Pls post HT2 "new Transmission Line" review!

adydula · « **Reply #60 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 02:15 am »

Dang these are really gorgeous!!
Congratulations!!

I am sure these will sound soooooo sweet!!

Alex

funkmonkey · « **Reply #61 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 06:47 am »

Terry, Congratulations on the safe arrival! They look awesome, brother! Also, I'm glad to hear that your first response to listening to them is favorable

HT2-TLs in the house, whoo-hoo!

I really want to hear a pair, I think that TL bass is something very special. What an exciting day... and weekend, for you.

Cheers, enjoy,
Greg

BoB/335 · « **Reply #62 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 11:56 am »

Quote from: TJHUB on 20 Mar 2009, 10:09 pm

Since you guys are so cool about being happy for me, here are some pics: (sorry if they are awful)

Here's the FedEx truck:

My route is apparently "new" so they are using rented trucks for now...

The packaging:

The packaging was very good, but speakers should come out of it faster. It's very frustrating to unpack the speakers when you are so anxious!

Here is what I've been listening to since selling my B&W's a couple of weeks ago:

Feel sorry for me? Actually the Klipsch Promedia's weren't terrible.

Here they are, Smokey Silver Guitar Finish English Fiddleback Sycamore HT2 TL's:

All I can say is that I remain floored by the sound of these speakers. I have played NOTHING that doesn't sound great. Anyone that has these on order, they are so worth the wait and you are really in for something very special.

Right now I'm spinning Jim's CD. WOW, just WOW...

Looks like a beautiful room you have there!!! I would imagine that they would sound great in there. Very comfortable looking and you have a great TV viewing area. I see that these speakers can be placed much easier than what the HT3's seem to be. How close can these actually be placed to the wall without experiencing any problems?

adydula · « **Reply #63 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 12:39 pm »

Hey Terry!! (sorry Bob, thanks Nuance!!!

)

Nice pictures, they look great....looks like you have a very nice listening room as well.

Let us know how they play!!

The black blends in very nice with your other stuff!!

All the best
Alex

Nuance · « **Reply #64 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 01:32 pm »

^ psst, adydula - those are Terry's speakers, not Bob's.

OgOgilby · « **Reply #65 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 02:01 pm »

Congrats Terry, and nice job on the photos. Those look fantastic in your room - great choice on the finish. How do they look with the grilles on?

-Greg

zybar · « **Reply #66 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 02:15 pm »

Very nice setup!

The finish looks very similar to Joe's (jermmd) HT3's.

George

TJHUB · « **Reply #67 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 02:46 pm »

You know, it's really cool you guys can be so happy for me. It's great to have a group of people to share this stuff with. Thank you for that.

Funk: It feels incredible to be a member of the Salk family. I was so jealous of you and Nuance for so long. I can't tell you how happy I am not to be jealous anymore.

Now I'm going to try to catch up to your front end (although I don't know how close I'll get).

OgOgilby: Pics of the grills on:

I'll attempt some better pics later today as the sun is out and lots of light helps when photographing black things.

I've been listening today with the grills on and I'm not hearing anything I don't like. So I'll try to keep my wife happy and leave them on for a while.

One comment I'd like to make that *should* hit home with some of you. I've auditioned speakers in my home that I just could not get any emotional attachment to; I just didn't care. However, that is all I seem to have with these HT2's. Everything I seem to listen to just grabs me. It amazing. Does this make sense or am I crazy?

On the subject of "everything", I've read comments from people with ST's that stated they were finding that a lot of their music sounded bad do to poor recording quality. I don't feel this way at all. I thought my B&W 805S's were forgiving to poor material, but these Salks are far more forgiving. Great recordings sound very special, but some poorer stuff I have is really decent. Sure you can tell it's not great, but I used to not play it. Now I certainly can and it sounds relatively good. I was really concerned about this, but it's just not an issue.

