I'm new to the forum and am slowly easing back into the hobby after an eighteen month hiatus from five years of maniacally climbing the ladder. I kind of burned out and just had walk away from it all, not sure if I'd even ever return. I'm a drummer and practically stopped playing once I was bitten by the audio bug, but reached a point where I really started to miss making music, so I got back in a band and now my once dedicated and acoustically treated listening space is where the band rehearses. I've decided to set up a nice listening rig in the living room and chose Chorus II's because they seem the best candidate with regard to approaching the type of performance I enjoyed from my Altec 19's (without eating up as much real estate as the Altecs), are a high-ish sensitivity horn design and also satisfy my placement restrictions.
I had my first listen last night with a Pioneer Elite (VSX series) AVR and felt like they offered an excellent starting point from where I can systematically improve them, the upstream electronics and the room's acoustic response. Compared to KG 5.5's they're replacing I found them to have improved mid range body and presence and a generally larger sense of scale with regard to the sonic presentation. Detail was noticeably improved and imaging a bit better defined than what the KG's offered. The top end of the KG's is a bit smoother, but they've had Crites tweeter diaphragms swapped into them (at some point I'll take them out of the 5.5's and stick them in the Chorus II's).
I have an interesting variety of tube and SS pieces to try out with them and am capable of and wiling to molest those stock networks.
I'm very curious to see what I can get the Chorus II's to do. They follow some pretty impressive speakers I've had in the collection before so the bar is pretty high!