Meadowlark Blue Heron 2's - price drop to $3K - SOLD!

mgalusha · « **on:** 25 May 2009, 05:21 pm »

Sold! Thanks Eric!

Looking to sell or trade my beloved (I'm probably going to kick myself later) Meadowlark Blue Heron 2's. I purchased these when Meadowlark was going out of business, so I am the original owner. When received I found they had put these together with spare drivers and so purchased all new drivers. They are the same as the originals but matched. The woofers came from North Creek as a "perfect matched quad", so all 4 were matched to each other. The mids came as set from Madisound and the tweeters are a matched pair from Meniscus Audio. These have the optional black face plates and IMO look much better than the silver ones. All of the woofer and midrange driver baskets were damped with heavy felt.

The crossover caps have been upgraded with Obbligato/Sonicap Platinum and Mundorf Silver/Gold Oil. There is also a pair of Bybee silver bullets on the tweeters. The hollow bases have been filled with lead shot, adding about 40lbs of mass to each speaker. They were factory wired with Tara Labs RSC wire and also have Cardas binding posts.

They have a maple veneer with solid maple front panels with solid cherry inlays. The front panels are a three layer, CLD design. MDF -> damping -> MDF -> damping -> Maple. Total panel thickness is approximately 2.5". The top of each speaker is capped by another piece of solid maple attached to the MDF cabinet. On one of these speakers this is slightly lifting on the sides. It can be fixed pretty easily as the other speaker did this a few years back but I have not gotten around to it. This is a small defect and most folks who have seen the speakers never notice but I believe in full disclosure.

Overall I give these a rating of 7, primarily due to the slight lift on the top, otherwise I'd say they were an 8.

I am asking $3500 and much prefer a local sale in the Denver, CO area. The list price on these was $13,000 and I have about $6500 invested. I am very interested in trading for a high powered tube amp of roughly equal value. Non local buyers will have to arrange crating and shipping as I had no room to store the original crates from Meadowlark. A friend has used a local outfit for shipping large speakers with good results. If interested I can get this information for you.

These have a specified and measured sensitivity of 91.5dB at 2.83V/Meter and are very tube friendly. Like all Meadowlarks they are a 1st order time and phase coherent design. These are the same tweeters use by Magico, Hansen, VonSchweikert and other very high end speakers and are stunning.

I will of course be happy to audition them for serious local buyers.

Thanks for looking!

mike

Click images for full size.

timind · « **Reply #1 on:** 27 May 2009, 01:26 am »

Absolutely gorgeous speakers.
Don't have the space for them but having owned three different Meadowlark models I can only

over them.

Good luck.

mgalusha · « **Reply #2 on:** 27 May 2009, 01:58 am »

Thanks. They are really easy on the eyes. When I removed the first one from the crate my wife's comment was "those are pretty (emphasis on the pretty)" followed shortly by something like "you're not ever selling those". Of course after Vandy 3A sigs in her living room the BH2's where a night and day difference in looks. But time marches on and I've changed direction though I still really like the Meadowlarks. BTW, they really don't need a big room. Before I finished my current listening room I had the system in a spare bedroom and they really sang in there.

poseidonsvoice · « **Reply #3 on:** 27 May 2009, 02:20 am »

Mike,

Absolutely gorgeous speakers! Good luck on the sale. I guess you've moved on to bigger and better things aa

Anand.

Tyson · « **Reply #4 on:** 27 May 2009, 02:49 am »

I've heard these speakers several times at Mike's and they are outstanding. Someone should snap them up.

toobluvr · « **Reply #5 on:** 27 May 2009, 04:25 pm »

I owned and enjoyed immensely for 4 years my Meadowlark Heron "i", and have listened to my buddy's BH 1 over the same period of time. I'm sure these are excellent!

Looks like a wholelottaspeakerforthe$$ to me!!

Good Luck!

satfrat · « **Reply #6 on:** 27 May 2009, 04:39 pm »

Well just knowing how Mike likes to tweak everything he gets his hands on says these aren't your standard out of the shop Herons and Mike's practically giving them away at that.

Damn they are a beautiful set of loudspeakers.

Cheers,
Robin

toobluvr · « **Reply #7 on:** 27 May 2009, 04:57 pm »

True!

I believe my buddy paid about $3500 for his BH 1's a few years ago. So I think $3500 for even the stock BH 2 is a really nice deal. And if the upgrades elevate them even more, it has gotta be a screamin' deal.

Unfortunately, Meadowlark is not "flavor of the month" nor a "fan-boy fave" at the moment. I encountered resistance when selling my Meadowlark Heron "i" recently. Saw other speakers getting snatched up quickly at my asking price that I knew were sonically inferior....not even close! Alas, the "lemming effect".

But anyone with good sense, good ears, and knows good value will have the guts to move on these, and get a very nice deal!

