Yeah, just to give a perspective, for the last 15 years or so I've always gone to the NY shows and would always have a good listen to the well known midsize reasonably priced floorstanders/Monitors that would regularly be there that I really liked and actually felt, yep, these are all pretty good, different from each other and I could live with them. These were (in various versions) the Von Schweikert VR4, Merlin VSM, Joseph RM7 or RM33, or the Dynaudio C1s.
They all had some important consistent strong points I mentally noted year after year (VSR vocals/rounded mids/sweet highs/percussion, Merlin openness/bass/ambience, Joseph coherency and natural driverless sound, and Dynaudio dynamics and solid bass).
But somehow the Lahaves, have a more compelling emotional and live sound that makes it significantly preferable to any one of these, the ability to draw me in with no hint of abuse, even if one of the above technically beats in in one of the areas of strength I noted. So for me, the Lahaves are the champ here.
They all had some important consistent strong points I mentally noted year after year (VSR vocals/rounded mids/sweet highs/percussion, Merlin openness/bass/ambience, Joseph coherency and natural driverless sound, and Dynaudio dynamics and solid bass).
But somehow the Lahaves, have a more compelling emotional and live sound that makes it significantly preferable to any one of these, the ability to draw me in with no hint of abuse, even if one of the above technically beats in in one of the areas of strength I noted. So for me, the Lahaves are the champ here.