So yesterday I was out biking with my 10 year old son and he wanted to go to Guitar Center. We went to Guitar Center and messed around with some basses and acoustic guitars but he really likes playing in the keyboard section. I let him play with some keyboards and went into the pro audio section where I noticed a beat up Yamaha DXR12 on the shelf for $599. I looked around for the DXR10 and the ZLX12P as I'm interested in all three, but the only thing they had on the shelf of the three were the DXR12 (2 were on the shelf and they both looked like they were tossed around quite a bit). Anyway, I went and asked if the price was for the floor models or for new. To my surprise, they said...NEW...and they had 3 in stock in the box unopened. I asked about the DXR10 and they said it was not on sale and was going for $599, the same price as the DXR12.
Well, I decided to put my negotiating skills in play and asked about the ZLX12P. Unfortunately, that was also not on sale and was going for $399. I told the sales person that I was actually more interested in the ZLX12P and wanted a deal on that one and possibly two if it was to my liking. I offered $350 out the door (including tax) and he said that would be very difficult (I had the same response when I called them and offered the same deal over the phone, which they declined because they were such hot sellers). Anyway, the sales guy and I are chatting for a while about speakers, life, kids, whatever, and he finally says "give me a few minutes and let me see what I can do". He leaves me and goes to supposedly talk to the store manager. 15 minutes pass and he comes back rolling a ZLX12P in the box on a hand cart. I figured this was a ploy to entice me to up my price to something closer to the $399 price. Instead, to my surprise, he says that since I'm interested in two, he was going to give me a price of $299, $326 with tax! Small pause, quick thinking, and then a "fxxx yea, I'll take it". And he said, I can certainly return it if I didn't like it and then we can discuss a deal on the DXR12s if I'm interested.
Paid for the speaker, rode home in record time with my son, picked up the car, and went back to the store to pick up.
When I got it home, I immediately plugged it into the Kemper, set it on live and monitor, picked my favorite MarkIIC+ rig, and started jamming.
First impressions:
Absolutely no hiss when everything set to 0db and I wouldn't know it was on unless the light in the front was lit. That particular rig has a lot of low end and it was certainly present in the ZLX, more than I liked. Yes it was very bass heavy but the rest of it sounded awesome. So, dialed back the low on the speaker and gave it another try. Sounded really good. Next thing was to put some music to this thing and try to dial it in even more. Put some heave stuff (Dream Theater, Symphony X) and cranked it. Again sounded really good and man is this thing loud and clear. After a while it actually started to sound even better to me. My wife likesa latin salsa music, so I decide to put some of that on to entertain her. Now, I'm not a fan of that music but man did it sound incredible. Cranked it to ear piercing levels (we were trying to talk in the adjacent room and could hardly hear ourselves even though we were yelling). The sound was prestine for this type of music (btw, I set the speaker to music and pole and had it on a bench about 3 feet off the ground. For this type of music, it sounded incredible. I let this play for a good amount of time at very high volume, but this speaker had a lot more volume potential. I went into my detached garage and could hear the music crystal clear, as if I had my bookshelf stereo system in the garage on. I figured the neighbors were getting free entertainment, like it or not.
Came back in and decided to try it on the Kemper again. At this point I was debating with myself to go back for the DXR potential deal but, once putting it back on Kemper, setting it back to monitor and live, and putting it in the wedge position and doing slight eq adjustment, it sounded amazing. Low volume, medium volume and deafening high volume all sounded pristine (I'm sure the Kemper has a lot to do with this).
Bottom line after one day, I'm thinking about going after the second one to have a pair. For $650 out the door, two really good to excellent speakers in my opinion is a better deal and will probably satisfy me more than 1 exceptional speaker. I previously borrowed 2 brand new Alto TS112A speakers and had them for over a week. I couldn't get them to sound as good as the one EV (the highs were very harsh and tiring to my ears and the lows were backed off). I've listened to QSC K12s that a friend has and they do sound very clear (never tried them with my Kemper) but, for the price, there is no way I can justify the increase in sound quality to price. If my math is correct, 2 EVs are way better than 1 QSC. If they were both selling for, let's say $400 a piece, I think I would still go with the EV as it has a relatively warmer sound and the DSP is so much more flexible.
Again, this is after 1 day of use, so I have 29 more days of the honeymoon period, but I hope to have a long lasting relationship with this speaker and two will even bring more pleasure. 
The $599 sale on the DXR12s is a great deal and is going on for the month of July, but I don't know if it's nationwide or local. The website does not show the sale price so it may be local. But, if you can get them for that price and really want them, I would recommend getting them now and possibly negotiating a better deal on a pair. In my opinion, the ZLX12P is so close in sound and has more flexibly that even at the regular $399 price, it would be my choice.