well, I have a pair of the Esprit (similar to the Elite and Viper speakers, but with only one woofer), and i can't say that their treble is better than the Contenders - with one caveat: the tweeters in more recent versions of the Contender do not have the mid-treble rise that the older versions have, and consequently, even though they sound fantastic, the older Contenders give the impression of more detailed. It's not the very top that gives the detail, it's the region between 2k - 10k that will make a speaker sound "bright" - or, conversely - dull. I have both older and newer Contenders and they don't sound the same, I can tell you that. One version of mine is from 2010, and the other from 2013. I like the 2010 version better. The difference is clearly the tweeter, which I had replaced when one blew in the older pair. It was OBVIOUS that the replacement tweeter and the original had different energy in the 2-10k band. All you had to do was play 1 speaker at a time, placed dead center in front of the listening area and play something with considerable treble, and on one speaker, the orchestra was sorted out in rows, while on the newer one, it was more "compact"- sounding and you could not hear flutes, piccolos, clarinets as distinctly tonally different from each other.
I heard the $27k ones at the New York Audio show, too, and they were crystal clear-sounding. And if you have $30k for the electronics to put in front of them, they'll sound spectacular.
I heard the $27k ones at the New York Audio show, too, and they were crystal clear-sounding. And if you have $30k for the electronics to put in front of them, they'll sound spectacular.