$30K Budget - On the quest for my "end game" speaker

[MarkS]

I KNOW I am not even close to the only one who thinks that

You can think what you like, but making slanderous accusations is beyond the pale, IMO.

If I was a mod, I would ban you permanently for those.

And I'm REALLY sorry not to be hearing the further saga from MKR. My personal Bayesian probability that it was all faked as a promotion for a particular speaker company is well under 1%.

And if yours is higher: just don't read the thread.

But no, you've had to go and ruin it for all of us.

 

[Mr. Widget]

Salon 2 - For my ears, this is a very special loudspeaker. Does not measure quite as well as the Perlisten and 228/328, but the music that comes out of these is truly intoxicating and for me, there really are no weaknesses. I have bloviated ad nauseam on this thread about my Salon 2 impressions, so won’t do it again here as I am a sure folks are tired of reading it, but this was my end game and almost pulled the trigger. But, between the doubt inserted in my mind after hearing the Legacy (and now additional designs, see just previous mentioned short list), and the fact that they are now discontinued, resulted in me hitting the pause button on the Salons.

All the above are examples of outstanding loudspeaker engineering, and you really can’t go wrong with any of them, really comes down to personal preference.

A friend who is a Revel dealer called this morning with a disappointing report. He had sold a pair of Salon 2s to a customer who picked them up and installed them himself. After a period of time the customer complained that the speakers just didn't sound as good as he had hoped. The dealer went to the customer's home and tested the speakers with some measurement gear. The 4" midrange and the 6 1/2" midbass drivers were wired incorrectly and appeared to be swapped.

The dealer alerted Harman and the speakers are getting shipped to Northridge for complete testing and repair as needed. Pretty shocking that this was even possible and where was the QC?

 

[Short38]

Hands down the funniest thread I’ve encountered on ASR! If the end game speaker includes Beston drivers from Parts Express, I’m all in and await pricing on the final product.

 

[Laserjock]

A friend who is a Revel dealer called this morning with a disappointing report. He had sold a pair of Salon 2s to a customer who picked them up and installed them himself. After a period of time the customer complained that the speakers just didn't sound as good as he had hoped. The dealer went to the customer's home and tested the speakers with some measurement gear. The 4" midrange and the 6 1/2" midbass drivers were wired incorrectly and appeared to be swapped.

The dealer alerted Harman and the speakers are getting shipped to Northridge for complete testing and repair as needed. Pretty shocking that this was even possible and where was the QC?

Glad it’s getting taken care of at least.

 

[Laserjock]

 

[DMill]

This thread has deviated pretty far from $30k speakers. At that price point there are very few people that can honestly say they’ve heard enough options to subjectively comment. Maybe a trade show for a few of them? So we look at objective measurements and probably figure them out for the most part… mostly. To me this thread should have simply been answered, if you have $30K for speakers, buy whatever the hell you want. if you have that coin, buy something else if you don’t like them. They should all sound pretty damn good though.

 

[RobL]

 

[prestigetone]

 

[mglobe]

i think you are doing the right thing.

Actually I think the mods need to do the right thing here. MKR doesn’t deserve this crap.

 

[mglobe]

You can think what you like, but making slanderous accusations is beyond the pale, IMO.

If I was a mod, I would ban you permanently for those.

And I'm REALLY sorry not to be hearing the further saga from MKR. My personal Bayesian probability that it was all faked as a promotion for a particular speaker company is well under 1%.

And if yours is higher: just don't read the thread.

But no, you've had to go and ruin it for all of us.

+1

 

[AudioJester]

Well this thread brought out all the crazies, conspiracy theorists etc.
Then people who are just envious?

Good luck @MKR

 

[Lsc]

A friend who is a Revel dealer called this morning with a disappointing report. He had sold a pair of Salon 2s to a customer who picked them up and installed them himself. After a period of time the customer complained that the speakers just didn't sound as good as he had hoped. The dealer went to the customer's home and tested the speakers with some measurement gear. The 4" midrange and the 6 1/2" midbass drivers were wired incorrectly and appeared to be swapped.

The dealer alerted Harman and the speakers are getting shipped to Northridge for complete testing and repair as needed. Pretty shocking that this was even possible and where was the QC?

They are being made where? At a factory in Indonesia now? Went from made in the USA to designed in USA made in Mexico to Indonesia.

This tells me this “last batch” could be a botch .

Maybe MKR made a good decision not getting a new pair of salon2 s.

 

[boxerfan88]

So sad… I didn’t even get to see the REW measurements for the current “demo” kit.

 

[Newman]

I will make it easy (and be lazy) and use your own words, of which I fully concur …
https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...61a-review-powered-monitor.28039/post-1389503

Very little of those reasons seem to apply to your situation, yet you are talking like it is a mandatory minimum requirement for you. Taking them one at a time:

1. To allow for different room reflectance, or size, or speaker placement;

This is more desirable for the manufacturer, so they can sell one speaker to various buyers with various rooms. So why do you "concur" that it is a critical requirement for you?

2. also for using the same speaker for different program material eg 2CH and MCH;

Again, I see no reference anywhere in this thread that such application has anything to do with your decision-making priorities.

3. also to allow for many recording engineers being much more sensitive to reflections/spaciousness than 'ordinary folk' and making mixes too dead.

Although this is 'a reason' for variable directivity, it is a second-rate solution compared to being able to add reverberation to the sound field via a MCH processor. For 2-channel-only playback I can see the potential: but then #2 wouldn't apply, yet you say it does.

I seriously don't think that you had thought through those particular issues, or that they were your particular issues and your reasons for making variable directivity a high priority, before I asked the question. You just thought it would be clever to try and use my own words against me.

Nor have you answered the 'cardioid bass as a priority focus' part of my question.

Reviewing your Big Reveal post, it seems you are using the three directivity modes as feelgood dial. That's okay, why not. It does take us away from the idea of hearing what the production team made for us with great skill and deliberation, though. I would suggest planning for MCH, plus good upmixing when needed, as a far superior way to achieve this.

cheers

 

[muad]

So sad… I didn’t even get to see the REW measurements for the current “demo” kit.

It's sad that one person can ruin things for everyone.

The burden of proof lies with with the accuser, who continues to make unsubstantiated claims despite having zero evidence. The accusations are one thing but the tone behind them is aggressive and sounds like it's from someone who is unhinged, and may have mental health issues.

If any one of us was in mkr's position, how do you expect him to defend himself. How does one prove that they happen to like a prototype high spl cardioid design, without having no connection to the manufacturer. Show his email thread? But then someone will say it's fake. Show in room measurements? Someone will claim they're fabricated. I don't blame MKR from leaving. The mods should have been on this awhile back.

 

[amirm]

I am closing the thread folks. Just too much complaining.