As the new owner of DK, which will be announced this next week, I can see from the preponderance of skepticism here that, either people don't believe the reviewer, or they believe he was unduly influenced due to the nature of the review.
Frankly, this was a rush to judgement, so to speak, since the company was about to change hands, and quite possibly it may have been handled better, in retrospect.
The issue at hand here is the very heavy speakers in question, weighing in at almost 400lbs each. To ship them, and ask someone to review them quickly and (I am not sure easily applies).
Someone, less prone to scarcasm here, stated, "Don't judge until you have a chance..." or words to that effect.
I would have to agree. Not everything is always as it seems.The speaker is quite a revolutionary product, with plate aluminum as the super structure, and utilization of 48 db elliptical crossover networks. So this is not just any speaker we are looking at here.
Someone made a comment about the cost of product involved in manufacturing, and their comments are simply wrong. Sorry, but much of the cost in this product is the hands on creation of it, with the use of CNCs that had to be weighted, for precision cutting. This is quite a piece of art work, as well as a magnificant speaker, plus one that won't take up the whole room. Quite a feat, I think.
Before buying the company, there were many considerations to be weighed--the random charges of shilling and so on.
I can tell any and all, that I do not know of, nor will I use anyone to promote our product in any untoward manner. This is not to say that it was done before, I SIMPLY have no proof either way.
The X Dream is a unique product that, given it's price, will interest less than 2% of the respondants on the page, if they fit within the normal demographics, so that may be worth some thought.
Please, in all fairness give us a chance to earn business from you in the future.
I can already tell you that some improvements are in the works for the Integrated, simple things like a metric allen wrench, so the tubes can be changed without having to leave your home and search for a (I believe number 8, metric.)Also, if I can arrange it, better stock tubes will be put into the base units, though through my own experience, changing the tubes was part of the trill of ownership.
Also, we have the Series Three Integrated, coming out at a very reasonable $3295. We debated going to $3500.00 which frankly sounds very similar to most consumers according to our marketing people, but it wasn't necessary, and we want to be open and fair.
Also, to be released, in answer to someones comments on this thread, will be our Loudspeaker Line for the masses, the LSA Group, (which now owns DK Design) Loudspeakers.
They comprise a bookshelf at $1000. with a unique shape, and either a Rosewood or Black Maple Finish. We feel that these speakers outperform most speakers costing up to $3K.
Additionally we will have the Floorstanding model, the LSA 2 which will be about 36" tall, so similar in physical size, to the X Dream, yet will be of traditional wood, with the same Black Ash or Rosewood, at standard pricing, of $2000.00 per pair. We are thinking of offering them for a 30 day trial, with full refund available to those who do not find them to their liking.
Some will not. I designed them to sound very organic, and without the heavy handed tweeter, so familar to so many audiophiles out there.
The new owners have a combined 70 years of business experience, and hope to make changes in DK which will prove successful for everyone.
I just noticed that I failed to mention a Center Voice for about $600. which should have been shipped with the other products, but as is usually the case, this didn't happen.
We will be approaching our broad dealer base in the USA for distribution of all the LSA Speakers, with more to come shortly.
There will be a press release sent to all the major publications over the next few days. During the transition period some things may fall through the cracks, as is always the instance with new ownership, so I beg your indulgence as we try to do the best we can.
One other quick note. I was praising this product some months ago, simply as an owner, with no interest in the company, just 20 plus years of industry experience. And after a lot of thought and work, decided to actually buy the company--mostly out of respect for the great products that they, now we, create.
Thank you all for your interest in DK, and also, in the future, LSA Group, its parent company.
Best,
Larry R. Staples
President LSA Group
