The Official Salk Sound Owner's And Discussion Thread - Page 219

My apologies, I'm a bit confused by this response to my post. Could you clarify?

No apologies needed, no need to be confused. Im just saying im agreeing with you.
I hope we can return back to Salk discussion from now on.

It's exactly for this reason that I don't believe this seller bought these Salk Soundscapes just to sell them for a profit. If he did, why would he pay extra for all these custom additions with his personal perferences which could potentially make them harder to sell?

Also, why would he bother setting these up and listening to them if he was planning on selling them? If his intent was to just flip them for a profit, wouldn't he just leave them in the box instead of unpacking and putting hours on them which reduces their perceived resale value? Also, why wait a full month to sell them instead of just putting them on Agon right away?

Is it inconceivable that perhaps he just wasn't satisfied with the performance of the Salk Soundscapes, got buyer's remorse, found another pair of speakers that he liked better during the 9 months he waited for his order to be delivered, or that he simply just didn't like these speakers for whatever reason?

I know some people missed the cut-off date and had to pay $4,000 more for their Salk Soundscapes, but that doesn't mean that someone lucky enough to pay just $12,000 for a pair instead of $16,000 did it just to make a profit.

It's not like Salk isn't still selling the speaker. Maybe a person would rather pay 15K for a ready made pair of soundscapes than wait on the leadtimes for a custom one. It's the buyer's choice to buy and it's safe to say the buyer is informed - Salk is an ID brand.

Either way, Guys.

That Seller's business is none of OUR business!
For all we know he's got a chronic illness that needs to be funded.
We just don't KNOW! So let's just drop the subject!

+1

How close to a back wall could SoundScape M7 (front ported) be placed? Inches?

Considering the wall/floor trim and the bindinpost, i think 2 in. would be my guess, but as you know, they may sound better if you pull them off to about a feet.

We are hosting the Saturday, January 21st meeting of the SMAC (Southeast Michigan Audio Club) at our facilities at 40 West Howard Street, Suite 204 in Pontiac, MI 48342. The meeting will be held from 1PM to 6PM.

We will be showing our new StreamPlayer along with several existing and prototype speaker models. In addition, we will be offering tours of our production facilities.

Anyone interested in attending is welcome. No RSVP required. Just show up.

- Jim

I wish i could join the tour, but im too far away. I hope you guys who are able to join take this opportunity, it is not something you find from other manufactures.

well now im kind of dipressed

I hope you'll let the rest of us know ASAP what prototypes are in the works as I'm biting at the bit for some HT2-TL's but want to see what designs are going to be offered.

This is cool, I'm going!

+1

If allowed, pictures would be nice for those of us who are too far away to attend.

I'm jealous

Those of you going will get a chance to hear my WOW1 monitors before me. Just heard from Jim, and they are finished and will be packed and shipped on Monday

Have fun at the event all

+1.

Sitting here at work thinking about how much fun I'm missing up there.

Looking forward to the reports (and pictures!).

Post some Picts!
I took the family skiing at mt Brighton toddy, or would have joined.

Hopefully in 2014/2015 for home theatre 2.0 I can have Jim build me a complete set mains R/L/C to reach 105db ref clean sound, these will be behind AT screen so flat black in baffle wall.

No feedback yet

No pictures

Didn't anybody go

Yes they're finished and I heard them. Jim was playing those brand-new cute little speakers for us as we walked in. How do they sound? Well......

I was one of the first to arrive and I immediately noted the wonderfully sweet smooth OW tweeter sound. And the mids sound pretty darn nice, good clarity and fullness, no "boxy sound", nice wide open soundstage, especially impressive considering the diminutive size of the box. Oh, sure the bass sounds great too, but these tiny speakers were sitting on stands in the middle of a huge space (see pic-I apologize for poor iphone pic) and one of Jim's fine subs is sitting next to the equipment rack, so obviously he's running the sub with those little speakers, right? Actually, no. As folks would walk in, they'd ask about the sub and some were walking up and putting their hands on the sub speaker to be sure, shaking their heads.

All I can say is WOW, er I guess I mean WOW1! What an amazing design for applications constrined by spaces. Wonderful execution on the construction and beautiful finish as well of course. Congrats, Rick.

Lots more pics here: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=102464.0

I kind of get the impression that the WOW's were the hit of the show. I know that Jim told me they were fantastic speakers when I asked him about them a couple of days ago. Those are great drivers, and they work very well together--even better than that tweeter works with the larger W18 Excel in the 1801. The only drawback is low sensitivity, but that's always the trade-off in a smaller woofer that goes that low. I wish I could have heard mine in stereo.

The WOW1s are meant to be desktop speakers right?

Glad there's more elsewhere (maybe also on the AudioKarma SMAC Jan 2011 meet thread?) as I have only this 1 other fuzzy pic of Jim explaining his new SalkStream Player and demoing a beautiful pair of SoundScape 12s which were literally rolled right off the production line and fired up. Need I say that these speakers sound absolutely amazing. The Player seems like a great product. It sounded great playing thru a fine stereo DAC.

For fun Jim gave us a test where we listened to a "Brand X" pair of bookshelf speakers and those willing to risk their audiophile cred drew freehand what they thought the FR curve of the speakers looked like based on their ears alone. He then showed us the actual measured FR graph. Jim said mine was surprisingly close so I claimed the "golden ears" award (a Salk cap) for..well, having golden ears!

We listened to some digital music, comparing RBCD to HiRes and my prior impression that overall SQ depends far more on the recording process and mastering than the final bitrate format was reinforced.

We spun some vinyl and my impression that vinyl offers nothing over digital worth the trouble for me was validated.

Thanks to Jim, his lovely and gracious wife Mary (who BTW is now in charge of shipping) and the great folks on the Salk team! A good time was had by all.

No doubt. Congrats on a great design.

Right. That terminology was used. Edit: Well, see the designer's answer below for a more accurate description.

After the reaction I'm even more anxious to get them (if that's possible). I can't even imagine how much of an improvement they will be over the DefTech ProMonitor 800s they will replace.

Some day they will move to a desk...

...but they were actually designed for a 2.1 livingroom application where they are sitting on Ikea Lack shelves on a wall (very height and depth constrained).

I'll post pictures when they are in their new home

Right--I designed them for stand use near a wall. Putting them on a desk will bump up the bass and lower mids, but they should still sound OK.

Any info on these posted somewhere? Specs and price etc?

If you're ever in Calgary, you're more than welcome to come by and hear them in their actual home.

Although from the reaction yesterday (in this thread and at AudioCircle), I suspect that these won't be the only pair built and available for listens.

Jim posted a really nice picture of the WOW1s on AudioCircle.

Hopefully they get to Calgary shortly after my return later this week...