how they looked when I finally got listening to them last night -
Thanks again, Jim and team, for making a great product, with such a great attitude and service.
