Hales owners discussion

I have the Revelation Twos which, judging by the above posts, are easier to place. In every room I have had them in (10x11, 14x14 with an opening to one side, and a 12x15). In every room they seem to like to be about a foot off the back wall and with that equal lateral setup described in the manual. Although i had to go near field in the 10 x 11 room, I do not personally prefer near field with the Hales. I use a Classe 70 and Twinlink to drive them to good effect. They could always use more power, and the amp may be a bit colored, but the sound is very smooth, musical, natural and colossal. I have also heard the Classe CA300 with the Hales. The sound from that rig, which I think also included a Wadia cdp and a Levinson pre, was amazing. Eyes closed, you could not tell where the speaker were. With the Hales I would strongly advise room treatment and a spike upgrade. I use Audiopoints. I have noticed however that my spikes have been leaving ringed scratches around the circumference of where the spikes contact the cabinets and am curious if any one else has had the same problem. If you upgrade your spikes, go with something with as large of a diameter as the stock spikes. Mine have a diameter of ¾ inch and I was not happy when I took them off to move them last week. Hales rule and were the last company I wanted to see go down.

Good idea on the Audiopoints, but I'm considering putting mine on wheels. The cable guy was getting too close to them while doing an install, so I laid down two strips of cellophane tape to mark the position of the one in his way and lifted it to the side. He commented about being careful, but twice he had tossed something down next to them which made me cringe. Even agreed that he probably was watching out and moving them was for my own peace of mind. So what does he do? He peels the tape up, me saying "no, No, NO, NOOOOOO!" the whole time. Of course, he also kindly put it back... Only took 45 minutes to recover. Damn bout they're heavy.

On the subject of weight, has anyone tried mass loading their's? While heavy, they're not that solid on their feet. Or do the Audiopoints add to the stability? BTW, mine are later models and have four points instead of three like the early ones.

Being a bit smaller than the stock spikes, I do think the Audiopoints have made mine a little more stable. I think your wheel idea is very cool. I would love to be able to wheel mine around the room, especially if I owned the Threes. With the wheels, however, i would bet you will lose some detail and focus. I have mass loading and am not sure exactly what it entails. Because i move about twice a year and the fact that my spikes have scratched my speakers, I really don't see mass loading in my future. Let me know what you do and what happened when you did it. Good luck

I have Transcendance 5's and will be measuring my set-up (the space is not yet finalized) and will post it. I use Wireworld and Cardas wire, connecting SFCD1, SFL2, Audio Research VT100-2 and a VPI 'table for vinyl. Hales left us in the lurch, though I suspect it was not all his doing. It would be nice to see him re-appear as a cottage industry, like Steve McCormack. I wish I had gone for the T8's.......

I own T-8's, coupled to two Boulder 500AE amps in mono, a Boulder L3 preamp, and a Meridian 508/24. I use XLO for interconnects, and Cardas Golden Cross biwired. There is nothing I have heard in twenty years of the hobby that begins to come close to this sound. Everything sounds real, from acoustic jazz to huge orchestral works, female vocals to trance. Would love to hear from others about suggested tweaks. One thing I think really helps here is the absolute stability of the amps. Boulder rates these amps at 500 watts into 8 ohms, and I suspect upwards of 750 to 1000 watts into 4. The result is whatever the speaker requires, they deliver.