I went to Bryan's home last week for a listen to his gear. His front end gear consists of a fantastic Blue Cirlce amp, pre-amp and Moon cd player. His gear is right up by the top shelf, no doubt. His IC's and power chords and speaker cables, same thing, great stuff. We listened for at least an hour or so to his Salk HT3's and I was very very impressed to say the least. Probabley the best sound quality in a home I had ever heard. I could go on and on about imaging, seperation, clarity, sound staging and articulate detail of sound. So then he says, you gotta hear these RAW Acoustic HT3's and I said sure why not. When I was looking at them I thought these things are kinda small so it's going to be quite a step down in sound from the Salks. Well he pushed play and immediately I knew I was wrong. I was blown away!!! I tend to be long winded so I'll try to keep it short. The RAW HT3's were able to execute more than 90% of the micro info and presence that the Salks did and at 25 to 33% of the cost!!! I told Bryan not to let anyone who came to listen to the Salks hear the RAWs otherwise he'll be selling a lot of $1400 speakers and not many 4 to 5g's Salks. The difference between the performance of the Salk HT3's and the RAW HT3's was very minor while the price is not. Those things ROCK!!! Bass is unbelievable. I still don't know where it was coming from. Of course I would prefer to own the Salks because like many of us I am listening for those most subtle of details and nuances in a recording but again like most of us when you have budget limitations you can have an amazing complete set up with the RAW's for what it cost just to by a pair of Salk HT3's. Nothing against the Salks, they are amazing, but some of us have wives that would land us in divorce court if we started our hobby with the purchase of a pair of $4,000 speakers instead of ended it with the same $4,000 to include the speakers, amp and pre-amp. I think you get my point. Enter the RAW HT3's. I can't wait to hear the RAW Apex'. I could end up selling my Tyler Acoustic Full Linbrook System after hearing the RAW Apex speakers. For any doubting Thomas', go to Bryan's house and listen for yourself. All the best......... CS.
