I have been listening to my new 703's for 3-4 hrs. per day since receiving them a month ago (Safe and Sound still had two pair in stock). After having an opportunity to let the newness and excitement wear off and listening to them for 100 hours or so, I have come to the conclusion that if they are an improvement over my vintage Polk S10's I purchased in 1995, it is marginal at best. A direct comparison using the same receiver and amplifier (Marantz SR7005/NAD C272) and Sub (Martin Logan Dynamo 1000) revealed my old S10's produced stronger low-midrange and almost identical high end despite the much-hyped ring tweeters in the 703's. The source music for my comparison was John Mayer's "The Search for Everything" and "Sob Rock" CDs played on my Marantz ND8006. Yes, the old S10's are bass-heavy and loud, but that is easily corrected. I also used the exact same volume settings for both pairs of speakers. I just thought the 703s mids and upper freq's would be much more refined. I really like the 703's, but now I can appreciate how much speaker I actually got when I bought those S10's for three hundred bucks each back in '95.
