Intuitive Summits & R.S. Audio Sasons?

I own the Sasons and love them, but have spoken many many times to Dale about the Summits too. They are, as you said, both very very good speakers with very little ad or review momentum, and the designers are top notch customer-focused folks. RSA's Steve Rothermel set mine up at my house and although they take literally weeks (45-60 days of constant signal) to break in (and sound like crap unitl then), they sing from 35hz and up, and are the most transparent transducers I've ever heard. The lowest registers are dialed in via a Velodyne SMS-1 and a PAradigm Servo 15. Steve and Robert have plans for other speakers in the line, inclding a sub someday.

What is your system made up of, and room dimensions? The Sasons would love to have considerable room from the front wall, and breathing room from the sides is beneficial also. Dr Hoover has his Summits closer to his front wall and his getting great results. Now that mine are well broken in (October 06), I may experiment with putting them closer (but I'll mark the floor in detail before I do...they are great in their current spot 7 ft out into the room).

Ted

I strongly disagree with Ted's statement that they need 45 to 60 days of continuous play or they "sound like crap". I have 580 hours on mine and they continue to mesmerize me everytime I am in the sweetspot. It is true that they need a significant amount of break-in, however 500 hours gets you very close to their capabilities.

Rythmace4218,
You are a lucky one. Not sure why you should strongly disagree with my statement, though; it's not debatable in my experience, it happened. You can say you didn't find this to be true in your experience, but I wasn't lying about mine. The good news is that maybe Steve and co are breaking them in more. He made a point of telling me back in October last year that my pair were very fresh, and struggled to find a good position for them when he was here. We even moved the room layout drastically. After a few days I moved everything back. At about the 6 week mark they blossomed into a completely different speaker...like night and day different, and proceeded to mature for 2 more weeks. So...net/net: good news on the newer versions.

I will join you in stating that the upstream components get put under the Sason's electron-powered microscope; if they are good sources, etc. the Sasons will reward handsomely. Things like cable and tube changes are quite evident with these transducers.

I did my much-closer-to-the-front wall experiment but the soundstage depth collapsed too much. I have become so used to the you-are-there 3-D soundstaging that any compromise is too much. But doing this moving had a side benefit: I ended upmoving them slightly back on a diagonal (my system pics are not here yet, but are on another forum) re-laser aligned them, and they snapped into focus even better than earlier.

Robert and Rythmace4218,
Thanks for the perspectives. Steve knew that I was truly eval'ing these speakers and taking advantage of the generous 45 day trial; we spoke about it very frankly and openly. I'm simply saying they sounded bad enough for me that there was absolutely no way I was keeping these speakers with their pre-42 day sonic signature because they weren't hinting at anything special about to emerge. I have beeen in this 30 years (I'm 53) and have never before experienced a metamorphisis where the butterfly emerges with such incredible beauty. And Robert's comments about being surpised that the Sasons sounded so good day one in your room(s) is further proof that our experiences are quite different but legit. So I'll put this to bed; all I wanted to tell prospective buyers is "hang in there".

Anyway, Rhythmace4218, did you get the newer shorter bodied-Sasons, with the external crossover-in-stand? I assume they sound similar but am frankly glad I own the larger ones; they are now even more of a one-of-a-kind speaker than before. :>)