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Submitted by
f155mph
a Audio Enthusiast
from Date Reviewed: June 29, 2004
Strengths: EverythingWeaknesses: The grills are a little cheesy.Bottom Line: If I can only use one word to describe these Shearwater HotRod speakers, the word would be awesome! Thanks Pat for creating such a great sounding pair of speakers. I got a great deal on Ebay since the pair was damaged cosmetically. These speakers are open, airy, clear, dynamic, and simply wonderful. Currently they are hooked up a Yamaha receiver, which I know it totally don’t do justice to these speakers. But even with the receiver the speakers sound amazing. I can’t even imagine what they will sound like with a nice tube amp. Originally I brought the speakers as the front mains for home theater since they were so cheap and I have a dedicated two channels system. But upon listening to these speakers I was totally mesmerize by the great sound they put out. I think they are worth every penny even at MSRP. The amount of bass these speakers put out is nothing short of a miracle. I have listen to many high-end systems in the past few months including Wilson’s Watt Puppies, Revel Salon, Martin Logan Statement E2, Thiels, Meridian, and other manufacturers. I think the Meadowlark are great bang for the buck speakers.
Price Paid:
$700.00
Purchased At: Ebay
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
prisoners
a Audio Enthusiast
from Date Reviewed: June 16, 2004
Strengths: Fantastic mids; vocals and stringed music are silky smooth. Crisp, but never harsh highs, and plenty of bass with no "mud". The beautiful midrange can distract you from the clean, taut bass; but it IS there.Weaknesses: I wouldn't call it a weakness, but the "grill sock" thingy needs to go. Leave it off.Bottom Line: These are the Hot Rods, and were a demo pair. I really like these! I was looking for a pair of floorstanders to match with my Jolida 502A so they had to be efficient and sensitive. It turns out that these are a GREAT match for tube amps
Price Paid:
$2300.00
Purchased At: Simply Stereo, Hoffm
Similar Products Used: Auditioned many others for about 8 months before buying- Klipsch Reference line was nice, but not quite there. Paradigm Reference was not even close. Joseph Audio was excellent but a lot more $. System Audio (SA-1250) sounded very, very good but didn't have the room-filling feel that the Meadowlarks had. B+W Matrix were great, but not for my 50 watt tube amp. Same with the ML series.
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Submitted by
Porky
a Audio Enthusiast
from Date Reviewed: July 21, 2003
Strengths: Price. Smooth detail w/ no harshness. Excellent mid-range and better than average bass extension for a small speaker. Bi-wired.Weaknesses: Difficult room placement. Not the best for heavier music. Sounds great w/ heavier Porcupine Tree but loses intensity when exposed to anything much heavier.Bottom Line: I purchased these speakers used and therefore did not have to endure the apparantly dreaded break-in period. What a pleasant suprise these speakers have become. Great imaging and detail without the brightness you would probably get by stepping down a notch to a lessor quality speaker. With at least decent amplification, the bass has nice extension. They come ready for bi-wiring which makes them ideal for running 2 seperate power amps if you wish. I experimented w/ this and was pleased with the results. The bass began to tighten up and "sing" more. Many claim that these speakers sound better w/ tubes. I have found that they sound exceptional w/ solid state as well. They are indeed, however, fussy when it comes to positioning in your listening area. I had to pull mine 3.5 feet away from the back wall before the sound would open up. I purchased a sub-woofer to round out the bottom end before I discovered how sensitive they were to positioning. I found the right position and have not had the sub on for 3 mos. (What a waste of $)The selling point of these speakers is the mid-range. Best mid-range in a 2-way at this price I have heard. Acoustic guitar and keys sound fantastic. Solid construction, good looks, good price (especially used) and most importantly, great sound. I see no reason for me to upgrade anytime soon. I think I will focus more on the electronics.
Other equipment:
Rega Planet 2000
B&K PT3
2 B&K Reference 2220
DH Labs interconnects and speaker cables
Price Paid:
$1500.00
Purchased At: Audio Alternative in
Overall Rating: Value Rating:
Submitted by
jk121764
a AudioPhile
from Woodbridge, VADate Reviewed: May 14, 2003
Strengths: warmth, imaging, detail, easy to drive (I use 8 watts), build qualityWeaknesses: grille sock is awkward, but I don't think anyone uses themBottom Line: Wow. After finally fine tuning my front end components to where I want it I needed some speakers to match the quality. I've been thru quite of few speakers and this time did more research before I bought them used, which is probably better anyways because they apparently take very long to break-in. Rather than go into a long winded sound analysis, lets just say this will probably my last speaker purchase for years to come. My Shearwaters are the hotrod version.
Associated equipment:
transport- AudioNote CDT-Zero
DAC- MSB Goldlink III with T-1000 Power
peamp- WrightSound VLA12A
amp- CanaryAudio 300B sets
interconnects- TMC
Price Paid:
$1400.00
Purchased At: Audiogon
Similar Products Used: Infinity Overture 2's, Hale T-3's, Jamo Concert 8's, Axiom 80MTI's
Overall Rating: Value Rating:
Submitted by
Bruno Wichnowski
a Audio Enthusiast
from Pittsburgh, PADate Reviewed: May 6, 2003
Strengths: Wonderful imaging and detail. Easy to drive and a pleasure to listen to.Weaknesses: Somewhat laid back but a minor weakness at best.Bottom Line: Great speaker that's very easy to drive and sounds fantastic! Nice bottom-end to it and very warm, detailed mid-range. Highs are smoother than the metallic dome of my previous B&W 805s and are much more "there".
Price Paid:
$1700.00
Purchased At: Private Sale
Similar Products Used: Proac D15, Vandersteen, B&W N804,
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