Why so little discussion about Snell ?

After the Hales Design Group pulled out of the consumer speaker market in 2001, the dealer I worked for at that time had a very big hole to fill in their premium speaker offerings. I participated in several manufacturer rep's speaker demos at our shop and spent time with a lot of very interesting product as a result. We eventually chose the Snell line of speakers and I must say we were very impressed by the overall quality of their products. I enjoyed meeting the Snell factory reps and learned a lot during the Q&A session that followed their demonstration.

I use a pair of Hales Revelation Two's and a Revelation Center up front in my home theater sytem, but my current room layout does not allow the practical use of the matching Revelation One monitor as a surround speaker. I chose a pair of Snell's excellent SR.5 bi-polar speakers to use instead and they work great. They are a reasonably close timbral match to the Hales in my layout.

I'm very satisfied with the overall performance of the Snells and the quality of the cabinets, etc. They look great hung on the wall and sound great in my system.

Regards,
JZ

I know this thread is ancient. Just came across it looking for some other info on Snell.

Sad story, I feel. Such great stuff. I remember when I was just getting into audio as a kid and saw Peter Snell demo the Type A. So many great speakers, and so many that are still excellent today. The K, the J, the E, the D, the C. Of course, there are variants in all those types. The E/II and E/III, and Cis and C/Vs, and As are the ones I'm most familiar with. I've lived a long time with the E/IIs, Cis, and C/Vs. The C/Vs were very difficult for me. It was hard to make them work, when they did, though, they were marvelous. The Cis and E/IIs are brilliant. When thinking about smaller speakers, I often will look at Ks or Js.

I needed a new tweeter fuse holder for my C/Vs and visited the shop in Peabody as it was closing. Sad. Lights pretty much out.

The crew at Snell was great, too. Always very personable and helpful. I remember Wally, though he may not remember me.

About their commercial success... Snell speakers were always highly well critically reviewed. Always on the margin.

May their great products live on and on.

Snell lasted a long time after he died, but the original models by Peter were the best. I suspect he would be a force today had he not died.

Nice car.

Snell's heyday was in the 80s...when their C series was a Stereophile fave...at a cost of 2k roughly 30 years ago...a fair sum back then...we had a pair in our house when I was growing up...and stayed in our family for 20 years...however, even with Belles amplification...I was never overly impressed with their performance...a good product for sure...just not a truly great one IMHO...solid company with a rich history...

I owned a pair of Snell E-II for about twenty years and loved every minute with them. They were a part of my first steps into higher-end audio... built, voiced and sold as a matched pair; and with a +- 1.75dB rating, pretty accurate. They were the speakers that were with me in my young adult years and hold a special place in my memories.