I looked at purchasing the Focal Aria 948's and I kept asking the dealer, "WHERE'S THE BASS." I am sure your subwoofers were able to give the added bass extension they needed. I did like the tweeters and mid drivers, as they were very musical. Surprised you have not looked into buying a pair of the REL T/9i's or the REL S3's. They work differently than the Rythmic and are more discrete to build a larger sound stage.
I ended up with a pair of the Paradigm Prestige 85F's and I should have held off and purchased a true 3 way speaker. I am not sure why Paradigm designed these as a 2 1/2 way. However, the Vienna Acoustic Mozart's are also a 2 1/2 way. They have a very solid bass extension. I believe they get down to 24 Hz.
I went to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in October and listened to a pair of SALK Song3 Encore's, priced at $6,000 and they sounded better than a pair of $60,000 speakers I listened to. Jim Salk sells direct and as a result, he can afford to buy the best drivers available to deliver incredible sound quality. They get down to 24 Hz and there would be no need to add a subwoofer.
Not sure what the attraction is for a tube amp. I know they sound warm, but can they deliver the detail like the Parasound Halo Integrated Amp? I am a huge fan for Parasound, I am also very satisfied with the ARCAM AVR550 I purchased. However, the ARCAM AVR859, at a price of $6,000 is really incredible, as it sounded much better than the MacIntosh I listened to side by side. Their G technology provides pure A for the first 50 watts. The nice thing about ARCAM is you can listen to both 2 channel and surround for home theater applications in the same room.
I ended up with a pair of the Paradigm Prestige 85F's and I should have held off and purchased a true 3 way speaker. I am not sure why Paradigm designed these as a 2 1/2 way. However, the Vienna Acoustic Mozart's are also a 2 1/2 way. They have a very solid bass extension. I believe they get down to 24 Hz.
I went to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in October and listened to a pair of SALK Song3 Encore's, priced at $6,000 and they sounded better than a pair of $60,000 speakers I listened to. Jim Salk sells direct and as a result, he can afford to buy the best drivers available to deliver incredible sound quality. They get down to 24 Hz and there would be no need to add a subwoofer.
Not sure what the attraction is for a tube amp. I know they sound warm, but can they deliver the detail like the Parasound Halo Integrated Amp? I am a huge fan for Parasound, I am also very satisfied with the ARCAM AVR550 I purchased. However, the ARCAM AVR859, at a price of $6,000 is really incredible, as it sounded much better than the MacIntosh I listened to side by side. Their G technology provides pure A for the first 50 watts. The nice thing about ARCAM is you can listen to both 2 channel and surround for home theater applications in the same room.