@touch33, do you have a favorite 3rd party IR pack for SRO speakers?
Now that was wrong. I just hijacked a "Why not much love for the EVM12L?" thread to ask about SRO IR's.
I was so deeply imprinted with the early pulsonic-coned Celestions, that I never really grew out of it.
My only interest in clean speakers was to add definition to the old Celestions. Even when I couldn't afford the old Celestions.
So, in answer to the OP's question -- probably a lack of maturity, musical and otherwise, on my part
However, the 12L's would come up from time to time. Always well-spoken off by the ones who owned them.
And, I respected the people who liked them. So, I was always curious about what it was.
Even now, the only reason I have much personal sense of the 12L's is because of the FM3 and a thousand IR's.
And, for me the 12L's don't quite mesh with the old celestion/pulsonic sound -- not like the JBL E130's did.
And, the only reason I had the E130's is because, back in the day, I couldn't buy the Dual Showman head without buying the cab, too.
But, back to the 12L's.
I have come to like and enjoy the IR's that used the EV 12L's. But, as soon as I warmed up to the 12L's
I found out I liked the EV SRO's more. Another surprise, because it took me a while to warm up to Alnico speakers over the years, too.
I'm not proud of my slow to change ways.
Even though the 12L's really bring out the beautiful details in a good amp's sound.
I have always been biased toward -- not dirty speakers but -- reactive, expressive speakers.
Dirt was just something I put up with for the expressiveness of it all.
There may be something of a gulf between the two ways of thinking.
For all I know, whatever I find to be expressive in the SRO might be more about the imperfect cone material.
In many ways, harmony is a close failure to getting the imitation perfectly right.
There is a real beauty, even bravery, in the things that are perfect.
But, I have been more drawn to people and things that were flawed, imperfect and complex -- even tragic.
Not because of the ways in which they failed.
But, because of the way those failures made them more expressive.