When I bought my 1st home, 20 years ago, I decided to get a decent sound system to rekindle my fondness for music. Back then, the internet was hush hush and Hifi magazines were the only source of information. Having read a few reviews, I checked out a few hifi shops only to come out feeling that this was going to be a difficult task not to mention the fact that I was only shown the popular models. With no prior experience in the audio world and my knowledge only gained from magazines, I walked into a dealer that had a variety of speakers on sale. A couple of unusual looking second hand speakers caught my eye and so I boldly asked for Electrostatic speakers!! Those being beyond my budget, the shop owner being an enthusiast, steered me towards a pair of Magnepan SMGa, fired them up and gave me an audition that has been burned in my memory - for the first time I was convinced that my spending limit was way too low!
The experience gained from my midi Sanyo system clearly identified 2 things, namely, the importance of speaker placement and amplifier power.
My second system being a Home theater brought home another reality : the need for a good subwoofer and the fact that SAF would also allow me show off the speakers thereby allowing them to be placed in full view. Enter the sleek Sony LA 500SS Extended Definition speakers. Now these were speakers one could proudly display and for the next 5 years had my auditory senses satisfied and marital status unchanged. Paired with a decent sub, I was at bliss until the day I came across some serious speaker placement articles. So began my adventure in the dark science of placing these bookshelf boxes and eventually I bought stands and from there improvements in sound became more frequent, being on stands allowed more freedom of positioning them.
But the Magnepans never had their spell over me broken, just that they are mutually exclusive with the 3 resident cats.
Then a demo pair of Final Sound Electrostatic speakers with a high SAF found their way into our apartment: the speaker placement game and old forgotten CDs have brought new excitement into my life. ESLs have clear, detailed sound not to mention the impression of bigger musical instruments playing.