Quote Originally Posted by texlle View Post
You may be right. I listened to the old Contour 1.1's years ago. My audio memory is good but not 10 years good. They definitely threw a much larger overall image, and that's about all I remember. I do want to give the Excite x16's a go. At 87dB, they're slightly more sensitive, but as I said, I read about the excites not playing well with tubes, dynamically, as much as previous lines like the audience.

I believe i may try to pick up a pair of Totems and see what they do for me. Some rainmakers or dreamcatchers may suit my style well. We'll see, I'm still quite happy. And when I just plain want to rock out- I can just go to the living room. After all the first tube setup I ever heard, the same one that began my interest in tubes and dynaudio drivers was a JD-202 Jolida driving (very well, I might add), a pair of original Totem Model-1's, so perhaps a pair of totems or dyn excites may be a more cost effective way forward.

Thanks for the advice.
I've also listened to the Excite and Totem, I forget which Totem....the Excite was not bad, but the Totem was a great speaker....it was truly 3D in nature. Both share the deep bottom end with the Totem having a better, more in balanced mid range and upper frequencies.