About 4 years ago I was able to buy Magnepan 3.7i's. I've added a couple of REL subs. I've heard many brands over the years and unless you're spending 10x the money or more, nothing (IMHO) has come close. Love a good pair of Wilsons, or Magicos, but I feel I'm 98% of the way there with these, and can retire without the guilt of spending 6 figures. Every time I sit and listen, I am truly amazed.
After the thrill is gone
I think we all understand there is no “perfect” speaker. Strengths, weaknesses, compromises all driven by the designer’s objectives and decisions.
Whenever we make a new (to us) speaker purchase there is a honeymoon period with the perfect-to-us speaker. But as time wears on, we either become accustomed to the faults and don’t really hear or hear past them, or become amplified and perhaps more annoying or create minor buyers remorse or wanderlust.
I am guessing the latter would be more prevalent when transitioning to a very different design topology, eg cones vs horns vs planars etc.
While I’ve experimented with horns, single drivers, subwoofer augmentation … I’ve always returned to full range dynamic multi-driver designs. About to do so with planars but on a scale I’ve not done before, and heading toward end game system in retirement.
So I just wonder what your experiences have been once the initial thrill is gone? (Especially if you moved from boxes to planars)