I appreciate Bill's recommendations, which he's given me before, but I'm just not enough of a techie to grasp what he's recommending. I've already replaced the stock Heresy caps with Jensen PIOs across the tweets and squawkers, and the the the 2uf cap with Solens... I've rewired too. But when he talks about rebuilding the crossover and casually referring to "coils" and "inductors", I'm sorry, I'll need detailed step-by-step instructions like Bottlehead provides, not to mention recommended parts brands and sources! I don't have enough background to grasp intuitively whatever it is he's recommending -- it's like a foreign language.

Also, I'm getting a little tired of modding the Heresys. I've put tons of work into them already, and I'm starting to think there's aspects that will just never work for my ears (or possibly never work for my room).

So I'm intrigued by the other designs out there. There have been plenty of discussions of single-drivers, corner horns, folded horns and array drivers on all the boards -- but precious little discussion on how they SOUND. The High Efficiency Speaker Asylum is particularly uninformative in this respect. It's not like reading reviews in magazines or even on audioreview, unreliable though they may be, which at least discuss how specific pieces of music SOUND through various speakers and speaker types. Instead people discuss "Q" or various Fostex drivers or horn flare rates, and only discuss sound in the most general way. I really have NO IDEA how most of the affordable high-efficiency speakers out there compare to each other, how they might work in my particular SET system and oddly-shaped room, and as I said, all these speakers are very hard to audition.

So far I know of:

• Pi Speakers -- a bewildering variety of different sizes, styles and driver types, and little information on how they compare with each other and work with associated equipment

• The Horn -- gets a decent review in The Listener and conflicting opinions from users online

• Hammer Dynamics Super 12 -- one major online review that I know of, and again very conflicting opinions from users online

• Bottlehead Straight 8 -- inherently I'm turned off by speakers made up entirely of direct radiators; people on Bottlehead love them, but I've seen few reviews elsewhere

• Jerico/Jericho horn designs -- supposed to better than The Horn, but info is hazy and hard to track down

Wayne, I'm sorry that I'm filling up your board with my frustrations on choosing between high-efficiency speakers and not being able to compare them or gather detailed descriptions on how they sound. But the more I learn, the more confused I am.

I like the dynamism and efficieny of the Heresys. I don't like the high end, and I doubt I ever well, at least in my room. I don't like the lack of coherence across the frequency spectrum. And I WANT MORE MIDRANGE.

I'd like to stick with horns for the dynamics and forward presentation, but I want more coherence. That's why the single-driver designs appeal. But there is literally no way to hear a single-driver design without investing time and freight. And once again, I've heard precious little on what they actually SOUND like.

Then, you get the Hammer Dynamics/Straight 8 world. Again, I'm at a loss to know how these fare in coherence and dynamics.

Finally there's your huge variety of speakers. It seems like something here might be right for me, but I'm completely befuddled by all the options.

End of rant... I guess I'm just totally overwhelmed. And I don't want to go in and modify my Heresys again. I'm ready to move on.

Thanks for listening Wayne and others.

J!