I identify somewhat with your journey and appreciate your airing it here in what is perhaps the most opinionated of opinionated public forums. Some random thoughts of some of the things that have come up in what I've read (not the entire thread):
- I like how you noted one particular track which basically melted those in the room when you were auditioning the Salon2s. I too had that experience. Although I had heard them in brief stints at audio shows, when I was in NYC I made it a point to make it by Harman's Flagship store with a few discs in hand. One was an SACD studio recording by Monica Mancini of pieces composed/arranged by her father. Although there is not a track on the recording I would not place in the top 10% of my favorites from a sonic perspective, listening to Days of Wine and Roses and how the Salons put her voice in the room, front and center simply blew me away. Very similar experience to yours with the Billie Eillish track I suppose.
- I did most of my auditioning at HiFi shows though obviously I was limited in what I could listen to there and had to accept the inherent setup limitations.
- I went into the process with the Salons having a leg up on anything else in the range of what I wanted to pay simply because the science behind their design and the published measurements resonated (bad word in this topic?) with my engineering background. That said, I had pre-vetted several speakers on my "must hear" list in a similar way. If someone wants to label that as being sucked in by Revel's marketing I have no issue with that other than them obviously having a different understanding of marketing than mine.
- I too enjoyed listening to the various Legacy speakers. I was intrigued by the Whispers which I'm not sure are still an active product in their portfolio, but at the end of the process they were a bit too unconventional for my taste. The Focus SEs were not and I considered them strongly, but never had an experience listening to them like I had with the Salons in the Manhattan store.
- The observations by some that the Salon2s lack extreme dynamic capability don't apply to me. I listen to a good bit of music that requires wide dynamic range - orchestral recordings, live jazz, piano, classical guitar, non classical acoustic guitar (i.e., Tommy Emmanuel live) -- maybe not what would come to mind of most when thinking about dynamic range. But often music that is painted against a relatively black background with sudden loud transients....and have never been left wanting more. I don't listen to compressed pop/rock music at insane levels which is what taxes the system and the ears.
- While they do rank among the best in LF performance among floor standers, I almost always supplement mine with a sub that can dig significantly deeper/cleaner and provide more of a tactile sensation if I'm listening to pipe organ music, for instance. But that's nothing for any broadband speaker system to be ashamed of. Subs are purpose built with a very specific mission.
- The one characteristic that sold me on the Salons was their coherence across the audio band, especially the midrange. How they managed to integrate that many drivers in a way that is indistinguishable from a single point source at typical listening distances is amazing. The stage is "just there" with many recordings. Beyond that I feel the number of drivers, especially a lower-mid and an upper-mid, and the result of dividing the spectrum up into smaller chunks for each driver to handle results in less distortion.
- Not that it matters but I lucked out and got a great buy on a pair of Salons from what I think the dealer said was "factory B-stock", meaning they had some minor cosmetic issue but otherwise as-new about 4 years ago. Still haven't found the defect(s)...it may be that the plastic door that covers the connector panel won't stay shut. Absolutely couldn't care less.
Good luck, but if it were me (and it's not), I'd come to a point pretty quickly where I'd question why I was depriving myself of the daily pleasure of listening to some great speakers at home. You can never have those days back.
- I like how you noted one particular track which basically melted those in the room when you were auditioning the Salon2s. I too had that experience. Although I had heard them in brief stints at audio shows, when I was in NYC I made it a point to make it by Harman's Flagship store with a few discs in hand. One was an SACD studio recording by Monica Mancini of pieces composed/arranged by her father. Although there is not a track on the recording I would not place in the top 10% of my favorites from a sonic perspective, listening to Days of Wine and Roses and how the Salons put her voice in the room, front and center simply blew me away. Very similar experience to yours with the Billie Eillish track I suppose.
- I did most of my auditioning at HiFi shows though obviously I was limited in what I could listen to there and had to accept the inherent setup limitations.
- I went into the process with the Salons having a leg up on anything else in the range of what I wanted to pay simply because the science behind their design and the published measurements resonated (bad word in this topic?) with my engineering background. That said, I had pre-vetted several speakers on my "must hear" list in a similar way. If someone wants to label that as being sucked in by Revel's marketing I have no issue with that other than them obviously having a different understanding of marketing than mine.
- I too enjoyed listening to the various Legacy speakers. I was intrigued by the Whispers which I'm not sure are still an active product in their portfolio, but at the end of the process they were a bit too unconventional for my taste. The Focus SEs were not and I considered them strongly, but never had an experience listening to them like I had with the Salons in the Manhattan store.
- The observations by some that the Salon2s lack extreme dynamic capability don't apply to me. I listen to a good bit of music that requires wide dynamic range - orchestral recordings, live jazz, piano, classical guitar, non classical acoustic guitar (i.e., Tommy Emmanuel live) -- maybe not what would come to mind of most when thinking about dynamic range. But often music that is painted against a relatively black background with sudden loud transients....and have never been left wanting more. I don't listen to compressed pop/rock music at insane levels which is what taxes the system and the ears.
- While they do rank among the best in LF performance among floor standers, I almost always supplement mine with a sub that can dig significantly deeper/cleaner and provide more of a tactile sensation if I'm listening to pipe organ music, for instance. But that's nothing for any broadband speaker system to be ashamed of. Subs are purpose built with a very specific mission.
- The one characteristic that sold me on the Salons was their coherence across the audio band, especially the midrange. How they managed to integrate that many drivers in a way that is indistinguishable from a single point source at typical listening distances is amazing. The stage is "just there" with many recordings. Beyond that I feel the number of drivers, especially a lower-mid and an upper-mid, and the result of dividing the spectrum up into smaller chunks for each driver to handle results in less distortion.
- Not that it matters but I lucked out and got a great buy on a pair of Salons from what I think the dealer said was "factory B-stock", meaning they had some minor cosmetic issue but otherwise as-new about 4 years ago. Still haven't found the defect(s)...it may be that the plastic door that covers the connector panel won't stay shut. Absolutely couldn't care less.
Good luck, but if it were me (and it's not), I'd come to a point pretty quickly where I'd question why I was depriving myself of the daily pleasure of listening to some great speakers at home. You can never have those days back.
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are those who stand convinced that one or the other (measurements / listening) is the absolute path in finding favorite speakers.
