While there are others more qualified, I'm guessing I'm one of a few to have some time with the Soundscape 8's and the Exotica 3 in a listening room setting. I had the pleasure of spending about 90 minutes listening to BRM's at his house Friday. I happen to own his old SS8's so... here we go.
It goes without saying that both are fantastic speakers that while pricey, shame other speakers costing 2x as much. I'm serious about that also. Not some cliche to make you feel better about spending this much or "going against the grain" of buying a bigger name. But most of you here know that.
The soundscape is a fast, artciulate, detailed, and dynamic loudspeaker. It does everything that I am looking for in spades. I'll admit though I actually like some of the things that klipsch does also. I like a snare drum to SNAP, and I like a midrange guitar to sound big, crunchy, and a bit forward. Klipsch higher end offerings do that but the price you pay is SCREAMING and way too forward cymbals, and the price you pay for dynamics are speakers that do very poorly at putting out tight, and low bass. I had the Klipsch Palladium P37's, so I'm not talking the lower end stuff. (people hate to hear it, but the Palladiums do a fair amount pretty darn well, but they are 8k a pair also)
The SS8, has 90-95% of that snap and crunch while being just a shade less forward, and with more detail, less harshness, but are very dynamic, fast, quick, and sound BIG. They play low and tight. The imaging is spectacular both left to right, and from front to back. Every instrument is where it should be in 3D space (I will come back to this later). The presentation is big, open, and accurate. I think they are incredibly fun. They also can be pretty critical of the equipment feeding them. If you have a bright sounding pre-pro, then you are going to get a bit of a bright sounding presentation (I found this out, liked my Marantz AV8801, but going to a Classe SSP 800 put these speakers exactly where I wanted them).
Awesome speakers for rock (even metal), blues, jazz and very good at everything else. They put out deep accurate bass that is awesome (but having juice here helps...).
Now the E3. Also spectacular but I will get to the meat of it. They are more "organic" sounding (hoping that makes sense). While the SS8's have a bit more "attack". The midrange on the E3 is just as accurate, and I hesitate to say soft, which is why I use the term organic. What is very special about them, and I tried to articulate this to BRM is that while the SS8 presents a 3d soundstage, the E3 takes it a step further and the instruments themselves sound 3 dimensional. Not only is everything where it should be on the stage, but you can actually picture a 3d hologram of the instrument itself in space. I noticed this on several tracks. The bass of course with those twin powered 8's is deep, tight and even fuller than the SS8's (which makes sense... they are powered!). Female vocals were just tremendous and classical music was spot on. I did feel while listening to a bit of rock tracks on them they were too laid back and not quite as attacking sounding as I think most rock guys are looking for. Don't get me wrong, very, very good, but the SS8 midrange is a better match for those that like crunching, distorted rock guitars and drums that attack.
I may add to this as I think of more. But I will also say this. I think the SS8 is the better all around speaker - that is, if you listen to a huge variety of music from Rock to Female Vocals, classical, acoustic, and jazz the SS8 does everything really good to great and IMO does rock and blues spectacular. I hate to compare to other MFG's but it's more on the Wilson end of the spectrum. A year or so ago I demo'd some Watt Puppy's and thought that was the sound I was after (but not at that cost).
The E3 however, if you listen to the Classical, Female Vocals, and other more audiophile music is SPECTACULAR. It does certain things better than the SS8, as well as differently. I think it competes with the Vienna Acoustics Klimt series "the music" which is a 27k speaker system I demo'd a while back for kicks.
Again, I hate to compare to other MFG's, but it's a frame of reference for me. I really think Jim is putting out product that competes with systems costing 2x as much.
The almost hologram like presentation of instruments on the E3 was one of the coolest things I've ever heard a speaker do. The twin powered 8's were awesome. (believe me, had me thinking that if I did 2 channel only, and didn't have subs... what if Jim could mate the accuton and raal of the SS8 with the bottom end of the E3?)
Again both are awesome, and BRM's builds are just an overflow of craftsmanship.
But as one who has had upgraditis issues I would caution someone from ditching SS8's to get the Exotica's because they are a more expensive model. Think carefully about your listening habits before doing so. If you listen to classical, female vocals, and a lot of what I consider audiophile type recordings you will be rewarded and likely easily justify the expense.
If you are like me and happiness is a dark beer, some Rush, Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughn etc... and you have the SS8's and want to spend some money. Upgrade your front end with that money burning a hole. You have IMO one of the best 3 speakers under 20k for what you listen to already.
- Doug
