Thank you, all, for the positive comments.
The speakers look better in person than in the photo's (one would hope, eh?) and the solid wood front cherry baffle is great looking, and thick given the waveguide. My wife definitely likes their appearance. My strategy is to have the speaker cabinets look great, to distract her from the stands...
They are very revealing, excellent extension on top, and it is the midrange that is taking a bit of time to settle in. Bass is powerful, and seems better damped (of course) in Hurricane pentode mode than triode. But that only seems to make a difference at very high volumes. Bob (from SP) said to push em, and I definitely have.
Not to get repetitive, but clarity and stunning dynamics are the easy to hear attributes in these initial days. And I promise, more comments later, since, after tonight's playing, they seems to be settling in nicely.
For the most part, the owners of SP speakers are fanatical about them.
And from what I have heard about the larger speakers, and the daddy to this one, the Timepiece, everyone seems to be awed by the very "live" sound of the SP speakers and the accuracy, which seems to touch back on the dynamics (both macro and micro-dynamics) and the clarity.
There are not too many pairs of these running around yet, so I thought it would be fun to share the photo's. Yes, it was a long wait,
but I got a great entry price, and I have other speakers, so this was a fun opportunity to test the SP waters... with nicely developing results.
Bill C