The speakers are all in different areas on different systems so I need to move them to the main system and listen for awhile to do a real comparison.
The OS are my left and right front speakers for movies right now. From what I remember when I first built them they sounded quite good with music on a low powered tube amp but in our larger living room they were just too small to fill it with sound. They absolutely trounced a pair of Polk T15 speakers. In a smaller room or closer setting I think they are quite good or even just as background music in a larger room. I didn't use a subwoofer with my tube amp at that time so I don't know how they would have done with that. As theater speakers I haven't ever found myself wishing for more out of them and it has always had a subwoofer backing them up. At the time I built those our main speakers were old Paradigm Phantoms and the OS came surprisingly close to them considering the smaller size and price.
The ZA5.2 are in the garage connected to 2 Heathkit A9C amps. The speakers are in terrible positions as dictated by open shelf space and still are quite enjoyable. I don't think there is much in the way of low frequencies but for the setting that is fine. Without a lot of bass the sound works well as background music and doesn't travel outside to the neighbors. They have a very airy sound that fills a 20x30 room and sounds pretty good anywhere in the room at low volumes. At one time I had them hooked up to a First Watt M2 clone in a small room and they were enjoyable, still not much bass but I could crank the amp to 11 and both would stay very clear sounding. I also didn't try them with a subwoofer but I will have to drag them in from the garage and try them in the main system with the subwoofers. I also use 1 ZA5 as a center channel and it mixes decently, at least to me, with the OS sides. The ZA5 does an exceptional job with the frequency range of voices so it makes movie dialog very easy to hear. With my prior center channels I'd often have to crank up some movies to hear what they were saying and then get blasted out of the room when something loud would happen. I also have the in-wall versions of them and while lacking in bass they have the best soundstage and room filling sound I've heard in an in-wall. I wouldn't use them for critical listening but for background sound the in-wall version are quite good.
When I finished the SR71s I connected them to the garage amps. Even though I hear it said a lot that we should spend as much as we can on speakers I've often found that there is a point where speakers outclass amps and sound worse than cheaper speakers on those amps. That seemed to be the situation with the SR71s. On the good side it sounded like I'd hooked up a subwoofer to the garage system with them. At lower volumes though they didn't have the airy sound of the ZA5.2 so they didn't fill the room. They did sound better than the ZA5.2s at higher volumes but I really try to avoid going that loud in the garage.
With the SR71s connected to my SE EL34 amp they have bass and clarity that my B&W CM5 S2s don't. They also really enjoy being played loudly and somehow make my amp sound more powerful as they don't sound like it is running out of steam at higher volume levels. Classical and rock have a lot more detail and strength behind them on the SR71. I've gotten goosbumps on a couple vocal recordings with them but overall they don't have the warmth that the CM5s have on vocal or jazz. Lower piano notes on the CM5s have a rumble like the piano is in the room and I haven't heard that yet with the SR71. The detailed highs on the SR71s can be a bit much at times so I'm hoping adding the 20 ohm shunt resistor across the tweeters will lower their level enough that the midrange can stand out more. At higher volume levels I don't notice it as much but I often listen at fairly low levels and then the high frequencies stand out more. Late night listening is pretty much all high frequencies.
I'll swap in the other speakers shortly and do a better comparison. I wish I had a microphone that would capture the sound decently so I could make clips of them.
