The KEF LS-50 is fast becoming one of the most talked about speakers around, and I suppose it’s time for a reviewer at Dagogo to talk about them. Residing in Hong Kong I live in an apartment that is well suited to the KEF LS-50. Well suited means small if you missed it.

The LS-50 is inspired by the LS-3/5a but let’s be clear: they don’t sound alike. The KEF LS-50 has significantly more bass depth and drive, which are probably the first things that came to the fore. The other of course is the KEF LS-50’s hi-tech cabinet design and coaxial driver based upon the KEF Blade loudspeakers that retails for 20 times the price. This is a serious effort and I feel it is a serious contributor to standmounts under $2,000.

Let me begin by saying that I did not care for these speakers at shows or at various dealers in Asia.  Companies the size of KEF typically sell their products at higher volume retailers in Hong Kong and Thailand and such retailers often don’t take care in their set-ups (or have enough space) to properly demonstrate dedicated two channel speakers as they could in the west. The double edge sword here is that bigger speaker companies are then viewed as sounding worse that smaller boutique labels because the smaller labels are sold in rooms that are geared for quality listening.   And while I didn’t love the LS–50, I had greatly enjoyed the KEF Blade which managed to overcome a less than good room at the California Audio Show in 2012. I felt the LS-50 would be better served by better gear and a better room. Further I got the nagging feeling that in spite of the low sensitivity and difficult load, a good SET amplifier might be what was needed. Time and again I have heard Single Ended Triode Amplifiers in the 8-30 watt range make supposedly difficult to drive speakers sound wonderful.

So I decided to buy the speakers, bring them home to see if my speculations were correct.

I opened the box and was pleasantly surprised by their very high build construction and gorgeous piano black cabinetry and the well above average binding posts. At $1500 these speakers are a class act all the way in the looks and build quality department. But what about the sound?

Connecting the speakers to my Line Magnetic 219IA integrated amplifier, I was immediately treated to good sound – far better than what I had heard at show and demo rooms and without any burning in time.

The 219IA I reviewed here http://dagogo.com/line-magnetic-219ia-integrated-amplifier-review and had more than enough power to drive the KEF LS-50 and rather superbly to boot.

Using the 4 ohm taps the KEF could play at significant levels while retaining very solid bass depth and drive. This surprised me in fact because I found them lightweight in dealer showrooms which typically run rather wimpy receivers and budget integrated amps. The LS-50 requires a serious amplifier to truly be able to reward the listener. I maintain that the $1500 price is somewhat misleading because it generally follows that you can get by with a $500 SS integrated and I fear many end users will judge the speakers too harshly based upon such set-ups. Assuming you use an amplifier with good pedigree, the KEF LS-50 can reveal some spectacular traits, including tight controlled sound and excellent taught bass, which should reach 50 Hz in smaller rooms. For a 5 inch woofer that is quite impressive.

The KEF LS-50 betters previous UNI-Q drivers that have sounded a little strident to me. The LS-50 is cohesive and doesn’t have ragged rough edges. KEF has gotten it right and every piece of music I throw at them has been enjoyable from trance to vocals.

Is it perfect? Well no it’s not. You are aware that the KEF uses a metal tweeter and on lesser recordings or strings leading edges can be slightly rough. The bass, while deep for the size, can occasionally sound one note and a little dead. Higher efficiency speakers tend to sound more out of the box and alive and often seem to possess superior dynamic as a result – but good high efficiency speaker often cost significantly more money than the KEF LS-50. I must remember to keep in mind the price – this isn’t a $5,000 speaker after all.

I find 47 Labs to be such an interesting company. At times I am tempted to get rid of all my ultra expensive and big gear and just listen to one of their little systems, as they are so musically satisfying. While I have always considered myself to be in KISS (KeepItSimpleStupid) high-end audio camp, the 47 Labs approach takes this to a whole new level. After this review I plan to hook up a complete 47 Labs Midnight Blues System using these speakers and even their cables. That’s for another review though.

I just got back from the 2014 California Audio Show which had many rooms of really expensive High Resolution and DSD Dacs and I didn’t hear a single one that made we want to part with the little 47 Labs Midnight Blue CD Player. I know I’m not much into digital, but at least I find the Midnight Blue player fun to listen to.

