Hi Heinlein,
I found that Cadence speakers needed to be driven more to sound good. At lower volumes they were not so good. Perhaps cos of the cone material that required more power to move them, the Aritas specifically. I couldn't imagine listening at high volumes all the time. In contrast, the single drivers respond faster to even the slightest detail and it does not require much to move them, hence even low level listening sounds superb. Other than that, the amp sounded less involving to me. I'm not a fan of hybrid designs. The Lyrita amp sounds more involving. The Cadence to my ears created sounds that I could perhaps quantify as good/bad treble, bass etc, the Lyrita system forgot all that and simply created music which brought alive the band for me. On bad recordings the Lyrita also sounded far better, with the Cadence you were aware of recording quality, with the Lyrita the bad quality was evident but the music shone through over that. Quite a subjective thing I guess. For me, the coherence in sound a single driver brings far overshadows the frequency extreme gains of a traditional two/three way system. I still remember Blue Oyster Cult's 'Don't fear the reaper' that I played on the Cadence VA1 and Aritas, a not too good recording best of cd and with the Cadence gear it just didn't bring me any joy, with the Lyrita gear there's that hypnotic rhythmic driving plucking guitar that loops through chord changes and the soothing gentle reassuring tone yet sometimes urging in the singer's voice while he builds a case for why one should not fear the reaper. If you've heard the song I guess you'll know what I mean.
regards