Green Mountain Europas....

I just bought a pair and am awaiting shipment. I auditioned them in an audio shop while on vacation and was very impressed with their detailed yet non fatiguing sound. I will keep you posted when they arrive and let you know how they are.

Well - they arrived yesterday , and even though I'm a cpa and its tax season, I set them up at 9PM and stayed up till midnight for a listening session. So far, right out of the box, I'm impressed. I am driving them with a muse model 9 signature version 3, batvk5i, levinson 331 amp. Haven't set up the vinyl yet, but I will soon. Interconnects are old fms and audioquests. I'm sure I'll get or make some cables (I am of the school that thinks most of the cables out there are a total rip off). Speaker cables are some very plain old moster cable (yes I know, get better cables - I'll get to that eventually).

While placement is on a bookshelf (yes I need stands, I will also get to that), the sound was quite good. Warmed up considerably after two hours. Initial impressions with a variety of music ranging from Mark Lanegan, Rickie Lee Jones, Beethoven, Chopin, New York Rock N Soul Review, Peter Gabriel - was that they are MUSICAL. Thats the biggest impression that I got was that they are very very musical. It was hard not to just close your eyes and lose yourself in the music. The highs were crystal clear without being etched (read non fatiguing), very very airy extended top end, - midrange was luxurious - sweet, clean, immediate and present. Male and femal vocals were hauntingly clear. Every breath was audible. I was hearing things on these recordings that I hadn't in the past. The sound was cohernet and integrated - that was one of their finer traits as well. The sense of unity was astounding and cohesiveness of the speaker was impressive. Bass was good - a solid foundation - even though ported - they did not have that ported sound that many speakers get that have ports when pushed. These speakers can play extemely loud with ease and no sense of strain or fatigue. I was at between 20-30 on my pre (up to 99) and found them to be plenty loud. I did get a bit of bass boominess at louder volumes, but I am certain thats because I had them on the bookshelf - I will report back when I get proper stands for them and push them to higher volumes when properly set up away from the back wall/bookshelf. I am ceratin that this will solve that issue. The owner's manual is great and tells you in layman's terms about proper set up and about room interaction and how to mititage it. So far, I think these are giant killers. I'll report back as they break in more. I think I'm going to be very satified with these little speakers!

Brief update - While I do not have proper speaker stands yet - they are on order - I did the old college trick with some crates and have the speakers properly set up, away from the back and side walls, equidistent from the listening position and toed in properly. Wow is all I can say. Gone is any sense of bass boominess when pushed. They are rock solid - speedy - articulate. Imaging is superb - and talk about prat - these guys really have it. I am truly blown away by these speakers. Giant killers in every sense of the word.

KcClone - I echo phasecorrect's comments. I think over time you will find that they are musically very involving, and have a very articulate character. This is a tough balancing act. Just as a frame of reference, these have repaced a pair of full range electrostatic hybrid speakers in my system. These stats garnered rave reviews in quite a few of the hifi rags. The stats had some qualitites which were superior to the europas (mainly transparency - soundstaging is a tough call - its close), but overall I think the europas are better at many things (musical invovlement, coherence, prat, off axis response, waf, less maintenance) and at about 1/10 of the price.