Also, with my B&W's some material I have that is bright sounding was uncomfortable to listen to. With the HT2's, there doesn't seem to be nearly as big of a difference between good material and what I used to think was bright sounding. Brighter material sounds brighter, but not hard to listen to in any way.

And here's something I told Nuance on the phone last night: when I turned up the volume with my B&W's, they got loud sounding; seemingly stressed and a little compressed. Turn the volume up on the HT2's and all they do is sound better. I don't seem to notice they got louder, just better.

Now that I've gotten through about 100+ different songs from all kinds of artists and genres, I can say that I'm having a really hard time finding ANY fault with these speakers. The detail is incredible. I can hear everything and it's all good.

Now where is that Fedex guy with my Parasound gear?

R Swerdlow · « **Reply #68 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 03:00 pm »

TJHUB

Its great reading all your comments on your new speakers. I seen a lot of photos from excited owners of newly delivered speakers, but you must be the first one to post photos of the delivery truck

!

I'm curious to know more of your impressions of the TL bass from these speakers. Were your old B&Ws bass reflex speakers? How does the bass of the HT2 TL sound in comparison? If it is anything like my experience with the bass from the STs, it might be different than what you are used to. Some people have put it this way. At first they felt like the STs bass had less impact than what they had known, but after a few weeks of listening to their new speakers, they listened to their old speakers and were surprised at how muddy they sounded in comparison. Too bad you can't do that comparison, but just the same I'm glad you were able to sell your old speakers.

Congrats on your new speakers, and make Nuance wash his hands before you let him fondle them

.

Richard

OgOgilby · « **Reply #69 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 03:57 pm »

Quote from: guptaas on 20 Mar 2009, 06:50 pm

Hi Everyone: I must be one of the first owners of HT2 TL's. First of all, for new customers, this was unlike any other purchase I've ever made. Jim took a call himself and patiently listened to my needs. I followed with pictures of my awkward listewning location and we talked again. Jim persuaded me to go with these speakers instead of his own more expensive products because they fit my need better. I followed with a sample of my flooor, which he matched perfectly in Brazilian cherry. The projected production time was accurate and delivery was prompt.

Jim's demo CD of course is made up of well recorded tracks and they show off these attributes well as well as the amazing bass these speakers can produce. I was using Polk RT35i speakers with a subwoofer before and you can imagine how easy it is to get used to a lot of bass with a subwoofer. Mind you, I always resisted turning it up so high that one became conscious of the sub-woofer.

But I hadn't purchased them to listen to Jim's CD. So I threw all sorts of music both old and new at it - acoustic and electric blues, traditional Jazz, Bop, cool, soul-jazz, soul, funk, the usual classic rock standards as well as newer Indie Rock, vocal traditional pop as well as jazz vocals, essentially everything except hip-hop and classical which were played a little but I won't trust my ears with them.

These speakers did an incredible job with all of the above. Lionel Hampton from the 30's to Pink Martini and Sharon Jones from today all sounded great. My special loves are 70's Memphis soul from the Stax Studios and Latin Jazz, both of which require a very clear punchy bass line dancing with the melody. Sam and Dave as well as Poncho sanchez came out fantastic. The only time I felt the bass lacking a little was with some classic rock tracks - "Who's Next" for example. My system doesn't allow anything but a volume control and an Equalizer somewhere in the path would have taken care of it easily. Its not the speakers, its the recording I feel. All recordings are different and one does need a way to adjust the playback to one's liking. I might have gotten used to listening to that album with bass turned up high.

So my verdict is that you are unlikely to find a better looking pair of speakers which give a great bang for the buck performance. They can work well close to walls and no subwoofer is required for stereo music playback. For home theters, you might need that but I don't mix my music and movie playback, so can't comment.

Thanks for your feedback and congrats on your getting your HT2 TL's! You may be the first to receive them. Hmmm... does Jim number them?

TJHUB · « **Reply #70 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 04:03 pm »

Quote from: R Swerdlow on 21 Mar 2009, 03:00 pm

TJHUB

Its great reading all your comments on your new speakers. I seen a lot of photos from excited owners of newly delivered speakers, but you must be the first one to post photos of the delivery truck !

