I finally got around to ripping the Salk Demo CD to my music server, and it sounds incredible.
At first I set aside the Demo Disc and played all sorts of old favorites, and although the speakers sounded great I found myself listening more for the differences in presentation compared to previous speakers that I was accustomed to in my room. The HT1-TLs were revealing tons of detail, had a very smooth presentation, and were giving a terrific soundstage. But I wasn't able to fully kick back and enjoy the music because of my constant comparing back and forth in my mind.
That's why Jim suggests listening to the Demo CD first--it's likely stuff you don't listen to regularly (or have never heard), and all of it is very well recorded and mastered. So I was able to fully focus on the music and not be distracted by recalibrating my brain to the Salks compared to memories of other speakers. I couldn't believe that track after track had the sort of sound I had only heard previously in high-end stereo shops. I suddenly realized (around the time I got to the middle of track 5, Nils Lofgren) that I now had a stereo as good as anything I had heard at a dealer. And in all of those systems the speakers cost more than my whole setup.
This is a revelation. My memories of best sound are now my recent ones from my own system. I no longer have to think longingly about the great sound I heard in some store two years ago. I have it every day. I think I would have realized this over time by listening to familiar music, but the Demo Disc really drove the point home.
I only have about 10 hours of listening on my HT1-TLs, so I expect things will get better (probably a slight opening up of the sound stage as I've heard over the very early listening period). But Jim has chosen some terrific recordings to highlight the capabilities of his speakers--if you're getting some Salks I recommend following his advice and listening to the Demo Disc as soon as possible.
