Posted by fergus on October 28, 2003 at 22:57:02

In Reply to: Are Pi's suitable for Hi-fi? posted by garman on October 28, 2003 at 14:34:42:

Hello all and allow me to introduce myself and butt in.

I have been lurking in this forum for awhile and have corresponded with Wayne about his designs. I am close to building a set of Stage or Premiums 4Pi's.

I have not listened to the very upper echelons of "audiophile" speakers, those in the $20,000 plus bracket, but I certainly consider myself a seasoned and experienced audiophile and music lover, having owned very high end systems in the past 24 years, including many planars and electrostatics.

I have concluded that if you want (as I do) the visceral impact of live music, vocals that soar above an orchestral wall of sound and clean realistic dynamics, not much can compare to horn loaded systems.

If your inclination is for low to moderate volumes, then probably a couple of grand will get you a little smoother sounding and "imaging" speaker than a horn based system, with lots more WAF.

I have designed and built a few "audiophile" type systems and full rangers. There are merits to all of these approaches but high efficiency and low distortion at realistic SPL's are it for me.

I'm here because I'm impressed by Wayne's knowledge and no-nonsense approach and will let you know how I make out with the 4Pi's.

By the way, I have built the 2Pi's and they are darned impressive for the money.

Fergus