Speakers to hang on to for LIFE

I agree with an earlier response...The 805s is a special speaker in the line, and definately a monitor to hold on to. Good with lots of equipment, magic with tubes. A sleeper in the B&W line.

Genesis APM1s. I just got a great deal on a used pair.
I can't imagine anything being better than these for the
price I paid, or even close.

I never intend to get rid of my Legacy Signature III's. I will keep these for life. They can be fine tuned to the room and equipment with switches on the back. Ribbon tweeters front and back. Dome tweeter front also. Two midrange. Woofer front, bottom and rear. And balanced perfectly. The bad part is Legacy chose to stop making them instead of upgrading them like the rest of their line. Once in a blue moon you will see a set on Audiogon. People on hanging on to them. Instead of speakers I now have money to concentrate on other equipment.

For me, it's the Merlin VSM-MX two way floor standing monitors. They meet or exceed all my measures of a great speaker. In my room they totally disappear, leaving only the music. The imaging is first rate. The highs are as smooth as silk, never fatiguing. The bass is very articulate down to the mid 30's. And most of all, the emotion of the music is conveyed. It's easy to sink into the emotion of the music. When you get "goose bumps" listening to female vocals you know something is very right. The Merlins will be with me for a long time.

In August '06 I mentioned the Merlin VSM-MX, well they must be keepers and I replaced them with the VSM-MXe lead free version, which is a signficant improvement. I agree with sburton's comments 100%. If they were twice the size with three times the number of drives even more people would try'em -- they look to simple, to small to be SOTA, well, all I can say is listen to them if you can. Great things come with this "small" package. I'm keeping these things till the break or I do.