I purchased the Soliloquy 5.2s about a year ago and I really enjoy them. I had upgraded from B&W 805s wich I had no major complaints about but wanted something more sensitive when I bought a pair of Cary's CAD300se amps. I listen equally to vinyl and cd and enjoy all types of music from jazz to hard core industrial. What I like about these amps is that everytime I listen to female vocals, the hair on my neck stands on end, kinda like when a gorgeous girl starts kissing and breathing in your ear. It can be kinda spooky sometimes, especially with the Cary's. I am also amazed at how low they can go, for such a small woofer I thought it would be impossible to get anything lower then 40Hz but I'd swear (and know, I measured them) they go a lot lower then that. Sure, they don't campare on the bottom end to a pair of B&W 801s driven by a Krell amp or a what a Velodyne 18 sub could do, but the bass is tight, tunefull and suprisingly low. Most impressive is the life-like midrange warmth. I can honestly say that the sololquys often fool my ears into believing I am listen to live music. Imaging is very very good. It is realistic left to right and front to back. These speakers are extremely honest meaning that other changes in your system are imeadiately noticable. They unviel everything, ie cheap cables, dirty connections, dirty cds, noisy tubes, etc. Spend some time cleaning up the rest of your system and you will be impressed at what some tweeks can do! With any type of jazz or acoustic instrumental music, I think that they are the best speakers out there for the same amount of money. If your taste are more hard rock, industrial, techno, or hip-hop, nope these aren't gonna work for you. Sometimes I get into the mood for some loud noisy music and, well, I just use my home theatre system for that. I give these amps 5 stars because I bought them used for under $2k and after listening to everything else I could find used or new for $2k, these were the best for my system. I heard that Soliloquy has an 8" woofer version, if I could get a really good deal on those, I would think about upgrading. Of course, I'd like to upgrade to the 20watt Cary CAD-300SE/LX20s too, but does it ever end?

I would just like to say the after living with these speakers for three years my opinins have not changed. It is one of the finest speakers I have heard. so musical so transparent. the only things I have done over the years is to add vibrapods under the speakers. this seems to work very well and adds some more pace to the sound. also I like to let you know that I have updated my system a bit. I have added a second cary sla70 and have one cary one the tweeters of each speaker and the other cary on the bass. a worthwhile upgrade. I have also changed my cd from the sansui to a naim cd3.5. what a difference it makes. I have a review of the 3.5 on this web site. good listening, enjoy music live and recorded.

This is a slim, column-type floorstanding speaker, similar in looks to a ProAc Studio 150, that uses a Vifa 5.5-inch doped paper woofer and a Scanspeak 3/4-inch silk dome tweeter. The Soliloquy line is designed to work with low-powered tube amps, and the 5.2 has a very stable impedence curve between 6-7 ohms throughout the audio band. The crossovers are contained in external very thick and heavy MDF boxes. Connections to the main speakers are via a thick detachable umbilical cord. The bass loading is a tuned port design (pseudo transmission line) that vents through a large "mouth" near the base of the front. Rapping on the sides of the speaker reveals them to be well braced and inert for their size and weight.
These speakers are very smooth and non-offensive. In some ways they could possibly be too smooth and sound somewhat "dark" with electronics of a similar nature. This is not to say that they are veiled or opaque--they are not. Recorded detail comes through very clearly and naturally. The bass, while not real deep (40 Hz is the limit) is nevertheless quite tight and musical with no unnatural boom.

I really like these speakers. I have owned many speaker brands in the past and these compare very favorably. They are a great blend of style, purpose, and sound. The minute I plugged them in I knew that they were special. Most speakers have a fault that starts to bug me within a couple of weeks--these don't.

What do they sound like? To me they sound like a Spendor (of which they share the same tweeter) only with better imaging due to the narrow baffle. The bass is not as powerful as some similar-priced speakers (Thiel 1.5 comes to mind) but what they do they can do with about any amplifier out there. A Thiel 1.5 cannot be used with nearly the number of amps that the 5.2 can. If you want good sound and are in love with tube amps less than 40 watts, then this is the speaker for you.

Another aspect of this speaker that is good is that it works well with many types of music. One night I listened to the Glory soundtrack, Andre Previn, and The Swinging Steaks in a row and the 5.2s sounded "right" with each recording. Very few speakers will do that.

