Home Entertainment Show in Los Angeles

I think at 30k you need a sense of scale that only larger speakers can give you. While the monitor/sub combo has matured with the 8, and its a great speaker, at some point value has to come in. The low end, while good on the 8s isn't close to say the Maxx. I do think the 8s are smoother top to bottom than the 7s.

There are many speakers at 30k that I would look at while considering purchase of the 8s. Dynaudio, JM Lab, Peak Consult, Von Schweikert etc. just to name a few. The new 5SEs looked and sounded tasty at HE2006.

btw, i own Sophias, so am pro-Wilson. The 7s at 23k are pushing the limit in my view---30k is just over the top to me for what you get. It's a great, small speaker which is what they designed it for. I could say the same thing about several Kharmas as well.

btw, the new grill covers are 10x better than the velcro of old like I have.

KeithR

Thoughts on the Zu room? First time i had heard them. Seemed like the couch was setup in a room node (i asked as bass seemed weak for 4 10" powered woofers) which hurt bass response of the definitions, but thought the rest was really good for the money. I didn't care for the Druid demo however. Weird.

The Lamm room garners praise, but when i was in there the music bored me to tears so perhaps that is why it wasn't memorable.

I thought the W/P 8 room with ARC, 5As with ARC, and Sophia 2s with VTL all were great systems with high price tags. The 8s don't seem worth 30k to these ears. And the Sophia 2s sound very much alike to my originals.

All-in-all---this show has dissipated over the past 4 years. SF was good and NYC was good 3-4 years ago. Since then however, the show has had poor attendance.

btw, noticed the basic entire lack of home theater comapred to the nyc shows of past..

KeithR