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.
128x128veroman
Replaced 170WPC NAD int amp with modified jolida int. tube amp (60 WPC) first foray into tubes, but i cannot imagine going back to ss amp with the kestrals sounding the way they do now. having listened to both types of power extensively i would encourage you to connect some tubes to them before you consider buying ss gear. you will lose some deep bass punch but the mids and highs are marvelously natural open and uncolored.
Kestrel 2's seem to be born for tubes. I've run mine with a Jolida 302b with very good results and now am using a higher powered Jolida 801a (70wpc) with great results. Right now I'm playing around with a Rega Apollo as the source and it is fitting in just fine, although for music that asks for deeper, more defined bass, I've been reverting my old CAL Alpha DAC and using the Apollo as a transport.
I have never heard Meadowlark and I wish I had (will). It is too bad they overextended themselves.

I have kestrel 2, driven by Primaluna Prologue 2 + Koala Tube CD Player, the sound very beautiful can be compared to gears that have double the price.
I have used k2 with a shanling stp 80 with parts connexion level 2 mod and think it was a great match for tone, midrange and soundstage...the only thing i did was add a sub for foundation and it mates nicely with the k2s.....i now have them hooked up to a mf a5 and wow...power can be a wonderful thing