Disclaimer: Anecdotal and subjective stuff coming up.
Yesterday I had a visitor who wanted to listen to Saranna. One hour in, he concluded that "This is the best I have ever heard. I want them in white."
It's been a while since I've described the sound in this thread, so I will attempt to describe some of what he heard and liked based on a conversation with him. His taste in music was relatively wide, but with a preference for older, classic rock (Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Fleetwood Mac, Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath, etc). While most of those artists have their share of relatively poorly recorded albums, there's also quite a bit that sounds pretty good. We also listened to a number of more contemporary tracks across various genres.
First of all, he appreciated how the sound did not appear to come from the speakers at all. The sound exists in a three dimensional space in front of and around you. This is an experience that comes to life through a combination of the characteristics of the speakers and the room that they're in (well damped, speakers placed relatively wide. About 10 degrees toe-in).
Second, his subjective and somewhat vague comment was "It just sounds.. real." He commented vocals specifically as very lifelike. And he also commented percussion and bass. Here I think what he noticed was how full / rich the sound was, not just in the deep bass, but also in the 100-500hz area. Drums and percussive instruments sound large and dynamic rather than "canned" and compressed as it often does through speakers. He also commented several times how good it sounded even at moderate to low levels (we turned down the volume several times to discuss and comment).
He also spent quite some time marveling over the coaxial driver, and how he thought it sounded very smooth and detailed, but not hard or fatiguing at all. At one point he compared it to the sound of some electrostatic loudspeakers he had heard, and that very open, effortless sound you often get from those.
Finally we turned it up quite a bit through a few tracks, which always make people smile, this guy included. They hit hard and the sound is both tight and deep. No need to choose between deep bass and slam/punch, you get both.
He apparently had some esoteric power amplifiers that basically cost as much as the Sarannas (even second hand), so now his plan is to just sell those to finance the Sarannas.
It may be easy to think that I influenced him by asking him whether he heard this or that, but those who have met me would know that I'm anything but a sales person. I hardly spaek at all through auditions like this. People basically have to sell the speakers to themselves.
