[BillK]

I went to the ListenUp demo in Denver last night and... to be honest, I wasn't all that impressed.

They certainly went much lower than any other Maggie I've heard aside from the Tympani IVs, and threw a wonderful soundstage, but at least as presented they had some issues, and I'll just relate what I felt, though in talking with a few others they felt similar things:

1) They were "chesty." They played a copy of Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon" off digital, and Frank was far too chesty sounding. I'm intimately familiar with this recording, and it just was too heavy in his vocal range.

2) Horns just sounded... weird. The horns on the song just didn't sound "right." Perhaps a little closed off, they just didn't sound like horns should, perhaps a bit "blatty." They were just... off.

3) Playing an orchestral CD the strings were bright and brittle. I wish I could have heard that same CD played on other speakers because the CD sounded like something you would have expected from a CD released in 1984; bright, brittle, as if the orchestra was using metallic bows.

All in all the 30.7s sounded like what you would expect from speakers that hadn't yet been broken in, yet they've had enough tour stops to date I can't imagine they weren't.

Somewhat surpisingly they had the crossovers out of the tweeter panels lying on the ground connected with what looked to be ordinary Radio Shack-grade jumpers with alligator clips on the end. Normally I'd say that couldn't have helped any, but since Wendell's the expert, he wouldn't have done anything to harm the sound if he felt they were detrimental to the presentation.

Wendell also hinted the 30.7s were never designed to be manufactured, they were just meant to be a statement of what they could do, but they got people expressing interest. He said production has not yet started and they are still trying to sort some things out so for the time being there remain only two pair, this pair and a pair back in Minnesota.

Ironically the ListenUp demo had them in much the same place as the Apogee Divas I loved the sound of when I heard them in that same room 27 years ago.

Truthfully the best sound I had heard of the night was back in another room, Focal Sopra No. 3's being driven over AudioQuest Oaks by a Moon 700i Integrated, and a VPI Prime/Ortofon MC Quintet Bronze combo playing through a Rega Aria phono stage.