Audio Physic Caldera mkii...still good?

Are you KIDDING??? The OLD three box Calderas that I once heard were the finest I can remember (except for probably the Intuitive Design Summits--see footnote). The OLD Calderas were a very special speaker and probably among the most fantastic loudspeakers ever produced! You should be giddy, just GIDDY about having snagged a pair at that price (it's about two dollars to the pound, right?)! YOWZA :)))))

Footnote:

The Intuitive Design Summits are the speakers which I now own, and am thrilled about, so thrilled that I wrote an unsolicited review about them right here on Audiogon. I think the Summits MAY sound even better than the Calderas to which I listened a long time ago, but it was a long time ago and there was never a direct comparison between the two. I had considered the Calderas to be my holy grail loudspeaker for YEARS and YEARS prior to the Summits, and I tried to discuss a subjective, mental comparison between the two in that review based on my memory of how phenomenal the Calderas sounded. In that review, which is posted on Audiogon, I stated that it was a close call, and that there never was anything like an A/B comparison. So my statement about the Summits sounding better is heavily qualified even in that glowing review.

BOTTOM LINE: The OLD, three box version of the Caldera was PHENOMENAL when I listened to it. NOTHING ELSE I EVER LISTENED TO OVER A PERIOD OF MANY YEARS EVER CAME EVEN CLOSE TO SOUNDING AS GOOD. It's the ONLY speaker I have personally heard--EVER--that is a legitimate rival to the Summits' sonic excellence, in my opinion.

Richard:

I'd be EXTREMELY surprised if you didn't just LOVE the Calderas. The older ones retailed for around 20,000 dollars US and even though that's high, I thought that their performance was in line with that price, although I couldn't afford them even at the 50% discounted price of 10,000 that they were being offered for at the time. Although not all loudspeaker lines offer models that sound progressively better up the price point line, I'd GUESS that the Calderas are much, much better than the Virgos based on what I've read.

The point of my original post was this: If those are the Calderas I'm thinking about, you got a PHENOMENAL deal, assuming they haven't been submerged in a flood or dropped onto concrete surface from a 10 story building. As for imaging, I was blown away by the Calderas. I wasn't trying to push the Summits, although I just LOVE them, and am still in shock about how excellent they are. It sounds like you've already MADE your purchase anyway. Congratulations again!! YOWZA!!

p.s. When I said,

"I'd GUESS that the Calderas are much, much better than the Virgos based on what I've read..."

...I did NOT mean that the Virgos were bad or even sub-par in any way, shape or form. The Virgos are pretty much uniformly praised, and the only point was that I'd expect the Calderas to be even better than that already fine loudspeaker. Like you, I've long been fascinated with the Audio Physic line, and for precisely the same reason (if I'm inferring correctly from your post), i.e. IMAGING. Congrats.

p.p.s.---> Please let us know whether you end up liking the Calderas, either way.

Bill