I, too, have a pair of Kestrel 2s that I feel I'm very fortunate to have. Not only for their sound, which has been glorious in the two years I've owned them, but also for finding them a few months before the company went under, and most of all for getting them at a great price.
I found a dealer in Chicago who carried them, and I went there, curious to hear the K2s, but mainly to hear, and maybe buy, the Swifts. I fell in love with the K2s immediately (they were being driven by a pair of Rogue monoblocks, I seem to recall). When it became clear that as much as I wanted the K2s, I wasn't prepared to buy speakers that expensive, at least not that very day, the dealer said he'd sell me the floor models for a discount, as he had just taken on the Meadowlark line and wanted to get things rolling with a sale.
He went off with his cell phone in one hand and his calculator in the other, while I stood there and waited. I've been in this hobby for almost 30 years, and was expecting him to offer maybe $100 to $150 off, which I thought was realistic for him, given margins on small-company high-end goods, but still more than I was prepared to spend that day. He finally came back and said he could knock $400 off (and no, they weren't damaged in any way). And this was $400 off their $1600 price, not their final price of about $2K. Now I had a problem...I couldn't say no. For one thing, my brother was with me, and he said if I didn't buy them, he would (and he already had a pair of *very* nice Sonus Fabers).
What could I do? I *had* to buy them. I've been living very happily with them ever since, driving them with a 20-year-old B&K ST-140, though I just picked up a used PrimaLuna P2 here on Agon and I'm almost unbelievably excited to try them with it (my listening room is torn apart in the last stages of basement finishing). I've heard a lot of talk about the K2s having a special affinity for tubes. Can't wait!
I found a dealer in Chicago who carried them, and I went there, curious to hear the K2s, but mainly to hear, and maybe buy, the Swifts. I fell in love with the K2s immediately (they were being driven by a pair of Rogue monoblocks, I seem to recall). When it became clear that as much as I wanted the K2s, I wasn't prepared to buy speakers that expensive, at least not that very day, the dealer said he'd sell me the floor models for a discount, as he had just taken on the Meadowlark line and wanted to get things rolling with a sale.
He went off with his cell phone in one hand and his calculator in the other, while I stood there and waited. I've been in this hobby for almost 30 years, and was expecting him to offer maybe $100 to $150 off, which I thought was realistic for him, given margins on small-company high-end goods, but still more than I was prepared to spend that day. He finally came back and said he could knock $400 off (and no, they weren't damaged in any way). And this was $400 off their $1600 price, not their final price of about $2K. Now I had a problem...I couldn't say no. For one thing, my brother was with me, and he said if I didn't buy them, he would (and he already had a pair of *very* nice Sonus Fabers).
What could I do? I *had* to buy them. I've been living very happily with them ever since, driving them with a 20-year-old B&K ST-140, though I just picked up a used PrimaLuna P2 here on Agon and I'm almost unbelievably excited to try them with it (my listening room is torn apart in the last stages of basement finishing). I've heard a lot of talk about the K2s having a special affinity for tubes. Can't wait!
