Reynaud's Evolution 3 speaker.---Rave or Rag It ?

Rave.
I own these and they're special, they don't sound like you're listening to electronics, very natural, fluid, coherent, clean, musical, emotional, rich. Once you've lived with them for a while there's no way back to other speakers.

Their value is incredible, they beat the new Virgo 3's in almost all aspects: musically, tonally, dynamics, coherentness, etc. Soundstage of the Virgo is deeper.
Besides sound quality, their design and build quality (layered wood) are special too.

They work well with relativly cheap amplifiers, but deserve the best you can afford. I use them with Plinius and Gaincard (together $13000). I've just ordered JM Reynaud's "ultra-high-end" speakers: Odyssee, but I think I'm keeping the Evo's too, he makes products you can fall in love with, acoustic masterpieces.

Btw. they require very long break-in, the woofer needs time for dynamics and detail, the tweeter sounds too bright when new. Don't be put off by a bad demo, you'll miss something special...

Personally I havent heard the Evolution 3, but I do have a pair of Trentes, they are the monitor version of the Evolution. They are amazing sounding speakers and they work well with either solid states and especially tube amps. I am driving them with Audion Sterling and they sounded excellent. The Trentes are one of the best monitors at the price point, IMHO. They are very easy to setup. As far as speaker cables goes, the Analysis Plus Oval 9 or Acoustic Zen Hologram are very good choices for the Reyauds.

Great answer Chris. I have heard several reliable sources rave about the Reynauds. Would love to be able to audition a pair some day.

The Jean Marie Reynaud products that I have heard sound very good, in fact I regard them as some of the best dynamic loudspeakers I have personally had the pleasure of hearing. Admittedly, I have not heard the Evolution 3 in question but have spent a length of time with the Arpegionnes and the Twinn MK II's and will vouge for their musicallity as well as their value. Actually, the man I purchased my Soundlabs from was moving into a smaller room that would require more modestly sized loudspeakers and the JMR Offrande's ended up at the top of his list and were finally purchased. He stated that they were the some of the most musical speakers he had heard and was completely thrilled with their virtues.
As far as expense is concerned, there are many high end speaker manufacturers asking $3k and above (i.e. Merlin) for modestly sized, 2-way designs. One must judge for themselves if the qualities of the particular loudspeaker in question is worth the asking price.

Chris