Does anyone have experience with Casle Speakers?

[ASHamburg]

I'm considering upgrading my LINN Keilidhs and I stumbled across the Castle Acoustics homepage. I'm interested in buying the Castle Stirling 3. I live in Germany and would have to order these speakers online and try them at home as there is no Castle dealer in my area. While Castle seems to be renowned for building beautiful cabinets, I haven't been able to find too much informationUuser reviews (aside from British Hi-Fi reviews) about the sound. Does anyone have experience with these speakers? I would appreciate any tips or comments.

Andrew

[RGA]

You're in luck because I have listened to a number of Castle speakers...and it really depends on the music you listen to. As soon as I say this I begin to grumble because elite speakers don't have to worry about the type of music you play they will play it all well.

I heard the raved reviewed Castle Eden and Kendell - so note that the Sterling may be a lot better. The Eden was amazingly good for the money with light strings and classical works but I was severely dissapointed in the speaker's ability to reproduce dynamics which made it suffer for rock/pop music as well as larger(more dynamic) classical passages. The Eden was a $1500.00Cdn speaker - I'm not sure they make anymore. Actually looking back - that price is what my speakers cost today(admittedly a year old clearing stock model for roughly half off) but still there is just no comparison between the two.

The Castle line looks very nice and are finely built - personally I like the Linn speakers more and they're generally less money than Castle t boot. The Castle has that very polite British sound - While B&W is going for the North American Sound of late. Audio Note is Britsih but the speaker is based off the original Snell.

My comments on Castle you should keep really apply to the Eden, Kendell and low level Isis...the Kendell was the worst because it's a floorstander version of the Eden that was muddier in the midband. The prices may have been hit hard by cnversion and shipping to Canada....but for the money here they just don't cut it for me.

[manek]

If you live in germany, you should be able to source very good speakers in CANTON. Why buy an overseas product you cant audition. Castle are good, I've heard them but I somehow like CANTON better. castle are very very polite for my tastes....I like a bit of energy in my speakers.....

Also check out Cadence Arita and Diva mind blowing speakers made from german driver company ETON.

Manek.