Hales Transcendence 5 speakers endgame?

 

Still loving my Hales T1 and Transcendence center channel in my home theater set up.  Though I have Joseph Audio Perspective speakers for 2 channel listening, I often listen to music on my Hales-based HT set up - e.g. youtube performances or apple music.   Every time I listen I'm sooo glad I snagged these speakers.   So lush, so smooth, so rich and tonally convincing.

I have owned my Hales T5’s for about 10 years now. I first listened to a pair of Hales at K-Lab’s in Tulsa in the mid/later 90’s. I listened to a pair of Revelation 3’s on a Levinson #39 player ran raw to a 200 watt Levinson amp. Listened to a couple goose bump laden songs and Something happened in those moments that galvanized the experience. Sadly the company expired somehow. Rumor was the Audio stores didn’t want an under $10k speaker getting the attention of buyers looking for the more expensive Thiel, B&W, Wilson, Etc.

Years later another audio nerd buddy said he saw a pair of Hales in Tulsa on Facebook MarketPlace. I grabbed a sweaty wad of cash and burned a trail. Perfect Minty pair! Met another Great audiophile guy who should have never sold me his speakers Hahahaha!!
 

Anyway they are fantastic. I run mostly Apple Music through a Wadia 581i SE player, Raw, through Cardas Golden Reference Balanced cables to an Audio Research D400 MKII to the T5’s via Audio Art cables. It’s very satisfying soundstage. I have had Kef, Revel, JM Lab, Von Schweikert for the better stuff I’ve had in my system and none of the are in the same league as the Hales. I don’t know if all Paul’s speakers of that era have what I have experienced but I Love mine. Won’t be my last pair of speakers for sure but I’ll probably never sell these. Worth more to me than the dollar value they would bring anyway ya know?
 

My best friend and fellow audiophile who has the audio bug worse than me has the new Focal Sopra No,3’s a Wadia Dac. Pass Lbs Class A Mono-blocks and all Audioquest pure silver cables. And while admittedly his gear is better than mine, It doesn’t take anything away from how much I enjoy my couch, my well treated room and the sound of my amp click on. 
 

Just spectacular speakers. Thank you, Paul

 

That is great, mitchb. Hales was the first hifi speaker I heard that really mesmerized me. I owned a pair of Revelations for almost twenty years, paid for by working at Walmart.  There was pretty big gap between the Transcendence and Revelation respective tweeters, though. I agree with prof's older post, smooth with great timbre. Sealed bass too!

I love my Hales. They are the one component I will keep. I just had them refurbished and tested and although I told the technician I hired to refurbish my speakers that I was willing to spend up to $8000 to super mod them he recommended to match them as close as possible but that they were pretty close to maxed out already with the Seas Millennium tweeters and redone crossovers. He showed me the graphs of the speakers after the work and they are very close to each other. The problem was actually a poorly wired woofer which was throwing off the sound so he rewired and repaired the woofers and now the speakers measure very close to each other. 

Yeah the T5s I had were plenty awesome.   Super clean, clear, relaxed, dynamic, huge soundstage and killer imaging.   Really close to endgame speaker for me.

I just got my Hales T5’s back from repair and tuning and they measure very well. More to the point they sound awesome. They are the only component I didn’t upgrade. The Hales are definitely keepers.

I remember hearing the Hales 5 at a primarily Thiel dealer back in the day.  We were comparing the 5 to the Thiel CS7.1 and the Hales crushed the Thiel in most respects on that day.  It was all I could do to keep my wallet in my pocket.  I've thought over the years that the 5 was the one that got away.  Congratulations for capturing one!

Gents,
Anyone wanting to sell their original Hales T3,T5, T8, TCenter Vifa DG26AG-38-04 tweeters please get in touch. They all used the same tweeter. I rebuild the Vida's buy rewiring the diaphragm if its just voice the coil that burned out. As long as dome and surround are not damaged the repair is much better than any replacement using Madisound soft dome diaphragm or a replacement of tweeter with a different model. Once rebuilt and new ferrofluid added they sound identical to original. I can match impeadence to .2 Ohms of a partner tweeter.

These speakers were carefully voiced and changing the diaphragms or tweeters is going to change the magic these spekers are known for. 

Greg

I don’t know what SOTA stands for but in any case I would imagine that audio speaker technology would not have changed that much in the past 20 years. I could be wrong but the tweeters and midrange drivers in my Hales are still current and available in outfits like Madisound. I changed out my tweeters for Seas Millennium which match the midrange drivers which come with the Hales. I don’t know if the woofers are still available but I bought a pair of spare woofers years ago just in case. I also redid my crossovers with better quality parts and rewired them as well. I think my Hales are keepers.

@prof   I can believe that Paul produced a superior speaker for the time, he did have an excellent ear and was adept at designing excellent speakers. I just suspect that given the technology and the available driver options at the time, this speaker would not be close to SOTA today.

Thanks daveyf,
I would have some confidence in the sound of the Alexandra.   Paul was really focused on timbral accuracy and smoothness at that period, and his transcendence speakers - all metal drivers - where a marvel.  I can't imagine he'd suddenly stumble on this design.    One or two who heard it raved.

@prof   I saw the Alexandra speakers at the Stereophile show that year, they were a static display. If I remember correctly, Paul was there and I briefly spoke to him about the speakers. I'm not sure that the Alexandra's would sound any good, particularly by today's standards...those aluminum drivers and the beryllium tweeter would be the problem, IMHO.

