I just kept my Vienna Acoustics Bach Grand speakers. They are sublime. The reasons for looking at the Concept 500s was twofold. Firstly, from the reviews it appeared that they would be a similar sound to the V.A.s but on a larger scale, so more of the same and secondly that I had the cash and had a momentary lapse into upgraditous.
There is a real synergy in my system. It sounds way better than some kit I have heard costing far more. It really punches well above its weight. Bearing in mind that the system I heard at Richer Sounds was £10,350, it is a fact attested by my companion on the audition, that my system sounds infinitely better.
My systems main three components being - Naim Nait XS2 – Chord Qutest – Vienna Acoustics Bach Grand.
It is a shame that Vienna Acoustics are now not widely available here in the UK. They were imported through Cyrus seven or eight years ago. I still haven’t heard any speaker that sounds better than the Bach Grand’s and bearing in mind that when I bought mine seven years ago they were then only £1750. Chord used Vienna Acoustic speakers at a Hifi show with their very expensive high end gear. Chord could presumably choose any number of speakers to demo their equipment.
The PCM Twent5 23’s [£3300] I borrowed were good [way, way better than the 500s], but nowhere near the V.A.s. If you had a blind listening test of both pairs of speakers in my system, you would have thought that the V.A.s were the upgrade from the PCMs. The several people who came over to have a listen all agreed with this.
Here is an image of the Bach Grands in piano black like mine.
