Quote Originally Posted by filecat13 View Post
I'd forgotten about this until I got spammed back to the forum by another thread I'd subscribed to. Your skepticism deserves a response, and I neglected to do so.

As simple as it gets.
  1. I went to CAS with no intent to purchase.
  2. I heard JBL Everest II loudspeakers while there.
  3. I was blown away by the MF and HF produced by those horns. Best of show IMO, despite the problematic room.
  4. I went back to that room more than once to be sure I really liked high-priced horns that much.
  5. I knew I could not afford $66,000 speakers.
  6. The dealer had $44,000 JBL K2 speakers with similar horns/drivers sitting unused on the same room and had no plans to hook them up. (Why bring them?)
  7. As the show closed for the day, we prevailed on him to hook them up after most everyone had left.
  8. Upon hearing them that one time I was compelled to get them. They were nearly as good as the SOTA K2s (and available for less than 44k).
  9. Without hearing those unobtainable (to me) SOTA Everests I would never have desired to hear the K2s and decided to purchase them. I cannot think of a logical sequence in which I would have sought out a dealer to listen to K2s before going to the show, since I was not in the market for expensive speakers.
  10. Hearing $66k speakers, then hearing how very close much cheaper speakers are makes a (less than) $44,000 expenditure seem "reasonable," whereas, going out to look/listen/buy $44k speakers seems "unreasonable" to me. That's why I'd never go to the trouble of seeking a hard-to-find dealer to get the speakers I ended up with.


At least my original story was entertaining. Thanks for that.
The chain of events makes perfect sense... But suppose that the dealer had initially setup the K2s instead of the Everest at the show; in that case you would have heard the K2 but not the Everest. Chances are that you might have opened your chequebook in that scenario as well, as the K2 is clearly top quality speaker in its own right...

But yes I can understand that if I went to a show and heard a SOTA piece from a manufacturer and was blown away, then I'd want to audition any cheaper gear they have in my price range...