Hi all,
Just one person's experience, i finally traded up my SF Strads for a pair of Wilson X1 Grand Slamms. Stunning beyond all belief. Musical and organic (and this coming from someone who's favorite components include my Zanden DAC and, up until last nite, my SF Stradivaris.)
The set up is soooo incredibly important. 8 hours but after Pedro from Absolute Sounds changed the tweeter resistors and worked with Arif from KJ West One...smokes!...this is the best sound i have had the pleasure to really listen to. i am fortunate thanks to KJ West One to have found a pair in mint condition.
i would not tell anyone else it's the best, or anything silly like that. what i will say is that relative to the SF Strads:
1. effortless, effortless, effortless. one rarely understands this until you "see it" in action.
2. effortless [helps] translate into musicality because the speaker can get out of the way without strain and deliver whatever signal you feed it.
3. once properly dialed in...so critical on a Wilson!...the music flows thru the speakers like they are not there (at least way more than the Strads). Whatever size, volume, soundstage, quartet, a cappella, choral, deep house, rap...small, big, intimate, cavernous.
4. The Strads excel on mellifluous sound...natural and organic. soulful as michael fremer once said. in my system, the Slamms matched and exceeded the Strads even on this. that, i was truly not expecting.
just one man's set of ears. Enjoy everyone!