Turk · « **Reply #8 on:** 27 May 2009, 05:08 pm »

SATFRAT,

You are absolutely correct. Mike has tweeked these to the 9's going so far as to anchor the drivers with solid brass screws! Since I have lived with a similar pair for 4 years, I can say with certainty that these speakers have wonderful balance and impart a rich harmonic structure to the music. They sound like music. Being a transmission line design, the speakers will couple well in a small room if positioned correctly (no rear firing port problems) and sound gorgeous in a larger room.

I just cannot believe he is offering them at this price. The raw drivers if you purchased them alone are over $2k! I have not seen speakers with this level of construction, sound and driver complement used at anywhere near the price.

Go listen!

jrebman · « **Reply #9 on:** 27 May 2009, 06:27 pm »

Mike,

Wow -- never thought I'd see the day.

No, sorry, not even going to audition them as it would be pointless

.

Need a Swarm to go with their replacements?

-- Jim

zybar · « **Reply #10 on:** 27 May 2009, 06:30 pm »

Quote from: Turk on 27 May 2009, 05:08 pm

SATFRAT,

You are absolutely correct. Mike has tweeked these to the 9's going so far as to anchor the drivers with solid brass screws! Since I have lived with a similar pair for 4 years, I can say with certainty that these speakers have wonderful balance and impart a rich harmonic structure to the music. They sound like music. Being a transmission line design, the speakers will couple well in a small room if positioned correctly (no rear firing port problems) and sound gorgeous in a larger room.

I just cannot believe he is offering them at this price. The raw drivers if you purchased them alone are over $2k! I have not seen speakers with this level of construction, sound and driver complement used at anywhere near the price.

Go listen!

Killer deal and speakers!

Good luck Mike.

George

mgalusha · « **Reply #11 on:** 27 May 2009, 07:30 pm »

I appreciate all the kinds words gents, I hope these find a good home. Believe me, if I had room for two systems they would not be going anywhere but I've already tested the waters on putting them in the living room, not even open for negotiation.

Jim, I built three of the GR/Rythmik sealed servo subs, so no need for a swarm.

Mike

mgalusha · « **Reply #12 on:** 22 Jun 2009, 01:29 am »

I was hoping these would go to a local fellow but he is pursuing a different direction, so the speakers are still available. As part of the demo for a local fellow we drove them with a ModWright LS 36.5 and KWA150 and they sounded wonderful with the MW gear. I normally drive them with a pair of R.E. Designs LNPA 150 which are 75W into 8 ohms and 150W into 4 ohms and also a McIntosh 275, all of these drive them with ease and lots of power is not required.

mgalusha · « **Reply #13 on:** 27 Jul 2009, 03:36 pm »

I still have these and would much prefer to see an AC member get them rather than list them on Agon. I did some checking an professional packing will run about $150 and insured shipping to most of the US via Yellow Freight is in the $425/$450 range. While I'd much prefer a local sale I'm willing to pay for the packing if someone outside of the Colorado front range wants them.

Thanks!

Mike

ltr317 · « **Reply #14 on:** 27 Jul 2009, 03:46 pm »

These are truly beautiful speakers, art-deco like in appearance. Much luck in selling them.

poseidonsvoice · « **Reply #15 on:** 29 Jul 2009, 04:13 am »

Just to let you all know, this speaker wasn't built with run of the mill drivers. That tweeter is $400 each from Scan Speak Revelator series. That midwoofer is Scan Speak's slit foil design from the Revelator series as well and lists at about $258. Each of the midwoofers is a variant on the legendary Scan Speak 8545 midwoofer and goes at about $160 each. This doesn't count all the extra dough Mike threw in for matching the drivers. And this is for ONE speaker. Double that for the other one. And you really can't get a discount from Madisound, North Creek or Meniscus Audio buying in these quantities. So yeah about $2K is invested in the drivers ALONE.

Bump!

Anand.

playntheblues · « **Reply #16 on:** 29 Jul 2009, 09:47 am »

And if you don't know Mike, he takes very good care of his gear. And almost always upgrades it to the highest level. Great speakers at a great price, good luck Mike.

mgalusha · « **Reply #17 on:** 2 Sep 2009, 03:09 pm »

Still have these as I have not been trying very hard to sell them (few bumps, no agon) but I'd still like to find a new home for them.

So... $3K takes them if buyer arranges crating and shipping or I will deliver or meet within a 300 mile radius of Denver CO. I would also be happy to bring them with me to RMAF for anyone who would like to pick them up.

As Anand mentioned above, a new set of drivers is over $2K. aa

Mike

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #18 on:** 4 Sep 2009, 04:32 pm »

Damn, those are very good speakers stock, with the mods and upgrades you've done they must be amazing. I doubt I'll ever see another pair of speakers of this quality for such a good price, but I just can't do it right now.

Maybe after New Years? Nah, they will be snapped up as soon as you put them on A'gon.

mgalusha · « **Reply #19 on:** 4 Sep 2009, 04:41 pm »

Thanks Dan. I've been avoiding agon because of the high noise level. I just don't want to spend the time fending off the folks who just want to poke at you with no real intention of buying them. It's entirely possible they will still be here, hard to say. I'm not in any big rush and in fact I put them back in the system last night so I can finally try and do something to finish my Abbeys.