Emerald Physics CS-2, Opinions Please

Some random and not-so-random observations:

Every six months or so in high end audio there's another power cord, speaker, amplifier, digital source, (you name it) that's got the hot buzz among audiophiles. Within a year (or less), the latest hot-buzz item is seen for sale in the classifieds as owners move on to the next hot-buzz product."

Probably true, and for every 'hot buzz' product there's a guy who hasn't heard them who says they can't be much good for this reason alone. Fascinating indeed.

The manufacturers and seven layers of middle men should be ashamed of themselves.
We actually used physics to get where we wanted to go.
I don't care what the components are made of.

Agree; these are cogent and perceptive observations that tend to observe the world for what it is, not what some externally imposed 'ideal' says it should be.

The CS2's try very hard to cheat the laws of physics

These are not laws created by man or beast. They are natural laws and as such cannot be cheated. (Worked around, perhaps). Otherwise they would not be called laws. EP never stated they were trying to cheat anything, least of all YOU.

I do not own a pair of CS2's but my friend is a dealer

And this fact, being a dealer, makes him somehow all things in one: Golden Ears, supremely intelligent, and so on? Last I checked it was ridiculously easy to become "a dealer". Heck, even ** I ** was offered a dealer deal once (I passed). There are several poorly represented brands out there that will sign on any warm body to be a dealer. What have they got to lose? The dealer buys inventory and may even make a sale or two a year. Now, if you said SUCCESSFUL dealer along the lines of a Kevin Deal or, um, let's see, UnderwoodWally, who just happens to be the biggest single-person operation in the audio world, and who has marched out on a limb and said in writing, and says so every day: "The Emerald Physics CS-2 sounds more like live music than any under $30k speaker that I have ever heard." Walter's been kicking around this game for way longer, quantity AND quality-wise, than anyone I've corresponded with. Oh yes, he sold me my pair of CS2s. As for the 'one dealer' argument, what does this have to do with how they sound? If it centers around the possibility that the dealer and mfg are somehow linked, note there were several dealers until a few weeks ago but their franchise with EP was terminated. I believe the reason was that few of them understood this speaker, certainly none as well as Walter did.

Look, I’ve never heard the Emerald speakers, so like you my observations are based on what I’ve read.

Well, THAT certainly renders everything you say credible.

Not bad, but so easy to copy and get these off the shelf parts and build an open baffle like this that it would cost anybody very little time or money..

So why doesn't somebody DO it? Last I checked it was still a free market. If someone can do better for less then it follows that they will, assuming the target is already doing well, which EP is.

As to the cost of parts, etc, here is a post I made on AA over a year ago. The whole thread is a good read:
http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=general&n=468114&highlight=pierre+kkc&r=&session=

I guess we need to tell the guy who bought the latest Picasso for $xx million that he only bought about $5 worth of paint and canvas and got horribly ripped off.

I was going to stay out of this thread as it rarely makes sense to get into a pissing contest when the other guy has nothing to piss with, but the constant jabbing just to put someone or something down "just because", even though the weak pisser has never experienced the product, got a little too much to take. I own a pair of CS2s. I have owned, in the past 5 years, not one but two pairs of speakers that now retail over $10k. I don't miss them one bit.

The issues about multiple amps, cables, the physics and cheating thereof, the parts cost, are all smokescreens. I was a little daunted by the dual-amp thing. What I find is that it has been a sort of release, in that I can buy an amp for the bottom end that is good in that regard, and likewise for the top. How many times have you read users agitating about great treble or midrange but weak bass, etc? (eg tube amps). Or a great bass (many SS amps) but grainy or etched treble? These problems have now become non-issues. I recently bought an ICE-powered amp for the bass that has been noted for a 'whitish' upper region and I thought the treble was a bit etched, but does a fantastic job in the bass. Great, no problem. Like low-powered Class A or tubes for their mids and highs? No more worries about the bass!

Long post, I will end it now and await the spray.

I was a dealer for Clayton, and remain a friend of his. Just for the record, he received a Golden Ear Award for the CS-2 in the June/July issue of The Abso!ute Sound.

What Clayton did that is imho extraordinary is he pushed into bold new territory as far as what can be done in an affordable speaker design. [I betcha he had one eye on the Zu Druids - another over-achiever.] Clayton brought together a combination of characteristics that had never been tried before commercially, to the best of my knowledge. While his CS2 isn't perfect, as a competitor let me say that the prospect of stepping into the ring against it is quite daunting. He sets the bar very high.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

Tvad: There are many ways of persuading. I am not interested in any of them, as I have confidence in my own ears and as the saying goes about art, "I know what I like".

One method is that of insinuation, of using irrelevant examples or allusions to cast doubt upon the object under discussion. Why talk about the six-moth hot buzz in your very first response to this thread if you did not mean to imply be association that EPs also fall into this category?

Yes I noticed you are careful enough to cover your tracks by not directly criticizing the sound, and even being magnanimous enough to tell the OP to try/buy them. Very big of you, except that he seems to have a mind of his own and it appears doubtful he will or will not do something based on what you did or didn't say. And if you were to actually READ what he asked, in a few sentences he made the point twice:

those of you that have them what you think?
If you have had them for a couple of months are you still happy? any regrets?

Here are a few examples of what he did NOT say: if you have read assorted ramblings about them and would like to add your own doody to the pile, please waste cyberink and everyone's time. Or: if you would like to recommend other speakers because you haven't heard these, please spew names which everyone knew but many have forgotten. Or: If you think the parts are worth the cost of the speaker and the designer's art and science are worth little to nothing, please post your 7th-grade financial analysis. Or: If you believe having seventeen dealers makes a speaker sound better, please let me have the names of all those speakers and dealers so I can waste my time and money buying them. Or: As I can't read the classifieds for myself, please let me know how many EP speakers are for sale so I can wonder why these people are selling them.

No. Re-read what he asked. As free as this country is, you have no place in this thread unless you will admit you simply intend to distract. Go hear them, properly set up as the designer intended and took great pains to explain in the manual, then come back and favor us with your real-life observations. Until then, STFU.

Wow, I seemed to have stirred the pot.

No point in attacking Tvad whom I hardly know. I'm the one who did not like the speaker.

Paul-If you want to know who my dealer friend is feel free to send me a PM. I have nothing to hide. I call it as I see it. The reason I didn't disclose the name here is that I'm basically saying something he used to sell is not that great. Although it wouldn't be the first time.

As for EP having only one dealer, that seems to be a more recent event. EP had a great showing at CES and a number of dealers picked up the line in January. My friend started carrying the line after the show. He was not the only one. I remember seeing several dealers advertising the CS2 after the CES including here at Audiogon. I first listened to the CS2's in mid February; the speakers arrive about a month after the CES. As I of my last visit to my friend's shop, he had sold his demo CS2 and he is not carrying EP anymore. Which is in agreement with the new single dealer policy. Dealers change lines all the time.

BTW-when I say I hang out at the store, I really mean I hang out at the store. I have often referred to that place as an audio version of Cheers.

In my original post, another friend of mine did listen to the CS2 at another dealer I know in LA. That friend liked the CS2 and I do trust the dealer's taste since I used to hang out at that store when I lived in SoCal. It is ironic. Another of my friends listened to the pair at my friend's store and did not like the speaker. The three of us went through the exact same arguments in this thread via e-mail for several weeks. Feels like deja vu.