$15,000 Speaker Does Not List Freq Response Specs

Mitch4t, my perspective is that I would be very cautious about jumping for a speaker that you have heard in audition and were not so impressed, unless I misread your posts. Frankly, I would guess the combo of the REL sub to be as fine or better than the Carver sub. That might have been why it was paired with the speakers.

I suspect the presence of the supertweeters were to address a suspected deficiency in performance. I would consider this a negative for the demo, i.e. that the speaker "needs" assistance in this regard. Not hearing it without the supertweeters is a negative.

My guess is the dealer attempted to optimize the sound of the Carver, and it took such things as adding a better sub and supertweeter to do so. Likely, with the stock version you would not have heard as good sound as you did. However, that cannot always be assumed, as the REL may be more beneficial to the dealer selling them paired with the speakers.

Frankly, it sounds like it was not an overwhelmingly great experience, which would suggest that they are not the right speakers for you. Speakers will not magically transform into radically different sounding transducers simply because they are put in your room. So, I would suggest you go hear some other offerings. Just saw your comment, "... not convinced worth the $15K price of admission." So, it's time to go hear something else. I believe that when you hear the correct speaker you will adore the sound.

It should be understood that this is in no way a condemnation of the Carver speakers; I'm assessing the setup and experience of Mitch4t.

"Zd542, I attended as a serious listener with intent to buy
and not just out of curiosity. I didn't hear enough to
convince me to pay the $15k price of admission."

I was joking. Show conditions are usually very bad and almost impossible to "listen around".

Excellent point made above by Douglas Schroeder!

Too many options out there for that budget, many good ones costing much less, to go with something that failed to wow you in the first place.

How long ago was that demo? There's a lot of speculation about what did or did not go on there and why., But in its present form, the ALS includes a supertweeter and a fast, deep reaching powered sub designed and integrated by the designer of both. Let's not forget Bob Carver's history in reinventing the powered sub several years ago.

In The Absolute Sound, Robert E. Greene's review was an out-and-out rave, which qualified it by going into some detail concerning EQ profiles, placement, and subwoofer integration options.

The ALS includes EQ for bass, upper midrange, and treble. Also, since the mid/woofers are side-firing, there should be a lot of space to the sides (no problem for Mitch's room), but it was a problem somewhat for the TAS review and I don't know how they were set up for the demo Mitch saw/heard.

Anyway, it's the October 2015 issue of TAS. It's worth picking up for a read and perhaps an email to reviewer Robert. E. Greene.

Also, given the money involved and the prospect of affordably acquiring something that can credibly play back a 100-piece orchestra at full tilt, maybe you could fly out to Washington and audition it live (if Carver is set up to do so). It shouldn't be much more than the cost of return shipping.