@soix
Don't get me wrong, I don't think the Pearls sounded bad, they were perfectly pleasant speakers, they just didn't reach out and grab me and make me say 'wow'.
Under $10,000 the Revel F228be is my hands down favorite, and I'd rank them solidly above the Pearls just based on listening to both in their respective rooms (I probably spent more time in the Revel room than any of the others, I just couldn't tear myself away, the fact that the session had lasted a good bit beyond the 6pm closing time and the folks running things deserved some well-earned time off was the only reason I wouldn't have been happy sitting there for another hour or two).
The Raidho XT-1s were also a cut above IMO, though obviously they lack the low-end extension of the Pearls (but you could easily augment them with a subwoofer for under $10K still and get the bass back).
Now for some others things get trickier - the Pure Audio Project Trio15 Horn1, Spatial Audio X2, Salk Song3A, Aurum Cantus V80F, and Cube Audio Bliss Magus all gave me that 'wow' reaction, but I can't definitively say they're any better than the Pearl, it could have just been excitement over finally getting to hear open baffle, ribbons, and single-driver speakers and being impressed at how well those designs worked and how they did things differently from other speakers.
The Manger P1 would fall into that same category (though in the over-$10,000 range) it sounded amazing, and I loved the demo, but how much of that was the 'cool' factor of it using a driver completely unique and different from any other speaker?
Maybe my lack of 'wow' with the Pearl is that it was just entirely competent but so traditional in design that it didn't have a 'hook' to draw me in. The audio-show frenzy atmosphere probably rewards unique and different designs more than traditional ones, but I completely understand that grabbing your attention for a few songs is a different thing than bringing a smile to your face in your home for years to come, so it's very possible the Pearls would do that better than some of the more creative designs.
There's also the issue of music selection, selections that involve you as a listener probably give you a better impression of a speaker than something that leaves you flat.
Still, at north of $30K, the Pearls play in a rarefied atmosphere. Opening up to competitors in that price point I'd put the Legacy Audio Aeris and Gayle Sanders Eikon with the Revels into the 'Yes, I'd certainly take those over the Pearls' category.
I really wish the show ran for another day or two, I felt like I was rushing out of some rooms so that I could hear everything (and I still didn't achieve that goal). I would have loved to have had the time to spend more time listening to certain setups or even had the chance to request some selections to hear them with material I'm familiar with (which is one of the great things about so many of the rooms having moved to streaming servers as sources, much greater variety of source material).
I think I'm going to have to go back next year and plan to spend more time with some rooms that I may have not given enough attention to this time around.
