Looking for a good full range floor stander

Gee this is fun. I will now respectfully bow out. I encourage everyone with interest to read respected manuals on the subject of speakers and all their associated parts such as my favorite, The Loudspeaker Handbook by John eargle. There are several such books but this one is easier for simpletons like me to read and understand. 
paliden, good luck with your search. Do let us know what you decide to do.
stfoth, thanx for the reminder. I was thrown up on yet again today by a young lady who suffered food poisoning. Goes with the territory. 
cleeds, most of my experience with audio sales people is back in Miami, Fl 1980. My relationship with those I respected was on the level of personal friend. But I can tell you from audiotroy's behavior that he is more typical of the types I knew in Miami. The difference is that I do not sell anybody anything. I have nothing to gain or lose. I am sure Audiotroy is as nice as they come as long as he thinks he might sell you something. Make no mistake. He is here fishing for customers. If you do not believe that you are naive beyond anyone's help. My own mantra is, never trust a human who is trying to sell you something. Humans are far to dangerous. Rock and Roll! 

Mike

Ihaguy, sorry for having a dislike of planers, are they horrible, no they are not be we have a long history of living with and working with them.

The major issue with planers is that the image tends to be very disembodied, we call that the 8 foot James Tayor effect, sure it is a cool effect but it is not realistic.

Another issue is the restricted dynamics.

We have heard the Apogree Grandes, and the Martin Logan Statements and both of these giant planer/cone subwoofer hybrids suffered from similar issues in their day and where both fun sounding mega speakers but neither one of those flagship products were truly believable.

Fast forward to today, with the best dynamic drivers and speaker systems you can listen to a large set of speakers that dissapear and yet the images sizes are realiistic and the speakers convey the dynamic flow of live music.

In the past we have lived with original Quad ESL 63, Quad US monitors coupled with dual Entec subwoofers, as well as Magneplanner 3.6 and all of these systems were lovely with the right music but failed to sound realistic, the Wilson Watt Puppy 3/2 and the 5 changed that for us

At the Capitol Audio Fest the Wilson Alexs the giant $110k ones sounded amazing on Krell gear, the images were spooky real, and at Axpona the big Focals were extraordinary.

Both of these systems sounded way more realistic than any of the planer systems have ever sounded to us.

Again it all comes down to personal taste and what sounds real to you.

Milostyne, dude you need some help: "My own mantra is, never trust a human who is trying to sell you something. Humans are far to dangerous. Rock and Roll!

All of life is interacting with other humans, if you ever try to ask a person out for a date you are selling something, when you go to work and you have a discussion between another guy discussing sports or politics you are tyring to use statsitical data and opinions to get your point across that is also selling, selling doesn’t necessarilly mean that money has to exchange hands.

As per your past experiences with dealers we dont' try to shove products down anyone's throat, if we have a product which we think will improve someones musicall experience we will recommend said product, if not on many an occassion we have told the person to keep what they have, sometimes keeping what you got is the best advice until a change makes sense. 

We don’t have to quote a book to know what these things sound like we have lived with them and went into a store everyday for close to 13 years and played with the most exotic and expensive reference loudspeakers you get to learn a lot of what works and what doesn’t, not to mention going to shows and peoples houses and hearing lots of systems.

And by the way we are not trying to sell the OP anything he could be any where in the world, our suggestions are for him to decide, If he wants to come to our shop and hear our products that is fine but the likelyhood of selling him anything is very remote.


Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

One of the things audiotroy never mentions is service and support. I really don’t understand this. One can have a great sounding speaker, that they paid a hefty price for, and the workmanship or design is such that it does not last. Having to have speakers serviced really sucks and having to work with unsavory dealers and manufacturers sucks even more because who wants to pay for shipping, replacement drivers or extra repairs? A rather successful audio brand sold a pair of custom speakers to a guy here on Audiogon and they were falling apart on delivery!! The nightmare he described on getting his money back. I cannot take any dealer serious when he does not mention these important speaker buying considerations. BTW I have never heard a complaint about Salk’s customer service. He seems to take pride in his workmanship, the parts that go into his speakers and the quality of sound. I think if I heard Mr Salk talking about speakers in one room of an audio show and audiotroy talking in a room across the hall, I would spend my time listening to what Mr Salk had to say and listen to his speakers.

2psyop, with any story there are two sides. One did the defective speaker come from a dealer or was used?

How do you know the exact specifics? Do you think this disgruntled person telling the story was necessarily telling both sides if there was one.

You also omit one key fact, the day that Jim Salk has a heart attack, or gets hit by a bus, ( we don’t mean this just making a point,) what does this mean for your resale, or servicing then?

Look at the poor schlubs that own Green Mountain Audio, or Merlin or a 100 tiny independent manufacturers that have come and gone intersesting that that idea never enters your head. Sure there are instances when larger companies go belly up, however, innovative ones keep on comming out with newer and better products that keep on pushing the envelope which keeps the company afloat.

What happens 10 years latter when you blow a driver and that driver isn’t made any more and Mr. Salk doesn’t keep a ton of spare parts like Kef and B&W does?

You may dream all you want but the biggest and most successful companies got that way from careing about their customers.

Also one of the things that a good dealer does is to make sure you get good service from the company. Just knowing who to talk to can make a huge difference.

If you want to talk to Jim Salk at an audio show vs us, no biggie, Jim Salk has experience limited to his designs, while we have 30 years of playing with, setting up and working with many of the world’s greatest speaker manufacturers.

Sure there will always be innovative small companies, but realize this that buying drivers and putting them in a nice box, does not a speaker company make that is the definition of an assembly company.

If you want to see real innovation in advancing the audio art it lies with the companies that have the resources to really push the envelope.

Good luck to you.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