I don’t know how I didn’t see this thread before, haven’t posted much anywhere I guess. I’ve had my Stirlings since August now. So happy about them! The depth and sound stage just blow me away every time I sit down and listen. They certainly improve as I tweak the placement, but at the same time they never sound bad.
Running them with a Primaluna 300 Integrated and coupled with two REL Ti7’s. I don’t think the RELs are essential for the Stirlings at normal volumes (though they certainly don’t hurt), but at low volumes the RELs are magical. I do most of my listening in my small NYC apartment after work, so I keep the volume way down, but I turn the RELs up a few notches and increase the HF power on the Stirlings and the results are incredible. I don’t feel like I am missing anything with the volume so low.
To comment on a post a while back asking about comparison with the Turnberrys, at the dealer I spent a good while listening to both the Turnberrys and the Stirlings. I’ll also note that I was considering Klipsch Fortes at the time as well. Short story on those, the 2k jump from the Fortes to these Stirling was a no brainer. But going another 2k from the Stirlings to Turnberrys was a much closer call. To me the Turnberrys just did everything Stilrings did, but a bit better. Although the Turnberrys certainly sounded better, the improvement wasn’t so drastic that I had to have the Turnberrys, so I let my small room size take precedence over better sound quality and I went with the Stirlings that would take up a bit less space in my room.
Running them with a Primaluna 300 Integrated and coupled with two REL Ti7’s. I don’t think the RELs are essential for the Stirlings at normal volumes (though they certainly don’t hurt), but at low volumes the RELs are magical. I do most of my listening in my small NYC apartment after work, so I keep the volume way down, but I turn the RELs up a few notches and increase the HF power on the Stirlings and the results are incredible. I don’t feel like I am missing anything with the volume so low.
To comment on a post a while back asking about comparison with the Turnberrys, at the dealer I spent a good while listening to both the Turnberrys and the Stirlings. I’ll also note that I was considering Klipsch Fortes at the time as well. Short story on those, the 2k jump from the Fortes to these Stirling was a no brainer. But going another 2k from the Stirlings to Turnberrys was a much closer call. To me the Turnberrys just did everything Stilrings did, but a bit better. Although the Turnberrys certainly sounded better, the improvement wasn’t so drastic that I had to have the Turnberrys, so I let my small room size take precedence over better sound quality and I went with the Stirlings that would take up a bit less space in my room.