The SongTower have been extensively reviewed on AC and AVS, and most of you are much more capable reviewers than me, but I am very pleased with the speakers and wished to post my impressions.
I received the SongTower speakers with ribbon tweeters in pau ferro veneer about three weeks ago. The timing was perfect because my kids were able to give them to me the next day on my birthday. I hid the speakers, in the box, in the bathtub of our first floor bathroom the afternoon that they arrived. Later that evening, my wife told the kids that the boxes were in the bathroom. I brought the boxes out the next morning after the kids went to school. When I came home from work that evening (on my birthday), the boxes were decorated with birthday messages in magic marker and bows and ribbons.
The veneer is beautifully applied. They are very similar to Nuance's speakers but without the hand-rubbed, high gloss finish. The speakers sound wonderful. They seem to be very accurate. This is particularly evident, although a seemingly odd way to assess this, on highly compressed mass market recordings. My other speakers, various LS3/5A-type speakers, could not accurately reproduce the source. On a highly compressed recording (i.e., poorly mastered commercial recording), the LS3/5A-type speakers could not reproduce a chime or a bell at the same volume that the SongTower can reproduce the chime or bell. Now, I don’t like to listen to highly compressed recordings, but I think the SongTowers’ ability to reproduce the sound is indicative of the speakers’ accuracy. The AVA Insight gear that I am using has tremendous dynamic range, but it is the same equipment that I used with the LS3/5A-type speakers, particularly my Spendor S3/5A. The Spendors are pleasant (colored) sounding, but that is not what I looking for, and they couldn’t reproduce the little sounds, even when the sounds’ volume was artificially increased in the recording. The SongTower really sing with a good recording. I have been enjoying listening to vinyl recordings, which sound outstanding, although the AVA DAC is excellent, too.
Sitting in my listening chair, the music through the SongTower puts me in a trance. It’s amazing how good music that sounds good can do that and good music that does not sound good can’t do that, at least not for me. The music has a similar effect on my middle child, 6 years old, and she dozes off in my lap.
If I had a larger room, I would consider purchasing a pair of HT-3, even after a few weeks of SongTower ownership, not because I am not delighted with the SongTower but because I know that the HT-3 would sound even better in a larger room. Acoustically, my room is as dead as a doornail, but I think the SongTower would be very easy to place in any small room, regardless.
I am very happy that I got the ribbon tweeters. Jim wouldn't tell me that the ribbon tweeters were essential, but, after hearing them, it is a no-brainer (even for an additional $700.00), IMO, even though I haven't heard the OWII version, but I read the other SongTower reviews and the Veracity reviews. If I had had to economize, I would have forgone the custom veneer for the ribbon tweeters, or if I hadn't, I would have wished that I had.
Great, great, great work, Jim and Dennis. Thank you so much.
Edited for spelling
