As stated earlier- there aren't many speaker dealers in the area to audition.
I started with listening to Von Schweikert VR-5SE's. I thought they would absolutely blow me away. I don't know how to say this politely, but I was not impressed. The higher and highest of octaves didn't sound natural. Even after I had the back firing tweeter turned off, there was a bit too much top end that didn't work for me. The midrange would get a bit muddy with deeper voiced females. This could have been the source material (more about that later). Bass was top notch.
I then hunted down a pair of Aerial Acoustic 20Ts (I was hoping to hear the Model 9). Done. End of story. Tight, not overdone bass- just perfect. Mids clean and clear- no coloration. Highs sweet and clean. I'd like to see a version of this without the ribbon, though- slightly too directional with this setup. This speaker is too big for WAF and room (as it was for the room I heard them in), but if I get 80% the sound in the Model 9 as stated by the owner, I'm in. I'm ALL in.
I have a pair of Model 9's in rosewood sitting in my office. My wife is going out of town for the weekend and they will be moved in then. Also found out my neighbor is going to be away the entire weekend. How perfect is that!
Source. Both guys used hard drive based systems to access music (one was the Memory Player and one was something like a Kaleidescope players (movies and music)). There seemed to be much too much fumbling around with them to find music, but I'm being picky.
I did make a couple of attempts to contact the Parcifal listing on Audiogon, but he never responded back. His loss, or mine? I'll know in a few days.
I started with listening to Von Schweikert VR-5SE's. I thought they would absolutely blow me away. I don't know how to say this politely, but I was not impressed. The higher and highest of octaves didn't sound natural. Even after I had the back firing tweeter turned off, there was a bit too much top end that didn't work for me. The midrange would get a bit muddy with deeper voiced females. This could have been the source material (more about that later). Bass was top notch.
I then hunted down a pair of Aerial Acoustic 20Ts (I was hoping to hear the Model 9). Done. End of story. Tight, not overdone bass- just perfect. Mids clean and clear- no coloration. Highs sweet and clean. I'd like to see a version of this without the ribbon, though- slightly too directional with this setup. This speaker is too big for WAF and room (as it was for the room I heard them in), but if I get 80% the sound in the Model 9 as stated by the owner, I'm in. I'm ALL in.
I have a pair of Model 9's in rosewood sitting in my office. My wife is going out of town for the weekend and they will be moved in then. Also found out my neighbor is going to be away the entire weekend. How perfect is that!
Source. Both guys used hard drive based systems to access music (one was the Memory Player and one was something like a Kaleidescope players (movies and music)). There seemed to be much too much fumbling around with them to find music, but I'm being picky.
I did make a couple of attempts to contact the Parcifal listing on Audiogon, but he never responded back. His loss, or mine? I'll know in a few days.