Not necessarily. The AG Uno Finos I sold to Rick or Jim’s A’capella that Nick now has wouldn’t break the bank, certainly cheaper than the Quators and hilariously easy to match to a wide range of amps - choose your own topping etc.
Yeah but no but…
I prefer the Lyrrs to either, so not really contenders…
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FYI One of those three pairs are currently residing in a town house in BrIghton
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Gimme! GIMME! 
Are those the ones you commented previously as being advertised with a “keen” price?
Yep, these are they 
I’ve spent some time cleaning and fettling them now. All of the securing screws and bolts for the drivers, terminals and stands have been carefully re-tightened (amazing how at least some always work loose over the years - always worth checking with any new speaker acquisition).
Spikes are now in place, stable and levelled, which has done the bass no end of good. Like my former Naïas, what they stand on is clearly important to the overall sound.
Also made-up a set of jumper leads from 6mm CSA Van Damme UP-OFC. Can’t say I hear much difference, but it scratches an OCDish itch.
The tweeter enclosures at the top were evidently once coated in some kind of soft-touch plastic. In the ten years or so of their life this had inevitably broken down to sticky gunk 
Googling for the best way to clean it up and discovering - as always - that no cunt agrees with any other cunt as to how to tackle it, I commenced an advanced procedure of “Fuck it, let’s see how it goes…” resulting in its removal with a microfibre cloth and some propyl alcohol, and no damage to the surface finish of the surrounding woodwork.
It still looks a bit shit, as the paint did not come off evenly, but at least it is not shitty AND covered in dust and hair and fly-legs…
Plan A is to dismantle these at some point, reinforce and bitumen-damp the main panels internally, upgrade the crossovers and rewire internally, so hopefully I can remove the tweeter housings and respray or wrap them. I may indeed wrap the entire speakers in a less funeral-home finish, E&OE.
For now, I’m continuing to enjoy them very much -
They are however leaving me in an unexpected kind of quandry.
I’ve wondered for a while if I was so deeply in thrall to depression that I could no longer respond to music at an emotional level. Whether it’s the sheer novelty, or the liveliness and articulation, I don’t know, but these are like Viagra for the little hairs on the back of my neck 
Which is nice. And while ultimate resolution isn’t quite a match for the Dreiklangs (e.g. there’s a slight ‘graininess’ present in the sound), their ability to portray voices and the vast majority of instruments with exceptional clarity, speed and cleanliness is superior. I’ve missed this without ever fully realising it.
Bass, too, is just not the issue I feared it might be: I ran some full frequency tone sweeps, and have audible output as low as ~22Hz. So while not chest-burstingly loud, it’s certainly not absent. Firing across - rather than along - the room has some advantages. It seems unpredictably programme-dependant, e.g. Billie Eilish’s “When We All Fall Aleep, Where Do We Go” actually sounds better - more nuanced, more impactful, more brutal bass slam - than with the much larger Dreiklangs, though this isn’t the case with everything I play - e.g. the Hecos are exceptionally good at portraying bass guitars, the Lyrrs a little less so.
So that’s good. I like them.
But my hearing doesn’t. I went to bed with my ears ringing last night, and today my tinnitus is the most intrusive I’ve had since the last rock gig I went to. A lack of caution and self-control are the #1 issue here, but these are speakers that sound best turned-up to Batshit. It seems to be a bit of a ‘Triangle Thing’ IME, and may be why they rarely review well and are so widely considered ‘Marmite’ speakers.
I have a little more system tweaking to try before I make any conclusions. No rush in any case. I want them to be keepers, but may have to deal with Reality… 
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If you’re not more careful you might deafen yourself into needing a downgrade 
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tl;dr version: I love them so I am going to change everything in them?
At the other end of the scale 
Plonked down where they landed, tonearm weight gunked on somehow (god knows 
) and my Hana SL set up approximately right.
Sounds alright, has potential
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Bat Shit volume to get something good is curious but very meat man so .
I’m probably projecting qualities upon innocent speakers that are really only present in the blended frog I have instead of a 
What phono stage?
How are you enjoying the Alto?
Cayin DAC CS 100. Valve output stage or solid state output stage. I haven’t listened to it yet. This is part one of a second system.
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IFi Zen phono. The Alto is a peach into the AP2’s
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It has volume control and specific pre outs. I’ve tried it direct into the power amps, sounds ok, but the soundstage is small and it sounds a bit flat. It’s much better via the separate pre-amp. It’s not fatiguing at all. I prefer the valve output stage, but theres not a lot in it.
Would upgrading the valves do much, given they’re in the output stage?
Which valves does it use?
EDIT. I see it has 6922s. What brand?
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I think they’re Electro Harmonix or suchlike. I.e. cheap ones.
EH are ok, better than China made ones.
I think I’d go for JJ Gold pin E88CC (made in Slovakia) if you want good/current production or try & find some NOS Mullard E88CC-01 or perhaps Telefunken. Unused, good samples of either of those may be spendy though.
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I may have some Mullards at home. I’ll take a look when back from Settle.
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I have Gold Pin JJ’s