The Polk R700 is a really good speaker with a lot to offer at a great price. I like it, but it falls short of what I'm looking for in my next speaker system.

The Polk R700 have smooth bass (claimed 38hz) with no noticeable peaks or valleys, but the midrange and treble can't keep up with the bass making the speakers sound overly warm in my opinion. The comparatively weak midrange and treble gives the speaker a somewhat dull tonality with insufficient air or detail for my taste.

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The Omni Sound TCM3 have been my primary speaker for 34 years.

Designed and built by Randy McCarter they use a 8" hand-made Toby woofer paired with a Vifa 1" tweeter. The crossovers use only air core inductors and polypropylene capacitors and oxygen-free large gauge internal wiring.
The specifications are 36Hz - 21KHz +/- 3db
92db @ 1 watt-meter
8 ohm
58lbs

I had the woofers refoamed by Toby a few years ago and I've swapped out the original Vita D25Ag-05-06 aluminum dome tweeters with Peerless D27TG35-06 silk dome units.

The TCM3s are great speakers with lots of dynamics, deep bass and detailed throughout the frequency range, but there is a narrow band in the bass region that is boosted slightly. I can hear it when listening to some guitar of Leo Kottke's guitar solos, some notes are louder than others when they shouldn't be. Also their treble can be fatiguing at moderately loud listening levels. I've had some success in smoothing the in room response by treating the listening room with a combination of diffusion and absorption materials as well as bass traps.

The TCM3s are great, but is there a speaker in today's market that will make me even happier within my budget of no more than $3,500 a pair?

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The Acoustat 2+2 electrostatics have the best bass I've heard so far, going down deep (claimed 28hz +/- 2db) with no audible peaks and valleys. But being an electrostatic speaker, the speakers lack the dynamics of a traditional speaker system and the sweet spot for optimal listening is about 2-ft wide sitting 9feet from the speakers. They do have the biggest soundstage that is amazingly wide and tall. The make box speakers sound small in comparison. The upper frequencies are noticeably rolled off on the Acoustats, I've replaced all of the capacitors, diodes and resistors in the HF circuits of the interface units and tested the HF transformers and HF variable resistors with a multi-meter. Everything checks out fine, but so far I haven't been able to restore the upper frequency response on these 40-year old speakers.

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The Monitor Audio RS6s sound smooth at lower volume (claimed 38hz), but get harsh and run out of steam when turned up beyond casual listening levels.

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The search continues.....

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