Took delivery of a pair of these this morning ââ'¬Â¦
Paid a pretty good price for them on an Audiogon auction. They were ex-dem from a dealer in another part of the EU, so no import tax or duties to pay. Not sure how many hours they've had on them, but probably a few than I was expecting as it doesn't seem to sound totally virgin in the way that low hour Meadowlarks do from experience. Had them plugged in and music playing continuously for about 15 hours in total now since delivery. They're certainly sounding a lot better now than they did earlier on this morning before I left for work. The top end has really opened out now compared to before. There was a very noticeable cuppy colouration to sound in the mids which really manifested itself on sudden crescendos or in complex or multi-layered sections of music, this is starting to go away now. Bass in very articulate and surprisingly tight yet powerful on the right music, given the low hours, can't wait for these to run in properly. The ultimate low end stuff is lacking at the moment and can be a bit uncommitted or slurred but I'm still being amazed at what's being produced at the moment, especially in the upper/mid bass. Imaging is rock solid, one of my main concerns what with it being 3 way design, not a bad feat there. These speakers are a lot more forward too in the mids and with tons more presence than my usual speakers, something which I do like a lot and had been trying to strive for with upgrades/tweaks elsewhere, and I always thought it was the room sapping out the presence region ââ'¬â€œ these speakers really do suit and load the room much better in a lot of other respects too. Emailed a guy about some ESL-63's a few days ago who got back to me but not sure if I want to go ahead with that particular speculate purchase, OK so it's the 989's that I really want to try but I'm really thinking right now that I might was well save my money for now as I really do think these Ospreys are going to be keepers for the real long term ââ'¬â€œ we'll seeââ'¬Â¦
Slight panick attack this morning when they arrived as there was a crease in one of the tweeters. I was going to take a picture of the creased tweeter and send it to the seller but the battery in my digital camera was dead and by the time it had charged up I'd managed to uncrease the tweeter which now looks perfectly unmarked ââ'¬â€œ can't detect any negative effects on the sound either ââ'¬â€œ imaging/dispersion seem even and no nastie rattles which normally show up I find with solo piano recordings.
One of the plinths is damaged. Looks as if the speaker wasn't screwed on flush with the back of the plinth which has subsequently put excess pressure on the front upper lip and split it. Nothing but a bit of wood glue shouldn't fix once I get chance to get hold of some.
Oh, and no spikes either, what is it about second-hand Meadowlarks arriving without spikes. Haven't had chance to e-mail seller yet, but will do in a moment.
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