I think the T8s are end-game level speakers.  I found a guy selling a great pair a few years ago and would have tried them out, but their size just didn't fit where I'd have to put them in my room.

BTW,  some Hales fans may be aware that just before Hales folded (and later went in to pro sound), Paul Hales produced a flagship Alexandra speaker, shown only once I believe at CES 99.  You can see a photo of it in this report:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/wces99/speakers.htm

I've always wanted to hear that speaker to see how far Paul pushed his design at the time.  Some reports said "best I've ever heard."I actually know by acquaintance the fella who managed to scoop up that one existing model!   (Never heard them, though).

With my particular setup, I have no problems with the highs that the MB's produce.

I owned Hales Sig 2's for about twenty years. In some ways they were a speaker that had few peers, yet they were also in many ways frustrating to own. I was never fond of the weight ( both in the bass and in their actual heft) and the lack of true bass. OTOH, once I sold them, I quickly realized the bass ( or lack thereof) wasn't the real issue, but how truly dreadful the MB Quart tweeter was. That tweeter was tremendously limited in its extension...and because of that, I believe the speakers were non-resolving in the highs. I only realized that after I heard a far more resolving and accurate tweeter...

The internal cables were  upgraded to Cardas Litz when I redid the crossovers and replaced the tweeters with Seas Millennium tweeters. As I listen to them now I prefer them to my Focal Utopia and Audeze LCD4 headphones with Moon 430ha headphone amp. The speakers are nice.

If you have not upgraded the internal wiring of the speakers, I strongly suggest you do, for it will yield yet another worthwhile improvement.

no it won't. The speaker would measure exactly the same no matter what wire you use. 

You have upgraded everything but the cabinet. So it cant be end game can it? Even then, it would still just be a wooden box with drivers in em so it cant be endgame.

An endgame would be a golf ball floating in midair unaffected by gravity. It would reproduce tones from 20hz all the way up to 20khz without any sign of stress or strain. Maximum volume would be equivalent to a rock concert. It would have an omni directional polar pattern so no lobing whatsoever. There would be no out of phase soundwave only the sound produced by the ball.

It would sound so perfect that it would make Magico and Rockport and Quad electrostatics sound like a broken toy. It would produce holographic imaging and infinite depth, width and height. You could sit behind them or in front, stand up or sit down and still enjoy PERFECT sound either way.

There would be no pesky box coloration. PERFECT impulse response. Perfect time cohesion. Perfect phase cohesion. It would sound so clear that you could play them 24/7 and never get tired. It would be eternal heaven.It would be the holy grail of every audiophile. It would make Magico and Wilson audio go out of business due to the sheer embarrassment of selling such expensive speakers that sound nothing like PERFECTION. Master Kenjit will go down in history as the finest audiophile that ever lived!

If you have not upgraded the internal wiring of the speakers, I strongly suggest you do, for it will yield yet another worthwhile improvement. I recommend you explore/test three different brands/models in order to optimize the speakers. 

I love Hales speakers.


The T8s are still one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard (it was my favorite when debuted at CES) and I owned the T5s for a number of years.


Paul Hales had a magical way with those drivers, making such a coherent, lush sound, an absolutely magically grain-free midrange and highs, with incredible soundstaging and imaging. And a timbral accuracy I still rarely hear from other speakers today. They were the speakers that showed me metal drivers could actually sound wonderful.I think they are competitive with anything today and definitely in the "end game" category, depending on the individual of course.



So why did I sell them?


Well...I’m an audiophile. Nuff said ;-)


But to be more specific: the two nits I had with the Hales were that they were so smooth they smoothed away a bit of presence and texture to the sound. There wasn’t quite the textural presence of some other speakers I liked. Also I found the sonic images weren’t as dense and palpable as I preferred.


I found for me a better combination of timbral accuracy, image density, dynamics and texture with Thiel speakers (which I still own).


But I still loved the Hales sound so much I tracked down rare-as-hens-teeth Transcendent 1 monitors and the T- Center channel for my home theater (in fact, bought some directly from Paul well after Hales folded).Best decision I ever made. I’d never give them up as they provide such a smooth, gorgeous, timbrally beautiful sound for home theater. I even bought extras in case any of them break!
Though I still have Thiels (2.7) I also added Joseph Audio Perspective speakers which use the similar SEAS drivers (though newer versions) for the midrange/base, like the Hales.   There must be something about those drivers because they have the same grain-free timbral beauty as the Hales.   But I'm getting a bit more texture out of them as well.

Had my Hales Signature Twos for 30 yrs.
With three subwoofers these puppies rock!

Hi mitchb,

I have been enjoying my Hales Transcendance 8 speakers for 21 years also.  I have upgraded everything in the system over the years except the turntable and arm.  During this time of improvements I never once thought about changing the speakers.  I mean that this never even crossed my mind as I planned and executed improvements to the system.  Still going strong and impressing me daily.  They do a lot right.  Only concern is failure of parts and what to do if it occurs, or find a replacement speaker.  I do have relationships with local high end dealers and I do take the time to listen to their brands when I do business with them.  Bottom line,I still would not switch unless I have to.  Enjoy what you have.

I suppose one man’s endgame is another man’s entry level.