Sound stage, low end, looks.

Lack of upper end detail, musical excitement

The emblem at the bottom of The Spark III has the tag line "No loss of fine detail", and while this is a good speaker for sure, the loss of fine detail is my biggest complaint.

After listening to the Spark III's for a weekend in my home, I agree with the previous comments about the holographic imaging and the very good bass response. The looks of the Spark III are fantastic. However, the metallic zing that a cymbal should have ends up sounding flat and the sharp twang you hear from a hard picked banjo is somehow muffled. While I am completely unfamiliar with the previous incarnations of the Spark, I fully agree with Rob's comments about the tweeter.

If your system makes up for the lack on the highs and you like the results, this speaker is a winner. It may be that my equipment is affecting my impressions, especially the speakers I have been using for the past year, however the Spark III left me with wanting just a little bit more.

Associated equipment:

Rega Planet CD player
Rega Planar 2 turntable
Rega RB 300 tone arm
Rega Elys cartridge
Rega Mira integrated amp.
Monster Cable speaker wire
Rega standard interconnects
Energy Exl:16 speakers
Linn Kan speaker stands (spikes on floor, BluTack on speakers)