Zaikesman, my name is Keith not Kevin (Kevin is my brother in law, heh heh).
Putting the system aside I heard the Gilmore Speakers in, I can say with confidence that I have NEVER heard any speakers sound like the Gilmore speakers driven by ANY electronics.
I have never heard any system sound that I have been more impressed with (on axis) than the system at Gilmore's house. His electronics are very, very good; however, they are not what I would call insanely priced statement pieces. The system was composed of some speaker cables of his own design, two 60wpc Atmasphere OTL monoblocks that were an older Atmasphere chassis, XLR IC that is Gilmore's design, an Atmasphere preamplifier. The front ends we were using was a turntable that I was not familiar with, but it had a Van Den Hul Frog cartridge which I am familiar with. The digital we were using is a product I am working on developing. So far it competes with digital upwards of $20k+ (my target retail price is $3k or so, it will be able to function as a transport, DAC, and preamplifier). I like it better than my reference digital that I have used in the past. I do have a lot of experience with Atmasphere amps (one of my best local audio friends has a pair).
Anyway electronics aside, the Gilmore speakers can be looked at actually as a value. How can they be a value at $12.5k or so retail?
- You do not need an extremely powerful amp to drive them. This can save you a lot of money on an amp.
- No subwoofer needed. This can save you some bucks.
- No aftermarket stands required to get amazing sound. Many speakers require some sort of aftermarket stand to get acceptable performance.
- Shipping price on these speakers should not be too bad. They sure cost less to ship than say a pair of VR-7 speakers.
All of the above taken into account could cut the price of these speakers by about $1000 to upwards of $10k+ depending on any number of variables.
I'll give you an example. Take the Maggie 3.6's. Their base price is around $4k. Add a nice subwoofer for $2k. Add some nice stands for $300 or so. Sink $4k more (than you would spend on an amp for the Gilmore speakers) into nice powerful 600wpc solid state monoblock amps. Total price for this setup: $10.3k. Yeah, this is still about $2k less expensive than Gilmore's Model 3; HOWEVER, you are still going to get sound that only approaches the Gilmore speakers stock. Frankly, IMHO there would be no comparison. I had Maggies for many years, and they sound undynamic and slow compared to the Gilmore speakers. And I do not care what gear you have the Maggies hooked up to. I have heard them driven by $200k reference systems that were DESIGNED for the sole purpose of getting every ouce of performance from them. Still there is not a lot of comparison between that sound and the sound I experienced at Gilmore's house. One more thing... Integrating any sub seemlessly with the Maggie 3.6's is next to impossible. It can be done well... but seemelessly: no way in heck. Even totally rewiring your Maggies and getting a nice external active crossover will not put you in the realm of the Gilmore speakers.
Ok I am starting to sound like an infomercial.
My point is that the first time I heard about these Gilmore speakers, I thought yadda yadda yadda another speaker coming down the pike whose hype is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.
After hearing thse speakers in person, I can safely say their really is not much hype. Fact: yes; hype: nope.
If you like listening on axis, these speakers will probably make your jaw drop. If you like listening in other positions (off axis vertical and/or horizontal), you should audition these speakers first because I think their performance falls off quite a bit off axis. This though is not abnormal thing with many speakers. That is the worst thing I can say about these Gimore speakers.
KF
