I know this is long - please bear with me!
First, a quick intro: I'm a lurker here on this forum, but I'm active on a couple of others. I'm also a member of the Southeast Michigan Audio Club (SMAC). I've heard Jim's fine products at AK Fests, AXPONA, Rocky Mountain, and friends' houses. And in spite of Jim's shop being about a mile from where I live (really!), I had not been there. Until last week ...
I've been going through my own speaker evolution and have had the Salk Song Towers on my radar for some time. Lots of positive press, great consumer reviews, and they were among my favorites at AXPONA last year (and the last AK Fest, if I remember correctly; I don't think they had these at RMAF). Anyway, since Jim's place is so close, I've been meaning to introduce myself and ask if I could borrow a "demo set" for a quick in-home audition. However, I've not been in a position to make a purchase, so I've been hesitant to do so.
However, our monthly SMAC meet - informal listening sessions at various volunteer's houses - was here at my place this month so I seized the opportunity to approach Jim about borrowing a set for the group meet with the obvious advantage of getting a few days of in-home demo, too. And Jim graciously agreed! I was hoping for a standard set of Song Towers (I've been a soft-dome guy lately) but he had a set with the ribbon tweeter upgrade ready, so we went with those. (
Nice!) They were set up in my small (10x15) Music Library with Audio Research gear (Classic 60 amp, SP-9 Mk.III pre, Avanti cables) for the gathering. (see pic below)
My point (and I do have one): THANKS to Jim for his generosity, flexibility, and the tour of the whole shop while I was there! (The world needs more people like he and Mary!) The 30+ SMAC members who attended the meet here had lots of positive things to say about the Song Towers and my own extended listening over a couple of days really allowed me to develop a positive opinion, too.
And now a question for the Audio Circle community: If you have any experience with Song Towers, specifically experience with both the OW2 soft-dome version
as well as the RT ribbon tweeter version, please drop me a direct private message. I've got a couple of questions based on my listening impressions and I'm curious as to your experience and opinion as well. (I've done some searching and reading here and at AVS forum, too.)
As a friend of mine says: Happy Listening!
Don Chisholm
Pontiac, Michigan
