Mani, I drove the 75 miles to hear the Animas with a lot of anticipation based on Ked's approval for them
For me, they just failed 100% on engagement and were extremely recording dependent
This was a demo that I DEFINITELY needed a drink afterwards LOL
I've heard a few poor horns demos in my time, but whatever the faults I've always been engaged, if not necessarily convinced
Not so the Animas
I believe you.
I first heard the Animas at Jack's place three and a half years ago, and ended up ordering a pair of BD-Design horns instead. But I obviously didn't take into account exactly what happened in that demo, else I would have explored the Animas further. The Animas were hooked up to Jack's SS amp, and I didn't really like the sound. I had taken my Berning Siegfried 300B with me, and preferred the sound of the Animas with this - but still not blown away. Jack then hooked up another valve amp (Traformatic, I think), and the sound changed drastically again. It obviously still did't rock my boat because as I said, I went and ordered a different pair of horns.
But what I should have taken away from that first demo was that the Animas (like any high-efficiency speaker) need to be mated very carefully with the amp. When I decided to give the Animas another go late last year, I took my Consonance monos with Elrog 211 tubes with me. Again, we started with Jack's SS amp, and again the sound was kind of 'meh'. But switching to the 211 monos, it was totally transformed. Massively interesting and engaging. And the decision from there was easy for me, albeit with taking a massive hit on selling my BD horns.
But the Animas may still not be for everyone. I guess we're all attracted to different things.
FWIW, I heard the Cessaro Gammas at Munich a few years ago and was totally underwhelmed - totally grey and colourless to my ears. Mind you, not as bad as the Spectral/Magico setup I also heard there.
Mani.