Vocals:
The vocals seemed to be very musical. They did not seem etched but I was not looking for it either. The midrange simply played what was on the CD. Bright when it was bright and warm when it was warm... Nora Jones' voice was very transparent and notably more natural than a lot of other speakers. Her voice never had any odd distortion ("buzzy") like other speakers I heard that day (Focal 1037). Dave Matthew's voice was warm and raspy like it should be. James Hefield (of Metallica) had power in his voice with great depth and sound stage. All in all I was impressed with the vocals to say the least.
I happened to have my mom (58 years old not into hi-fi but long time violinist, singer, performer) with me when I auditioned these speakers. She summed it up pretty well. After about 20 minutes into the audition I asked her what she thought. She said "Well I am not sure I get it (hi-fi that is) but that one girl you just had on (Nora Jones) sounded like she was actually standing in the room...she laughed...ok ok I guess I get it".
Recordings:
I took mostly good recordings with me so I don't really know how they will be with bad recordings. But I am pretty sure they will be, well bad on bad recordings. Bright bass-less 80s rock albums will be just that. I am into mostly hard rock but I have no reservations about buying these speakers. They seemed to just play what was there never more never less. I should point out that I only listen at 75-80dB and use a SPL-meter. You may or may not have issues at louder levers, do to the high energy of the midrange/tweeter on bad recordings (again very tonally neutral).
Up-steam equipment:
I don't really know. I only heard them once with all Musical Fidelity equipment. It was a modest A5 (250 watt integrated amp $3,000 retail price, matching CD player) and they sounded great. They were not hooked up to crazy amps that cost 3 times as much as the speakers... You will have to ask long time owners about this one.
I would have bought them on the spot but I had just drop $10,000 on an engagement ring the weekend before. I plan to buy them soon. Sooner if the stock market comes back up.
