Ref 3a mm decapo...best in price range ?

I have long been a fan of Reference 3A speaker designs, loving the very minimalist crossover implementations.  I have owned their Master Reference, Dulcets, and still own original de Capo's and L'Integrales.  I think the de Capo's are great in their price range.  I also am of the school that prefers the original silk tweeter to the new BE tweeter - - I think it integrates better with the woofer for a more coherent, natural timbre on instruments.  Their BE tweeter seems to draw too much attention to itself (but I have only heard it in show conditions, so......).

Tubegroover, your point about break in is well taken.  I have only heard them at the shows, and cannot say whether they were properly broken in or not - - they certainly had a little too much zing for me.  I'm guessing you must be right about the break in.

I do still have some silk domed de Capo's in my second system, and I admire what they do well - - musical message, like you say, and almost an "electrostatic-like" sense of speed and coherence.  Ref 3A's are magical!

My main system sports TAD CR-1's, so I can be cool with beryllium...;-)   They certainly needed the time to break in, but once there, oh my!