Tyler Decades Not much press but how good?

I see your point. Some people like Thiels, some B&W and so on. Personally I can't stand B&W or most Thiels especially the lower models. I have heard the 3.7 and 7 series (2 friends of mine have them) and I have to say they are very good but overall not what I would buy. Thats just a personal choice. I could live with the 3.7's but not at 10K+. B&W's were plain boring to my ears but I see your point when you refer to the upper and lower end B&W's have an annoying sound. I found them to be boring or stale. Even the Diamond series were downright flat and uninvolving to my ears. I heard them with top notch Levinson but maybe it was the source but I was not impressed. I thought Ty's speakers especially for the money killed them. Some speakers just don't have that "something" or a "tone or overall sound" you refer to so I understand. We each have a sound we like and that's a personal preference. It might be how the bass drivers integrate with the mids I don't know but if you don't like the overall sound or tone then you pretty much probably won't like the overall line. Just my 2 cents :)

I forgot to ask, what amp and preamp were used? Tubes and warm to neutral solid state seem to best match Ty's speakers IMO.

My friend had a Berning Tube amp at the time...no pre amp, just running direct...as I said it's been a couple of years back. He may have been using a pre, memory fades.
Overall, the Berning, very well respected if not to my taste. That amp sounds underpowered, not dynamic in contrasts and sort of a watercolor version...washed out, versus a Monet.
There, I've managed to insult two companies in one post.

Larry

Well I got everything delivered on Friday. Excellent packing great delivery no damage. I got everything setup and it sounds great out of the box but they still need time to break in. The subs are the best I have owned so far. Being servo controlled they are really tight and setup was a breeze. I am running all this with Sunfire gear. I also changed all cabling to Verastarr and Neotech so the cables might have some break in time as well. But overall the sound is amazing!

JFondell, keep us posted. I'm ~5 weeks away before I'll smell mine.

Regarding tone, I left myself some adjustment in that regard. With the cross-overs outboard, I'll have access to the caps and wiring.

I have no preamp so my current setup takes a phono preamp or a PW Dac straight to a Pass Labs 350.5. Swapping cable is painful, especially due to my employment of a sub (which just broke :( )

So an Audio Note L3 kit is on my radar. This will give me some amount of control over parts quality and tonal adjustments (and just plain fun) over the D1's.

Ty is just so down to earth it's scary. I might have ordered his speakers even if they were crap just to support his business.