A speaker with quicker response, wider dynamics, cleaner transients, air and space, I have not heard. Heard The Planetarium Beta System yesterday and it blew me out of my socks. Never thought I would hear the detail from a dynamic speaker that I have heard from electrostatic speakers in the past, but I did. And these things construct real images not only in sound but in size. I took some records, classical and jazz and even a single of Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation and my host played some plus a high rez Patricia Barber and Jennifer Warnes track from his server. Those last two had a sweet civility to them I wasn't expecting after the bombastic stuff we had been listening to. My host sold his big Sound Lab speakers to make room for these. I asked him what he missed about them and he said nothing, that Duke had used Sound Labs as his reference when making these (Duke is a dealer for Sound Labs, this I know). I'm puttin this under this topic about the Jazz Modules cause they are the same speaker on a smaller scale and, fellas, these things ARE efficient. The volume and scale we were getting from a relatively low output tube amp was simply stunning. Hail to the chief.
Damn, I was mesmerized. The whole system consisting of the towers and four self powered subs (The Swarm) plus an active crossover to integrate the subs cost 10k. That's not a meager sum but for what you get I think it has to be the best value in all of audio.
I invited myself back and will take some recordings that I know will come alive in ways not possible in my small solar system.
And what Russell said.
