I will preface this review by saying I went into this audition with a strong bias against the speakers (without even hearing them) due to an apparent problem with getting replacement drivers; that being said here is a timeline of what transpired:
1. Unpack speakers and discover that they are packed very well with cool little shirts on them to boot.
2. Notice the fit and finish is quite nice and the cabinets are quite inert; no boom when you tap on all sides of the cabinets just a hurt finger tip.
3. Notice the damage to one cabinet like I was told but was not expecting the clunk of the broken and detached motor assembly of one of the woofers when I set the cabinet upright.
4. Pulled the woofer and found said damage and noticed the woofers baskets look very frail compare to the weight of the magnet/motor structure it needs to support.
5. Strong bias begins to take hold as I find out from Albert that getting spare parts (at least the woofers and I strongly suspect other components as well) is definitely a long shot at best.
6. Stuff the dead woofer cone and basket back in the hole so I can give the speakers back to the guy I got them from in the same condition they were in and say "so much for that"
7. Here is where things start to change....I figure why not set these clunkers up and for a laugh give them a try.
8. What's that I hear?........nah can't be, they are just something new and I am not used to how bad they really sound yet (bias still there)
9. Listen more....well they aren't that bad but the reviewers must have gotten some big money to give them such high marks (yep bias still there)
10. Still more listening....then some more.....still more......hey these really do sound pretty good, then I think about the saying "these speakers add up to more than the sum of their parts"...yes it must be synergistics (and yes I still believe it involves some of this)
11. I get serious and do painstaking A/B comparisons with my reference speakers...my arms are getting tired shoving the Dynaudios back and pulling the Hyperions forward...shoving the Hyperions back and bringing the Dynaudios forward again, getting the same sound pressure levels since we all know "the louder one will always sound better"......(by the way I did have to turn the volume down a little when I hook up the Hyperions)
12.This can't be happening...these speakers actually sound better in all ways than my beloved Dyn's????
13. I begin to think I should have just stuck the Hyperions back in the boxes like I was going to do and never listened to them.
Ok, I admit the 938's do sound fabulous (way better than pretty much any speaker I have ever heard..even with only three woofers working!) but what happens if a tweeter dies..or that wonderful midrange dies, then what??? I don't want to beat a dead horse but I have absolutely no assurance that I can even get parts now let alone 3 or 4 years from now!
I want these speakers but I want to be able to enjoy them for many years to come and I just don't know if that is possible if anything goes wrong in the future..
Albert
