Lets kick start this thread
I started with the F52's and upgraded to the Salon1's for exactly what you described the similarities between the f208 and Salon2. The sound coming from both speakers was identical with the Salon just going farther, bigger stage, more detailed bass, higher spl before compression, etc, but the music had the same tone. Very similar to your experience with the new models.
Being a hifi junkie and the fact that the bank is only giving me .05% interest on my money I decided to upgrade my stereo and I bought a pair of Salon2's open box for fair money, meaning if they didn't jel with my room I could flip them without taking a bath(i've yet to make a penny selling hifi gear). WOW! I didn't expect the midrange to be where I heard the difference, but as great as the salon1 is the salon2 goes even further. I use a hegel h360 to drive the salon's currently, but I started with an affordable Anthem 225I after hearing it drive a pair of f208's, the sound was uncolored but a little dry so I plugged a parasound a21 in using an old krell kav 300il as a pre and the music bloomed a bit and bass was pronounced, woohoo! Still not feeling the full measure of the Salon1's capability I brought home more gear and found my sound with the Hegel, with the Salon1 the pair made music so I use it to drive the salon2's, but I heard them being driven by the big ML 400 watt mono's and I know they can even sound better. Music I've been listening to for years sounds like different pressings and thats how it's supposed to be.
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