[jw87c]

After almost 2 months' waiting (it feels like two years), I finally received my front ported HT2-TL in dark curly cherry   

I received the speakers last Wed, but was too busy to take pictures (you know what I was doing: listen to my new speakers  ). Finally I got some time, and here are a few shots:










More can be found in my gallery http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallery;area=browse;album=4351

The speakers are veryyyy heavy. Fedex is showing about 110 lb/box when they are packed. It took me and one of my friends quite some efforts to drag these big boxes all the way upstairs to my media room.

After plugging them in my current system (flac files stored on a PC with coaxial out, Onkyo 707 as pre-pro, and Rotel RMB 1075 as amp), I found big smiles on everybody's face in the room
I'll not waste time here repeating the airy clarity of the highs, the fullness of the mids, and the deepness of the lows, which have been repeated 10,000+ times by all the previous Salk owners posted here. In short: I'm a happy and proud Salk owner 

To give you an example of the bass: my sofa is sitting on top of a raised platform. While playing some music pieces with very deep bass, I can feel the slight shaking of my sofa (and yes, I'm sure the subwoofer is off)! I tried to see how deep the speaker can go by playing some single frequency tones, and I can clearly hear the 25 Hz signal.

Initially I placed the speakers about 10 degrees toe in, and found the sound stage was not as 3D as I remembered (I auditioned a rear ported version of the speakers at Bigload's house about 3 months ago, and were extremely impressed with them). Later I put them without any toe in, and the sound stage becomes much better. However, I still feel that the performance of my speakers is not as good as Bigload's. I'll continue to tweak with the placement of the speakers to see if I can get a better result. I did some measurement with a radio shack SPL meter on the frequency response of the speakers at my listening position, and found that there are two dips at 400 Hz and 800 Hz (the SPL is below 50 dB with a 70 dB reference at 1KHz). It is most likely that the dips are caused by my room. I'll try to move the speakers around to see if it will change the location of the dips. The measurement was performed in the pure audio mode of the receiver.

Also, I feel that I like the sound better if I turn on the Audyssey on my Onkyo: it sounds a little bit warmer. Probably I'll also do some measurements by leaving the Audyssey on.

[taoggniklat]

Congrats. They look fantastic and I am officially jealous.

[Saturn94]

Beautiful!  Nice to see some pictures of one of the standard finishes.

[coke]

Initially I placed the speakers about 10 degrees toe in, and found the sound stage was not as 3D as I remembered (I auditioned a rear ported version of the speakers at Bigload's house about 3 months ago, and were extremely impressed with them). Later I put them without any toe in, and the sound stage becomes much better.

I had similar results.  Mine sound much better with little or no toe in.

Nice looking speakers, but now you need a center to match 

[jw87c]

I know about the center  My wife told me I should have hidden it before I took the pictures 
It looks quite out of place between the two mighty Salks.

The next thing on my priority list is a sub, then a center. Maybe I will also try some DACs and Preamps for the two channel listening. Saving money now ...

Nice looking speakers, but now you need a center to match 

[Kinger]

Any chance of putting in a few room treatments?  Maybe that would help the soundstaging issue?

[Big Red Machine]

Look great.  Yeah, ol' peewee out there in the middle is self-conscious about his size issue. 

[jw87c]

Yes I'm thinking of putting two 4' x 8' acoustic panels at the back of the two speakers, and another two panels on the side walls. My room is quite deep (about 30') with a wet bar on the back wall. So panels on the back wall won't be necessary. Hopefully the treatment will help with the sound.

Any chance of putting in a few room treatments?  Maybe that would help the soundstaging issue?

[Nuance]

Things are looking great, jw! 

Have you thought about investing a couple hundred in measurement gear so you can utilize REW and really see what's going on in your room?

Enjoy man; I know I would!

[Bigload]

CONGRATS!  They look awesome.  I am sure you will get them adjusted just fine.  Sure, room treatments are important, as is the quality of the recording itself.  But, don't forget to consider Frank's amps and preamps as you move forward.  I think they are really a fantastic compliment to the Salks. 

[mathgeek97]

Beautiful speakers.  The finish looks almost identical to mine.  Definitely agree about no toe-in.  Wasn't sure if that would change when Jim switched to the RAAL (Mine are the original design - no tweeter offset - LCY).
I also have to agree with eventually upgrading electronics.  My AVA T8+ pre is oh-so-smooth and spanks my old Denon receiver with musicality awesomeness.

[jw87c]

Thanks! I also considered the effects of the electronics on the performance difference given that AVA gears are used in your system.

At the mean time, I'll also try the REW suggested by Nuance. It seems to be a very powerful tool for acoustic measurement. I'll first get some idea about the acoustic properties of my room, then go from there. This is going to be a fun process 

CONGRATS!  They look awesome.  I am sure you will get them adjusted just fine.  Sure, room treatments are important, as is the quality of the recording itself.  But, don't forget to consider Frank's amps and preamps as you move forward.  I think they are really a fantastic compliment to the Salks.

[nyc_paramedic]

You mentioned that your sofa is on a raised platform. Perhaps you are sitting *above* the tweeter axis?

Maybe you can have a friend use a tape measure to calculate the distance from your ear (when seated) to the floor, and do the same at the speaker tweeter. From what I've read of Dennis' posts, sitting on the axis is _very_ important.

Also, in my very humble opinion, your HT-2 TL's will never reach their full potential, i.e., almost bring your to tears, without proper room treatments.

I have RealTraps (http://www.realtraps.com/), others like GIK (http://www.gikacoustics.com/).

[jw87c]

Yes currently my sofa is above the tweeter axis. I plan to change the sofa to two rows of home theater seating pretty soon. The first row of the seats will be in front of the platform, so the middle seat of the first row will be the sweet spot. Currently if I sit on the front edge of the platform (18'' high), then my ears are about on the tweeter axis, and the sound quality does improve.

Thanks for the links to the room treatment. It seems to me at this moment room treatment is the most logic and low cost way to improve the sound quality, especially after I found that there are two dips at 400Hz and 800Hz.

You mentioned that your sofa is on a raised platform. Perhaps you are sitting *above* the tweeter axis?

Maybe you can have a friend use a tape measure to calculate the distance from your ear (when seated) to the floor, and do the same at the speaker tweeter. From what I've read of Dennis' posts, sitting on the axis is _very_ important.

Also, in my very humble opinion, your HT-2 TL's will never reach their full potential, i.e., almost bring your to tears, without proper room treatments.

I have RealTraps (http://www.realtraps.com/), others like GIK (http://www.gikacoustics.com/).