Price Paid:  $1400.00 from Audio Directions

Summary:
When I first heard these speakers, my mouth dropped. I was struck with the balance and the inner detail of a solo trumpant. I literally got pullled into the music...magical stuff.

First of all, let's start from the bottom. Bass in my smallish room (14'X10'X8') is very adequate I got them out about 2' toed in so the tweeters are pointing about 2' on either side of my ears. These are not the last word on bottom extension (but it could be a number of other factors as well). But the bass coming is very clean.

The midrange on these are glorious. Soundstage is wide and deep with detail to spare. These do not have the wiedest or deepest soundstage, nor are they the most detailed but blanance is the key here.

The highs are very extended (metal dome tweeter helps here), but not overly so.

Great build quality and great looks to boot. Be carefull, these are heavy little speakers (1/3 foot front baffle), and quite solid as well. If you can get them for < $1k these will be a steal.

System content:
Front End: VPI HW19 Jr
MMT Tonearm-upgraded with 6 9 copper wire
Benz Micro Glider Series II
Music Metre Signature Cable

Pre Amp Conrad johnson PV7
Power Amp Quicksilver Mini Mite w/GE 6550 tubes

Cable Music Metre Signature Cable for both TT to Pre
and Pre to Power
Kimber 4TC

Other Tice Solo A/V conditioner

Strengths:
Midrange detail and soundstage. Build Quality.

Weaknesses:
Company went belly up.

Similar Products Used:
Alon I, Thiel 1.0, Mourdant Short, Paradigm, Vanderstein

Price Paid:  $750.00

Summary:
I am very disappointed about the demise of Hales Design Group. Beyond the warranty issues, Paul Hales made a great speaker with superb coherence (excellent seamless driver matching). The Rev 2's provide excellent balance between desired attributes - they are very smooth yet quite refined, provide top-to-bottom extension without being to forward. I do have several issues with the speakers but all are correctable - they are surprisingly sensitive to placement despite sealed enclosures; bass extension and focus change significantly with different spikes.

Over all, I'm very satisfied with the product and believe that it compares favorable with speakers far more expensive.

Strengths:
Wonderfully smooth through whole range. Particularly excellent in midrange with female vocals. Full range speaker with a small footprint and petit size. High quality inards for this price point.

Weaknesses:
Bankruptcy of company with no help from dealers or the company. The grille covers are a challenge - difficult to get on or off - or replace. The speaker spikes are surface mounted so the speaker can tip easily.

Similar Products Used:
Hales Rev 3; Vandersteen 2 Sig; Von Schweikert VR 3 and 4

Summary:
The first thing that struck me about these speakers when first hearing them is the ease with which they reproduce music - relaxed (without losing too much detail), easy to listen to and quite enjoyable. With the proper equipment, they will really surprise you. I would also imagine them to be rather forgiving of equipment that isn't the finest in the store, but they really do sing when properly matched.
86dB is not particuraly sensitive for any speaker, but not too bad either. In other words, a 7 w triode won't cut it here. I don't know about their impedence curve. But given the proper equipment, they carry a definate sense of ease and power that is well combined.
Paul Hales seems to have a wonderful ability to make the best speaker possible for a minimal investment. In this case, a $1600 or $1700 speaker that really gives the big boys a run for their money. Like I said, these don't carry the refinement or detail of a pair of Aerial or Thiels, nor the bottom end of a pair of big Wilsons, but for the money, you definately can't complain. These speakers really don't try to do anything that they can't and they lack in what they don't do, as opposed to what they do. Quality components in and out (beautiful Cardas binding posts) make this a true hi-fi bargain. You can't go wrong here...

Strengths:
Smooth yet refined tonal qualities; unfatiguing treble; Good imaging and soundstaging; beautiful yet simple looks, especially in the optional Cherry finish

Weaknesses:
Not the last word in refinement or bottom end authority. But for this price, what do you expect?

Similar Products Used:
Silolquy 5.0, 5.3 (Great speakers - more detailed, yet not as musical...) Dynaudio 60s and 70s(Also nice, but I don't feel they can compete with the Hales...)

Summary:
I had my system complete for a while minus decent speaker cable. I was using a buck a foot cable and thought my system was decent. I upgraded cables considerably and now I am blown away. The new cables really let the hales shine. Amazing clarity, detail, and soundstage. You can feel the power behinf them and the hales make the music sound real. Between the effort that the CJ makes to make the music sound live and these speakers I always feel like the music is being played live and in front of me. I am really blown away and Hales has a customer for life. I compared them to my friends $5,000 JM labs and although the JMs had some better qualities the hales were still more for me. Overall the hales, IMHO, out-performed everything I heard in the $2,500 or less range considerably.

Strengths:
The best speaker under $2,000

Weaknesses:
pickyness

Similar Products Used:
COnrad Johnson PF-2, nordost cables, symphonic line amp

Summary:
Over the course of a year, I have listened to these in a dealer showroom. I found the speaker to be one of the nicer speakers for the money to listen too. In particular, I found the mid-range to be very strong, producing female vocal and choral music very realistic. I found the bass much tighter, overall, a much better speaker than the Rev. 3's, irrespective of price. I found the bass to be muddled on the Rev. 3's compared to the Rev.2's. The Vifa tweeter reproduces the highs quite well. The only shortcoming depnding on your preference is that I have found other similarly priced speakers to have a more even frequency response, such as the Paradigm Studio 80's.

Strengths:
Strong mid-range and tight bass

Weaknesses:
Lack of deep bass, but very respectable. Some other speakers have a more even frequency response

Similar Products Used:
Hales Rev. 3's, B&W 7mse, PSB Silveri, Paradigm Studio 80