B&W, Dynaudio, Dali or what else?

to Matt Zak, I am a Dali dealer as well as many othe fine lines and I also used to sel the Verity Audio speakers.

There is no hardness of forwardness in the Dali's however, you can make them or anyother speaker sound shrill if you mismatch it. The setup you heard may have favored the Verity but I can tell you without reservation after having done this for 20 years professionaly that Dali builds some of the world's greatest speakers bar none! My friend Clement Perry of Sterotimes has the Dali Megalines which are unbelievable, but he has them meticulously well set up and he uses a sub.

I have the MS 4 with a subwoofer and they sound absolutly ammazing. The combination is around $16k but I would compare my setup with $25,000 speakers anyday of the week.

It all comes down to setup. I am using superb equipment, I have vibration control, I have room tuning gear, I have power cables and conditioners etc. High end is an art and you can not just switch speakers and claim one blows the other away without anylizing if your combination favored one or the other speakes intrinsic qualities.

I would invite you to hear my MS 4 and see for your self how good the speakers really are!

>>One thing I want to add is that my 800's sounded kind of edgy and analytical for the first 100-200 hours of playing. Maybe the MS 5's you've listened to were brand new out of the box (my guess). This is sometimes the issue with demoes. The speakers have not been broken in (sometimes on purpose)and that gives listeners the totally wrong impression of how they really sound.>>

I can't say for certain that this was not the case, as I forgot to mention that the dealer had just received a pair of high-end ML speakers that were unboxed right in front of me, and setup for break-in as I listened (and those definitely sounded edgy and analytical), but I just wrote off my impressions to them being brand new without break-in.

I can't say for sure whether the dealer had unboxed the MS5s earlier that day or around that time and did not tell me... But what I *can* say is that this was a private show room (all custom built and insulated to maximize the sound of the speakers in each room), and the dealer (owner/installer really) was super-knowledgeable and it would go against the grain to think he would make a critical error as to demo a pair of speakers that was not in its best light. Quite frankly, it was the best experience I have had at a "dealer." Still, can't be 100% sure, I guess...

---Dave

Guys, thanks again for all your postings. I hope that everyone of that is willing to spend $10000.00 and up is aware of the fact that break in and system synergy is crucial when judging a speaker. I've tweaked what I currently use and listen to substantially since I first got the Dali's because even though they sounded great when I auditioned them, things changed a bit when I first listened to them at home. My listening room is 19x36ft with and opening into the kitchen at the far end. It has hard wood floors and partial wood paneling on the wall. Perhaps all that made the speakers sound initially a bit brighter. This issue has been fixed and know everything sounds the way I like it. That is why my first thought was to upgrade to the MS 4 or 5's. I thought the 5's would be a better fit for my large room though. I appreciate everybodies input so far and will start auditioning some of the recommended speakers.

Good thread!!

You really owe it to yourself to hear a good pair of line sources and line arrays. I would strongly recommend you check out Selah Audio, or wait on the new line speakers that Danny Richie (GR-Research) is designing for AV123, that should be available before too long.. Info about them over at audiocircle.com. Or if I had the money, I may pick up the diamond black WP7s here on Agon for 12,500.

Agree with the guys above - matching and set up are critical, but all those speakers mentioned (except the B&W (flat sounding to me) and the Merlin VSM (nice but overpriced for what they are) imo are good choices)

Good luck!