I'm curious to know more of your impressions of the TL bass from these speakers. Were your old B&Ws bass reflex speakers? How does the bass of the HT2 TL sound in comparison? If it is anything like my experience with the bass from the STs, it might be different than what you are used to. Some people have put it this way. At first they felt like the STs bass had less impact than what they had known, but after a few weeks of listening to their new speakers, they listened to their old speakers and were surprised at how muddy they sounded in comparison. Too bad you can't do that comparison, but just the same I'm glad you were able to sell your old speakers.

Congrats on your new speakers, and make Nuance wash his hands before you let him fondle them .

Richard

I'm not completely certain why I took that pic of the truck, or even why I posted it. I suppose it was all the excitement of the speaker arriving after what seemed like FOREVER.

The bass of the TL's is very good to me. It's a little reserved to me which means it's more than likely very flat in it's frequency response. My room is rather large at about 6,500cF, so I don't know how much that's playing a role in the bass response of these speakers.

I have been a bass fanatic in the past and I learned long ago what good bass sounds like. Muddy bass would NEVER be a part of my system.

Yes the B&W's I had were ported and as such, that's how they sounded. My measured in-room response of the B&W's alone was a little rough on the lower end having about a 10db swing between the port tuning around 40Hz and 80Hz. They never sounded good without pairing my EQ'd PB13-Ultra with them.

The HT2's bass sounds very transparent with great transient response; basically the bass sounds great. They seem to be very balanced through most of the frequency range, but I think I'm hearing a peak down low around 35Hz or lower which is most likely my room. I have a couple of tracks I use for bass response, and the HT2's seem to be very flat. I'll be measuring them sometime tomorrow to see what's really happening. I expect the graphs to look surprisingly good as I'm having a hard time detecting any real peaks or valleys in the FR overall.

I haven't listened to the HT2's with my sub as of yet other than the movie I watched last night. I can honestly say that I've listened to nothing that's made me consider turning my sub on for music. Only time will tell, but right now I'm thinking that my sub will be for HT duty only.

What makes you think I'd let Nuance touch my speakers?

zybar · « **Reply #71 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 04:27 pm »

Quote from: TJHUB on 21 Mar 2009, 04:03 pm

The bass of the TL's is very good to me. It's a little reserved to me which means it's more than likely very flat in it's frequency response. My room is rather large at about 6,500cF, so I don't know how much that's playing a role in the bass response of these speakers.

6500cF???

WOW!!! That's one big ass room!!

What are the actual dimensions? Looking at your pictures, I never could have guessed that your room is that big.

George

Don_S · « **Reply #72 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 04:57 pm »

Quote from: TJHUB on 21 Mar 2009, 04:03 pm

Quote from: R Swerdlow on 21 Mar 2009, 03:00 pm
TJHUB

Its great reading all your comments on your new speakers. I seen a lot of photos from excited owners of newly delivered speakers, but you must be the first one to post photos of the delivery truck !

EDIT

Congrats on your new speakers, and make Nuance wash his hands before you let him fondle them .

Richard

I'm not completely certain why I took that pic of the truck, or even why I posted it. I suppose it was all the excitement of the speaker arriving after what seemed like FOREVER.
EDIT [end quote]

How long did delivery take, 9 months? Pictures reminded me of a proud father taking scrapbook photos from birth to first steps. Enjoy, they grow up fast.

TJHUB · « **Reply #73 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 05:14 pm »

Quote from: zybar on 21 Mar 2009, 04:27 pm

Quote from: TJHUB on 21 Mar 2009, 04:03 pm
The bass of the TL's is very good to me. It's a little reserved to me which means it's more than likely very flat in it's frequency response. My room is rather large at about 6,500cF, so I don't know how much that's playing a role in the bass response of these speakers.

6500cF???

WOW!!! That's one big ass room!!

What are the actual dimensions? Looking at your pictures, I never could have guessed that your room is that big.

