H.P.Caravelles owners, are you still Satisfied.

If I hadn't moved I would still own my Caravelles today and be happy. New crib with oodles of space, 12 foot ceilings. My Caravelles couldn't do it with my amplification and the two sub woofers I purchased to help things along were really bugging my wife, big time. Since this was our first house (that we owned) I had to compromise. I remembered the Zu review and was particularly excited about 16Hz to 20Hz, small footprint, no crossover, 101db!! and the chance to get into tubes; particulary SET, very strong WAF from her point of view, and she could have any damn color she pleased. The rest was history. Here's a few qualities about the Defs without getting too ridiculous:
1- The Defs are much more sensitive and dynamic. I believe the Caravelles are less sensitive than they are rated. Just a belief mind you
2-Definitions move more air: this is an understatement
3-planar/electrostatic speed. Caravelles are as well, but the Defs have them beat.
4-the Def's tweeter dispersion is quite phenominal
5-bass extension/we don't have to go there Caravelles need sub woofers.
6-no crossover anywhere!! filter transitions to the (4) 10 inch subs per speaker and the super tweeters. No crossovers let the music, from the two front 10 inch full range speakers, sound like the sound is pouring from a wide mouth spigot, rather than being squeezed through a cocktail straw.
7- they sound more tonally accurate to me. subjective I realize, but that be the case.
8-placement is less problematic.
9-the sound is more more communicative, particulary of emotion and more "real" sounding.
10-And I can use SET amplification. That's a VERY big deal for these tympanics.
There's a couple of things for ya. And I have Audiopoints on my Defs. Their spikes are not happening.

peace,

warren

thanks Grant..

Yeah, especially that "wide mouth spigot" thing, Really makes me want to hear the Definitions.

Warren, No surprise to see you switched after seeing you being a long time supporter for HP Caravelles. Monitor speakers have their limitations. The biggest plus about them is the size. I have 2 totally different setups. One with super low efficiency bookself monitor speakers and the with High efficiency full range coaxial speakers with no crossover. The monitors can fit in most of the small rooms and they give you pin point imaging if you sit in the sweet spot. The electrostatics too give crystal clear imaging with bigger sound with similar limited sweet spot ( not to mention humidity also affect the sound.) These full range speakers just filled the whole room with HUGE sweet spot. Everything seems so "live" as what you described. Not only that, you can sit pretty much anywhere because of the dispersion from the horn. Maybe the audiophiles back in the 50's and 60's knows something we don't know today? Most of the speaker designs in that era are horns with full range speakers. Why some folks would pay broken cones for over $4000 for a pair of Western Electric 728 drivers? or Jensen imperial G610 drivers? beats me. Not to mention it cost few more thousands to have custom made cabinets, these must be something special.
IMHO, For a small room, small monitors might do a better job. For a big room, I would go with full range high efficiency speakers as they sound more natural, transparent and effortless. SET or PP is not as critical as power matching with right amp/speaker combo. A good class A PP can perform just as well as SET ( if not better.)
Depends on music selection, if one like exaggerated bass then one might prefer to go with a sub. I don't use sub because I never like them for the music I listen to except for HT application.
Glad to see you move up to the next level.