Silverline Speaker Opinion

Hello again Gary -
Nope...broke one of the cardinal rules of audio - I bought speakers without auditioning and didn't even have a 30 day return policy as safety net.  To explain, I got a bug to try a different speaker.  Mainly something more efficient than the Totem Forests I've been running for going on 9 years now.  Add a silk dome tweeter and an affordable price, (i.e., under $3500) to the list.  Initially, I was thinking monitors but came back to floor standers since I had the space.  The Silverline Pluses ticked off a lot of boxes for me.  I really didn't even consider the v2 Prelude (though I read about them as much as possible) because the Pluses had more features that I wanted.  When I saw Underwood HiFi advertising them on A'gon, I gave Walter a call.  His delivered price was very attractive.  Before making a decision, I read as much as I could on-line though there's not a lot on the Pluses.  Much more available info on the original Preludes v1 & 2 but these are a significantly different design.  Frank Alles of StereoTimes was very gracious and helpful.  Tried to contact some A'gon owners and did get some encouraging feedback from a few. So I took the plunge.  Now have around 60 hours on them.  They are more detailed (in a good way) than the Forests.  Soundstage is huge and ambient effects are impressive - there's a LOT of air when called for by the recording. They don't do bass as well as the Forests (at least not yet; but the Forests have many hours on them and are thoroughly broken in and optimally placed).  Total surface area of the 4 mid/woofers on a Plus is greater than that of the single mid/bass driver of a Forest, however.  Still experimenting with placement and planning to live with them a while before deciding whether a sub(s?) is/are necessary.  Right now though the Prelude Pluses do put out plenty of slam and good bass reproduction from things like ZZ Top's Tres Hombres, Bela Fleck's Cosmic Hippo, everywhere on Blacklight Syndrome (Bozzio, Levin, Stevens), and Donal Fagen's Morph the Cat.  On such recordings, I don't feel like a sub is needed.  But, the frequency balance is different than the Forests...bass not always as evident.  A different "sound" was  something I was after in new speakers and they definitely give that.  As a bonus, the Preludes are also better than the Forests in some areas...more refined and sweeter.  You can "see" more of the music.  OK,  hope that ramble is of some little help.  Good luck in your search and getting to a place to hear them.

Ghosthouse,

Great info, thanks. I feel pretty safe buying blind sometimes - no hifi dealers near me in Arkansas, unfortunately.

Some of your descriptions match how I feel about the Minuets. I tried to explain to an audio buddy today how they sound, but ended up just telling him I listen to them more than I usually do- it's as simple as that. 

There are probably many speakers I could feel that way about, but I feel fortunate to have found one for me. The fact that the price is within my comfort zone is great, too. 
 
Thanks again for the great info- I'm glad you're enjoying yours. Hope to join you at some point.

Warm regards-

PS Gary...

Do read Frank Alles' StereoTimes review(s).

You might try contacting Alan Yun (Silverline Audio) directly and see if you can negotiate some sort of in-home audition.  He will sell direct.  Not sure if he has demo units, however.

A few additional comments...
I didn't mention imaging in my lengthy note above, but it is crazy good.  Center fill (which the Forests also did very well) is really solid.  "Palpable" is an adjective that comes to mind.  Stage depth is more evident than I've heard before, though I'm not saying the Pluses produce it for every track of every recording.  Sometimes it just seems like those audio cues are missing from the recording.  This brings up another point - these speakers seem to make differences in recording quality album to album and even track to track more noticeable.  

I realize a review of the Prelude Pluses was not the intent of your initial post so I hope these comments will give you a some more data points to use in your purchase decision.

I appreciate your insight on the Plus, it sounds like it may be a good fit.

If I could trouble you a little more, how far into the room did your Plus's settle to give you the stage depth you mentioned? I know rooms are different, etc, but it seems like some speakers suffer more than others near the front wall. Depth of soundstage is important to me.

Thanks again,
gary

Hey there Gary, no problem.  I have the Pluses set up about 36" from the wall behind them; that's 3 feet from the wall behind them to their back panel.  They are both at least 4 feet from sidewalls.  If you look at my system page, they are positioned just to the outside of where the Forests are in the photos.