Price Paid:  $800.00 from sevenoaks hifi, oxfo

Summary:
With as eclectic a mix of both music tastes and hi-fi as mine, choosing a new speaker to upgrade from my TDL RTL3s was always going to be difficult. My tastes range from Megadeth to Bach so it's a tough act to ask any speaker to manage. I demo'd the 505s at my local store and then borrowed them for 24 hours at home, after which I rang and said "bank the cheque, they're staying here!" The speakers take a good degree of driving to get them going but if you have a clean enough source and some decent low distortion amplification they can really sing. You must also make sure you place them correctly - I found they need an equal distance from each other and the listener, angling in to cross just in front of you.

Tracks like Pink Floyd's "wish you were here" offer an excuse to suspend reality for a little while as the guitar sounds wash over you like a fresh breeze and Gilmour takes you away to another land, yet Shostakovich's "leningrad symphony" builds to a power level that is almost unbearably intense. There have been times I have wanted a little more bass but, having owned some Kef Reference over the years, I prefer tight bass to too much without the control.

Whatever your tastes you should find a pair of these speakers. Make sure the source and the interconnects are up to the job or the speakers will find all the holes in the signal quality. However, given quality equipment to supply them, the 505s will sing.

For your info, I use a set of Mission Pre and Power amps built in the late 70's at enormous cost (I sold my Quad 44/ 606 combo cos these are so much more realistic - "spooky", my wife calls them), a Marantz cd63KI, Rega Planar 2 with Goldring, plus mainly Chord Company interconnects and 12 core silver QED Profile speaker cables.

Strengths:
Beautifully flexible to suit the type of music - mellow to the point of sonorous one minute, aggressive to the point of scary the next. Able to deliver high volumes when required but they dont need to run loud to deliver.

Weaknesses:
They dont suffer rubbish equipment! Must be a good quality amp - A Cambridge Audio pre-power combo I use from time to time elsewhere just cannot drive all frequencies. Bass may be slightly light for some tastes. Need to be placed right.

Similar Products Used:
TDL RTL3 floor standers

Price Paid:  $2000.00 from Loyallity Sound

Summary:
Quick, stellar performance. Crisp but not overly bright, soft smooth bass...incredible music speaker but with enough umph for DVD....articulate midrange and the high range is so sweet and accurate you would swear the instrument was in the room. These have the absolutly the most awsome three dimensional sound I have yet to hear.....if you have any of Mozarts work the sound surrounds you...sound effects fly across the sound stage which is wide and deep.

Strengths:
High quality build standard, comes with exceptional built plinths, removable grill. Unbeatable in mid and high range performance

Weaknesses:
Insufficient bass for a room larger than 15' by 15'...but same firm makes an excellent sub that fills nicely. These speakers take longer than most to break in and it will take a good three months of almost continous playing for them to sweeten up. I understand the more expensive the speakers the longer the break in period so this may be normal

Similar Products Used:
Nautalis, Mission, JM lab( mini), Castle, tanoy and PSB( siver and gold)