So you're another Alex. I think I'm starting to see a pattern here but you will from here on be known as Old Southern Alex (OSA).
Unless you're suggesting that Kurt has a thing for Alex's, I'm not sure of the pattern. But will gladly accept my new nickname! Especially since neither of those terms have ever been used to describe me, despite my hairline!
I noticed that they sounded better in Dennis' space than YAA's space. I think it's got something to do with the wooden floor over a basement that uses the stair way as a port for extra boom and floor rumble.
Don't know YAA, but speakers of this quality do require mindful set up and location. This is when good speakers can sound mediocre simply because of the room. And the Phils sure did when placed in Kurt's living room, and so I was 'put off'. But then I kept reading Toole's 'Sound Reproduction' (still not finished but it also is covered in Hi-Liter and folded corners...) and looking over the Phil's website and said, "There must be more that I'm not hearing!" So I asked to bring them over and took time placing them and adjusting stuffing etc. and was mesmerized! Acoustic only music has never sounded so good! But even then, electric guitars and basses come through with such distinction, that you can hear the tonal differences of guitar pick ups and the skill each note is played with; similar to a single tube Class A guitar amp, you must play perfectly cause of the short signal path, that it exacerbates any slight string buzz or weak fingering!
I bring up 'dialogue intelligibility' in threads a lot, and for example, if you've ever watched either Pitch Perfect, the quiet asian girl that mumbles her lines, she is heard with perfect clarity in my room. And I've achieved clarity like that with every set of speakers reviewed. From the room's transition frequency, to about 3000 hz it would seem to me that reproduction of those frequencies is more dependent on speaker placement than of the driver's ability to reproduce all the nuances. You simply can't hear the nuances with a poorly placed speaker. And distance to the rear wall is key!
Dennis' cabinet manufacturer, Del, makes some rock solid enclosures. Salk does have better finishes and that is reflected in the price. Gotta pay to play ... unless you know Kurt.
Apparently Del moved to Hawaii, so Salk is the man, now. I have not ever communicated with Salk, but Dennis was quite impressed with Jim's 'no compromise' approach to finishing. And as someone who does furniture grade, hand rubbed finishes, it is an incredibly time consuming process! And you have little control! Each piece of wood varies in the number of coats it needs, and temp/humidity means the difference between applying one coat in 24 hrs, or five coats! And the Arm-R-Seal that I use, needs 2 weeks to cure!
