this is a curve ball, but if your memories of the hales are (as i suspect) great...even legendary), i'd tell you to look at avalon, hales(used), chapman, and dunlavy......if your memories are they are 'just ok', this opens the field up to pretty much anything....and there are lots of greats out there.
looking for speakers under 3K new or used,,,help
I have been out of the audio arena for some time and have reaquired the adiction. Back in the day I had Merlin signature 4's, Hales system 2's, b&w matrix 802's and magnepan's. My eletronics are a levinson 23, audio research LS3, Krell KAV250cd. Due to the economey all the high end stores in my area have closed or carry nothing but A/V junk. The merlins I had were great in the mids and bottom end, but were a little rolled off in the top, the B&W's were very dry in the mids for me, the maggies had a great presance but just did not do well with all types of music and my friend has the 1.6's and this still has not changed in my opinion, the Hales I had were my top speaker I owned I loved the detail but they could tend to be a tad bright and they are out of business. I have looked at the Merlin VSM's and they get great reviews but was hoping for some other sugestions based on the tastes I have discribed above.
HELP SOMEONE WHO LIVES IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE AND CAN'T GO LISTEN TO THIS STUFF IN PERSON
HELP SOMEONE WHO LIVES IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE AND CAN'T GO LISTEN TO THIS STUFF IN PERSON