George

The room measures 18' x 25' with 9' walls plus the foyer area which is 9' x 12' all with a 15' high cathedral ceiling. I also have a large opening to my dining room area. All in all, it gets big fast. Luckily the room sounds good though.

OgOgilby · « **Reply #74 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 06:33 pm »

Quote from: TJHUB on 21 Mar 2009, 02:46 pm

OgOgilby: Pics of the grills on:

I've been listening today with the grills on and I'm not hearing anything I don't like. So I'll try to keep my wife happy and leave them on for a while.

One comment I'd like to make that *should* hit home with some of you. I've auditioned speakers in my home that I just could not get any emotional attachment to; I just didn't care. However, that is all I seem to have with these HT2's. Everything I seem to listen to just grabs me. It amazing. Does this make sense or am I crazy?

On the subject of "everything", I've read comments from people with ST's that stated they were finding that a lot of their music sounded bad do to poor recording quality. I don't feel this way at all. I thought my B&W 805S's were forgiving to poor material, but these Salks are far more forgiving. Great recordings sound very special, but some poorer stuff I have is really decent. Sure you can tell it's not great, but I used to not play it. Now I certainly can and it sounds relatively good. I was really concerned about this, but it's just not an issue.

Also, with my B&W's some material I have that is bright sounding was uncomfortable to listen to. With the HT2's, there doesn't seem to be nearly as big of a difference between good material and what I used to think was bright sounding. Brighter material sounds brighter, but not hard to listen to in any way.

Thanks for the grill on pics Terry. I'm pretty sure my wife will want the grills on all the time, but yours look amazing with the grills off! I was very close to picking a similar finish, but my wife liked the Santos Rosewood - I hope they look as good as yours do.

Interesting comparison to the 805S's. I was considering the 804's and listened to the a few times but they never quite did it for me (not sure why). Plus I just didn't think the B&W's 804's were worth the price. I am feeling pretty good about choosing the Salks now after seeing your pics and reading your comments about them - and speaking with Jim of course. The wait is really getting tough now. When I spoke to Jim on Friday he told me it looks like our HT2 TL's are 2-3 weeks away.

BTW, how did you decide on going with Parasound gear?

-Greg

fluke242 · « **Reply #75 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 06:55 pm »

Quote from: TJHUB on 21 Mar 2009, 02:46 pm

One comment I'd like to make that *should* hit home with some of you. I've auditioned speakers in my home that I just could not get any emotional attachment to; I just didn't care. However, that is all I seem to have with these HT2's. Everything I seem to listen to just grabs me. It amazing. Does this make sense or am I crazy?

Congrats TJHUB! Those look fantastic! Big fan of dark toned HT2s

And no, you are far from crazy. I know exactly what you mean about getting emotionally attached - Engagement and "magic" also come to mind.

John

BoB/335 · « **Reply #76 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 07:12 pm »

I see that these speakers can be placed much easier than what the HT3's seem to be. How close can these actually be placed to the wall without experiencing any problems?

nyc_paramedic · « **Reply #77 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 07:23 pm »

Quote from: TJHUB on 21 Mar 2009, 02:46 pm

You know, it's really cool you guys can be so happy for me. It's great to have a group of people to share this stuff with. Thank you for that.

This being a transmission line design, can you tell us what the port looks like? Is round or rectangular? You don't *have* to post a pic, but if you feel up to it...

Thanks in advance.

Nuance · « **Reply #78 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 07:57 pm »

Sorry, Terry - I snuck in last night after you and the family went to bed and hugged and kissed your speakers all night. Just go look; my lips prints will still be there.

BoB/335 · « **Reply #79 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 08:00 pm »

As I recall the opening in the back of the Song Tower is referred to as a "vent" and does not act the same as a port. I was told that the Song Towers can be placed relatively close to the wall. That is what I am actually getting at with my question. Can the HT2's "TL" version be placed as close as the ST's? Is there a rear port or is it a vent like the ST's?