Hello again Gary -
Nope...broke one of the cardinal rules of audio - I bought speakers without auditioning and didn't even have a 30 day return policy as safety net. To explain, I got a bug to try a different speaker. Mainly something more efficient than the Totem Forests I've been running for going on 9 years now. Add a silk dome tweeter and an affordable price, (i.e., under $3500) to the list. Initially, I was thinking monitors but came back to floor standers since I had the space. The Silverline Pluses ticked off a lot of boxes for me. I really didn't even consider the v2 Prelude (though I read about them as much as possible) because the Pluses had more features that I wanted. When I saw Underwood HiFi advertising them on A'gon, I gave Walter a call. His delivered price was very attractive. Before making a decision, I read as much as I could on-line though there's not a lot on the Pluses. Much more available info on the original Preludes v1 & 2 but these are a significantly different design. Frank Alles of StereoTimes was very gracious and helpful. Tried to contact some A'gon owners and did get some encouraging feedback from a few. So I took the plunge. Now have around 60 hours on them. They are more detailed (in a good way) than the Forests. Soundstage is huge and ambient effects are impressive - there's a LOT of air when called for by the recording. They don't do bass as well as the Forests (at least not yet; but the Forests have many hours on them and are thoroughly broken in and optimally placed). Total surface area of the 4 mid/woofers on a Plus is greater than that of the single mid/bass driver of a Forest, however. Still experimenting with placement and planning to live with them a while before deciding whether a sub(s?) is/are necessary. Right now though the Prelude Pluses do put out plenty of slam and good bass reproduction from things like ZZ Top's Tres Hombres, Bela Fleck's Cosmic Hippo, everywhere on Blacklight Syndrome (Bozzio, Levin, Stevens), and Donal Fagen's Morph the Cat. On such recordings, I don't feel like a sub is needed. But, the frequency balance is different than the Forests...bass not always as evident. A different "sound" was something I was after in new speakers and they definitely give that. As a bonus, the Preludes are also better than the Forests in some areas...more refined and sweeter. You can "see" more of the music. OK, hope that ramble is of some little help. Good luck in your search and getting to a place to hear them.
