Well, like I said there was a constant hum from the HVAC (it must have been directly above the room with only a suspended ceiling and the roof between it and the room). So please take this with a grain of salt, but they did not have much "life". The music was there, but not exciting at all. I guess I would attribute this mainly to a subdued or veiled high end. Someone familiar with the speakers may be able to say if this is a reasonable observation. I heard other speakers (under better listening conditions) that were more engaging and didn't look back.
I listened to a few speakers at around $1000. Try the Paradigm Studio20 or the Totem Rainmaker. For "full" range bookshelfs, they were the best I heard. If you like the Paradigms, I have a boxed pair which are effectively new that I need to sell one of these days (I bought these because I liked their sound and wanted to have them at home and carry them to stores to do comparisons - I ended up deciding to move to Paradigm S-2's).
To my ear, The Totems had
excellent sound with smaller ensembles like quartets, chamber, and acoustic music; but they lost ground to the Paradigms when things got really busy (full blown orchestral and big band, for example).
If you listen to new age, Diana Krall, and small jazz ensembles, get the Totems; they are beautifully balanced speakers for this type of "open" music!
HTH!
PS - I'll sell my Studio20's (version 5) to you for $825 shipped if you are interested. But don't buy them because of the price - listen to them first. The differences in speakers and how they sound to
your ear is too important to buy something just because you get a good price.
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61111&highlight=Paradigm
