Hales Trancendence 8 or 5 speakers

Specifications
Description: Three-way dynamic loudspeaker. Sealed-box system tuned to 29Hz. Drive-units: 1" aluminum-dome tweeter, 5" magnesium-cone midrange, 10" polypropylene-cone woofer. Crossover: 24dB/octave. In-room bandwidth: 23Hz–26kHz (no limits specified). Sensitivity: 87dB. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Linearity: ±1dB.
Dimensions: 40" H by 11" W by 19" D. Weight: 106 lbs.
Finishes: black, sapele, light oak, natural cherry, stained cherry, pau farro.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 381049 A/B.
Price: $5990/pair (1999); no longer available (2005). Approximate number of dealers: 27 (1999). Warranty: 5 years.
Manufacturer: Hales Design Group, 16812 Gothard Street, Huntington Beach, CA 92647. Web: www.halesdesigngroup.com (1999).
We got the specification for the Hales Transcendence 5, but the Spec for the T'8 I don't have it, even we owned them both, Are there anyone if you can, please kindly type it up here so we can take more serious research, We really appreciate,

T8: Vifa made the tweeter, have not checked on availability as I have spares; Seas made the midrange and will hand build replacements for around $250.00, and Alumapro made the bass driver and supposedly can do so for around $220.

T5: Vifa and Seas again, and I have heard that bass driver was by Dynaudio.

Thanks to Lee for providing the above to me.

From what i remember the Hales Trancendence 5 and 8 used a Vifa metal dome tweeter.

I've enjoyed the Hales 5 for many years now and recently one of the tweeters bit the dust. Can someone please recommend some sources for replacement drivers other than Madisound as listed above. (Out of stock)

Thanks in advance!

Hi Doug:

I own a pair of T8's. Frank did an excellent job decribing the virtues of this speaker. The speaker is uniformly good throughout the frequency range but the one area where it really excels is dynamics. I previously owned a pair of Nestorovics (which I still love dearly) but the T8's are better in this area.

My personal experience is 180 degrees from Junkyards. I find the speaker to be very forgiving, but then the electronics I'm using is rather antiquated (old CJ preamp and threshold amp). Hey Frank, where are you getting you r replacement drivers? Fess up!

I own a pair of T-8's, which are driven by two Boulder 500ae's running in mono, and producing a very clean and very black (quiet) 500 watts per side in to 8 ohms. I am using a Boulder preamp, and am using a Meridian 508/24. Cabling is a combination of xlo and cardas, with the speakers connected via cardas golden cross. To say that the sound is awesome is really understating it. I have really never heard such a sound from recorded sources. I have to admit that I was a little concerned about the demise of Hales, but glad to hear the drivers are available for these truly remarkable speakers. I have found them to be completely unforgiving of source material, and that has changed my buying habits a bit. It's not that some material sounds bad; it's just that given great source material this system literally knocks you down with detail and musicality. I'm done buying equipment; all my money will go to source material now; that and tweaks of my room!

Well, as others have stated, the electronics certainly make
the difference, but I've had my Hales T-5's for about 6
months, and I think they're a great speaker! I purchased
them at a great price since the company went belly up, and
use an Odyssey Stratos and BAT VK-5i pre-amp. I listen to
everything from the Dixie Chicks to Metallica, and I love
the sound my system produces! The only thing I'd trade the
T-5's for would be a pair of T-8's. It's good to know that
replacement drivers are only 90 miles away from my house!
Dave

Hi Doug,
I own a pair of T-5 as well as a pair of T-8. I originally purchased the T-5 after hearing them with Classe electronics. The speakers sounded great, but the solid state crud came through. I have a large listening room and the T-5 didn't quite have enough bass for rock music with a VT-100 amp.
I bought the T-8s and traded up to a VT-200. The T-5s are now in my office. I have to echo everything Frank said. These speakers are great! I auditioned Sonus Faber, Vienna Acoustics and Dunlavy, but the Hales won. I have added a REL Stadium III subwoofer. In my room, the bass falls off below about 38 Hz. The Hales sounded fine with a Mark Levinson 335, but high powered tubes would be my recommendation.
Good luck!

