Hi from James

[racrawford65]

Welcome, James.
Nice system.

I have the Towers with RAAL (along with S2, Horizon w/ RAAL, and 3 pair of HTM200's, plus a preorder in for the LX to check these out).

[James]

Thanks ra.

I'll be interested in your comparison of the LX and towers.

Also, if anybody has listened enough to both Vandersteen and Ascend speakers, I'd love to hear your thoughts on them. The towers are excellent, and I don't think I could do any better, even for twice the price, with conventional (high order crossovers, bass reflex port, multiple drivers) speakers. But the Vandersteens, with the time/phase coherence and transmission line bass, are a bit different.

The speakers that I'd get if it were feasible would be the Vandersteen 1Ci, to compare them with the dome Ascend towers.

Pogre, I looked at some SVS speakers, and they were pretty close to the Ascends, but I liked the soft dome tweeter better than the metal ones.

[racrawford65]

Hi James

Not sure if I'll open them. Wife and I are in process of buying some property in Brazil (she's Brazilian) for retirement (at least part time) and thinking of bringing them down there once we close and either build a house or renovate one of the ones on the property.

[James]

Ah - I see.

I looked into a bunch of other countries for possible expat retirement - Costa Rica scored very high on my list.

But for a number of reasons we're staying here.

[racrawford65]

I strongly considered Costa Rica, as well. Along with Panama (never been but my research indicates it is also a good place for ex-pats) and Thailand (one of my favorite places in the world). CR is a beautiful country and friendly people. Brazil, obviously for us, as her family is there.

[billy p]

I strongly considered Costa Rica, as well. Along with Panama (never been but my research indicates it is also a good place for ex-pats) and Thailand (one of my favorite places in the world). CR is a beautiful country and friendly people. Brazil, obviously for us, as her family is there.

Nice going for you guys....my sister in law moved to David area in Panama....we're strongly considering doing likewise....lots of ex pats (both US n Can) in select communities...had planned to see them this past January and stay for 3wks but that was changed....due to covid....returned the other day from LV....trying to get back into Canada...was a real PITA.

[racrawford65]

Thanks, billy p. Yes, we are buying about 12 acres, about an hour or so drive from central Rio, up the coast towards Buzios (which is about a 2 hour drive from Marica, the lake region, where we are buying. Also about 15 minute drive to the Atlantic). See you are north of Toronto. Pre-covid, made 2-4 trips/year there for business (Mississauga area).