Lowens
My room size is about 11.5 x 20 with 8ft ceilings. This should be a pretty good size for Lafites (probably a bit tight for 16 inch Latours though) And yes, the Lafites are about twice the price of the Solovox.
Back in May, I had considered other more expensive speakers: I had briefly thought about the Petite Latours but Jonathan Halpern felt they were probably too big for my room (and at 28k they were a bit outside my budget) Shindo had made a speaker around the 8” Western Electric 755 driver (with a similar box to the Lafite) It was delicious – but it too was 28k and a bit too steep for me. The larger DeVores were probably too big and I had not seen the O 96 at that time - but I didn’t need to because the Solovox were wonderful.
So while I’m waiting for my Solovox to be built, lo and behold, the Lafites appear (This is why I said previously that I think even JH the importer was unaware that the Lafites were in the pipeline, because he certainly would have mentioned them while I was discussing my speaker choices with him) So, eventhough the Lafite purchase was quite impulsive, because obviously I haven’t heard them, it kind of fit the picture for what I was looking for earlier. Shindo hasn’t gone wrong yet so I’m going purely on reputation here (and even the best of auditions is a crapshoot unless you can actually demo the speakers in your own room - which would be tough to arrange with a rare Shindo speaker) It was also something you said in a previous thread “What next” about having the foresight to look down the road and get the piece you want to end up with. It’s a lot more economical to buy the dream piece once instead of a bunch of pieces that you’re continually upgrading (The Shindo upgrade program aside) And while the Lafites probably do outshine the Aurieges and Montille a bit, I’ve got a feeling I’m not going to be disappointed with the combo. Also, it will be easier to "afford" the smaller incremental electronic and cartridge upgrades than trying to raise the large sum needed to get Shindo speakers down the road. And what fun it will be “growing into” the Lafites
Doug
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