I've admired Danny Richie's work for a long time, starting with a pair of Paradox 1s I had a few years back that created a stir here and elsewhere.
All I can say is that I'm truly impressed at the sound quality and value of the N2Xs. This pair has sonicaps and no-rez, with no bypasses.
They have nearly perfect balance and sonic integration, very nice detail, and a total lack of nasties. Compared directly to my stable of 3 fave standmounts (retailing from $2500-$5000), they stand up amazingly well in the most important areas of musicality, neutrality, and naturalness. They give ground mostly in soundstage size, ultimate detail and transparency, and bottom end extension and definition (they go strong to the mid 50s, I'd say, and are slightly thick sounding in that range). They simply sound very right to a degree I don't expect until the price tag goes well north of $2k.
With a sub they are a true marvel.
I've owned many big name standmounts in the $1-2k range, and I must say I prefer the N2Xs to any of them.
They are absolutely one of the best, perhaps THE best, sonic bargain I've seen in my 43 years in this hobby. I don't know if they are giant killers, but they definitely stand tall in their company!