arniespin,
Before I had any Meadowlark speakers in my home I was well acquainted with the popular Shearwaters. I ended up with the Blue Heron speakers for a while, and also owned the stand mounted Meadowlarks Swallow.
What I loved about the Meadowlark sound, especially the bigger Herons, is that they pulled off that very rare combination: rich and lush and warm, but without being dark and sleepy in tonality. They were very open sounding and disappeared like few other speakers. They had, to my ear, a sort of "woody" tonality that really benefited acoustic instruments and voices, vs the more steely or electronic tone of many speakers. The Herons were smoother sounding than the more forward Shearwaters (which were such a fun, exciting speaker, while still not fatiguing).
Though I really enjoyed the Herons lushness and soundstaging, I did find they bloomed a bit much in the bass for me, and although their coloration was very consonant with acoustic instruments, I ultimately found myself a bit too aware of their voice. I think it was actually either the Hales Transcendence 5s or the Thiel CS6s that replaced them.
I'm still a bit sad that I sold the smaller Swallow speakers. They had little bass to speak of but my god did they sound open, quick and "invisible" with a gorgeous warm tone. I had too many speakers though and my wife had put her foot down. It was a token "sell." :-)
