Pipedreams... Any thoughts?

If you can handle the cost, they are by far one of the best. However you must have the up front electronics to make them sing. A vast,wide and deep sound stage is what I hear every time I have listened. Holm audio in Chicago has by far the best set-up.

I've heard them at Nicholsons Stereo in Nashville and at the Chicago Stereophile show. In Nashville they were properly set up in a large acousitcally treated room and used with Ayre electronics. I'd say it was the best system I've ever heard. In Chicago it seemed the room was too small and it was tough to properly evaluate the sound.

I listened extensively to same system in Nashville that Jschrimpf heard except with McIntosh tube pre and amplification on the towers. The experience was indeed stunning, and these were the smallest of the three lines of Pipedreams. Since, as their name implies, these speakers are designed to be heard "nearfield", I'm not certain that a particularly large room is necessary, but a dedicated room may be. One cannot stuff these speakers against a wall and sit way off somewhere off axis and appreciate what these speakers can do. Set them up correctly, and hyper critical nits aside, the experience is completely captivating.

I heard the large models about 8 months ago in an actual owners home large dedicated room with catherderal ceilings of inexcess of 12 feet. I don't quite understand Oahuans comment because just to set them up with sufficent wall spacing requires a large room. I own Dunlavy SC-V's which aren't exactly small and have them in an 8000 cu foot room. I think I would have a hard time geeting the big Pipe Dreams model to work in my space. Acoustic treatment is a must as is absolutely the best electronics. I do agree with Oahuan that captivating is the right word. The only negative to me personally is that my favorite music is orchestral classical music and for most of my favorite performances the limitation is the recording and not my system. But on superbly recorded music I think they are uniquely in a class by themselves.