5 hours, 3 places and few good speakers

I was on my way to Hyderabad and had a chance to drop in at few shops yesterday in Chennai.
Thought of just penning down what I had listened to. Main note is that these are opinions based on few minutes listening.

First stop was at AudioPeople:
I wanted to check to Monitor Audio Lineup. I listened to BR1, BR2, BR5, RS1, RS6, Radius 225 and nothing else in the shop. All of these were connected a Marantz CD5001 and Musical Fidelity A5.5 amplifier.
I first listened to BR1. Given that I had Monitor Audio B2 at my home for some time I immediately recognized the similarity. BR1 was indeed a very good speaker. There was definetly not much in the bass. Later I found the bass less even in the bigger floorstanders. I think the room was bigger and to some extent attribute this to CD5001 player I suppose. The speaker does have some crispness in highs. They are quite clean. I would rate them good for short listening periods and for more of an all round listening. I am sure they can do home theatre duties also comfortably. But, when you see the MRP of 17.5k (you can get a discount of around 10%), then we are in trouble. There is not much bass as much as the bigger bookshelves and the price tag issufficiently higher than other competitors. So, I would probably not recommend these as primary bookshelves for even a secondary system. They should do fine in a BR2/BR5 AV package for surrounds.
Next was the BR2. Given that I had B2, the previous model, I noticed that BR2 was indeed more sharp at highs. I wasn't too sure if I liked that. I thought my B2 lacked the detail, which BR2 did bring out but somehow when listening to complex passages it was collapsing and sounding harsh.
For simpler music this was definetly good. Again, comparing it to similarly priced bookshelves I have heard, I would rate them quite high. If you are in India and listen to mostly filmi music, then these will be definetly a better bet than other sub Rs.20k speakers.
Then we moved to BR5. I was all set expecting the same BR2 music with more bass, but I would say that there was some difference in what I heard. I did find the highs slightly smoother than BR2, but the bass wasn't of much improvement. The difference in highs could have been because of run in's. The bass could have been because of the room, but I did expect more bass. What was there was tight, but if a floorstander is going to get only that little extra, then I am not sure if the extra 16k (37k MRP compared to 21k MRP) are worthy. But, I am thinking with a different CD player, room the results might be different.
Next was RS1, I was expecting a more sharper highs from what I read, but I was so wrong. The things that I immediately noticed was that highs were more enjoyable in RS1 compared to bronze series. They were smoother atleast for me. The bass was infact comparable to BR2 inspite of the smaller size. The congestion in complex passages were reduced a lot compared to Bronze series. It was for me obvious that these are definetly a step above bronze. If I am going for one of these it will be the RS1. The MRP qouted was 35k for these with a 10% discount.
Then it was the RS6 turn. An MRP of 57k for these. Surprisingly, these had lots of bass and was definetly very very good to listen to. But, I would think that if somebody is listening to just music in a small normal indian room, the floorstander might be an overkill. Thats why I decided on RS1 to be my pick of the list here. The imaging was very good and actually these alone managed to almost vanish.
Last was the Radius speaker. I gave a listen to it for less than a minute. So, can't judge much. First of inspite of being a tower, there was nill bass. So, without connecting to a subwoofer, I don't think its right to judge these. But, I did notice there was a some extra sharpness in the sound. Would not call these musical, but it did have a very clear and nice sound. I would say if there is no space constraint for the same cost BR/RS series are better.

Second stop at Decibel:
To my surprise this place turned out to be a house instead of shop. So, you need prior appointment for demoing them. I was lucky. I was there with my main intention of listening to Dynaudio and Epos. They had Dyna Audience 52. It was connected to Primare I31 and CD21.
Straightaway I noticed that compared to Monitor Audio they sounded quite polite. The whole thing was very smooth. I am sure these can be listened for hours. So, I popped up some Joe Satriani's electric guitars to see if they have that attack. I would say that they were fine.
Somehow, I was under the impression that the extra zing that Monitor provided would suit me better. Also, there is a problem with the Dyna's. Evyerbody says the same story, that they need good clean quality and quantity watts. Even, the guy here recommended the same. When asked which budget amp would he match these with, he said NAD C372 though 352 can drive them as well. So, if somebody is looking to pair them with low powered amp, then we might have some trouble. So, you need a midrange amp for these Dyna's or these might be wasted. The bass of Dyna 52 was somehow a tad more than I liked. Somehow, the decay wasn't there much. The room is a normal room and so that could be the cause. So, I was thinking probably for my small room, Dyna 42 will be better - basswise and moneywise. I was offered the 42's for 45k and 52's for 55k. Later we paired 52's with the NAD C372 and I found the bass handled better this time with the highs still were a tad polite for me.
So, between RS1 and 52's, I would say that the price is a bit of killer here otherwise the smoother presentation will be preferable by me. But, if you are going to make the Dyna's do movie duties, probably the RS1's might be better because of that slightly sharper highs.
Also, RS1's are easier to drive and cheaper than Dyna's.
Then I listened to same Primare's connected to Epos M12.2 ans listened to Satriani. I would say the music was quite sluggish. There was simply no attack. The lead guitar was like playing somewhere in the background and I didn't feel like headbanging. Then I played a vocal track from Motorcycle Diaries. Now, this was simply awesome. They were just really wow to listen to.
It was clear that of all the ones I heard, for simpler vocal based musics, epos edged the others out. Also, the price of 37k were very good for these.
Next was Audience 122 with an Arcam AV280 with Arcam CD73. Now, this is an entirely different combination being a AV receiver. But the end result was very good. Infact, there was that zing suddenly in the music that 52's weren't showing. Probably a little more than required, but neverthless good. So, I came to think that Dyna 52's were polite mostly because of the Primare's then. So, probably like I was told Dyna's are very neutral. The imaging and soundstage were simply awesome. I was double checking if the centre channel was on or off.
But the AV receiver costing a lac in India makes it out of reach. The details pulled out by these were the best. I am not sure if for long term listening if these are good, but atleast this combo did sound quite great.
Then was Dynaudio Contor S1.4. I immediately liked these over the 52's. Rock sounded exciting to me. But in a short session I couldn't exactly figure out why these are better. I can say they are better but again for the cost probably questionable.
Actually, in the end between a Monitor Silver series with a NAD (32+32=64k) and a Dyna Contour being run with a Primare(64k+110k= 175k), the gap is far less than their prices.
Yes, defiently they are better, but for a person who is really stretching by putting their hard earned money to acquire the costlier combo, I would simply suggest them to save the money and go for getting more CD's instead. You could have covered about 75% with the Monitor/NAD combo.

Final stop at Grand Cinema:
My agenda here was entirely different. I had a 4k costing class D Dr.Amp (very small amp) and I needed them to be connected an entry level bookshelf. First was Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 which had very less senstitvity. The amp puts out less than 8watts. So, was not sure exactly if it will be fine. But, there was indeed good volume but it soon clipped. So, took these out. Replaced them with Mordaunt Short 902i. These were going loud but nothing impressive. Probably after all the big guys, these were not that impressive. So, finally connect Paradigm Atom v5 and immediately there was a difference. I saw there were details in the highs and it was quite crisp. I would say a lot crisper that for folks intending on laidback listening this is too much.
But, these can probably do a good HT duty. Comparing these with the Monitor Audio BR1, I would say that costing less than BR1's atoms are a better deal for that extra bass. I was qouted 13.5k for the atoms. However, if you can't tolerate some harsh highs, BR2 would be a better bet.

So, another day, few more thoughts and the journey continues.