Perlisten S4b and D12s in house

The S4b is a fascinating speaker that has intrigued me.  Audoholics saying that the S7t was the best measuring speaker they have ever tested pushed me over the top.  I can't fit the S7ts in my space so the more appropriately sized standmounts were orderd.  Samples arrived.  

They showed up well packed in thick, double boxed corrugated.  The grills are packed in boxed that provide additional protection.  The speakers and subowoofer are in large, cloth bags for a final layer of protection. 

Out of the box the S4bs showed a lot of promise but seemed....dark.  I liked what I was getting.  Lots of detail but there was something off.  Distributor said they needed 4 or 5 days to break-in.  I played for hours and they got a little better....maybe.  I thought, this is more neutral than my speaker so let me grab a brighter amp than my standard AVM A5.2.  No change. 

I am impatient so I decided to use the old trick of aligning the speakers face to face, reversing the polarity of one of the speakers and playing brown noise for a few hours.  This is a suggested approach by Raidho as it radically hastens break-in and Raidho's take 500 hours to break in.  

After running the break-in, wow!  What a change.  This is one of the most profound changes in tonality I have heard.  For those of you who don't believe in break-in, buy these.  You can't claim this was a slow adaption of my senses because i was not listening to them.  Before and after, there was a huge difference in tonality.  

This is an open airy speaker with an incredible amount of detail.  The soundstage is wide and off axis performance is insane.  It is a three way design with a beryllium tweeter and two carbon fiber domes.  They claim this array took 18 months to get right.  I believe it.  This is the best beryllium implementation I have heard.  Not a HINT of a metallic edge to the tweeter and like I said above, off axis performance is simply better than any speaker I have ever heard.  This is sealed design so bass response is not insanely deep but it is refined.  Proximity to wall was highly flexible.  I have run them at 1', 2' and 3' and hear no significant difference in performance in terms of soundstage and imaging.  

Compared to my long-term reference Vivids Kaya 45s and my own Verdant Blackthorn 1s, the soundstage is similar.  They are a bit more forward and feel more unconstrained.  This is a common trait of composite cabinets vs. MDF/HDF but they are not close to the Perlisten's in terms of off-axis performance.  Basically, they are similarly detailed but the Perlisten's are more....I don't know how to describe it.  They aren't forward, they aren't laid back.  They aren't bright, they aren't dark.  The sound isn't thin.  It isn't bloated.  I guess this is what a speaker that measures essentially perfectly must sound like.  For certain types of music, I liked the increased energy of the Vivids or my speakers.  For other music, the Perlistens are superior.  Off axis, the Perlistens are superior.  

Regarding the D12s sub.  Perlisten was smart knowing the sub is super heavy and loaded it upside down.  You loosen ties on the bag and basically lay the box on its side.  This is a big, heavy unit.  But it is easy to place and is even easier to integrate. 

There are three bass DSP settings.  THX, Large Room and Small Room.  The cossover and setting are turned off.  I used the DSP, took measurements and and they were great and it sounded great.  I turned on the crossover.  I made tweaks to integrate with each of my speakers knowing where the appropriate crossover point are and it measured better with the DSP alone .  The DSPs calculate 1000x per second to ensure smooth integration with your speakers.