Thank you everyone for all that, I really appreciate it.
I also listened to some Dynaudios a bit (C1s and a couple others at a show and one dealer) and thought the bass "pumped" a little and that the vocals were just not quite right. The exception was the big Evidence (out of my league in cost and size) which still haunts me as awesomely natural (along with Von Schweikert VR9s).
But the little Quads have a rightness to them that I just can't quantify exactly. (My old Apogee Stages, a completely different sound of course, also are in this category. Its funny how these are cheap speakers in the high-end world.)
I have been using Harbeth SHL5s now for a while that, while pleasant and easy to live with, sometimes let me think something is missing, or that the speaker is imposing its own signature and texture to a great degree on the music (and upstream components). A lot of different disks that I know have very different sounds from previous speakers I had (Aerials, Kharmas) sound alike on the Harbeths. Changing cables and power cords also has much less effect with the Harbeths than other speakers.
Oh well, thanks for reading my ramblings and letting me hijack my own thread...
I also listened to some Dynaudios a bit (C1s and a couple others at a show and one dealer) and thought the bass "pumped" a little and that the vocals were just not quite right. The exception was the big Evidence (out of my league in cost and size) which still haunts me as awesomely natural (along with Von Schweikert VR9s).
But the little Quads have a rightness to them that I just can't quantify exactly. (My old Apogee Stages, a completely different sound of course, also are in this category. Its funny how these are cheap speakers in the high-end world.)
I have been using Harbeth SHL5s now for a while that, while pleasant and easy to live with, sometimes let me think something is missing, or that the speaker is imposing its own signature and texture to a great degree on the music (and upstream components). A lot of different disks that I know have very different sounds from previous speakers I had (Aerials, Kharmas) sound alike on the Harbeths. Changing cables and power cords also has much less effect with the Harbeths than other speakers.
Oh well, thanks for reading my ramblings and letting me hijack my own thread...