Halcro,
"To this day, there are things that the original CLS speakers could do that I've never heard bettered by ANY speakers anywhere."
I could not agree with you more! I dont't believe they are the best speaker in existence, just one of the best. Frequency extremes may be a problem, lower octaves can be supplemented with a lightening fast sub if you can find one that will keep up with the el stats. However, at the price they go in the used market + cost of replacing panels you will be hard pressed to find a better loudspeaker, nothing even comes close in my opinion. CLS overbuilt originals are something special.
I have heard them extensively, driven with a HK Citation XX. This amp is unattainable, for those that do not know about it, it was an amp originally designed for the president of the company in a virtually limitless budget project. only a few had access to it, namely the executives of HK. Oh yeah and it was brought to earth by Dr. Matti Otala the guy that discovered transient intermodulation distortion. Let's keep it simple and just call it audio-un-obtanious. It was rated conservatively @ 250 watt into 8 ohms and drove the speakers absolutely insane. I have heard the same system driven by a pair of 200 watt heavily modified Bogen mono block amps powered by some monster 8714 tubes. It was like heaven on earth..yeah the audience sounded like it was behind me as did the clinking tea cups in Jazz at the pawnshop.
I am no expert, and I know that for some reason 250 watts is different on each amplifier, but I thought an amp like the 200+ watt Macs, Levinson, or Citation 7.1 might drive the CLS. Very interested in hearing from you guys on this, please keep posting.
"To this day, there are things that the original CLS speakers could do that I've never heard bettered by ANY speakers anywhere."
I could not agree with you more! I dont't believe they are the best speaker in existence, just one of the best. Frequency extremes may be a problem, lower octaves can be supplemented with a lightening fast sub if you can find one that will keep up with the el stats. However, at the price they go in the used market + cost of replacing panels you will be hard pressed to find a better loudspeaker, nothing even comes close in my opinion. CLS overbuilt originals are something special.
I have heard them extensively, driven with a HK Citation XX. This amp is unattainable, for those that do not know about it, it was an amp originally designed for the president of the company in a virtually limitless budget project. only a few had access to it, namely the executives of HK. Oh yeah and it was brought to earth by Dr. Matti Otala the guy that discovered transient intermodulation distortion. Let's keep it simple and just call it audio-un-obtanious. It was rated conservatively @ 250 watt into 8 ohms and drove the speakers absolutely insane. I have heard the same system driven by a pair of 200 watt heavily modified Bogen mono block amps powered by some monster 8714 tubes. It was like heaven on earth..yeah the audience sounded like it was behind me as did the clinking tea cups in Jazz at the pawnshop.
I am no expert, and I know that for some reason 250 watts is different on each amplifier, but I thought an amp like the 200+ watt Macs, Levinson, or Citation 7.1 might drive the CLS. Very interested in hearing from you guys on this, please keep posting.