Cool!
I'd love the hear them (hint, hint)...
Russ
And I'd like to hear your modded Oppo aa
One of these days, for sure. Shokunin and I have been meaning to get together for some electrostat headphone shootout for "some time" now also.
Anyway, my early impressions of these speakers leave me with several thoughts.
Sealed bass is good. Very good. Even though the official spec says minus 3dB at 65Hz, I still clearly hear 31.5Hz bass tone test (obviously much lower in level) so the rolloff is very slow. What's even better, upper/mid bass tightness, punch, and articulation is something else. You don't want or need subs for normal (no organ, synth bass) music.
They've done a great job with matching the resolution level and tone of drivers. Using 4 identical drivers for mid, bass, then throwing in a superb tweeter gives the benefit of seamlessness and coherence of all frequency ranges, something mega kilobuck $$$ speakers often fail at. You know, stuff like using ultra resolution Beryllium tweeters with slow poly mid/woofers, and so on; it just doesn't gel.
I was somewhat expecting and was afraid of thin midrange due to the narrow open baffle design, but the important midrange has just the right amount (IMO) of richness, density, and body. Moreover, the said midrange is "bristling with life," which I cannot live without in speakers or headphones.
Those new Peerless India tweeters are wonderfully detailed yet impossibly smooth. Soft dome tweeters have come a long way even compared to several years ago. I'm not experiencing withdrawals even compared to my reference 5" ribbon tweeters.
The open baffle arrangement seems to fit in well even in my intimate room. Soundfield does feel more "open" and free with excellent depth, almost Maggie style.
I love the highish 90.5 dB sensivity combined with 8 Ohm impedance. I have sworn long ago I will never buy speakers, no matter how great, if they require monstrous and $$$$ amps to come alive. My 30 watt VAC tube amp is not even straining to rock down the house. (caveat. The VAC is not your usual 30 watt tube amp, especially with those AVVT AV32B "super" 300B tubes).
The fact you can buy these speakers at $699/PAIR (in Satin Black) is well, absurd...
