After taking the 7am Spirit of BC ferry across to Swartz bay, I proceeded over to Victoria for the imfamous Soundhounds HiFi centre. Apparently I took the wrong turn so it took me over half an hour to get there. They opened at 930 anyways, so I was just on time. On the outside Soundhounds doesnt look like much. It's a cutout from an old appartment that could pass as a safehouse for druggies. The white paint was peeling and the Soundhounds sign looked as though it was from the wild wild west. Stepping inside, it didnt look at all what commercialized hifi stores were like. LPs everywhere, gear everywhere - a clutter to say the least.
Originally I was going to listen to the 3 audionotes K,J,E, B&W 805 and the paradigm studios. Then later I decided that I wouldnt listen to paradigm again since I didnt like them at all the last time I tried. I took the small room. Seemed like the room accoustics were pretty bad. High ceiling, narrow but long, and even has a TV somewhere on the side for some strange reason.

I started with the B&W 805s. Never tried these before. Nice little speaker but it wasnt like what I expected. Sounded a little small. Maybe it was the room accoustics, but as you will read later on, maybe not. Another thing that was annoying was that the tweeter was sorta on its on - kind of like its not part of the music. Sorry for my lack of technical terms, but I'm no audiophile pro. They were nice, but werent moving.

Now, the ANK/spe. These were the special price ones. Surprizingly, they look MUCH better in person than in pictures. The K didnt have the problem with the tweeter separation or whatever and definately sounded a lot bigger. It was also able to reproduce instruments a lot more realistically. I found that most speakers stuggle with a muted trumpet. The K muted trumpet sounded like the real thing. I enjoyed the Ks a lot more than the 805s.

ANJ/spe was next. Now these were something else...I thought that the Ks kicked the 805s out of the water, but these Js kick those Ks out to space. Yes, it's not just the bass. The sound is about 10x bigger than the Ks and the music seems to float around in the air and leap out in front of you. I timed my sessions as 1 hour for each speaker. At the end of the hour, I didnt wanna stop. Everything about it was better than the K.

The ANE/lexus was done in the outside room since it was all set up. I didnt get to spend very much time here though...Too noisy because the door was open. Couldnt really close it cuz it was at least 30 degrees today. I wont comment on this one - just isnt fair.

I still had some time, so I talked with my dealer Paul, who raved on about how the internal cable of the speaker made a differnce and that the "special deal" ANs came once in a lifetime. So then I decided to listen to a copper version of one of the ANs.

I think the ANJ/L was the same one RGA was auditioning. Sound was smaller, bass wasnt as tight anymore were the ones I noticed instantly. All in all, it wasnt as good of a Speaker than the ANJ/spe. Once you get there, you cant come back.

I have always liked the B&W sound...thought it was better than a lot of speakers. Now, after listening to AN, it beats B&W! Here is the dillemma. I put in a refundable deposit for an ANJ to keep it on hold - keep in mind these are the special price ones at 2500cdn. Should I buy these or make my own E from the E kit for about the same price? I will be getting someone else to make the cabinet. However, there is still that factor of risk. My carpenters little experience with speaker cabinets, but a good carpenter nonetheless vs ANs carpenters who make them all the time.

BTW, soundhounds has great hospitality. I spent a total of 6 and a half hours there straight with no lunch. They made me a tasty cappacino, offered me cookies, and later in the day gave me some pineapple with ice drink (this stuff is really good by the way)

Equipment complemented: AN OTO phono, AN CD3.1x, AN TT1, AN Sogon IC, AN spx. Yeah I know its kinda biased toward AN. Well what do you expect from the "audio note room"

Sorry for my lack of indepth analysis. I dont really know how to analyse if a speaker is good. Dont have the technical background I guess. All I know is what sounded good - and they all did, just that some were better.

Note to RGA: the Maggie was model was SMG and the CD player you used was the Rotel RCD-1072