Hi Doug. If you are thinking of the Hales, the T8s are in another league from the T5s. Even though they share the same tweeter and midrange, they are much different sounding. The T5s have a single stock 10" paper cone woofer and the T8s have two custom made proprietary aluminum 10" woofers [made by Alumapro to Paul Hales specs].

Before discussing the sonics, I will tell you that I blew a tweeter in my T8s just this last Sunday. What did I do? Popped in another voice coil in 20 minutes [and I am no techician or whiz with a soldering iron at all!] I mention this because replacement drivers/ parts are readily available. Although I do have an entire extra tweeter and woofer, I also have two extra tweeter voice coils [which is the only part to go when a tweeter blows]. The tweeter voice coils are $22.00 a piece from Madisound and the entire woofers are available for $130.00. The midrange drivers are readily available also and are the same as those used in the Coincident Super Eclipses.

Sonically, everything I say is based on MY system, MY room, MY tastes and prefernces in music and MY ears (feeble as they may be). With all due respect to the previous poster, I find the T8s one of the best speakers on the market at ANY price! As a reviewer, I have had the privilege of hearing many speakers in my room. There are so many great choices for the music lover and audiophile these days at all prices, we have never had it so good. For me, I prefer the T8s becuase they do everything very well and are so seamlessly balanced throughout the frequency spectrum. They are VERY revealing and transparent, disappear for a large speaker and can do both macro and micro dynamics as well as anything I have heard. They are sealed enclosure so the bass is NOT mushy or overdamped and, with those two 10" woofers and good placement, capable of the some of the best bass I have ever heard - full, deep, taught and accurate without being bloated. BUT, the previous poster is hitting at one good point - they are difficult to drive and need enough power/current. You need either very good solid state [I use the 100 (more like 140) watt Lamm M1.1 hybrids and I'm very happy] or powerful tubes like the Wolcott Presence or the powerful VTLs to make them sing. They WILL reveal weakness upstream.

Can you better them in certain areas? Possibly, but it will likely cost you a lot more and you may give up other things to get it. I listen to many differnt types of music ranging from butt-kickin, driving 70s soul/funk bands like Tower of Power (which I listen to at real world volumes) to acoustic jazz, to pop, to folk music to large scale orchestral works. For this reason, I have not found anything that can do them all so well and do it with such a balance of strengths.

Finally, because at first when Hales went out of business, I was worried about replacemnt drivers, I went through a phase where I was trying to find a speaker to replace my beloved T8s. After a frustrating 10 months of trying and failing, I just kept coming back to these speakers for all they do so well. They have now been in my sytem for 3 years - longer than anything else [which, for a reveiwer who gets to try so much for such great prices, says a lot].

I do also have stats [Inner Sound Eros] and minmonitors by Silverline, which I enjoy at different times, but the T8s occupy my main room and are what I use for my most serious listening sessions.

I hope this helps.

Frank P

The last I hurd, FROM a DEALER was that, HALES is no longer in buisness. As the story goes., Thay were bought by some large company who closed the HALES operation with little or no notice. That meens no service or replacment parts, should thay be needed. As far as the speakers go I listened to the T-5's on a full KRELL system and found the whole experience very dry and with out any emotion or feeling of the event being played. I think the HALES would proform much better with tube amplification. I did an A-B comparison with Martin Logen's Arious i and HALES Rev.3. and prefured the REV.3's easly (also on krell gear). I've listened to Martin Logan's Arious used with Sonic frontiers tube equiptment.. It made my hair stand on end. My Point is that, if You didnt care about ever needing service or parts-and used with the right gear Thay'd be great . The Cabnet work is Very nice and looks best in a dark finish. Hope that helps You..