What does everyone think of shahinian?

That's pretty high praise from Holzhauer, who happens to own Soundlab's. No, i don't know him personally, but i saw his ad : ) Sean
>

I had a pair of diapasons with the double eagle subs. Had to sell when in a cash crunch. I've missed those speakers every day since then. The shahinians reproduced music in my home like no other.

Heard the Diapason's at several shows. Must agree they are highly musical; I thought his woodwork was beautiful as well.

I owned a few years ago SuperElsfor my bedroom system. Indeed, highly efficient, accurate, lively. The best small speakers I had or heard. In my main system I had David Wilson WATT III/Puppy II (modified). Now, I own Shahinian's Diapason and I am extremely happy. I and few of my friends think of them as one of the best speakers in existence. Yep, they are for music lover because they reproduce music ACCURATELY. Everyone who attended live concerts, particylarly symphonic music and who also auditioned Shahinian big speakers can attest to this fact. One of the reasons why Shahinian is not very popular in USA (aside that he does not advertise) is that his big speakers are ugly - not in living room. I wish to express here my admiration for the talant of Richard Shahinian...

i owned a pair of super elfs about 4 years ago and i must say they have a very nice natural sound, great for jazz or classical, but not for Rock. the super elfs wound up being too small for my needs but i would recomned the Arc's. good base response that the other smaller Shahinians dont have. Dealer base is very small in the usa so you can buy direct like i did.

I had a pair of the super elfs too. Personally I found them to be a bit bright & fatiguing. I was driving them with S.S. Perhaps a lush sounding single ended Triode tube amp would have been a better mate. They are certainly efficient enough for a low powered tube amp. Something you don't find in many monitors. They had reasonable bass too for their size. Richard is a good guy. He doesn't believe in a lot of hype or advertising. In fact he doesn't even put the Shahinian name on his speakers. Oddly not much of his product is sold in the states, mostly Japan.

I have the Shahinian Super Elfs. After a break-in period of about 200 hours, the sound was superb. Musical, detailed, not fatiguing...super value for $850. I would pay twice that for what I received. They are really really excellent! Since then, I've heard other members of the Shahinian family...I have no hesitation recommending the Super Elf or any of the other speakers to music lovers.

I met Dick many years ago, and he not only loves music, but can tweak with the best of the speaker designers. You've got to listen to his wares to see whether they float your boat.

Get a subscription to the Absolute Sound. John Mark's has been praising the Shahinian speakers for the past year as one of the great high end bargains.

While i have never heard them, his designs are relatively unique and interesting. Others that i know and trust have spoken very highly of them. As Curtaudio said in his post, i think that the Shahinian's are more for the music lover than the "gear & gadget'ophile" type of person. Sean >

That was curt.

Richard is neither an audiophile or a tweak, by that I mean he knows what he's doing. His speakers are for music lovers, not for insecure idiots who are swayed by what other idiots think or say. You said they sounded good, what more do you want. Richard Shahinian is a class act and so are his speakers.