Speaker Shopping - one man's experience with High End models

I went to a pretty nice audio store not too long ago and was really impressed with the Totem Acoustics stuff. Amazing sound stage out of a modest size enclosure.
 
Also try Reference 3A - they also make great speakers and are also crossover-less. They design the drivers to use the natural roll off between the drivers to act as the crossover.
I just love speakers that utilise these methods. Getting rid of the crossover placed between the amp output and the drivers, is one of the biggest benefits of both full range single driver types and active crossover types.
 
It is easy when speaker shopping to find high end models:

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You notice I was referring to Roger's Line arrays not the latest versions from Mac. Their tweeters are terrible and remind me of JBL's early ring radiators. The latest Mac speakers are all under woofered excepting the 2k and its barely acceptable.
 
jblnut

Have gotten a chance to hear the Volti's in your travels? They might interest you based on your current speakers. Also agree you should try to hear the Aerial's if you haven't. They are built not that far from you in Wilmington, Ma and their signature dealer Audio Video Therapy is also reasonably close. Michael Kelly has just continued to evolve the designs from his ADS days with modern materials. The 7T has been on my radar for a while but I would have to buy blind as no dealer within many hundreds of miles.
 
I appreciate the review. As much as I love vintage as you said speakers today have come a long way. One of my all time dream speakers has always been the Focal Utopia grands but in reality I will have to settle for the Focal Nova Utopias. I hope the dream and the actual sonics match expectations. You know how dreams go.

I'll have a chance to check out a few high end system at the California audio show this weekend. I'll be going Friday.
 
Bump, I'm going to get to hear the salon 2's this week! The gent that sold me my salon 1's upgraded to them and I need to hear what the hype is all about because the v1 is no slouch. I began with kef 105/3 for more than 20 years then kept em and bought a beautiful pair of VA Beethovens that were jaw dropping in their own right as long as I didn't play loud. When a pair of 107/2's in good condition came up I bought them hoping for the VA's transparency with the 105/3's slam...Well imho the biggest strides in speakers is tweeter resolution because even my salons can't reproduce the tones (sounds like blowing from different length straws) in becks 'lost cause' as clearly as the little beethovens and the kef's missed it completely. The S1 moves serious air and sometimes I wonder if some sounds can just get over powered with big speakers? My audition of the S2 will shed some light on it for me. Personally i'm hoping I can't hear a difference as the thought of moving the 240 lbs speakers out of my basement is gonna suck.
 
Bump, I'm going to get to hear the salon 2's this week! The gent that sold me my salon 1's upgraded to them and I need to hear what the hype is all about because the v1 is no slouch. I began with kef 105/3 for more than 20 years then kept em and bought a beautiful pair of VA Beethovens that were jaw dropping in their own right as long as I didn't play loud. When a pair of 107/2's in good condition came up I bought them hoping for the VA's transparency with the 105/3's slam...Well imho the biggest strides in speakers is tweeter resolution because even my salons can't reproduce the tones (sounds like blowing from different length straws) in becks 'lost cause' as clearly as the little beethovens and the kef's missed it completely. The S1 moves serious air and sometimes I wonder if some sounds can just get over powered with big speakers? My audition of the S2 will shed some light on it for me. Personally i'm hoping I can't hear a difference as the thought of moving the 240 lbs speakers out of my basement is gonna suck.

Trying some Townshend Audio super tweeters to try to add some of that treble energy to my 107's. In my opinion, that's all they're missing. Will see how it goes next week! Yes, let's hear about the Salons!
 
NAH - very few people on AK would do that. If it does not say Pioneer, Yamaha, Sansui, Advent, KLH, etc. most will ignore those.

Bulls**t, I for one would love some of the high end stuff out there, but the prices are so out of range, the Salon Ultima 2's are $22,000 dollars a pair new, while even at half price your talking over 10 grand. I have seen some Everest for a bit over 20 grand, used and I think I would rather have a pair of them as I think they would go up in value more so than the Salon's.

I think many people on AK would love the new high end stuff, but its way out of their price range. When they get down to say a grand or two grand then you will see them showing up here. Many of the more active posters here on AK are getting older, hell we will probably all be dead before we see the prices of the new stuff come down to the level that would make them common on AK. Hell by then who knows what the world will be like, it might go back in to the dark ages where we are scavaging thru dumps trying to find food with the world in the dark with no power for all we know.
 
I'm a bit confused at what I heard listening to the salon2's. They're a huge improvement over the salons right? To be fair the room was 20x20x20 with an all window wall on 1 side and open to most of the house everywhere else. The 2 j&l subs were most of what I heard and that be tweeter sounds like the real thing. I can safely say kef lovers will appreciate the salon 1 over the v2 just because of the mid-range. I still seem to be taken by the hype surrounding the salon 2's and found another local owner selling a pair that I'll be listening to Tuesday. Otoh I could take a leap of faith and grab a pair of 207/2's for under $10k. My R 107/2 still grace my living room and make movie night fun and any time a fellow audiophile comes over they make me play my 107's for them.
 
This thread is an excellent read. Thanks to the OP for sharing your experiences. I've had a chance over the years to hear many modern HE speakers. My experiences and conclusions parallel many expressed here, i.e. speaker (and audio) design has not stood still over the last 30 years. And while the levels of performance available in modern HE speakers can be breathtaking, what is truly amazing to me is how much of that performance has worked it's way down to more budget oriented components.
 
Here's a no-brainer. FedX calls to say your new speakers are at the terminal 6 miles away. Do you:

1) Wait for delivery tomorrow

or

2) unload the crap out of the wife's wagon and go get them yourself tonight

:)

jblnut
 
Just sit on your ass and wait. You paid good money for someone else to deliver them; why should you have to go fetch them? After all, what's the worst that could happen during FedEx loading the speakers onto conveyors, into a truck, careening and bouncing them to your place, pulling them off the truck, and carrying them to the porch?
 
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