The new Lens II speakers are basically the same speaker the 47 Labs has been making for years, but with the addition of a newly developed driver that uses an Alnico magnet. To me there is something magical about Alnico magnets whether they are in speakers or phono cartridges. In my smaller system I use Teresonic Magus A55s. I listened to the Magus with drivers with three different magnets. To me, the A55 with its alnico magnet was clearly the most beautiful sounding of the Magus line. So, I have been looking forward to listening to the new Alnico version of the 47 Labs Lens.

With the Lens II we have a three inch (specs say a 10cm) single driver bass-reflex speaker in a cabinet smaller than some shoe boxes. They came double boxed and packed very well. The review pair was black and looked very nice, especially with the grills removed. I tried them on two different speaker stands but ended up with them on a pair of Sound Anchor sand/lead filled 28 inch stands. I found they sounded best off the back and side walls.

I also tried them with different amps; I did not care for them as much with tube amps as with good transistor amps. I thought they were a bit on the warm side with tubes. I liked them best with the 47 Labs amp and especially with the Pass Labs 30.8 amp. They work best in small rooms. They struggle to fill my 20’ by 15’ foot room, which is open to the rest of the house. They sounded great in my office which is 12’ by 10’.

When you look at the specs there are a couple of things that remind me of Quad 57s. First, like the Quad 57s you aren’t supposes to use too much power. 47 Labs says to limit the power to 25W continuous and 40W peak. Second, they aren’t very efficient, 85dB to be exact. Unlike the Quad 57s they are a 4 ohm load. The result for both speakers is that you can’t push them too hard. Again, unlike the Quad 57s you don’t have a large area radiating the sound, but a small single driver. The result is a speaker that can’t play really loud.

With the 47 Labs Midnight Blue amp the Lens play beautifully at low to medium loud levels. In the smaller room they played all the way up to what I would call loud. When using the Pass Labs 30.8 they sounded much bigger and more powerful. With either of these good transistor amps they never sounded dull or bright, that’s not an easy see-saw to balance.

The bass of these little speakers really surprised me. No, they don’t go deep, but the bass they have is surprisingly engaging. They had nice tone in the lower midrange and upper bass. They also had a nice sense of air in this same area. I have heard several five inch single driver speakers that didn’t play bass as well as the Lens II. At the same time they don’t play nearly as deep as the Teresonic Magus, but then they cost over $4,000 less.

The Lens II played voices very nicely and convincingly. Voices sounded natural and that was equally true for female and male vocals. I point this out because so many small speakers add too much warmth to male voices, because of their mid bass hump. Voices are not quite as articulate, quite as transparent or alive sounding as the Teresonic Magus speakers, but that does not make the Lens II any less good.

Trumpets, saxophones, and clarinets all had nice tonality and were very enjoyable. The Lens II has the characteristic wonderful tonality of alnico magnets. In other words they play music with great tone and soul and are never bright or edgy sounding. With horns and woodwinds they are on the side of warmth and may not have the very last word in bite. Still, the sound was nicely alive and communicated the music in a very enjoyable manner.

They don’t quite pass my treble test, that is the treble doesn’t call any attention to itself; you don’t notice it as good or lacking. As surprisingly good as the bass was for a small, single driver speaker the top end doesn’t seem to have the air and sparkle I had expected, though with the Pass Lab 30.8 this was less apparent.

It would be wrong to talk about any little speaker and not talk about their soundstaging abilities. The Lens II are as good as it gets in this area. Set up right the soundstage extends way beyond the speakers and the soundstage appears totally behind the speakers and very deep. It’s that kind of soundstage where non-audiophiles want to know where are the speakers that are playing or are the speakers firing out the back. The good thing about the Lens II is they manage to do this and still have a very coherent soundstage. You can hear the air between the instruments and the space the recording was made in.

Comparisons

The speaker I have had in house lately that is closest in size to the Lens II was the Audience “The ONE” speakers. Thought they are slightly smaller, have less internal volume and while it uses a three inch single driver it also has a rear firing three inch passive driver. “The ONE” also cost 1/3 what the Lens II cost.

The other speaker I had on hand at the same time was the Audio Noe K/SPe. Their cost is similar to or a little more expensive depending on finish. The K/SPe is a very different speaker; it is a two way, it is more expensive and quite a bit larger.

The interesting thing is the sound of the Lens II falls somewhere in between the sound of these two speakers. Neither the Lens II or the Audience speaker will play nearly as loud as the Audio Note. The Audio Note is very much at home with an SET amp and neither of the other two sound their best with SETs.

Both the Lens II and the Audience produce a more holographic, reach out and touch you soundstage than the Audio Notes, though personally I prefer the textured and layered soundstage of the Audio Notes, but I expect most audiophile will prefer the other speakers when it comes to sound stage.

