Clement Perry's new reference speaker

If Clement got the speakers for a good review, IMHO he got a bad deal. I could not stay in their room for 30 seconds. It was too loud and so distorted that I literally fled.

I do think the room was poor; all those on these floors have partition walls and are hardly sonically isolated from those around them.

Clement's warning about listening for yourself is, as always, the best advice, especially at shows. I find it appalling that brand new equipment is used, that there are alliances between manufacturers to split the cost of the room that often have poor electronic hooked to great speakers, that speakers often overload rooms, and that many manufacturers cannot set up a room or are indifferent to the sound they get. This was certain true of this years CES and THE Show.

I won't name poor rooms or praise good ones, as some named by others here and elsewhere IMHO were quite poor. I deliberately paid little attention to what I heard on Monday or Tuesday and stayed on until Friday to be assured that at least equipment would have some break-in and demonstrators would have some time to tweak their rooms.

I carried a copy of the FIM K2 sampler with me and listened to cuts 2 and 16 everywhere. On returning home, I listened here. Of course, we all think highly of our own systems, but I am just struck by how hard it is to get the best out of equipment and the hours it would take demonstrators to "tune" their rooms at shows.

I am also struck by the total lack of consensus on where there was good sound. Since my friends and I were in substantial agreement on what sounded good, there must be personal dynamics going on in terms of what one hears as good. Oh well, I enjoyed myself once again!

Mrjstark, I thought it was at least implicit in what I said that I think there is NO best speaker and NO speaker that everyone will like.

Mrstark, I agree that this is a silly forum. Some people had strongly recommended the Emerald Physics speakers to me so I sought them out at CES. Frankly, they were quite disappointing. I heard no speaker at CES or THE Show that approached the Reference 3A Grand Veenas. Apparently others don't agree. I have never heard any consensus here or elsewhere on whether any component is best. Since I don't have to listen to others' systems, I really don't care whether they agree or not. I don't think anyone would agree that there are less expensive speakers that rival the best of my expensive speakers. If you like it and can afford it, no one else should care.