[This is my first post in the forum]
@OmahawkSCM's opening post really resonates with me. I am the new owner of a set of older 3XRS's with the hemp cones, plus a DeepHemp. These were the beginning of my re-entry into music and hifi, after an extended absence.
The XRS's are amazingly transparent, but I do find myself mostly analyzing rather than enjoying the music. Part of this is the newness and the continual tuning we tend to do. Also, I find my ears tend to get a bit tired after a couple of hours. I am using a pretty decent amp, a Rogue Sphinx integrated hybrid, which is Class-D with a tube preamp stage.
By way of comparison, I moved my 20+ year old speakers (Reference 3a MMC monitors) to my office at work (see attached picture). I hooked them up to a Chromecast and a $179 EL84 tube amp from tubedepot.com. The speakers are in rough shape after having been attacked by cats and little kids over the last 15 years or so (see second picture). I find I am enjoying listening to this setup without any stress at all. It sounds fantastic to my ears; not super detailed but still very airy, fast and lifelike. I'm wondering is the cheap push-pull amp is making all the difference? Maybe it's time to take this little thing home for the weekend and try it out.
I somewhat dislike the inefficiency of a tube design; the heat production is just crazy (and not very cat friendly
). But maybe that's just the price that must be paid for musical enjoyment.
In any case I am loving the XRS's and once I get happy with the current setup I will upgrade to RS5s and take it to the next level.