Hales Design Group speakers....how good were they?

the hales design group was bought by an older incarnation of wadia, and went bye bye when they did. the concept of natural or flat audio response in the hi end business is a losing battle. acoustic suspension loudspeakers are the most difficult to properly design and manufacture. they also require more power to drive than ported designs and don't particuarly favor any frequency- which is death in a demo room. being smart or right (and armed with the facts) has never carried much weight in hi end marketing. the road to china and back is now paved with casualties(ie meadowlark, soliloquy). the beat goes on, just not as accurately or as naturally as before.

Jay_doug - What's the problem? Don't you like cymbals and horns that make your ears bleed, and snare drums that sound like tendons snapping? String quartets that will actually strip furniture? I'll bet your woofers don't even have kevlar dustcaps! You need to get with the program quickly... You may already be under surveillance by the hype enforcement authorities you know :)

i guess so...what was i thinking?...its funny, but if hales had charged twice as much for their speakers, they would have been talked about today as one of the best, and would probably still be in the game. no good deed goes unpunished.

The final incarnation of Hales was Jason Scott Distributing, who also represented, among others, Electrocompaniet. I knew the owner fairly well, and when he first told me that he owned Hales, in a most nonchalant way, I thought he was actually BSing me. Turns out, he was completely honest with me. However, unlike Electrocompaniet, he didn't push the Hales brand anywhere, and that was their swan song.

I still think the marque is a fine speaker. The sealed box produced some commendable bass, though one needed to partner the speaker with a more gutsy amplifier. Midrange was also nice. The treble was the achilles heel of the sonics, as it was a bit crisp to my ears. Dropping a different tweeter into the speaker, and upgrading the parts quality of the crossover allows the speaker to compete with most sold for under $10K today.

If I had to rate the speaker, it would get very high marks from me. Since this is often a game of status and psychology, a shrewd buyer could pick himself up a pair of fantastic, though no longer fashionable speakers at a seriously good price.

I have been a Hales fan for a number of years. I owned Concept 3's and currently own Transcendence 5's. Liking these speakers will probably depend on your preference for port or sealed enclosures. Hales have been criticized for not having that much bottom end but it's the tight bass that makes them so appealing to me and this is in large part due to the sealed enclosure. How good were they? It's hard to say without knowing listening preferences. I found the Concept 3's could become a bit bright with the wrong equipment but are very revealing and fast speaker. The Transcendence line is smooth top to bottom with a very solid and tight bottom end if not earth shaking. In my system the Hales need plenty of good clean power to sound their best.

One thing is for sure. With Hales out of business I have seen various models selling for a fraction of their original price. Dollar for dollar on the used market I don't see how you can do much better in terms of sound and build quality. I bought my T-5's for a song (no pun) a couple of years ago and can't imagine getting better sound, per my listening preferences, from any other speaker manufacturer still in business for the same price used. My only real concern is spare drivers and parts (Madisound is a good source). If you ever get a pair have a friend help you un-box them. Most Hales models are HEAVY. Happy listening.