the golden age of loudspeaker design include many models which like lots more juice than the trendy vintage amp revival can muster. classic ar,advent,allison,dahlquist,apogee,fried,kef,epi,snell duntech,n.e.a.r.,and maybe the most underrated of all, hales and chapman, do like power ss or tubes. some classic jbl and klipsch models can marry pretty well with the mini watt sets, but the majority of models that still sound good to my ears are best served by more powerful stuff. one of the reasons for the d.i.y. boom is that many current overpriced hi-end loudspeakers just are not designed to be.... 1.neutral and 2.tonally accurate. anyone with money can build an impressive speaker, but not a design for the ages. your local hi fi store would love nothing more than to have you buy a set of loudspeakers based on listening to a audiophile cd or lp of a female singer or other smooth jazz. vintage bill evans, the rolling stones, bill monroe, yes, or any other real-world music will 'out' a mediocre design no matter what the driver, wire and cabinet material are. this is a gruesome fact. there are a handful of companies that still are trying to build a music lover's speaker for the marketplace, shahinian, castle, pmc, totem, gradient.....even the maligned 901 is tonally more accurate than most exotic european and asian imports and the highest priced domestic brands which cost more than a new car.
