Your experience/thoughts on Meadowlark speakers, esp., Kestrel, 2, hot rod. etc

When I was helping a friend buy his first system more than ten years ago I bought a used pair of the original Kestrels to go with his Marantz separates. I was really impressed with them and he still has them, I was listening to them last week during a visit and again really enjoyed them. Also helped another friend by a pair of the Swifts. At the time I helped buy the Kestrels I owned a pair of Thiel 2.3 speakers driven by McCormack electronics. I never warmed to the Thiels and didn't keep them long. Other than the basic design that attempts to time-align the output of the drivers they had almost nothing in common in terms of their sonic signature. This might not be a fair comparison since none of the three systems had electronics in common and their was a considerable price differential.

I owned a pair of Shearwater Hot Rods a long time ago. They sounded a little mellow in the room I had them in. They were placed well away from the side walls and I was sitting lower than the tweeter axis.

I listened to a pair of Thiels - not sure what model - but I felt the upper midrange / treble seemed accentuated.

Vandersteen speakers also follow a similar philosophy to Meadowlark and Thiel - first order crossover, time aligned drivers.

IMHO, easier to drive but not as good as Thiels. YMMV.