Okay, I did the swap. The ST's will go back in the HT soon. They are surely in a different league wrt the HT2TL's. There is a veil over the music and instruments like tom toms and timbalis don't have the punch and snap of real life.
I'd say as a very smooth speaker the domed tweeter ST's excel, but I want detail and all of it as put down on the recording and the ST's don't give me that in my 2 channel set up.
Imagining is the same consistency as all of the Salk speakers and the soundstage depth is the same as the HT2TL's. But the delicacy of voices is rounded over on the edges as compared to the ribbon tweeters (LCY) I have on the HT2's.
Bass is very good and punchy. I'm excersising them right now on Bad Man - Government Mule and they are punching pretty good. Hopefully the woofs will remain intact.
So I will play with this and experience the HT2's in the HT for a movie later to continue the fun. I consider the HT2's and up overkill in the HT scenario but of course for those with dual purpose rooms it makes sense. I notice the highs of the ST's to a large extent in the HT environment so it will be intersting to see what the HT2's do for me there. I'm not going to recalibrate for the HT2's though.
Catch you later.
Thanks for posting the comparision.
I wonder how this would have played out if you were comparing the HT2-TL with a SongTower with the RAAL tweeter option?
Hopefully on my next visit to Dennis's I can compare the HT2-TL with the ST/RAAL.
On my last visit to Dennis's, I did get to hear a single ST/Dome against an HT2-TL. My initial reaction was of surprise at how alike they sounded. After a little more listening, the ST seem to have a bit more "zip" to the sound (especially noticeable on the acoustic guitar music we were playing) than the HT2-TL. In direct comparision, at least to my ears, the ST made the stroke of the guitar pick against the strings sound a little exaggerated and the HT2-TL sounded more natural.
It's interesting what you hear when doing direct/instant comparisons that you don't notice when auditions are separated by place and time. Later that day I heard a pair of ST/Domes at another owner's house and I really didn't notice the exaggerated "zip". They just sounded great. The same was true when comparing my ADS L1290s instantly against the Salks as opposed to listening to my ADS later at home. In direct comparison, the ADS sounded a bit nasal and brighter and the Salk more natural, but when I returned home I didn't really notice the nasal/brighter quality of my ADS. I guess if I had the Salks at home to compare I would notice it more.