Do you want to give a bit more of a review. I haven't heard them yet.
Sure, let's see.
So I demoed Dave Brubeck and 3 tracks of Sam Smith, the first 3 on his album.
On the jazz piece I noted that true to life size instruments, truly, I had no difficulty picturing the piano in my head, size and all.... that's what really freaked me out. I'm familiar with ML and have heard some pretty nice speakers both in demo rooms and in my own room (I have owned SF Stradivari, BW 802D2, Rockport Aviors, and currently own SF Olympica 3 and BW 802D3). Never did I have to open my eyes and close them again just in sheer amazement to what I was hearing just slightly to the right of the stage.... it was like my wife was playing the piano infront of me.
On Sam Smith, I played the first 3 tracks, typically I can't stand track 1 on most systems, but on this one, I just played it right through... into track 2 (which I'm not fond of)... then into track 3 which is the "pop" song that everyone's heard on radio... if I can play through tracks I don't like, the system is doing something really really good.
What I noticed were the following:
Imaging - good but not the best I've heard, but definitely up there. There was palpability to the voice, but I think the back wave of the panels smear the staging a little. A little less clean imaging than from other typical hi end speakers from my experience.
Front to back staging - I think this was very good, the singer seemed to be at the plane or slightly infront of the panel's plane. More importantly, I felt like the vertical height was JUST RIGHT.... at approximately 5 feet tall in terms of chest/mouth height which is PERFECT. I would attribute this to the fact this vertical height that most speakers just don't get right with the fact that these Neoliths are perfectly vertical and act as a line source so there is minimal interaction with teh ceiling thus no pulling of the vocal image upwards as you would experience with typical well-radiating conventional speakers (like my 802D3). There was a good recreation of space behind him and felt atleast 6 feet back... again, this is probably more record dependent than speaker capability, though I know the back wave can smear this as well.
Side to side staging - the panels were huge, so while it would seem like the instrument is coming right out of one panel, if you closed your eyes, there was a convincing effect that the instrument was occuring in that region, but beyond the borders of the panel (if that makes sense). In other words, the panels were so big that it was not unusual to feel like a 1/5th of the stage was isolated to either Right or Left panels.
Tone - I think it was just right. Sounded legitimate.
Highs - probably not searing highs like you would on a diamond tweeter, perhaps not the hyper detail that you can get from either a diamond or a beryllium tweeter - but enough and just right. Voicing reminded me a little of my SF Olympica 3. Easy to listen to. O3 is a lot more wooly and peetered off I think.
Mids - no complaints there. Very dynamic midbass or so it seemed.
Lows - impressive, never heard a room powered that well with just the tower speakers sans subwoofers. I will say, the bass was a little thick and boomy in some parts of the music reproduction, but given the adjustability of the Neoliths and given the inadequacies of a room with multiple set ups, if I had these at my own house, I'd be able to tweak them nearly right I think and the bass would be a non issue. The main thing is this - it has bass, in spades, it is tweakable, and thus it can be done just right.
Overall impression - I would buy a pair...
... if I could.
