I'm afraid more bad news. Listening day number two... I visited three stores. Listened to dozens of speakers. Longest session was around 10 mins, shortest was under 10 seconds.
1.) KEF - Entire Q Line: Nice no fatiguing highs. Hard nasty lower midrange. Boxy/boomy bass. Build quality is cheap.
2.) Canton - Various monitors in the $2K range: Boxy, rolled off highs, boring.
3.) Harbeth P3ESR - Nonesense, unlistenable.
4.) Warfedale - Samples from multiple lines. Overall impression: Boxy, distorted, splashy, choked. Build quality is cheap.
5.) B&W - DM300, DM600, CM, PM lines are all unlistenable. The Nautilus Diamond 800 series is a strange animal. Very pleasant highs, midrange, and lower midrange. Glassy, rich, liquidy, focused, and non fatiguing. Where it all falls apart is in the bass unfortunately. It's not boomy, or boxy, but rather sounds like someone put the bass drivers in a sturdy cardboard box. Very unfortunate in an otherwise good sounding line. The build quality of the Nautilus 800 series is absolutely impeccable. World class.
6.) Focal - Everything up to and including the Electra line. Below Electra is unlistenable junk. Electra is another strange speakers. Biggest problem, is the cheap boomy cabinet. Makes the bass driver seem detached from the rest of the speaker. Gives a hollow sound. The highs are also splashy, but weirdly in a completely non fatiguing way. I'm a detail freak and these speakers provide it in spades. But to the point where even I had too much. Its just a very unatural, but non fatiguing speaker. BTW,the smaller Utopias sound pretty amazing.
7.) Revel - F32 and F52: Just as bad as the Performa M22. Unlistenable. Rather painful. Hollow.
8.) Thiel - CS2.4 tight bass, clear focused midrange and highs. Very enjoyable throughout and non fatiguing to listen to. But that is all Thiel has to offer. The CS1.6 is literally painful to listen to, so are the MCS1, SCS4 and SCS4T speakers. Could not bare them for more than a few second. Did not bother with the CS3.7. But I would strongly recommend the CS2.4s.
9.) Martin Logan - The entire line is unlistenable.
10.) Magnepan - The entire line is unlistenable.
11.) Mirage - All boomy and unlistenable.
12.) Definitive Technology - Boomy and unlistenable.
13.) Egglestoneworks - Isables and Andras were painful. Did not bother with the rest.
14.) Wilson - Sashas were hollow, detached, very similar to the Focal Electras. Did not bother with any other models.
15.) Gallo Acoustics - Simply painful.
16.) Amphion - Very hard and rather unpleasant. No bass.
17.) Rethm - Laughably bad.
18.) Bang & Olufsen - Boomy.
19.) Dynaudio - Does everything right, but doesn't want to excel. A good speaker, but without any interesting personality traits to stand out.
20.) Vienna Acoustics - Meh.
21.) Carnegie Acoustics - Unlistenable. Boxy, boomy, cheap, with a splashy ribbon tweeter.
22.) Phase Technology - Another speaker that does most things right, but is just sooooooo boring. Their sound signature is the total lack of personality.
23.) Mission - Boxy, boomy, cheap.
24.) OHM - Nonesense.
25.) Quad - Nonesense.
26.) Polk Audio - Cheap all around.
27.) Yamaha - Descent on an extremely limited budget.
28.) Avantgarde - Open, smooth, dynamic, efficient, non fatiguing, strange, beautiful to look at, 3D soundstage, etc. A great speaker, but who the heck can put that in their room???
29.) Naim - Good, but boring.
30.) Krell - Painful.
31.) Klipsch - One of the better speakers under $1000 range. If it wasn't for the Epos, Klipsch would take the crown.
32.) Nohr - Painful.
33.) Sonus Faber - Beautiful to look at, impeccable build quality, hollow sound, grainy, harsh, chocked, slightly boomy bass, nothing exciting.
34.) Energy - Decent if on a budget.
35.) Proac - Smaller monitors are all unlistenable. Hard, no bass, grainy, painful, etc. Larger monitors are OK.
So a nasty trend is developing. Nearly all of the manufacturers, including the ultra expensive high end, are skimping out on cabinets. Or simply don't know what they're doing, or how to properly build boxes.
Since I'm used to the Goldmund Logos1 monitors, it makes it very hard to listen to cheap MDF speakers. The Goldmunds are made out of a 2cm thick bar stock aluminum plates. And heavily braced inside. They virtually have no vibrations while the speakers are playing and add absolutely no coloration. If I rap on them with my knuckles, it feels like I'm hitting a solid block of metal.
95% of all of the speakers that I've listened to have a boxy, or boomy sound. I can hear it immediately and I'm turned off right away.
Now, the cheap 0.75" vinyl laminated MDF Epos Epic 2 ($800pr.) loudspeakers, had no boxiness, or boominess of any kind! Their cabinets did not feel anymore sturdier than the competition. So I'm guessing they're actually using a smart bracing system internally that actually works.
So far, in no particular order, I like the following manufacturers:
Totem
Epos
B&W
Goldmund
Thiel
Dynaudio
Coming up: Revel Ultima2, PSB Synchrony, KEF R-Series, Blade, and Reference, Jamo, Boston Acoustics, Monitor Audio, YG Acoustics, Magico, Audio Physic, and Avalon Acoustics.