The Audience is the more transparent of the three speakers, and like the Lens II excels at totally disappearing. All three speakers have good bass, but I personally love the punchy fast bass of the sealed cabinets of the Audio Note Ks. The Lens II has much bigger bass than the Audience but not as big as the Audio Notes.

Conclusion

All three of these speakers are very good but which is best will depend on what you are looking for.

47 Labs Midnight Blue system:

Lens II Speaker: $3,250 (read Review)
 Midnight Blue Integrated Amplifier Model 4736: $2,500
 Midnight Blue CD Player Model 4735: $3,250 (read Review)
 *Midnight Blue Tuner Model 4730: $1,500 (read Review)
 47 Labs OTA Cable Kit Model 4708: $800

Also read the 47 Labs Model 4733 Midnight Blue headphone amplifier/preamplifier/USB DAC Review

I’ve reviewed each component in this system except for the integrated amp, and I’ve lived with the system for a while. This review focuses on the sound of the whole system. The new Midnight Blue Series from 47 Labs has made the aesthetics a little more typical looking and don’t require outboard power supplies. Trying to appeal to a broader range of music lovers, I guess. Even if they look a little more typical of audio equipment on the outside the well known 47 Labs approach to minimalism and quality remains obvious on the inside.

Technically, the Lens II bookshelf speakers aren’t part of the Midnight Blue System, but they seem the perfect mate so I thought I would review the system with them. I chose to use the integrated instead of the power amp because by the time I got around to doing this review I had returned the preamp. Personally in a system this simple, I prefer the integrated.

The sound of the system in the all-important midrange was clear, clean, and transparent. The system did a very good job of letting music come to life. Voices were simply beautiful, and it handles male and female singers equally well. The amount of inner detail was not quite up to par with a great vinyl setup, but it was more than good enough and only sounded lacking by direct comparison. The top end was very extended and very smooth. The overall sound of the 47 Labs Midnight Blue System was simple, exceptionally musical with emotionally involving midrange and top end.

The bass of this little system was a nice surprise. I’m not saying they plunge into the depths of bass. Truth is the system doesn’t play all that deep, but the bass it has is surprisingly engaging. It had nice tone in the lower midrange and upper bass. It had a very nice sense of air in the bass area as well as the midrange and top end. I have heard several systems using a single five-inch driver that didn’t play bass as well. Still, I could get better bass by using my $6,500 Teresonic Magus speakers and I could get better bass from the Lens II using the Pass Labs XA30.8 amp. Still, I thought there was something very special about the overall sound of the system using all 47 Labs.

Voices sounded very natural on the system and that was equally true for female and male vocals. I point this out because so many small speakers add too much warmth to male voices, because of their mid-bass hump. I found the overall sound of the human voice to be very believable on this great little system. Likewise, trumpets, saxophones, and clarinets all had nice tonality and were very enjoyable. One of the things about using the Lens II speakers in this system is you get the characteristic, wonderful tonality of alnico magnet speakers. This allowed the system to play music with great tone and soul. It also contributes why the system is never bright or edgy sounding. With horns and woodwinds, they are on the side of warmth and may not have the very last word in bite. Still, the sound was nicely alive and communicated the music in a very enjoyable manner.

If you choose to set the system up with the speakers on stands then it’s ability to produce a believable soundstage is about as good as it gets. Set up right, the soundstage extends way beyond the speakers and the soundstage appears totally behind the speakers and very deep. It’s that kind of soundstage where non-audiophiles want to know where the speakers are that are playing or are the speakers firing out the back. You can also hear the air between the instruments and the space where the recording was made very well.

The good news is if you choose to set the system up on a bookshelf with the speakers also on the bookshelf, you still get a very nice soundstage and maybe the best bookshelf system I have heard.

The overall sound of the system surprised me. Just looking at the equipment and I wasn’t surprised that the sound was transparent, clear and fast. What I wasn’t ready for was how very organic and tactile it sounded. The 47 Labs Midnight Blue system had rich tonal colors and a wonderful ease to its sound.

This system has some very interesting applications. I’ve been using it in a small den upstairs with everything sitting in an entertainment center and the speakers on each corner of the same top shelve the TV sits on. I also set it up downstairs where I could put the speakers on stands and set them about 4 feet from the rear wall and well off the side walls. In both locations, the system performed superbly, but with different strengths and weaknesses. I can see many different people who would find this system addressing both their space needs at home and their musical taste.

