Ref 3A Veena - Devore Gibbon 8 - Audiophysic Yara

danger will robinson....only the veena is even possibly a step up....go to the spendor 8.

:o) Thanks Jaybo.

I did listen to the S8e after I bought the S6e about two years ago. I thought that besides the added bass heft and some what larger soundstage, it's basically the same personality - same tweeter, same detail retrieval, same "thick-in-the-middle, polite warm sound" but of course very musical.
I am looking for a musical speaker similiar to the Spendor but with more detail and open sound.
Maybe that speaker is the Gibbon 8 or the Veena. Josephs are an enigma.

the veena then..a different experience, but a great one.

You know...Just found out yesterday when I went to the only Ref 3A dealer in my area(Florida), and he said that due to the value of the dollar with relation to Canadian, all of the ref 3A products have gone up in price. The price was 3K it is now $3.7K and change, not including tax which puts it at ~4K for a Veena. He did not have any Ref 3A products on display.
So that puts the Veena's into the Gibbon Super 8, Joseph Rm25, and the upper AP model ranges.... Of which is out of my $$ range.
I do not have any Devore, Joseph or Audio Physic dealers in Florida. It is rare, as far as I nave been able to find, to see any of these models on the used market.

I have the AP Yara and I have heard the Super 8's - the Devore Super 8's were one of the best sounding most musical 2 way loudspeakers I have ever heard in my life. Bass was plenty full but in general the speakers are so well balanced and natural that I cannot imagine a better speaker for pure sound. I love their size, about 5 or 6 inches shorter than the Yara. They are not very large - the two tone wood look great, but all walnut veneer is beautiful as well. Another nice thing is they do not require bi-wiring, not a big deal, but it's just simpler. These will soar with tubes. I demo'd them on a 12wpc EL34 set and they bloomed like crazy!

My Yara's are nice, they are quick and most especially excel with acoustic sounds - they are not really a hard rock speaker- jazz and acoustic guitar sound excellent on them, lots of detail, bit lean on the lower end, but not that they dont have good bass because they do, its just the mids and highs seem to be a bit better than they produce deep bass. I am very satisfied with them.

I have never heard the Veena, but reviews tend to be mixed on them - Hifi Plus just did a review of the Grand Veena and based on what I could gleen from that, they liked them very much.

I think speakers really tend to do well with some music styles and not so well with others - if you are into lighter sounds, acoustic and jazz, you may also want to consider the Tonian's TL-D1 out of LA - hand made and the few people I know who have them, love them. http://www.tonianlabs.com/TL-D1.htm