Montana speakers?

I am quite familiar with the Montana ES or is it EP Signature (4,500.00 Retail). A friend of mine owns a pair. Carl your remarks concerning the Esotar and Revelator are interesting to me because my speaker, Merlins VSM-SE has the Esotar, and his has the Revelator so I feel quite comfortable in offering my input. Our systems are very similar but our rooms are so different that it is hard to quantify the differences of the speakers. His room is very well damped and mine has a livelier sound. The Merlins without question have greater resolution, dynamics, image focus and wider soundstaging and a flat frequency response. The Montanas are very smooth and provide an upfront presentation of the music as do the Merlins, neither are laid-back. The Esotar provides phenomenal off axis dispersion, which really opens up the soundstage. Transient response is also much quicker than the Revelator is. I really don't feel that steely is necessarily a characteristic of the Esotar so long as the signal it is fed is up to its performance capabilities. In reality it is quite smooth, BUT if the signal is not of the highest level I can believe that it could impart a steely character as could the Revelator or any high-resolution driver for that matter. Another case for good electronics with a high resolution design. With my electronics I have not noticed this and neither has he. Timbres come across very naturally on good recordings, which is the most important criteria for any speaker system to me. I have many very good violin recordings both analog and digital where the air and tone of the instrument can positively make you believe you are listening to a real violin! He loves his Montana's but he is REALLY impressed with the smoothness, resolution and soundstaging of the Merlins. The Montana’s tonally are superb speakers which ultimately is the most important characteristic of any system. A different approach and two very different designs. Ultimately I like my Merlins with the Esotar better and if he were forced to pick between them I bet he would admit the same although he is quite satisfied with his set-up as he should be. In the near future he is planning on bringing his speakers to my place and then we will be able to quantify the differences in an identical environmental.

OK, so you feel the Merlins are the very best speakers, that's fine. I told it the way I heard it, and compared the different tweeters in the same environment, same electronics, and those were the differences I heard. I am a fan of Dynaudio, I own the Esotar dome midranges (also for a project I'm working on), and feel that they are vastly superior in their range, to the esotar tweeter, and to all speaker drivers, for that matter. I am in no way biased against Dynaudio (I love them)...I suspect that you are bised in favor of the Merlin, though I don't doubt that it is a fine speaker. I would certainly use them, and be happy, if I owned them. They aren't the world's best speaker, though. I have heard the effect, with violins, that you are referring to, many times. This was both with my meager little Maggies, and also with my Paragon speakers (Dynaudio drivers)...and either with my Krell, or Rogue amps, and in either of my rooms.

I just offered my impressions concerning the Esotar versus the Revelator in two different designs over extended listening. I don't know what two speaker designs you are drawing your conclusions from. The execution of a particular design is every bit as important as the sum of its parts. In another design maybe the Esotar sounded as you described. The Esotar in the Merlins is well excecuted and is the only frame of reference I have. And I certainly would agree that the Merlins are not the world's best speaker it there is such a speaker for everyman. We're still waiting for that one.

I have heard the ML(s),Wilson(s),Whisper and Dunlavy(s). If room size/volume and wide/toed-in placement is possible, the Dunlavy(s) are really worth serious consideration. They also like alot of current to realize the significant potential for low detailed bass. I have heard good things about the Montana(s) and appear to be an exellent value.

Hello, I own a pair of Montana Prototypes that have the same driver compliment as the EPS (1 tweet, two 4" mids, two 8" woofers). They look like giant SP's and weigh about 200lbs each. The cabinet is not the new style 6 sided cabinet. They are wonderful speakers. Sometimes the mid-range can get aggressive but most of them time they just sound like music. I am driving them with a Plinius SA-100Mk.III / ARC LS-22 combo. I traded a pair of Sound Lab A-3 electrostatics. I have never looked back. I have had these for over a year which is a new record. They blow away the ESL's in most respects. I have listened to speakers like Meadowlark Blue Herons and other speakers in the 5k-10K range and always walk away with a smile on my face when I compare the sound to the Monties. I think they would be a hard resale but I doubt anyone would want to sell them. Well I have gobbed off enough here. Buy them !