Yes, I have pictures of the speakers in boxes coming off the truck and into my living room. But, given the incredible problems with delivery, I'm not real excited about giving the shipper any free publicity but that's a whole other story. Well, the pictures don't do the speakers justice. The veneer is actually a little more red than shown and comes pretty dang close in color to the cherry wood on the center stack where the amp and CDP are located. These are some of the most beautiful speakers that I have ever seen but then you guys already know that. Jim and company just do an incredible job in that department. So, the bigger question, how do they sound?
I have been puzzled up to now why anyone was impressed with Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon". (Recogize that I have brand new Blue Jeans speaker cables and a new interconnect and I'm told that they need a little play to run in so I'm not sure if I am getting the full impact of what these speakers can do yet.)
In the first song on the CD; the first thing I notice with the new speakers is that I was slammed with rhytmic bass drums punching me in the stomach . . . bam . . . bam. . . bam . . . bam . . . and then a cacophony of voice and instruments that presented on a sound stage that was wide, deep and real. These voices and instruments moved around the sound stage, appearing and disappearing like fireflies in a Midwestern night. The "speakers disappeared" and the music took over and I was mesmerized with the sounds that seemed to emanate from far outside the width of my speaker placement. When Jim advertises that the "speakers just disappear", he isn't blowing smoke, they truly do.
Then, at about 45 seconds into the first song, softly, faintly, in the background are footsteps. I'd never heard them before. (If you've never heard them before, you need new speakers.) If you can tell me what the footsteps do on your soundstage, you already own Jim's speakers. I can tell you what they did; in fact, I have a mental image of every step of every heel and toe. BTW, it happens again about 3:45 into the same track.
In the second track, the synthesizer seems to create sound, light and darkness in space, jumping around the stage while voices and a very faint guitar can be heard in the distance. Then, skip ahead to "Money" and the clang of the cash register stage left and the old style calculator at stage right alternating until his voice cuts in. Very impressive.
Frankly, it's not the kind of music I would normally get all worked up about because it is so overly processed with instruments and voice that it isn't "real" as many aficianados would likely say. But, for the pure joy of listening to these speakers reproduce the sounds and movements, it was pretty magical and more than once I had shivers going down my back.
Then, I went for a couple albums I know inside out. Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me." My old Altecs actually did jazz pretty well or at least I thought so until now. Listening to this album again, it was like I had purchased a new CD. Her voice was smokier, breath sounds were present that were never there before and passages where her voice had disappeared before found her simply carrying out a note that hadn't been heard.
The piano, bass and guitar were as real as I heard this evening at a concert at our church. Each key strike had just the right note, timbre and delay. The bass was deep and tight and felt right, better than the high school bass player I listened to tonight but give the kid 10 years and who knows.
Finally, I put on Cowboy Junkies, "The Trinity Session" and listened to the first short track. It's a 1:30 of a pure female soprano in an old church. For the first time, I could hear the faint echo of her voice in the background created by the old church walls catching and releasing it again.
In the 4th track I believe it is, she and her brother carry out a haunting duet of an interesting take on "Blue Moon"; I believe the whole album was recorded with a single microphone so you may not get quite the sound stage you would on most modern recordings but her voice and the instruments are so perfect and the pitch and pureness of her voice with the absence of sibilance was impressive.
Needless to say, after about 10 hours of listening so far, I could not be happier. This is an incredible upgrade for me in sound. Moreover, I seem to be able to play music louder without any listener fatigue and get goosebumps much more often. To answer the big question, "is it real?" Well, this is without question the closest I've ever come to feeling like I'm in the middle of live music. I played a little Miles Davis today and the haunting sound of his trumpet was amazing and the quintet just blazed through a number of tunes that had my eyes closed, my head bobbing and my foot tapping, while I could imagine a haze of smoke in the air and the smell of gin - I don't drink so imagining is all I'm going to get anyway.
I'm sure I could have paid more for speakers but I'm not sure I could have gotten any better sound at this point. The speakers have also made me appreciate the real quality of the Arcam CDP and my Unison Research Unico. It is incredibly detailed and very precise with just a little warmth from its hybrid tubes that keeps things from getting too bright up top.
With the Altecs, there were times that I thought that the new amp made some of the treble "bright" but with the HT2-TLs and the ribbon tweeter, it simply shows how right on and pure those high notes can be. The proof is in the fact that I've been listening for hours and the only pain i've had is in my butt and my back - I'm getting old.
