Thaiman:
I remember being totally satify with my Acoustic Zen Adagio (£4000ish) I thought the speakers was a lot better than my previous (stop gap, must say) Tottem Arro (£800).
and then a dealer send me a pair of ART Emotion Signature (£9000) to try at home, the step up was massive. The overall sound was a lot better, so much so that my credit card was come out quicker than you can say "crunch" .
Yes, yes, yes.....
"Using up to the minute driver technology and Birchply and Hardwood construction techniques for the cabinets, we created a balance of ease of drive, efficiency and linear response.
There are 3 models which differ only in the components employed in the crossover network and the internal wiring used, the Emotion, the Emotion Signature and the Emotion Silver Signature. The cabinets and drive units are the same for each model which makes it possible to upgrade from one to the other thus keeping the initial investment intact."
You are having to get into really serious high end speakers to get the crossover and internal wiring quality...... Hand wound copper air core Inductors and Clarity Cap custom made SA series capacitors
Internal Wiring - Premium quality OFC copper internal wiring.
SignatureSeries....Jensen copper-foil inductors, Jensen copper-foil paper-inoil capacitors, Caddock non-inductive resistors and Kondo KSL SPC copper wiring.
They take your breath away with the naturalness with the music.
I am laughing all the way to the bank with the spec crossovers in my RS8's along with Kimberkable 4TC internal wiring and long wool fibre damping. Whilst they are probably not quite up to the Emotion Signatures I bet they are not far off them.
)
They say knowledge is power, serious upgrades can be made on quality mid range items which can punch well above there price point if you know what to modify. So very good systems can be put together which sound outstanding.