Pipedreams... Any thoughts?

I've heard them at Nicholsons Stereo in Nashville and at the Chicago Stereophile show. In Nashville they were properly set up in a large acousitcally treated room and used with Ayre electronics. I'd say it was the best system I've ever heard. In Chicago it seemed the room was too small and it was tough to properly evaluate the sound.

I listened extensively to same system in Nashville that Jschrimpf heard except with McIntosh tube pre and amplification on the towers. The experience was indeed stunning, and these were the smallest of the three lines of Pipedreams. Since, as their name implies, these speakers are designed to be heard "nearfield", I'm not certain that a particularly large room is necessary, but a dedicated room may be. One cannot stuff these speakers against a wall and sit way off somewhere off axis and appreciate what these speakers can do. Set them up correctly, and hyper critical nits aside, the experience is completely captivating.

I heard the large models about 8 months ago in an actual owners home large dedicated room with catherderal ceilings of inexcess of 12 feet. I don't quite understand Oahuans comment because just to set them up with sufficent wall spacing requires a large room. I own Dunlavy SC-V's which aren't exactly small and have them in an 8000 cu foot room. I think I would have a hard time geeting the big Pipe Dreams model to work in my space. Acoustic treatment is a must as is absolutely the best electronics. I do agree with Oahuan that captivating is the right word. The only negative to me personally is that my favorite music is orchestral classical music and for most of my favorite performances the limitation is the recording and not my system. But on superbly recorded music I think they are uniquely in a class by themselves.

Let me try to clarify my earlier comments without seeming argumentative. As I understand it, Nearfield Acoustics makes 3 different "models" of the Pipedreams: (1) the smallest has mid-treble line array towers that about 5' (?) tall and a single bass module (with dual 18" drivers, so a very large bass module, indeed); the mid-size model has line array towers that are 6'6" tall and two bass modules; and the largest model has 8' line array towers and four bass modules. So there is no doubt that to house the largest of the Pipedream models demands a pretty doggone large room, if for no other reason than to cope with the 4 huge subwoofer modules. On the other hand, the smallest model, such as the one I listened to at Nicholson's in Nashville, really doesn't need that much space, as long as you can use all of it to make a proper set up, i.e., the room is "dedicated" first and foremost to providing a good listening environment. I doubt that the listening room at Nicholson's was more than 14' wide, the ceilings might have been taller than normal (10-12', I don't remember), but I that wasn't critical, and the length was considerable, maybe 28', but only half the room was being used. My understanding of the theory of music reproduction through the Pipedreams is that the speakers should be brought out into the room and the listening position should be close to the speakers so that you hear direct radiation from the speakers almost exclusively (as opposed to the good mix of direct and reflected sound that you get in most settings with most other speakers). That being said, the bigger the room the better, since size of the room alone will diminish the amount of relected sound reaching the listener. Nevertheless, with the smaller Pipedreams, I think it is quite possible to get most of the marvelous Pipedream experience in a relatively small room, say 12' x 15' x 8', again as you can use all of it. And what is that experience? Incredible holographic imaging and a wonderfully smooth, unstrained musical presentation at the loudest and softest listening levels. A real treat - even from the small ones. I'd get 'em, but I don't have "the room".

Bozo: HOLM's demo is pretty impressive I agree; with an analog front end it was Wowzville. And wasn't that the smallest Pipedream model?
Vision: if you have the room & the $ then I'd say go for it. Unfortunately I'm not so blessed.