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Hales Design Group speakers....how good were they?

I started a threat awhile ago http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?hbest&1125332737&read&3&4&
basically asking people to outline the best home system they've ever heard. A relative (into audio) was most impressed by a friend that once owned Hales Design Group speakers. The setup was unique, with the room being one of the best natural setups he'd heard. This person was from Calgary and used an Ayre K1-X pre with a NAD amp and CAL audio CDP. Needless to say its unusual. But he swears it was best and weirdest setup he'd ever heard. Who spends $8k on a pre and $1k on the amp and source...it drove the owner of a local highend dealer bananas because he himself couldn't build a room that sounded as good, and had no system that could touch it. He had quite the arsenal of speakers at his disposal as well, including Reference 3A, Oskar, Dali, Meadowlark. At any rate I was wondering why I hadn't heard of these speakers before? I realize the company has gone belly up, and they are dated. How would they hold up to current offerings by Reference 3a, Von Schweikert, Gallo Nucleus, Totem etc...
lush
joshcondie
3 posts
 
I just picked up a pair of perfect Hales Rev 3's and would love to hear how people have positioned them in smaller to medium sized rooms. Mine are mated with Bryston 4BST amp; Cary SLP-50B Preamp and Arcam Alpha 9 CDP.

This thread would seem to know.

Thanks!
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
joshconde.....a great system indeed!!!!!! the hales sound great in a small room too. aimed like a nearfield monitor, they will transport you
brawny
51 posts
 
From 1998 through 2001, I owned both the Hales T-5's and T-8's. They were fantastic sounding speakers. Image density and bass quality was fanatstic! In 1999, Paul Hales made a prototype speaker called the Alexandria. It used a ribbon tweeter. It was by far the most musical loudspeaker I ever heard. Paul was one of the only loudspeaker designers that was able to make loudspeakers that not only sounded good but also measured well on the test bench. Very flat frequency response. IMHO Hales loudspeakers were unmatched in terms of musicality. IMHO Hales offerings sounded much better than most of today's offerings.
downunder
1,329 posts
 
Anyone know what Paul Hales is doing now??
brawny
51 posts
 
He was working for a pro audio company in southern Califiornia for the past several years. However, I heard that he recently left that company. It would be interesting if he ever came back to the high-end audio world. Before Hales went under he was working on horn designs.
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