For sale is a pair of rare Hales Design Group (Hales) Concept 2 loudspeakers. They are a same serial numbered A/B matched pair and were made in Huntington Beach USA.If you're reading this ad you know that Hales Design Group was a highly lauded company that was making serious headway into the USA hifi scene in the 1990's. They garnered a variety of accolades from the audiophile press and were carving out a name for themselves amongst high end manufacturers such as Wilson, of which they were often compared. Paul Hales of whom the eponymous company was named was considered a brilliant speaker engineer and he was absolutely obsessed with reducing enclosure resonance. One of their signature design elements was an extremely thick, semi-isolated front baffle. The baffle on this unit is at least 2 inches thick and of course the weight of the speaker shows it. It's a shame that the company went out of business in around 2005. Apparently they sold to Wadia which is know for their electronics, in particular DACs. From what I've read, loudspeakers weren't really much of a focus for Wadia, and so to the dismay of many fans of Hales designs, they decided to shutter the speaker side of their business. Getting back to the speakers, the veneer is absolutely beautifully done and is in great shape as are the drivers. The binding posts are high quality Cardas and it's set up for bi-wiring or bi-amping. The driver compliment is a 1" aluminum dome tweeter and 8" woofer. The drivers were custom made for Hales and they were usually higher end Vifa units. Overall, these speakers are very stately, elegant and sleek with a high WAF factor. Their look is sort of a classic meets post-modern. BTW, with their sloped baffles many people seem to think they're Theils. The sound of the Concept 2 speakers is extremely clean and clear with nice sounding vocals and wonderful soundstaging and imaging. I've driven them with everything from a 100 watt per channel Rotel amp to an 8 watt 300B amp and they work wonderfully in every case. They are easier to drive than I would have expected so a monster amp is not required to get the most out of them. Something that can't often be said about audiophile oriented speakers. As far as their condition, I'm conservatively rating them as a 7/10 for a couple small flaws on the top rear of one speaker. I took an image of it and it's obviously inconsequential to their overall look, but I would rather underestimate then overestimate them. I'm asking $450 for the pair. I'm confident that you're not going to find a higher build quality speaker near that price point. I would be asking more but they're very heavy and given that I have some physical limitations which preclude me from easily shipping them, they're only available for local pickup. I live in New River, just North of Anthem which for those not familiar with the area is about 30 miles North of Phoenix, off of I-17. Hales speakers rarely come up on the market these days and at this price point will hold or increase their value over time.
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