New Speakers

[Damon]

Hi Womaz,

Thanks for your excellent reports of your listening trials. It is fun reading, absolutely. Rather than working, the other day I stopped in at a local hi-fi shop, and happened to have a chance to hear the SF Olympica II. It was demoed in an acoustically-treated room, and was partnered with a lot of huge McIntosh gear; massive tube monos, a pre and Mac CD player. The speaker cable was quite thick and had some big boxes midway along the cable- I can't remember the name. Something expensive, I expect.

But curiously, I found the highs a bit sharp; crazy, as I would have expected a much more refined, easy treble, and indeed that is my memory of other SF speakers. I'm not at all passing judgement on these speakers, just mentioning that in that situation, the sound was not what I expected to hear. I had no qualms about the mids or bass, or the ease and 'musical' presentation. But the high were more fatiguing, and that was a surprise.

No doubt this sound profile was a function of some other part of the system or the CD they used, but again it seems that getting the right combination of components, that suits your ears, in your particular room really is the key.

The Olympica II's are gorgeous. With the vertical, side-mounted ports I would think they would be possibly less fussy about placement, but I've misjudged speakers and placement too often to have any valid comment on that issue.

BTW, snooping in hi fi stores is much more fun than work.....