I too attended AK Fest '10 and the comments about the Tyler's by Tomryan are exactly the impressions I walked away with. This was my second year in a row of attendance and the Decade's sounded pretty much as they did last year. IMHO, Tyler should have had one of his smaller models at the show due to the size of the room.
The Salk's are a handsome looking speaker, but not my cup of tea. I had a pair of Songtowers for about a year and they sat idle for most of their stay with me because the top end was not satisfying. The HT3's have been auditioned twice in two different highend systems and I couldn't get use to the upper midrange/lower treble hotness. Listener fatigue for me, but YMMV Salk's newest speaker seems to have promise if he can get the lower frequencies to balance with the rest of the drivers.
As others have stated, if you can audition them WITH YOUR OWN MUSIC and your cdp and preamp, then you will be able to make an ~85% informed opinion.
The speaker that totally and unexpectedly surprised me at this year's AK Fest was the mini Dali Menuet speaker. They plan on making a floorstanding version of this design, which is now on my short list.
Good luck with your equipment journey.
D.
The Salk's are a handsome looking speaker, but not my cup of tea. I had a pair of Songtowers for about a year and they sat idle for most of their stay with me because the top end was not satisfying. The HT3's have been auditioned twice in two different highend systems and I couldn't get use to the upper midrange/lower treble hotness. Listener fatigue for me, but YMMV Salk's newest speaker seems to have promise if he can get the lower frequencies to balance with the rest of the drivers.
As others have stated, if you can audition them WITH YOUR OWN MUSIC and your cdp and preamp, then you will be able to make an ~85% informed opinion.
The speaker that totally and unexpectedly surprised me at this year's AK Fest was the mini Dali Menuet speaker. They plan on making a floorstanding version of this design, which is now on my short list.
Good luck with your equipment journey.
D.