Audience ClairAudient The One speakers

[dizzyorange]

I heard these at a friend's tonight and thought they sounded terrific.  Very cohesive and headphone-like sound.  Wonder if it's because of the single driver (not counting the passive rear bass driver)?  Thinking about picking a pair up.  Anyone have any experience with these?
 

 

[angelo898]

how are speakers which sound like headphones a good thing?

 

[dizzyorange]

Sometimes speakers sound a little disjointed, like the sound is coming from two or three places.  

 

[dizzyorange]

Stereophile gave them a pretty slamming review: http://www.stereophile.com/content/audience-clairaudient-one-loudspeaker.
 
My only hesitation is the price.

 

[Maelob]

Can you tell us a little bit more about the sound. I would like to demo this speakers at some point but I dont think they have a lot of dealers in my area. I currently own the mini magnepans for my desktop and I am really happy but they take a lot of space on my desk and feet with the mid bass speaker. I would like to see how they compare to the mini maggies which i like for their 3d like presentation where you can feel the performer is right there with you. I would use them with a sub. 

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Sometimes speakers sound a little disjointed, like the sound is coming from two or three places.  

 
I usually get that from headphones and IEMs - you hear a very strong Left, Center, and Right, with weak sound between L-C and C-R. If speakers sound like that chances are you might be sitting too close or they aren't set-up with enough toe-in.

If however you actually mean more along the lines of "cymbals way up there above the tweeter, vocals somewhere, and bass near the floor," that's because the sound from each speaker isn't properly aligned to your ears. The worst example of something like this is in a car where the vocals tend to be off to one side since you're nearer to the tweeter and midwoofer on that side, and if you use the L-R balance control instead of real time delay in dedicated processors, the vocals will move closer to the center of the dash, but the soundstage will seem "bigger" or more "in your face" on the louder side. In a speaker set-up at home, as described above, it's the same problem as in the first paragraph - you're sitting too close to the speakers. I once picked up Wharfedale 8.4's to get more bass for metal, but my room was too small - with less than 7ft between me and the center of the speakers, and them about 5ft apart - I get that problem where each instrument seems to be coming from a higher or lower point. I just convinced myselft it's "front row" - enough you hear the bass drum from a drastically different point in the Y-axis vs the cymbals. When I switched to Wharfedale Pacific Pi10s, 6" midwoofers with more bass and also tweeters that can be toed-in separate from the cabinet, I was very happy until I moved out of that dorm after college and found out the house I basically inherited (and grew up in) just sucked in acoustic terms.