Its a bit of hit and miss because of the differences ancillaries can make to a speakers sound but I identify with the 3a walking a fine line of analytical as you say. The decapos arent analytical to a fault, though. I find them to be very objective and quite musical at the same time but yes a little more "mellow" and smoothness in them wouldnt hurt. But having said that the original question was about the nouveaus(or even the virtuoso's as they have the same corian cabinetry)which are better than the decapos and are probably closer competition to the encore's being that the cabinetry makes them apparently smoother and warmer. If the encores are like the wilson, which to me are like the merlins than i dont know if i would be interested in the encores. I heard some wilsons driven with macintosh gear and like the merlins they were holographic but to my taste lacked color, texture and body. I notice that merlin and encore both use scanspeak and mdf. They use them differently but nevertheless the basic ingredients are still there. I mention this cause it leads me to believe that if the encores use the same materials as the merlins that they might have a similar nature. I never found the merlins to have any real visceral impact and apparently neither do the encores. The above mentioned caveats was the deal breaker for me with the merlins. Though i still think their an intersting speaker. The nautilus 805 for a little standmount was quite visceral compared to the merlin. I liked that speakers physical impact. Anyways i like the capo's and if nouveau's take those qualities and smooths everything out but the encore's are still somewhat lean like the merlin/wilsons than perhaps the nouveau is my speaker. I dont know i'm just trying to work this out, outloud. Am i barking up the right tree?
