Hello, Does anyone have any thoughts about Ruark CL 30 Speakers or the CL 20 mdl? Compared to Alegria Emmas and the Vienna Acoustics Grand? Speakers are for music only for my two-channel system. Thanks for any input.
Can't say I've had the pleasure of listening to the Ruark line, but at their price point, there is a heck of a lot of competition. I would also daresay that you would be hard pressed to find a bad speaker in that price bracket, which really makes it essential to listen to them and decide for oneself. What else have you listened to? What will you be powering this system with? Source?
As for the Vienna line versus the Emmas, I would somehow see myself going with the Emmas. Perhaps I'm a bit biased given that I am an owner, and I've lived with them for a while now while I've only listened to Vienna Acoustics speakers on a few occasions (and they are excellent), but I havn't listened to a heck of a lot that matches the lifelike quality (particularly in vocals) the Emma's put out, Vienna's speakers included. If Vienna or another major manufacturer produced them, I think they could easily be 3 or 4x the price and nobody would bat an eyelash.
I don't know the Jolida but I do know the Ruarks. They have an immensely clean and powerful presentation. They're fine speakers and musical too. There's very clean bass to be had and on the CL30 the midrange is particularly sweet thanks to the dedicated driver. As a range they were fairly easy speakers to drive offering an easy 8-ohm load to amplifiers. Anything with around 50 w/c should be able to drive them quite happily.
BUT
They didn't sell. The CLs were a big expensive sales flop for Ruark who were trying to break the mould and go for some real change in the ir products. It's a pity. The range were well thought out and had superb performance for the money. The CL20 was also pretty in its way, although the CL30 was really quite imposing in size. They were very good speakers and beautifully made but they just didn't sell, so Ruark have stopped making them.