I think if you look at the system’s individual parts the two source components are the ones that give you value well above their price tag. The little 4730 Midnight Blue Tuner is a real throw back to the world of really good analogue tuners. This only matters if you live where you can receive good FM radio.

Both source components are of medias that seem to be a dying breed. Still, you can get CDs and get them really cheap used. The 4735 Midnight Blue CD Player is an exceptionally musical digital source. If you are like me and listen to something like 98 percent vinyl this player is perfect for playing the music I can’t get on vinyl. It’s reasonably priced, takes up very little space and sounds amazing for a digital source. Also, I don’t have to put a computer in the system.

Conclusion

I have not tried to rewrite each of the reviews that have already been published. This review is more of a conclusion to all the 47 Labs Midnight Blue reviews. The closing thought I would like to leave you with is this: I have heard many systems that did not sound nearly as good as this one, where nearly every piece in the system costs more than this whole system including cables cost. Heck, most of those systems spent more on cable than the 47 Labs Midnight Blue system. Nuff said.

Audio Note AN-K SPe speakers

When you think of Audio Note UK speakers it’s the AN-E they are best known for and certainly the most widely reviewed of all their many speakers. I have seen both the AN-E and AN-J speakers at many shows and in many dealers’ showrooms. I have even seen some of the less expensive AX and AZ speakers reviewed and at shows lately. Still, the 2014 California Audio Show was the first time I had heard or even seen a pair of the AN-K speakers in over ten years. I had remembered really liking the sound of this little speaker, but I was surprised how good it still sounded.

You probably know Audio Note loudspeakers are company owner Peter Qvortrup’s refinement and redesign of the original Peter Snell Type J, K, and E speakers. When Peter Snell died, Snell’s new management soon abandoned those classic speakers. It was at that time that Peter Qvortrup bought the design rights to the original models and began selling them under the Audio Note name.

The AN-K differs from the E and J in design because it is a sealed box instead of a rear ported speaker. The cabinets are still made from materials that compliment the workings of the chosen drive units, instead of trying to damp the resonances in the cabinet. This difficult method helps to ensure maximum efficiency and dynamic behavior supposedly.

The Audio Note AN-K SPe is silver wired internally with very nice silver speaker connections, and like most Audio Note speakers, sounds better when bi-wired. Like its two bigger brothers, the Audio Note AN-K SPe is available in many different wood finishes. While the look of the box is kind of plain, the build quality is very good and the wood finishes are beautiful. Case in point, at the show I was in the room when a young wife said to her husband, “finally a speaker I could see in our house.”

I used this speaker with three amps, my Wavac EC300B, my Electrocompaniet PI 2D Prelude integrated amp and the 47 Labs Midnight Blue integrated amp. If I was putting together a table top system for a small room I can’t imagine a much better combination than the AN K/SPe and the little 47 Labs amp. Still, for the review I’m going to talk about them in my reference system, stand mounted and driven by the Wavac EC300B amp.

While they sounded really good just sitting on either end of a sofa table, they do sound better if you have the room to put them on stands and take the time to place them in the right place. In my room they sounded best about 14 inches from the back wall, 7 feet apart, tweeter to tweeter. I toed them in where they crossed about a foot behind my head. In this position, the bass was quick and punchy like only a sealed box speaker can sound. The soundstage was very good, thought lacking a little in depth. Truth is, if sound stage is one of your top priorities Audio Note speakers probably aren’t for you, it’s not one of my top priorities and I find Audio Note speakers to have a very realistic if not audiophile sound stage.

Listening

The AN-K Spe, like most Audio Note equipment, plays almost all genres of music pretty well, and most importantly, somehow allows poorer recording to sound more musical without compromising the sound of great recordings. You ask how can a small two-driver sealed boxed speaker play loud enough or have the dynamics for rock or classical music. Again, this is the specialty of Audio Note speakers, that is doing what seems impossible from a small two-way speaker.

While they play all music well, they play acoustical music and vocals in a way that is very real sounding. The overall sound of these small wonders is open, transparent and despite their size they play music with amazing scale. Instruments come across with vivid color, realistic size, and placed correctly in the sound field. Like the Lindemann BL-10 bookshelf speakers it’s hard to not talk about how good these speakers are for their size, but the truth is they are really good among speakers of any size.

