The top end/cabinets

[hal55]

I've gone thru all the postings on the kit speaker and they seem pretty positive overall, one area of they're performance though that I haven't been able to get a handle on is whether or not they can do the high frequency liquidy, shimmery thing. Running off a reasonably "warm" sounding setup, are they able to have me looking up from my copy of HiFi World (okay, sometimes HiFi News and Record review as well, but I know I'll never afford anything in that magazine) and going "now that that was just plain lovely - Wow".
The version I'd be looking at is the floorstanding XL.
What is the cabinet kit cost, shipped all the way down to Australia? I doubt that I have the skills or tools to build a furniture quality pair of cabinets and I obviously don't want an agricultural looking pair of speakers, and if I have a cabinetmaker build them for me that will cost an arm and a leg anyway. Also, David Price's review left the odd question, his comment that they were a "remarkable speaker at the price" seemed a touch weird, given that there is no retailer margin and you build them yourselves, they should outperform speakers costing a couple of times their price at least. I would expect that they should outperform competition up to and over 1000 pounds, is this the experience of people that have built them?

Thanks,

Hal Littlewood who is really enjoying the cricket now that a decent contest is finally underway Go England!

[Cobblers]

Originally Posted by hal55

I've gone thru all the postings on the kit speaker and they seem pretty positive overall, one area of they're performance though that I haven't been able to get a handle on is whether or not they can do the high frequency liquidy, shimmery thing. Running off a reasonably "warm" sounding setup, are they able to have me looking up from my copy of HiFi World (okay, sometimes HiFi News and Record review as well, but I know I'll never afford anything in that magazine) and going "now that that was just plain lovely - Wow".
The version I'd be looking at is the floorstanding XL.
What is the cabinet kit cost, shipped all the way down to Australia? I doubt that I have the skills or tools to build a furniture quality pair of cabinets and I obviously don't want an agricultural looking pair of speakers, and if I have a cabinetmaker build them for me that will cost an arm and a leg anyway. Also, David Price's review left the odd question, his comment that they were a "remarkable speaker at the price" seemed a touch weird, given that there is no retailer margin and you build them yourselves, they should outperform speakers costing a couple of times their price at least. I would expect that they should outperform competition up to and over 1000 pounds, is this the experience of people that have built them?

Thanks,

Hal Littlewood who is really enjoying the cricket now that a decent contest is finally underway Go England!

The treble from the standard unit is merely excellent, and I expect that the XL version is notably better!
I am sure you would be very happy with the treble from either, because Peter has done such a good job of the crossovers, but obviously the Seas XL tweeter is the one to go for. I expect the sound is overall even smoother and cleaner mainly because that bass/mid doesn't have to work as hard at meeting the tweeter.

The price performance comparison is not as easy to quantify in reality as some would like you to think. Suffice to say they are just very good speakers, forget prices for a moment, they are some of the most well balanced natural sounding boxes i've heard.

Their only notable weakness would be WAF (wife acceptance factor) as they are not pretty little mini monitors or sat's to be hidden away up on a bookshelf.

As for the cricket i'm sure it's merely a hiccup and we will get back to usual form shortly!

[hal55]

Thanks for the reply, my problem is that being in Australia it's impossible to hear the speakers at a show, as UK residents can, and with appreciation of music being such an individual thing what may be brilliant to one person may be the opposite to another. Hence my enquiries trying to get a feel for the speaker, it's really been David Price's comment on them being tonally cold that threw me, but then again I know just how bad my Heybrooks could sound on the wrong equipment (early CD was a disaster!) and how sympathic matching and room setup can change that.
As for the wife factor, Candyce is pretty good in that regard so I guess I'm lucky, having lived with a pair of black HB3s on stands I think she would find the new speakers quite attractive actually!

Regards and rejoice in the cricket win, it's great to see someone else but Australia win for a change,

Hal Littlewood

[Cobblers]

Originally Posted by hal55

Thanks for the reply, my problem is that being in Australia it's impossible to hear the speakers at a show, as UK residents can, and with appreciation of music being such an individual thing what may be brilliant to one person may be the opposite to another. Hence my enquiries trying to get a feel for the speaker, it's really been David Price's comment on them being tonally cold that threw me, but then again I know just how bad my Heybrooks could sound on the wrong equipment (early CD was a disaster!) and how sympathic matching and room setup can change that.
As for the wife factor, Candyce is pretty good in that regard so I guess I'm lucky, having lived with a pair of black HB3s on stands I think she would find the new speakers quite attractive actually!

Regards and rejoice in the cricket win, it's great to see someone else but Australia win for a change,

Hal Littlewood

As with the Heybrooks the WD25a's are designed for close to wall positioning, which does curtail image depth slightly, although high resolution recordings allow you to hear the venue acoustic as opposed to room time reflection effects.
If perhaps David Price attempted to get deeper soundstaging with every recording by pulling the speakers too far away from the back wall an imbalance in the desired frequency response could have lead to the assessment that the speaker was tonally cool.
The speaker does not offer the kind of rich cuddly warmth of a pair of big ported polypropylene driver Spendors for instance.