Usher Killers..Watt Puppy Killers...Vonschweikert KIllers...In fact the wipe out most dynamic loudspeakers. You will also be forgetting most of the planars and ribbons. These are among the fastest, most coherent and time alined of all loudspeakers. Pioneer has brought in drivers from their revered pro TAD division to introduce their first audiophile loudspeakers.

The blog entery for this room is criminally short. This was one of my favorite rooms. The combination of the S1-EX's and the Bel Canto Ref1's was just incredible. Every track that was played, from the unfamiliar to the very familiar, sounded the way music should sound- real and involvling. You instantly connected with whatever was playing. For me,and for the money(S1-EX $9000pr, Ref1 $4000pr),nothing else came close...well maybe the Acoustic Zen Adagios, but thats another story. On a side note, I happened to come back to listen at the end of the last day and they had a Moscode amp hooked up instead of the Bel Cantos and the magic was just gone. This showed me two things, the BCD Ref1's are amazingly good and the S1-EX's tell you exactly whats happening behind them.

These speakers are $9000 per pair, not $6000(I wish!) but even at $9k, they are a stunning value. I asked Andrew to estimate how much the S1's give you compared to his TAD M1's($45k pr!)and he said 80-85%! And I believe him.

I'm about to trade my Focal Electras 906 standmounters. I was considering the same brand's Micro Utopia Be's but after reading so many excellent rev's about the Pioneer S-EX series I'm having doubts. Problem is, it's so difficult to get to audit Pioneers models. My system consists of Musical Fidelity's A5 integrated amp and cd with DPA cabelling, Black Slink and Black Sixteen.I appreciate each and every opinion regarding the Pioneer S2-EX, especially from anyone that has heard the Micro Utopias aswell. Thanks

I happen to own a pair of JMLabs and studied the possibility of purchasing a pair of Pioneer S1 EX. I first listened to the Pioneers in Oslo, Norway, and what I heard just blew me away. With this speaker you just hear what is on the recording, or whatever faults your system has (the dealer made the mistake of using an Esoteric front end, which killed the sound altogether, but it also had Odyn cables and a ton of Mcintosh gear). During the listening sessions, I had the realization that my hi-fi hobby finally had a grown-up moment, in which toys were abandoned for good, in favour of the "real gear". By comparison my JM Labs, while no slouches, had a fabricated, "design" sound. I finally realized they were giving me a good dose of addiction, and not what we call the real sound.