Daedalus

Tvad:

I'll give it my best. In my experience speakers have to do a number of things really well to totally "disappear". First, they have to be tonally correct. At one point I owned a pair of Spendor S-100's. A friend came over on day who had not heard them yet. He walked in the door and from the entry way (without being able to see the speakers or setup) he remarked how it sounded like someone was playing a saxophone in the other room. The Spendors were so true in the midrange that they simply "disappeared" by faithfully reproducing the sound of the instrument. The Daedalus speakers do this as well as any I've heard. Another thing a speaker needs to do to "disappear" is recreate a soundfield wherein the speakers do not cue your ear as to their location. This my DA-1.1's do very well but are not in the same league as the best I've heard in this regard. Perhaps this has to do with the offset tweeter arrangement used on this model. Or maybe this is attributable to other components in my system that are not allowing the speakers to do the kind of disappearing act they are able to perform. It may well be that Lou's reference models (Ulysses and DARma) are better in this regard. I cannot say for sure. I do know the reference models are intended to image more precisely and I would expect that they create a better soundstage than the "whole house" models like the DA-1.1. In addition, a speaker must be totally coherent in order to fully disappear, otherwise you are able to hear drivers handing off to each other thus drawing your attention to the speaker and not the music. The Daedalus are the most coherent multiway speaker I've ever heard--period. Finally, in order for speakers to disappear the box cannot contribute to the sound you are hearing. Lou's cabinets are very dense and, while they may contribute more noise than some of the exotic materials out there, I do not sense that they are contributing to the sonic landscape. To summarize, my Daedalus disappear darn well--better than nearly anything I've heard--and the reference models are probably up there with the best that are available.

Tvad:

Based on my conversations with Lou, I agree with Dodgealum, and think that the Ulysses & DARma would be the better match for you.

Lou's speakers are "musical," period. After that, it comes down to which model is the better match for you.

Keep us posted, if you move forward and audition.

Another thing a speaker needs to do to "disappear" is recreate a soundfield wherein the speakers do not cue your ear as to their location. This my DA-1.1's do very well but are not in the same league as the best I've heard in this regard.
Dodgealum (System | Reviews | Threads | Answers)

That is what I wanted to know.

A couple of comments based on above: Soundstaging will be profoundly affected by the room and setup, and of course the system behind it. No offense meant at all to Dodgealum, but the room in his system pics does not look like it's optimized for two channel listening (though a very nice WAF runaround on the corner bass traps!). Neither is mine for that matter. I too have to deal with a large TV screen between my speakers and that is a huge compromise. I usually put a large absorption panel in front of my screen when listening and that does help some, but ideally I would prefer to have nothing in between my speakers. I'm of course, assuming he's still using this room in his system pics and basing his comments on that.

As far as the DA1.1's not being up to the best soundstaging speakers out there; well, I would not expect a 3-way floorstander with five drivers to compete with a great 2-channel monitor or a single-driver speaker in this specific area that Dodgealum has isolated (sounstaging). That would not be a reasonable expectation IMO. A more specific comparison may be more useful in this context.

As far as my own limited experience with Lou's speakers, which has been limited to RMAF '07 (I think Ulysses) and Dan Wright's listening room (RMA's), in neither case did the speakers call attention to themselves in any way imaginable. Both threw vast soundstages and both were in very nice rooms (Lou scored one of the better [larger] rooms at RMAF that year, while most of the [smaller] rooms are quite challenging at that venue). No doubt coming into any hotel room is quite challenging, but the larger rooms there in general did sound better. Dan's room is excellent and well sorted out.

Hope that helps, Grant.