Heard my friend's system, thinking of leaving hifi

I've owned the Silverline Sonata II's. Decent speaker (kinda large), but despite it's size, it is lean in the bass and would benefit from a subwoofer (you only need one BTW). Even though Silverline does employ some Dynaudio drivers in their designs, my experience with the Sonata II did not resemble the Dynaudio house sound... and I've owned 5 pairs of Dynaudio's, and still own 3 pair.

The Sonata II's would be a very significant upgrade over your Soliloquy 6.2i's (I owned these just prior to moving up to the Silverline's). However, try to find (or wait for) a used pair of Sonata III's... they are supposed to be more dynamic, full & balanced sounding vs. the II's, and to me, the Sonata III's are much better looking than the II's.

Portugal11, you might want to read This thread

You may want to visit a Martin Logan dealer and the hear the new Purity active speakers.It is just around 2000 usd with inbuilt amplifiers. I think one of the biggest bargain in audio. It has the speed and power of active speakers combined with the magic what electrostats have. Very interesting combination. At a very affordable price you may get almost everything what you need to enjoy music.

Here is some more info on what you heard at your friends house. Bob Stuart on DSP Speakers

I am surprised that you heard a system designed by Bob Stuart (at your friends) and loved the sound and were awed to the extent you want to throw away your own gear.....and yet you hope to get in the direction of this kind of sound through speakers where much of the cost is in high quality scandanavian furniture (impressive look) rather than a pure functional box speaker.

I know that Meridian have a whole range of speakers and price points besides the top of the line that your friend has - so why not start there. Besides there are many choices of Active speakers today from low cost two way near-fields designed for studios (ugly black functional boxes that have cheap or no veneer but where cabinet costs have been invested more in their driver quality - better sound for the same money but trade off is worse look) to absolute "monsters" that are priced similar to your friend's system. I would start modest, keep an eye out for a second hand bargain and work your way up over ten or fifteen years...just two cents, and assuming you really do want to impress your friend with equally good sound one day.

Unfortunately high quality sound AND ultra nice to look at veneers with stunning cabinetry are mega mega expensive. If you can forego the nice looking cabinets then you can still get good sound at modest prices, expecially second hand, IMHO.

Remember what Queen said, I quote "Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin' world go round" - that is the kind of speaker you want - not a tall thin elegant but rather dull blonde that is fussy, cranky and always on a diet!

Good luck!

Shadorne, you're right... I've got all the time in world. I'm going to hold off on speakers for the moment as I will be moving in a few months and the room parameters will most likely be different.

On that note, and based on reading in between the lines of your last post would you suggest that I try one of the Meridian CD players? I believe that the 508.24 has a following but I'm weary of used CD players and I believe that there were some quirks reported with Meridian players. (I think that they have a G 08 out now?) Moreover, would you associate imaging and soundstage with sources like a CD player in additiion to the speakers?

Great analogy regarding Queen and the dull blonde.