ProAc Future Series: A "Dead Dog" or just Dead??

Probably most people judge the speakers by the looks, because once you heard a Proac Future (one or two)working as they should, you'd have a hard time hearing anything else.
I own a pair of future one, and it has the best piano reproduction I have ever heard (not even the WATT 5.1 or the Egglestoneworks)....
Well, just hear a well setup pair, and then post your impressions on detail, transparency, image, ...

I own a pair of future .5´s since 1 year ago.
The ribbon tweeter really loves tubes, it is also very dangerous as it has no mercy with upstream components.
The woofer may not have too much slam for some tastes, but sounds pretty and goes down until real 28hz, .
If you choose the right amp they are lovely, very very open, lots of air, detail, liquid mids, organic low end ...
The reflex port is at the base and tweeter is a dipolar design, so they are not very difficult to place, althogh they need air around them, mine are about 2.5 feet away the side wall and 3 of back wall.
I would not place closer than 6 feet between them. Also the listening position should be more than 8-10 feet away, it is a 3-way model and the drivers may have some integration issues.
Mine are powered with Cary 805C and I love the combo.
Before Cary, they were powered with a Plinius SA102, nice, but without SET glory, and a Van Alstine 350Ex, lots of drive, but not too much detail.
I would like to audition them with a good high powered push-pull amp, probably low end would be better then.

I have just recently tried out a second hand pair of Future 2's and was amazed by how good they were. While it's true that they look a bit strange there's nothing strange about how they sound which is nothing short of phenomenal. As to why they haven't hit their stride I can't say. The F2's cost a serious packet when they were new, perhaps more than 20k USD. So perhaps that's part of the reason. Another reason could be that they are a finicky product requiring just the right components to operate at optimum levels. Still, while in the shop we sampled the JMLab Nova Utopia Bes with Omega amps to boot and the difference was immediately noticeable. All the dimension, ambiance and clarity was washed straight down the pipe. The JM's sounded like a sick dog compared to the F2's. Sorry but that's just how it was. So, the JM/Omega system must cost upwards of 50k and sounded tight and sad. The F2's hooked up to a Counterpoint SA-5000 and Sonic Frontiers Power 2 Amp easily bested this pricey field. I'm just happy there's still a pair lying around for me.

JME

I discussed this range a while back with a dealer.
He said part of the problem was that all of the range did not give the perceived value that Proac usually do mainly because of their lack of actual weight (i.e in kgs)and basically potential buyers were put off.
He discussed this with the designer who was aware of this "problem" but all changes he made to the design messed up the sound apparently.
I don't think personally the shape helps from an aesthetic point of view and would depend if they looked right in your room.
In the UK there are the occassional pair that turns up at good prices,well for here anyway.
Having said all that I never heard anybody say they sounded bad quite the opposite but clearly they haven't sold as well as expected.

I really, really enjoyed the .5s on a Meridian 588, Rowland integrated with Shunyata cords, and Kimber wires at a dealer back in the day. Also put on the 2.5s in that room and sounded great, but the ribbon added tons of "air" to the highs.

Very synergistic, and I was close to going that direction.

Not sure you get much from going to 1s from .5s though as the drivers are the same, just a larger cabinet.

I'm a recording engineer and I have a pair of Future One's that are incredible. I beleive they are really true and could be used as reference speakers in a Mastering room. They ar every impressive speakers.

Yeah, I did one of those "What the hell happened to those great little Pro...?" yells, too.

Dead on arrival.

I have a pair of Future Ones that will be placed for sale here at Audiogon soon. I love what the high frequencies did, midrange is very good, bass too lean for my large room (7,500 CF).

These served as my only speakers for over two months while my Soundlab U1's were being replaced, so I have a good understanding of their performance.

A quick look at the Proac web site show's that the Future 2's are no longer available........so I suppose that tells it's own story.........................

Sunnyjim-I heard a pair of the Future's in my dealers about a year or so ago-sadly the experience in terms of the room,music and scale made me pretty confused-I only heard them for a few minutes-certainly there was nothing bad about them.
Simply the sound was much bigger than I was used to.
I believe it was the Future 2's I heard.
Here in the UK I've seen a lot of ex-dem's for sale-don't know if goes for anything.
My local dealer loves the Future series and he usually knows what he is talking about.....the point five's are on my wish list to demo at some stage.
Not sure if this is much help ,my guess is that they haven't taken off...........

Yeah, you don't seem to see many of them around anywhere. I own 1SCs and Tab 50 Sigs and was interested to hear them at CES, but the only thing they had were the big D80s and the small home theater speakers.