Soliloquy is a relatively new name in the speaker market. Their designs originally came from Dennis Had of Cary Audio Design. Soliloquy took Had's speaker and beefed it up with better cabinets and components. The resulting product is excellent.

After I got my 5.2s I picked up a pair of Dynaudio Contour 1.3s to try. I thought the 1.3s would probably beat the Soliloquys because of the excellent quality drivers. I ended up keeping the 5.2s. The 1.3s sounded brash and crude in comparison.

Always welcom, always inviting you to listen...the Soliloquy 5.2s are a great product!

Sheeesh. I just spent an hour on writting about this speaker and was subsequently booted for not being active. It was much more informative then this.... however, HERE IS THE SHORT VERSION.I Love these speakers. I still have a pair of Quad ESL 63s that are boxed up for various reasons, and I like these speakers nearly as much, and more so in some ways.
I got a great deal from Jeffs Sound Values, in San Diego. I was thiking about purchasing a pair of Spendor sp 2/3. I had been listening to the Spendor's for well over an hour, using my amp and CDs. I liked the speakers, and because the price was so good, I was considering buying them, but when I heard the Solioquy's I knew immediately,that I would be happy with these speakers for quite a while. One thing I will repeat from my lost comments, is that these speakers have a great midrange and are very coherent. I have a very wide range of music that I listen to. I really enjoy Pavorotti, but I've always been bothered by the poor quality of London's recordings. There is a metalic edge to his voice on all of his recordings. I recently purchased a few CDs of Andrea Bocelli. His voice also has a metalic edge that detracts from really getting lost in his music. On the Spendor's Andrea Bocelli's voice from the first cut on "Viaggio Italiano" had that irritating metalic hardness, however when we switched to the Solioquy's most of the edge was gone. Andrea's voice came through clear, full and three dimensional. The chorus that comes in some two minutes into the first cut was mostly just a "blob" located to the left of Bocelli on the Spendor's, but when they came in on the Solioquy's, the chorus was spread out well behind the tenor, occupying almost the entire soundstage between the speakers. These speakers look great. Have an outboard crossover. The crossover is extreamly simple 6db job. A Solen capacitor with a resistor and a huge hand wound coil for the woofer. I really can't say much neg. about these speakers. They image extreamly well. Do a great job on all types of music. They do seem to be just slightly "phasy" (a teeny tiny amount) on some material when I remember the rock solid imaging of the quads. A more complicated crossover would probably solve this, but hey, most people won't ever notice. I originally was going to just post 4 stars, but only because I have not auditioned many loudspeakers at the $2,000 price point. (Except for BMW and Dynaudio minimonitors and the Spendor's mentioned). But I have a feeling they would easily hold there own.

I have found this web site to be very informative, so I thought I would add some info.

I have owned these speakers for about a year and a half, and had nothing but
pleasure from them.

A quick discription:
They are a thin floor stander with everthing (soundwise), but extra
deep bass. They are very efficent and easy to drive. The speaker contains a 1"
Scanspeak silk dome and 5 1/2" Vifa coated paper woofer. Two reasons that this speaker is so easy to drive, and sounds so great, is that it is a tuned-pipe enclosure and has a very simple external crossover with oil caps.

The sound of these speakers can be phenominal with the recording, but still
musical with a bad recording. They lack any grain in the treble and go
sufficiently low in the bass (~30hz in my room). The mids are very smooth and
detailed. There have been so many times in the past year or so that I have stayed up too late listening to music, because they play music so well. They
can get the timbres just right on solo piano, and rock to a fat bass line.

One of the thing I love about this speaker is I can hear every time I make
a change in my system. Even if it is just a tube, cable, or some isolation feet. I really feel that the 5.2's are a transprent yet musically satisfying speaker.

By the way these were designed by Dennis Had of Cary Audio Design for use with tube amps. I have heard them W/O tubes and all of the positives stay.

Just for context I will include my system:
Cary sla70 silver sig. 30w class A
Audio Reasearch SP-9 MK1
Linn Axis/Akito/Signet am30s
Sansui cdx317-weak I will upgrade soon
Onkyo t-9 tuner
Mostly Kimber Cables

I am giving the speaker 4 stars it could get Five ,but I have heard a few speakers that were better, yet cost alot more. Also from my experience they could reach five stars in a better system.