Jeff, thanks for the welcome!
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I did find an old post and thought I would copy a few parts of it here to supplement my post above.....
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Unfrotunately, I came pretty late to finding Jim and had been in the process of hunting for speakers for almost 10 months. I visited virtually every high end audio store in the Chicago area and listened to perhaps 20-25 monitor in the $1200-5000 price range. I started the process thinking I'd get decent speakers and be done with it. BUT, then I realized that if I'm bothering to do it I should do it right and that very luckily my budget was flexible (helps to justify it as part of a new house, gut job with new furniture, etc.) and that I would buy the best speakers I could justify for the money....I had good equipment in the past (Harmon Kardon, Denon, Pioneer Elite, NHT speakers, etc.) but figured that going somewhere in the middle didn't make sense - either get something passible that sounded pretty good but wouldn't stand up to critical listening or get something which hit the quality point such that I'd really have to push it on the price side and my ability to differentiate to get anything better.
I decided on a used Bryston 4bsst amp (tank with great reputation for neutrality and with a 20 yr warranty a no brainer used) and an Anthem AVM-30 processor and for a sub, a Rel Storm III (just out did the more conventional subs I demoed speakers with).
I probably spent 40-50 hours over a good number of months listening to speakers - Monitor Audio, JM Lab, Revel, B&W, Linn, Polk, NHT, Totem, Vienna Accoutics, Sonus Faber, Red Rose, Dynaudio, Aurum Cantus and on and on......
What I realized after all this listening is that I had narrowed down to Dynaudio Special 25s at $4500 and Red Rose Rosebuds at $3500 and then decided to order the Rosebuds, but to my disappointment and ultimate luck, they were backordered and after 8 months I started looking again, but knew that I really liked the sound of the ribbon tweeter in the Rosebuds..... after doing some research I learned that Aurum Cantus was somewhat of an OEM for Red Rose and so I figured I'd try the Leisure 3se at $1400 [larger size to their older model]....a bit more research led me to Jim's website and between his use of the G2 ribbon and a great woofer - as well as the speakers being perhaps the best looking speakers I've ever seen for under $15000 - I knew I had to try those as well.....
I got the Rosebuds, Aurum Cantus and Veracitys in at the same time and spent 30 days comparing them and getting to know them as well as doing test listening sessions for a number of friends (among them a professional violinist and a multi grammy award winning jazz pianist).....
Well, after getting to know the speakers it became clear where they fell out..... the Aurum Cantus were absolutely incredible for the price - beautiful, stunning finish in fact - probably the best speakers I've ever heard in that price range and the smaller version is only $1000...., but given that my "budget" didn't stop there, I felt they would be a compromise because they lacked a bit of the high end detail in Jim's and the Rosebuds as well as the mid-range detail of Jim's (that was the biggest difference in my perspective)....I just didn't feel the music in the same way...
The Rosebuds, also beautiful speakers, were not quite as impressive in my home against these two speakers as they had been when I was auditioning speakers back when and they blew away the competition. They were marvelous speakers with great detail and soundstage, but I felt they rolled off the highs a bit and pushed the mid, though with good clarity.
The Veracity's did everything better - better broader soundstage, better detailed transparent highs and incredible mid range detail and even for monitors a very nice low end (even with my Rel off). When I had my friends in to listen I didn't reveal my biases and each one came to the conclusion that Jim's speakers were the best. In fact the Jazz pianist, had it pegged almost immediately as much superior and was incredibly impressed overall - he basically saw the difference as night and day, though I thought they were all a bit closer than he did.
I did go back and relisten to the Dynaudio Special 25s to double check my perspective, though without a home audition and wasn't nearly as impressed with them as I had been 10 months earlier and before I had listened to the Veracitys.
It was clear that at around $2000 (more with my choices of wood, etc.) that Jim's speakers were better than the $3500 competition and $4500 competition.... and really the best monitors I had heard period (though I couldn't find the $6500 JM Lab monitors to listen to anywhere in Chicago and there may have been 1-2 other monitors I had researched and wanted to listen to but couldn't find). I did then wander into a store in Chicago that sold Linn and listened to a pair of Linn at $5700 a pair - I was definitely impressed and it was the first time that I'd heard anything approach Jim's speakers...after 30 days of listening I knew what I wanted to hear on various tracks and heard a lot of that with the Linn (though the room they had was terrible - surprise given the cost of the speakers they sell), but at almost 3x the money it wasn't worth a second thought.
All that being said, there was another thing that really clinched it and that was dealing with Jim..... through e-mail at first, then talking on the phone, then in person when he passed through Chicago and then by e-mail again - just a great guy all around who really cares about what he is doing and doing a great job of it, is willing to stand behind his work (when I asked about the length of the warranty, the response was something to the effect of "well, for as long as I'm around" - doesn't get better than that) and he is clearly willing to spend time on questions and detail (and probably quite annoying for him, my and my wife's utter indecision over finish which delayed things quite a bit) - all for what I have found to be very rare in the audio world, an AMAZINGLY great value. I just really like doing business with someone like Jim.
So far a great experience and one I was lucky to fall into by finding a thread on the internet about beautiful speaker cabinets..... I am actually getting a modified version of the Veracity which is a bit smaller with a sealed (not ported) cabinet because given my in home application and spacing (mostly from the interior decorator/wife factor), the Veracitys were just a bit too big and I couldn't have them sufficiently out from the wall to work the port properly).
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