I obviously only speak for myself, but I'll throw a few thoughts at you about these...
They look like they need a big room - I read one review where they were 8 feet apart, and 4 feet more each from the side walls, and 3 feet from the back walls. That's not a huge room, but it's a good-sized room. This is likely a gross generalization on my part, I grant you, but usually people who can afford that kind of real estate, to give speakers like that the room they need to breathe, also have the affluence to buy speakers more expensive than this so maybe for someone with the affluence to have a listening room this large a $5000 speaker doesn't have enough panache. In other words, if you can afford a living room to hold a speaker like this, you may be buying Wilsons, or Magicos, or B&W 802, etc. etc. Not necessarily because they sound better, but just because you can. I can't help but wonder if these are right there on the fence, a marketing-pricing dilemma...is it possible they're priced too low and are being disregarded by the affluent crowd? Being priced too low can be just as damaging sometimes as being priced too high.
For everyone else, without big dedicated listening rooms or living rooms (mine is maybe 12x16?), they're just too much speaker - specifically too much subwoofer and too many bass radiators.
And I don't visually mind the socks at all, but they wouldn't last 2 days in our house, with dogs and cats. In that same review, the reviewer said in conversations with someone from Golden Ear that they've never run across anyone who had any damage to a sock from a cat. Seriously? Not one customer had to replace a sock? But even setting that aside - these aren't the only speakers that have cloth coverings, of course - think of the guy/gal who has the $$$ to give these speakers the necessary real estate. If you've got some money to burn, what looks cooler to burn it on...B&W 802D, or some Raidhos, or these covered in black fabric?
Again, I don't mind the sock (cats aside), I'm just trying to put myself in the mind of someone putting together a system in a large room and imagining what kinds of options they have and how they'd think of it if you allow for a little vanity.
They look like they need a big room - I read one review where they were 8 feet apart, and 4 feet more each from the side walls, and 3 feet from the back walls. That's not a huge room, but it's a good-sized room. This is likely a gross generalization on my part, I grant you, but usually people who can afford that kind of real estate, to give speakers like that the room they need to breathe, also have the affluence to buy speakers more expensive than this so maybe for someone with the affluence to have a listening room this large a $5000 speaker doesn't have enough panache. In other words, if you can afford a living room to hold a speaker like this, you may be buying Wilsons, or Magicos, or B&W 802, etc. etc. Not necessarily because they sound better, but just because you can. I can't help but wonder if these are right there on the fence, a marketing-pricing dilemma...is it possible they're priced too low and are being disregarded by the affluent crowd? Being priced too low can be just as damaging sometimes as being priced too high.
For everyone else, without big dedicated listening rooms or living rooms (mine is maybe 12x16?), they're just too much speaker - specifically too much subwoofer and too many bass radiators.
And I don't visually mind the socks at all, but they wouldn't last 2 days in our house, with dogs and cats. In that same review, the reviewer said in conversations with someone from Golden Ear that they've never run across anyone who had any damage to a sock from a cat. Seriously? Not one customer had to replace a sock? But even setting that aside - these aren't the only speakers that have cloth coverings, of course - think of the guy/gal who has the $$$ to give these speakers the necessary real estate. If you've got some money to burn, what looks cooler to burn it on...B&W 802D, or some Raidhos, or these covered in black fabric?
Again, I don't mind the sock (cats aside), I'm just trying to put myself in the mind of someone putting together a system in a large room and imagining what kinds of options they have and how they'd think of it if you allow for a little vanity.