I thought I’d share some pictures and brief impressions of my new SS9.5 L/C/R in dark walnut.
I’m running a Marantz AV8805 (with Audyssey OFF of course) through an ATI 200 wpc Class D amp, Belden 10 gauge from BJC. System is complete with NHT bookshelves for a 9.1.6, with FW inactive because the Marantz only supports 13 channels. That’s a Seymour AV Glacier White 130” wide scope ratio screen (shown with 16:9 masking panels) and various GIK absorption and diffusion panels.
These are my third set of Salk tower speakers, starting with the SS8, then the Exoticas, and now finally the SS9.5. The short summary is that, at least for me, the SS9.5 represent the perfect combination of everything I loved about the previous two towers.
I loved the low end slam and midrange detail of the SS8. Those 12” passive radiators absolutely rocked. The Accuton was extremely detailed (well, too detailed for me running off a Marantz AV8801 pre-processor) and they threw an incredibly wide soundstage.
The Exoticas excelled in the midrange and especially on voices and instruments. For lack of a better term, I would call the Exoticas a more romantic speaker, whatever that means. You just listen and listen, and the more you listen the more you fall in love with them. But I always missed the low end slam and wide soundstage that the SS8 offered.
Enter the SS9.5 with all the low end slam, midrange detail, and huge soundstage of the SS8 combined with a midrange personality that I would put right in the middle of the SS8 and Exoticas. I could go on and on about how scary good the soundstage is and how great voices and instruments sound. I had to check twice I didn’t have my center channel speaker on! The low end absolutely rocks on both movies and music.
But how would the majority of my poorly recorded music collection sound? I put on a Glitch Mob CD, which is not a particularly good recording but I wanted to see if I’d still enjoy it. While of course there are apparent shortcomings in the recording, it still sounded amazing. I turned up the volume and the SS9.5s were *rocking*. Synths were moving left, right, center throughout the soundstage. The low end was slamming with detail and authority. I hadn’t had goosebumps like that in a while… probably since I last had the Exoticas!
For anyone on the fence, just buy them and you’ll never regret it. In my humble opinion we have a future Hall of Fame speaker on our hands here. They are just that good.
Thanks as always to Jim for all the help in choosing speakers, Mary for the incredible job packing these hefty speakers, and the rest of the Salk team for all the great work they do!
