The Pendragons are in and after 6 hours or so of break-in time, these are my initial impressions. They are very unusual speakers, unlike anything I’ve heard before. They contradict pretty much everything that’s not hand-made regardless of price (more on this later). It is hard to describe them because the way they sound is almost radiant. That is to say, they know how to disappear because they do not emit sound, they somehow project it. One thing is for certain, they do need a clean sounding amp and surprisingly, not a super high quality of recording. But a good amp is a must in order to get the most out of them in terms of precision and separation of vocals and instruments. They play decently well with MP3’s, and the Internet radio as well, but they truly shine with lossless recordings. They like opera just as much as Rock-n-Roll and are not very picky as far as music genre is concerned. They play music well without being too analytical. I personally don’t like too much analytical sound parsing because after awhile, it gives me a headache. But what is truly amazing is that all this good music came out of the rather plain Jane Apple Express (1st gen) and without digital output. I decided to give the Pendragons their first test run by bypassing my dedicated Stello DA200 Mk II DAC just to see what they can do. I must say that the results were impressive. Again, they do need clean amplification to deliver the goods and they appear to be an excellent match for the Naim pre-amp / amp / flatcap combo.
So how did Eric get this right? First of all, I think that when it comes to speakers, the size matters a great deal and the Pendragons are rather big. Lots of air movement and that is a good thing. They deliver a clean, well controlled bass and I had to pick through my library to find something to really challenge them in the low zone. I settled for “We Always Think There Is Going To Be More Time” by The End Of The Ocean, hoping to trip them up in the low section. Nope, it didn’t work. They have more natural sounding bass than my subwoofers which can overpower the Pens, but not outplay them. By comparison, the subs sounded boomy and could easily get out of line with the rest of the package. Eric somehow tuned the cabinet to deliver the bass quite low, but still sound as a unit with the mid and upper tonal range, which is not an easy thing to do. I think we can safely say that in the bass department, bookshelf speakers are no match for the Pendragons no matter their price or pedigree. One just can’t trick the laws of physics no matter how hard they try.
So far so good and now on to the mystery part. The array of 3 identical tweeters, sandwiched between the two 10” drivers designed to go on an AC/DC gig and not play in my living room and sound they way they do is not supposed to be happening. However, as I learned during my initial tests, somehow it is. Obviously, there is some kind of secret potion brewing here and since I don’t know what’s in Eric’s head and I can’t see inside the cabinet either, this is my best guess. That’s right, it’s just a guess based on what my ears are telling me. Eric is somehow manipulating the mid and upper frequencies and has created a two way “speaker” using the tweeters themselves. It appears that the bottom and mid-tweeter are acting like a midrange driver and the top tweeter does nothing but the highest frequencies. All of this blends in nicely and is presented in one seamless, continuous and natural sounding unit. The mids and the highs’ secret cocktail is then surrounded by the bass drivers and function in unison, delivering crisp and clean sound that mimics live performance as closely as can be expected from a pair of 4-cornered wooden boxes. This is not the way most speakers are manufactured today (or perhaps ever) in any kind of mass-production setting anywhere. This appears to be a product of individual ingenuity combined with experimentation and tinkering to fine tune off-the-shelf components and shape them into the perfect “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” brew. Very nicely done.
I could have spent a lot more on a set of speakers, but why? I’m pretty sure that in my setting these speakers sound as good as the ones that cost three times as much or more. Thank you Eric for delivering what I have been looking for for quite some time.
P.S. What will the dragons sound like when I hook up the DAC? Yikes!
Yeah, right! She's just having fun with me! Anyway, we are both very happy with these lovely speakers. I'm busy right now with work, but I've got them playing Norah Jones in the background...
I'll provide some pics once we've cleaned out the boxes and Styrofoam. By the way, thanks to Isaksdaddy, for already providing the un-boxing experience! 
