RMAF 2016................Boenicke W5

I too thought the Nagra/Avalon room sounded great.

The Vandersteen/ARC room sounded killer as did the MQA room using the Vandersteen 5A Carbon speakers. Vandersteens sound very good to great every show I've been to. 

The Magico/Synergistic Research room was a stand-out as well. I was also a lucky recipient to a private/dealer only demo of the new Magico M3 mated with 2 Q-sub 18's over at the Hyatt Regency. Utterly speechless was the response for most in attendance.

The Sony Magic Bus was a downright ethereal experience. This mobile system has to be experienced to be believed not just for the sound but the man hours, passion and technology that went into building it.

The Zu Audio room was a stand-out demo sounding extremely clean, no bass bloat and musical.

The Von Schweikert room was also sounding very good with no bass bloat, ultra deep bass and great dynamic range. 

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few...

Pretty sure its using fountek drivers so consider its running $300 retail in drivers and you liked it maybe DIY a pair

gawd,

You are comparing very small speakers that must have limited bass extension to much larger more expensive more full range models.

Getting full range speakers set up to sound good is always a bigger challenge. Bass resonances mask other frequencies and detail, sounds fat or muddy etc.

I could imagine the small speakers sounding "better" with some music than much larger and expensive ones and systems if room and setup is less than optimal. There is less bass to get in teh way or go wrong usually with small speakers.

Is that possible?

In any case, all I’m saying is they are small and price not paltry for their size. Comparing to much larger full range speakers sounds like apples and oranges and a pure judgement call that would be hard to substantiate it would appear. At the very least all should be set up optimally in order to make a fair comparison. Little guys like that would have a lot to prove against much larger similar quality competition.

In the end what one likes is all that matters. They are very nice looking tiny speakers and I’d expect sound very good within their limits.  Of course I have not heard them so do not know.

Just saying. Paltry is all relative I suppose.

Hi John,

I believe they are made with a solid piece of wood. The Innards look like someone was having fun with a router. I won't be buying a pair as I have enough (ahem, hope she does not read this....) speakers in the house. Another, and the most important reason is cats and dogs, they would not last 5 minutes on their stands.

I thought the Zu room sounded decidedly average.

Mapman- you should really hear a pair, you

Mapman - please disregard my unfinished sentence.