Andy,
I'm a little hesitant to give my impressions, mainly as I don't really have any experience comparing one speaker to another. As noted I'm still listening to my 20 yr old Dahlq monitors here in the office, and they sound great. I do plan to take them out to the 'listening room' for an A/B, but that will probably be of limited value for anyone else.
I will say that floor standing challenge comments from Nuance, Craigsub, funkmonkey, over on avs with regards to the STs was dead on to what I hear. Horns, guitars, piano, are alive from a presence standpoint. Vocal clear, but not too bright. Brushes on snare, delicate, and engaging. Soundstage is often wider & deeper than the room, depending on the recording. One of those guys noted a thought I'd had during an extend listening session with a friend a couple of weeks ago, in that the mid and high freq/ranges were very forward. But not negatively so. The noted friend & I listened for 3.5 hrs at the upper end of my listening level tolerance, and I had no fatigue, which has not been the case with some other speakers I've heard over the years. Poor example, but my old Advents, no way could they be tolerated at that level for that period of time. He has some PSB Silvers, I can't take them at the same level for that long. Nice speakers, good sound, just different. I had considered them a few years back when he first got them.
Much like my golf (par/double bogey = bogey golfer), my stereo expertise is an average of highs & lows. Every few years I get the bug, do some research, make the best 'informed' decision I can, then settle back and enjoy. So in effect, hi-fi/low-fi = mid fi. I feel like that makes my opinions of limited value in the overall picture. A few years ago I did listen to some Dali's at either Definitive or Speaker Lab up in the U District, it was I think relatively early in their introduction of the line to the states. They had one of the upper models (6 series ?) in their main listening room, driven by some higher end gear, and they were not only spectacular in appearance, but the sound was amazing. From a price standpoint I was interested in the 4 (?) series, but they couldn't bring in a pair for listening unless I ordered them. That was kind of the end of that search-wise till this endeavor. {side note - when the sales person went on-line to check the price on the '4's he inadvertently went thru their seller's access, being on dial-up it took a while and he had to do something else, leaving me watching the computer. When the screen came up it showed their price was $750, though the retail was $1500. Just confirmation of what many others have stated}
I can say I discovered just this past New Years a friend who's built my computers for 13 years, was a past speaker designer for Speaker Lab. He has been by twice since his 1st listen, and noted last weekend when we continued listening after 'jack' had left, they sound better each time he hears them. Particularly the bass, which has been my experience as I get more time on them. If you checked out the review on enjoythemusic.com I'd tend to agree with Mr. Ferre with regards to 'break-in'. Not that I would presume to have the expertise to disagree with Mr. Salk, who I believe stated they should be 'there' out of the box. But that's my feeling FWIW.
I still have less than 100 hrs on them, and have re-arranged the 'stage' configuration allowing a little additional spacing between which helped the overall sound. Have 7' between rather than 5', c-c. Due to HT equipment considerations they are roughly 26" from the back wall, but that doesn't seem to present any problems with regards to affecting the bass. I only note that from what I've read here & at avs regarding positioning & possible 'boominess'. They are about -8" in from the sidewalls. Right side has the TV/stand on it's left, the Left side has my equipement cabinet on it's immediate right, between it & the TV/stand.
The Song Center is as could be expected a perfect match with the STs for HT. Sadly have little more time on it than previously noted as my LCD with less than 12 hrs of viewing time developed a screen problem. Service tech was out this week to take it apart so he could get the screen serial # to order a replacement. Hope to have that resolved in the next week or so. Thank goodness for the manufacturer's in-home warranty programs that now prevail for the 1st year. Nothings perfect, but my luck is usually things break the week after the warranty runs out. So am disappointed, but happily so.
Don't know if that helps much, but those are my impressions to date. Offered with a pound of salt.
