I count myself lucky. Found what appears to be the perfect pair around 9 years ago, bought them 7 years ago and unless I win the lottery, have no desire to change.
I first bought a pair of Impulse Lali's back in 2004, then upgraded them to Ta'us (newer versions of the H2s) in 2007.
Just love em. Great to look at, WAF and child friendly as they like to be placed against a rear wall and are too heavy to be tipped over.
As yet, the only speakers I've heard that I "might" prefer have been either a monstrously huge Westlake system in Singapore and a pair of JBL Everest K2 9800s. The Westlakes need to have a dedicated room built, and the 9800s cost a fortune (roughly £25k new) are just a guess they'd be better, but they seemed to have a VERY similar style of presentation.
Either way, just love their portrayal of music, IMO do the best job I've come across of putting the musician in the room with me.
Other speakers I've listened to:
- Any dynamic speaker (and yes, I mean any, including active) just don't have that horn style of presentation that I love
- Big tannoys. Good, but the really big ones seem to suffer from cabinet colouration
- ESLs (57s, 63s, 2905s). Lovely speakers, ace mid-range, but no genuine depth of bass or volume capabilities
- ATC/PMC actives. To me, these are the best dynamic speakers I've heard, but they still don't have the presentation style of the horns. For all that, love the ATCs I've heard
- Avantgarde horns. The guy who sold me my Ta'us replaced them with AVs, so I very much made the effort to listen. They do some things brilliantly, but always sound disjointed to me, which I assume is due to the combination of dynamic drivers and horn mids/uppers
- Living Voice. Really like these, but all of them sound a little small-scale when compared to the Ta'us, which have genuine depth to their low end
- Meridian actives (DSP6000s and above). Thought the 6000s at Scalford were brilliant, so made the effort to listen to 5ks, 7ks and 8ks. Went home post and thought "so what", which is fine but the 7ks now cost £22k
Don't get me wrong, I know the Ta'us are not "quite" perfect. Their top end is forward and a little gritty, and the bottom end not as well defined as say ATCs. For all that, they're the best compromise for myself and by a LARGE margin.
In addition, I've spent the time since buying them trying to get the best from them, i.e. with:
- A clean and fairly laid-back source (Meridian processor)
- Active room correction from the processor
- Some treble roll off and bass enhancement to calm down the top end and give more bite to the bottom
- GIK bass traps behind them to reduce bass smear
As mentioned, the only speaker that I "might" consider replacing them with would be the big JBLs. In the real world, I don't think they'd even work in my room as they seemed to like free space around them.