I have had some time to get over the initial euphoria of the Salk Songtowers arriving here in the desert and to do some listening. I will admit its difficult to have any sense of objectivity when it comes to these speakers. In fact, here is the point in this brief review of my initial impressions where all factual data ends. I make no pretense from here on out for any objectivity. Everything from here forward should be viewed as the ravings of someone besotted with a brand new source of audio joy.
SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO SWERD: @Swerd was instrumental in helping me decide for the Salks. thanks. You got it completely correct.
Initial Impressions
Doing business with Salk Sound
Out of the box experience when they arrive
Placement and first tunes
Balance
Would I do it again?
Doing business with Salk Sound
For those of you who don’t know, Jim Salk only sells speakers via the web or telephone. There are no brick n mortar stores or dealers with demo equipment. Each speaker is made to order specifically for you when you get in the queue. There are a fair number of optional items so literally each set is somewhat unique. The lead time to delivery can be “daunting”.
Jim has figured out his target market. It isn’t newbs or lookiloos who are just shopping or just want to ask questions. It isn’t audiophools who need their egos stroked and a Perrier and a scone in a show room. Jim has taken aim at people with informed opinions who want something better than what the big box stores sell. You have to do the research and make your decision before you place your order. Nobody at Salk is going to “sell” you on a speaker.
Its efficient. Jim is very timely in his communications. I enjoyed his style of doing business.
Out of the box experience
Apple is a company widely known for having a great out of the box experience with their products. What does it feel like to have the box in your hands and go through the startup process? With Salk, the out of box experience is exceptional. Packing materials are top notch : but you can open everything without a tool or an axe or a chainsaw. Packing materials protect everything, and there isn’t one stitch of extra or waste.
Jim’s introductory materials cover everything you need to know, and don’t waste a sentence. I didn’t have a single question that wasn’t covered in his simple set of handouts. He includes a demo CD with the admonition to try and listen to it before you listen to your own demo CD. This was an instruction that was revealing and worth the effort.
The out of box experience was exceptional : no big box store loading cardboard in to your Subaru will get close.
Placement and first tunes
One of the immediate differences between my installed Klipsch system and the Songtowers was placement. I can place the Songtowers literally anywhere in the front of my listening room and they sound great. My Klipsch system had to be placed exactly in certain positions to create the phantom center channel. The Songtowers sounded great in the first place I put them and in every location since.
My initial impressions were a taller and deeper phantom center channel. As well, the listener has a lot more flexibility in the listening seat to move around and still get great sound.
Balance
If there is a characteristic that’s most noticeably different than the Klipsch it would be the total balance of the sound. On Jim’s demo cd, there are songs that highlight different characteristics in music: human voice, piano, stringed instruments, acoustic guitar and others. Each song is a home run for balanced sound: the speakers reproduce the whole enchilada without any effort at all.
My favorite comparison would be balance across the bottom end. The Eagles, Hotel California, Hell Freezes Over (Live) is an example. That’s an acoustic version of Hotel California and it begins with a kick drum. If I set my Klipsch up to get that kick drum just right (prominent but not overbearing) when I would then play Alison Kraus / Robert Plant, Raising Sand, and a tune like Killing the Blues, the bass line would simply drive you out of the room. If I set it up to get the Raising Sand album right, there would literally be no kick drum in Hotel California. The Salks just do it right and don’t blow it at the extremes.
Top to bottom and particularly everything in the middle, is “just right”. No peaks. No ear fatigue from the tweeters anymore. Their graphs of frequency response are flat as a table. They even send you the freq response curves for the tweeters in your speakers. Who does that? Salk does.
Would I do it again?
Would I do it again? In a word, yes. These aren’t cheap. Everybody has a different tolerance for cost and value and I’m no different. My existing system was sounding pretty darn good since working with the AH folks who can help with that kind of stuff. The new Salks sound better to me. Better is tough to define exactly in a way that’s objective and measured and defensible. I’m lucky this is a hobby and I don’t have to do any of that. I just have to like what I hear better than what I had. They are better and I’d do it again. Not only that but my wife has already said that after we spend a ton of money on her wish list (fair is fair) she would green light a second pair of Salks for the main listening room in the house. An expensive pair. The really juicy stuff like Salk Soundscape 8’s. That’s about as solid a testimonial as I can give.
Thanks for reading. Sorry I’m not better with the audiophool prose and outlandish claims and comments. I’m just a relative newb after all.
