I went to listen to this speaker, which according to the owner retails for $45k:
The other associated equipments are :
Esoteric SACD/CD PLAYER X-01 LIMITED ~$16k
Einstein Audio "The Tube" Linestage Preamplifier ~$20k
Einstein Audio "The Light In The Dark" Stereo Power Amplifier ~$9k
The speakers was housed in a much bigger room than mine, I think the speakers are about 12 ft apart, the distance to all sides of wall is about 4 to 6 ft. He put it in a living room, there's no bass-trap, no first reflection point absorption panel, no triangle panel for corner, only one acoustic panel was placed in the middle and behind the two speakers. And I was siting a good 12-15 ft away from both speakers.
In a nutshell, it throws a big soundstage, bigger and deeper than my Salk HT3, I reckon the main reason for this is I house my HT3 in such a small room, the distance between my HT3 is only 8ft, the distance from the speakers to the walls is at most 3 ft.
When I listened to the Acapella, it's almost like a dinosaur is singing in front of me, the image is further away from me compare to my own setup but it's as real as it can get.
Transparency is as good as my HT3 setup, in fact, this is the first speakers I have heard that can match the HT3 in this respect. The image is not as sharp and focused as the my setup, but this is not something I will miss, I'm talking in relative term, the image is the best I have heard outside of my home and it's about 95% of HT3.
The mid to high is silky smooth, and sweet - what ever music I threw at it, there's no sign of harshness at all. I bet the preamp and amp plays a big role here. I am using SS amp and digital preamp, so I cannot expect mine to sound as smooth, but I reckon I'm 90% close.
The mid range is also slightly warmer and more natural.. again I think it's the preamp and amp.
The bass is probably the weakest part, it doesn't go as low as the HT3. On certain track, e.g. Eric Clapton's "Hey Hey", I don't hear "thumping bass", whereas the HT3 can shake my room.
Hence to sum it up, I really like the big soundstage, and certain I can hear the "emotionally engaging" sound of his tube gears. I wonder how would HT3 sound in his big room, powered by exactly the same gears. I am very proud of the HT3, because I honestly cannot say that the HT3 is worse than his speakers, until the day I can put them side by side. Mind you, just his CD player along cost more than my entire setup. Not to mention that he had cables that cost $5000, power cords that costs $3000, exotic racks rack + all the expensive accessories that you can think of.
Next, I am going to hear the big brother:
barry
