If you could do a blind shootout...

I'm tossing the cost qualification aside and going for broke.

Ohm, MBL, Avantgarde, Dynaudio, Avalon, Magico, Apogee, Classic Audio Reproductions, Emerald Physics, Klipschorns.

That would be John Strohbeen.

Jim,

Thanx for the compliments and I agree about operating in good spirit, but frankly, their is nothing particularly altruistic in my interest. It just sounds like a great opportunity to me to have some fun listening to other people's toys!

I'm not crazy about shootouts where all speakers are driven by the same system unless it can be established up front that the system is equally well matched for each case.

Without this pre-requisite in place beforehand, the results are biased and of limited value to the consumer.

With it, the results can have meaning as long as technically how well the speakers match to the system can be assessed and that information published along with the results.

Otherwise, people looking for real useful information will be mislead to expect certain things with these speakers on their systems and in their rooms, which are different, and have stronger chance of being disapointed in reality.

Can you tell us the exact system that would be used and some general room characteristics? That will make a difference regarding which speakers should be considered in the target price range.

Having each set up and reviewed in an optimized environment also sounds much better.

The OHMs in the $3000 range specifically would be the OHM 200 Series 3. These target "medium" sized rooms as defined on the OHM site. If the shootout room is smaller, OHM 100 Series 3 at ~ $1700 would be the ones. Significant break-in time is required to sound best, particularly with the larger models.

As cited in your small speaker shootout already, it may not be in the interest of better established and already well reviewed vendors to participate and risk looking bad for the purpose of "entertainment". These things are highly subjective after all. There has to be a benefit in it for the vendor. The vendors who participated in that one were largely not household names, so it'll be interesting just to see who participates. I suspect the higher the target price range, the fewer vendors that would be willing to have their products perceived value diminish.

From the consumer's perspective, I have no objection to entertainment exhibitions as long as it is presented that way, much like with pro wrestling these days.

Jix,

The difference is the large variety of individual comments and observations available via sites like this. If you read enough comments and observations, good or bad, accurate or inaccurate, eventually patterns will emerge that are more reliable indicators of truth than any subjective observations from a small and supposed unbiased panel of experts. Its just basic probability theory at work.

No reason why a shootout cannot add to the body of info available, but it is just one sample out of a much larger body of experience and information available out there these days via the wonder of the Internet.

HAving said that, I personally would love to see such a shootout involving leading or most highly regarded brands/models for both informational and entertainment reasons and I think many would find such a thing very interesting.

Where do I volunteer?