Review: Meadowlark Audio kestrel 2 Speaker

Category: Speakers

My musical tastes run the board but mainly jazz and classical stuff with the occasional latin world beat for pure fun. Replacing a 1 yr. old set of NHT 3 way towers was a hard decision as the low end and crispness of these speakers is superb for the price. Nonetheless the high end bug had bitten me and inner detail and tonality were now more important. With 2 common walls in my new townhome high volume listening was now limited tremondously so clarity at lower levels was critical. Having read so many superb reviews on Meadowlark audio I settled on the pair at the upper end of my budget and purchased the new kestrel 2 models. Finding an hardly used pair in light ash with a maple stringer down the front on audiogon was my opportunity. The new design is pure elegance and the finish is superb. I won't go into specs. here but after one mos. all I can say is these speakers are worth twice the price! The clarity and soundstage is awesome. The low end on these is pure magic given the size of the woofer. No muddiness in bass whatsoever at even above average litening levels. Mids are clear and highs are fantastic with no brightness as far as I can hear. These are NOT forward sounding speakers though so don't expect a head banging rock and roll experience. They will deliver a punch but it will not be overly aggressive. Note I said OVERLY aggressive. These 'time alligned transmission line loaded' speakers are truly amazing values for the $$$. So many reviews out there are available and almost all of them say the same thing...These babies are a definite MUST listen before considering anything below $3,000.00. Given my limited ability to crank the volume I can't imagine replacing these for a long time evn if money were no object. These are not overly critical speakersbut they will reveal poor recordings as such. However they are extremely musical and disappear quickly given the proper source material.