Wow. Then I'll absolutely double down on my opinion that these are THE BEST modern speaker bargain I've personally ever seen...IF you have the right room for them (keep walking if you can't get ten or more feet between the listening spot and speakers). Also, these are revealing speakers, so your upstream gear and source will have a significant influence over the final product that reaches your ears. More on that later.
For a bit of perspective, I've been using a pair in my living room (secondary rig) for a few years now. I bought them (used) just to see what the fuss was all about. I had Klipsch Chorus II's in that system at the time and it's no big secret that those are damn fine speakers, but the 590's wasted no time demonstrating to me that they can do most hifi tricks better...namely more robust and authoritative low bass reproduction, better resolution to images/sound stage (which is remarkably good considering I have them only about a foot out from the front wall and the room acoustics are decent at best), more tactile and articulate mid and upper bass reproduction and a more cohesive delivery of sonic information across the entire spectral range. The only thing the Chorus II's do better, and not to any significant degree, is mid range reproduction. And honestly, that could simply be because the low end from the Chorus II's doesn't have the sort of presence I hear from the 590's, creating the perception of stronger mids... because I never feel like there's any sort of deficiency in the mid range from the JBL's. I mean, I once had Klipsch KG5.5's in this system, so I KNOW what it sounds like when there's a limp wristed mid range. Oh, and I did I mention I had Crites crossovers and Ti tweeter diaphragms in the Chorus II's?
I picked up a set of Klipsch Epic CF-4's after the 590's and tried them in this system and yeah, they were better. But come on...two 12" neo woofers in a D'Apollito array with the biggest Tractrix horn Klipsch has ever used in a consumer grade speaker and a compression driver taken directly from their pro line...those are pretty damn special and sound like it. But they're also huge and simply consumed too much real estate where I had to locate them. But going back to the 590's, although a slight downgrade, was an easy adjustment to make because they're that good. So
@avguytx, I think you'd have fun taking the 590's for a test drive, but at the end of the day think you'll be trying to figure out what to do with them since they likely won't best your Epics (unless your Epics aren't elevated...in which case the 590's will offer a larger/taller sound stage presentation).
I mentioned that I'd elaborate on the source issue...in this particular system, listening is background over critical by a large margin, and the music of choice tends to be a lot of pre-90's rock and new wave so recording quality is hit and mostly miss (especially the 80's-era stuff). The revealing 590's will illuminate the worst elements of a bad recording, and the biggest issue I've found is a glaring upper mid range and some sibilance with the lesser quality recordings..which makes for a fatiguing listening experience at anything more than low/moderate volume (<85db in a big room). Admittedly, I really struggled with this until just recently. My solution...the Monoprice Monolith THX 788 DAC. Not only is this a fantastic sounding $500 DAC, but it's a remarkable hifi tool with its built in parametric EQ. So I zeroed in on the 3k range, dialed back about 2db with a one octave Q and
viola!, bad recordings were made significantly more digestible and the fatigue issue rectified. I also boosted 1.5db at 6k and 9k to return some "snap" to the leading edge of percussive elements. Before the Monolith DAC I'd tried to EQ the 590's with a Schiit Loki, but it just couldn't get "surgical" enough to offer the results I was seeking. So, just having some basic tone controls won't necessarily rectify the issue I was experiencing.
All that said, my personal high water mark was set by my Altec 19's in an acoustically treated and tuned listening space with an exhaustive rotation of upstream electronics to arrive at something spectacular. My goal in the living room system has been to get as close as possible to what I experienced with my 19's...and the 590's get
damn close. And this damn close to (properly configured) Altec 19's for well under $1k
new, like I opined, makes for the best modern speaker bargain I've ever seen.
