so when i received my HT2-TL's last week i emailed jim to let him know and he asked if i would write a small review of them (i am pretty sure that jim would like everyone to do this that gets his speakers - he seems to be a BIG supporter of A-circle and of course there's no better advertising than word of mouth). so even though i have had a few rather lengthy threads around here lately i will do my best to give a summation of my new speakers and hope not too many of you are wishing i would just shut the hell up already (hey i can't help it, i'm a proud new parent of big fat loud twins here!).
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=87804.0well first off, as you might expect, the boxes are BIG. and HEAVY. and having one box with a slightly crunched in corner (uh-oh) and the other with a pretty deep looking stab wound in the side (UH-OH) had me sweating already. not to worry, as the packaging is amazingly good and i think you would need a bazooka shell to get through the boxes to actually damage your speaker. (thanx mary!). i also worried a little as i could not find any screws to attach the plinth in the first speaker box - screws for both speakers were in the second box so all's well. okay so now how the %*#! do i get these out of the box? the manual suggests putting them on a table - i guess that would work but i can't imagine a 150 lb. speaker on my dining room table. the couch looked like a much better idea, and the fabric wouldn't scratch the speakers. so i flipped the front end of the speaker up out of the box onto the couch and pivoted the rear end up with the plinth end hanging off over the couch arm into space to allow easy access to screw on the plinth. the instructions told which end of plinth was the front but the difference between the front and the back was pretty hard for me to see - perhaps a little piece of masking tape on the plinth with an arrow would help? the cardas posts don't indicate + or - and while i am glad that jim didn't include a chinzy plastic red and black spacer perhaps in the future engraving the plate with a + and - would be a nice touch. i also unwrapped the feet and had a good laugh remembering tom andry's rant about the feet in his review (i am a big fan of tom's and remember in the salk thread following audioholic's review one poster referred to tom as having a "foot fetish"). anyways i like the feet.
and of course i got to look at the speakers for the first time. as jim mentioned and i also found this to be true the first time i saw a pair of salks (at RMAF) the camera does "wash out" the finish somewhat. they really "pop" a lot more in person, the finish being much deeper and richer. the light in my front room isn't the best but i have yet to find the seam where jim book matched the veneer. amazing. (over/under on the word "amazing" appearing again is +2 BTW).
an interesting part of this process that surprised me is that i never really talked with jim about how i wanted the veneer finished (i am sure that i could have if i wanted to at any time - jim was more than happy to discuss any ideas/suggestions i had, including giving me the pros and cons of them). i almost panicked a few times and emailed him, but i made the decision early on that i think jim is a genius with wood and i should just let him "do his thing". i am glad that i did, and actually, he wound up doing just what i would have suggested anyways which was just to minimally accentuate the natural colors of the veneer instead of making any drastic changes to it.
i have an open floor plan "loft style" home. you can stand at the front door and literally look straight to the back of my house. there are almost no doors, high ceilings, and all the rooms connect. this has it's good and bad points as far as speakers go. i definitely need a speaker that can move some air but speakers have a lot of room to "breathe". it's hard to get a lot of bass. my system is in the middle of a major overhaul. as it stands now i am using a supratek chardonnay preamp (which will stay) and an odyssey khatargo amp. source component is a squeezebox touch. i also "share" the salks with my 7.2 system built around axiom speakers (well, it used to be 7.2 - now it's 7.0 as i sold my subs and am saving for new dual rythmiks).
my past speakers were gallo references, martin logan vantages and most recently emerald physics 2.3's. i have always hoped to find a speaker with the imaging of the ML's only able to play deep and loud if needed. just randomly the first song my new baby's played was joe jackson's "i'm the man" which was kind of apropo at the time i think.
so a few thoughts on the sound. exactly as i remembered them being at RMAF - great clean midrange, non-fatiguing highs *whew* glad none of that changed in my house. these speakers without a doubt have the widest soundstage of any speaker i have owned. that tweeter is amazing - i am pretty sure i have some hearing loss from years of punk rock shows when i was a kid (okay, and also now - i still have been known to jump into a pit or two as my wife gives me the "god your a dumbass" look) and i find a lot of speakers shrill and irritating. as long as the volume is kept to a sane level i don't get that with the salks. they love female voices (as do i)- a few tori amos songs give you that crazy feeling my ML's used to that the singer is inside your skull singing outward to your ears. i use the famous yello song "the eye" to test imaging - it has ridiculous side to side pans that can have the sound bouncing at you from all sides. if my ML's were 100% on imaging than i would list the salks at 75%. if that doesn't sound too impressive the emeralds were probably around 40%. when i kicked it up for "the eye" they could play VERY loud and clean with no effort. and the bass. oh boy the bass. i have heard about it before, and thought, "yeah, whatever, my emeralds go to 20hz". and i had dual axiom EP500 subs. and when i kicked up that yello song, the salks had more bass than either. A LOT MORE. i actually got a little nervous. i don't know if it's because they hit so hard in the bass range (low 30's) that you actually feel and hear the most but they punched my chest harder than any speaker i have ever been around. amazing.
so are they my ultimate speaker? i am a gear flipper and never like to say i will "never sell" something. they are the best speakers i have ever owned by a long shot. they are the best speakers i have ever heard IMO except for two: the focal grande utopia em and the focal viva utopia, both of which i heard at RMAF. the grande utopia is $180,000. so it will probably be next year until i get a pair of those, you know, got to save up. the viva's are $24,000. even at Agon prices i don't know if i could ever get a speaker in that range. and everything else i just don't hear a CLEAR advantage over my HT2-TL's. i could spend more, but i'm not sure i'd get more.
so that's it HEY YOU WAKE UP it's done. thanx again jim. damn nice job, sir.
