Obviously you took great personal offense to my comments above and are still struggling with that. My apologies if you took anything as a personal attack.
Since I have great respect for the talent and commitment of Andy Payor and Alon Wolf and feel that neither speaker is overpriced given their material and performance value, I took issue with your comments...
>>"Go figure-the most enjoyable and rewarding speakers are not these megabuck speakers stereophool and the crapsolute sound are drooling over."<<
I didn't know the thread was about naming a personal favorite or "taking sides". I was unaware the OP's question had anything to do with magazines, the value of their opinion, the relationship between ads and reviews or the fact that you purchased a $13k speaker that you preferred over the models being asked about.
My opinion of the two speaker lines is that I have heard both enough to know I could live very happily with either the M5's or Arrakis (the models I heard most recently)-- though I might choose my electronics differently depending on which I ended up with.. With the seemingly unlimited dynamics and wide-open bandwidth of the M5's I might stay with my ARC front end and Berning Quad Z amps. Were I to live with the Antares or Arrakis I might consider the Solid State Luxman, Griffin or (Hybrid) Lamm mono's and DCS or Esoteric separates at the front end. Of course I am only dreaming....
I tend to be more conservative about tossing definitive opinions around regarding electronics or speakers that I have not yet had in my home. That has nothing to do with protecting anyone, just a personal choice.
Regards,
Grant
Since I have great respect for the talent and commitment of Andy Payor and Alon Wolf and feel that neither speaker is overpriced given their material and performance value, I took issue with your comments...
>>"Go figure-the most enjoyable and rewarding speakers are not these megabuck speakers stereophool and the crapsolute sound are drooling over."<<
I didn't know the thread was about naming a personal favorite or "taking sides". I was unaware the OP's question had anything to do with magazines, the value of their opinion, the relationship between ads and reviews or the fact that you purchased a $13k speaker that you preferred over the models being asked about.
My opinion of the two speaker lines is that I have heard both enough to know I could live very happily with either the M5's or Arrakis (the models I heard most recently)-- though I might choose my electronics differently depending on which I ended up with.. With the seemingly unlimited dynamics and wide-open bandwidth of the M5's I might stay with my ARC front end and Berning Quad Z amps. Were I to live with the Antares or Arrakis I might consider the Solid State Luxman, Griffin or (Hybrid) Lamm mono's and DCS or Esoteric separates at the front end. Of course I am only dreaming....
I tend to be more conservative about tossing definitive opinions around regarding electronics or speakers that I have not yet had in my home. That has nothing to do with protecting anyone, just a personal choice.
Regards,
Grant