Enrico69

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
A real masterpiece. I've listened them with:

EMT 982 -cd player
Audio research sp-11 mkII-preamp.
VTL MB300-amp.
JPS labs superconductor 2-cables

Surely among the best transducers ever built (Dynaudio esotar tweeter and Audio Technology woofer), assembled to give their best. However, in the range of the crossing frequency tweeter-woofer, there are some problems. You can listen the sound coming from the two different transducers, not a perfectly mixed one (Phase problem?) and , as I wrote before, in the crossing frequency there are lost details.
However, out of the crossing frequency, sound almost perfect ln others parameters(soundstage, speed, transparent..)
So it seems disegner, to reach so top of the top performance overall, accepted to have some little problem in the crossing frequency; moreover, it seem it is a particular speaker made with music in mind: the compromise is not against music, but concentrated in others less important area.
So, to play the transducers in such stellar way, and to give overall wonderfull others parameters, designer accepted a little compromise in the crossing frequency: the compromise of a genious designer.

Price Paid:  $5450.00 from Audiogon

Summary:
I joined the club when I bought a used pair of Extremas on Audiogon a few months ago. These speakers are amazing. I think enough has been said about them here and on other audio sites. I'm not sure what else I can add. Over the last year I tried several different designs and none of them bought me so much listening pleasure. The Exremas are wonderfully balanced, the midrange is absolutely fabulous (a little darker and richer than Merlin VSM-M for instance), the treble is truly luxurious: well extended, detailed and refined, never sounding harsh or overly bright (the Merlins, good as they are, hurt my ears at times). The bass is tight and very dynamic, goes pretty low, almost as good as Wilson Sophias, although missing a litle in the lowes octave and upper bass impact. They soundstage like real champions too and the depth is phenomenal. As others here said, they do need some serious power, otherwise they can sound a little lifeless. I achieved excellent results with Conrad Johnson Premier 8 monoblocks, but also tried them Premier 12's, Audio Research VT-100, Ayre V1x and they always sounded fabulous. All in all an excellent design and I'm yet to find anything that beats them below 10K.

Weaknesses:
Meriln VSM-M, Wilson Sophia, Vienna Acoustics Mahler, Aerial Model 8.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I just tried Audion Silver Night 300B push pull monos on my Extrema. What an amazing 20 watts! Sounds more musical than my 150 watts 6500-based monoblocks. Although the latter produced tighter bass, I think I would be satisfied with the musical 20 300B watts. I am writing these comments to counter the hype on Extrema's power hungry. However, I tried a famous 150 watts solid state amp and it is indeed not enough. So be careful on system matching on these tanks.

Price Paid:  $3000.00 from My favourite dealer

Summary:
They''re excellent. Very realistic, superb soundstaging, dynamic range is excellent. Looks to die for (subjective) and a fantastic bargin used. Build quality is just amazing. Would also agree with the comment that better single speaker cable sounds better than cheaper bi-wire. I use Transparent XL and it just gets better and better (the speakers that is).

Strengths:
When used with a good amp they are absolutely effortless - hugely musical. And there is a reason why Krell uses Sonus Faber speakers for their testing. There is a huge synergy.

Weaknesses:
They need loads of amps. I use an FPB600 (have heard them with MDA300 monoblocs & FPB300) and the difference is staggering. You cannot give these speakers enough juice. Getting them in the right position is painful - they are just sooooo heavy.

Similar Products Used:
Speaker wise not a lot - but when they''re this good who cares!

Price Paid:  $2700.00 from 2nd hand at local hi

Summary:
OK, they''re heavy and pricey, but frankly, I think they''re the best audio product I''ve ever owned. I''ve even been offered more than I paid, but no way. If I won the lottery, I''d probably upgrade most or all other audio components, but never these bulldog beauties.

Strengths:
Musicality, dynamics, definition, build quality, looks (a matter of opinion) - the most effortless speakers this side of panels.

Weaknesses:
Extremely fussy when it comes to ancillary equipment, and the cable terminals are a really bad joke (try bi-wiring them with fat, expensive cables), looks (to some), rarity - people tend to hang on to them, and their long out of production. My guess is that they were too expensive to manufacture to give a nice return if sold at a reasonable (not really) price for a two way "mini" monitor.

Similar Products Used:
Quad ESL-63, SF Electa Amator, B&W 805, AE1