Speaking of the Lindemann BL-10, this is the speaker the Audio Note K/SPe most reminded me of; and when you consider the Lindemann cost $11,000 that’s saying something. The speakers have different strengths but they both are very quick, precise speakers with real inner detail, excellent micro-dynamics and very good overall dynamics. If you want a huge holographic sound stage the Lindemanns are much better, but if you want the other qualities we have talked about but with a slightly fuller, richer sound with even better PRaT then the Audio Note become quite a bargain.

When evaluating a speaker there is no more telling instrument than a piano. The sound of the piano on the Audio Note K/SPe speakers was coherent from top to bottom. Though admittedly some of the bottom was missing. Strings on these speakers sounded truly beautiful, sweet, and luscious. Guitars, violins and surprisingly even the bass sounded very convincing and enjoyable. The Audio Note K/-SPe are surprisingly full sounding for such a quick speaker; a really great combination.

Conclusion

Like I said the Audio Note AN-K speakers are the speaker that almost no one talks about in the Audio Note speaker line and it shouldn’t be. It is a highly versatile speaker. It can play with the big boys if you listen nearfield and you don’t require bass below 45Hz or so. The bass they play is very tuneful and I value that more than plummeting really deep.

They are also great living room/family room speakers. They can sit on a shelf and be powered by a good integrated amp like one of Audio Note’s own or the little 47 Labs Midnight Blue and still provide a very rich musical experience. Don’t overlook the Ks; they are great little speakers!

Fritz Heiler, the chief cook and sole bottle-washer of Fritz Frequencies, has been designing and making loudspeakers since 1973 while he was still in college—when he should have been studying instead! It’s now 2015, and Fritz is still going strong stirring up new concoctions in his loudspeaker laboratory. Not one to rest on his laurels after many good reviews of his loudspeakers, Fritz is constantly experimenting with new drivers and cabinet construction to improve his designs. Instead of emptying his pockets by making original speaker driver units, Fritz uses expensive drivers from established and well-known international companies which are then housed in his well-built and well-braced cabinets. Fritz believes the best crossover for his speakers is a simple first-order variable series one-firmly believing in the KISS principle-without capacitors or resistors in the input circuit. This approach theoretically provides smoother impedance and phase curves. A case in point is the SE version of his most popular model: Carbon 7. The SE stands for Special Edition.

I first became aware of Fritz Speakers on the Audio Circle forum in 2008, and then met the man behind the company at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest later the same year. I didn’t expect to meet a laid back but garrulous Californian-even though Fritz originally hails from the Midwest-since most speaker designers I know tend to be singularly-focused and intense individuals. We hit it off at RMAF and I spent a good amount of time listening to his system setup at the show. I have since heard several other models at various audio shows, and have always come away with the impression that Fritz makes very good value and great sounding speakers.

Some tech and specs

In the realm of stand-mount/bookshelf speakers the Fritz Carbon 7 SE is both mid-size and mid-weight, measuring 16H x 9W x 12D (including the ½ inch grill) and tipping the scales at approximately 27 lbs each. My review pair is clad in exotic Madagascar Ebony veneer, which would blend well within the fauna and flora of a savannah. Retail is $2,500 for the pair, and Fritz can provide custom finishes at a higher cost. The relatively new Carbon 7 SE is fitted with a 7-inch ScanSpeak composite carbon-graphite fiber and paper pulp mid/bass driver, and a 1-inch ScanSpeak Illuminator AirCirc soft dome tweeter, which I feel is an improvement in sound quality over the original drivers.

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, Fritz utilizes a “simple first order variable series crossover centered around 2,200 Hz, without any capacitors or resistors in the direct input circuit with the tweeter,” according to his website. There is a single port at the back of the speaker, so it is best not to position the SE too close to the back wall, to negate bass bloat. Sensitivity is rated at 88 dB and impedance of the Fritz Carbon 7 SE is nominally rated at 8 ohms @ 1,000 Hz. Frequency response (according to his website) is 38Hz-30Khz, +/-3dB. Fritz claims the Carbon 7 SE “is very easy for tube amps to drive.” All the tube amps I have own past and present, are smiling from ear-to-ear. My current reference, the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP power amplifier certainly had no trouble driving the Carbon 7 SE to loudness levels where my neighbor from across the street phoned to tell me to keep it down. I’m just kidding.

Setup

I played with placement for about an hour before I was satisfied that I was getting the best possible sound in my listening room. The Fritz Carbon 7 SE speakers were spread approximately seven feet apart and about thirty inches from the back wall, with the toe-in and tweeter firing almost directly at my ear level, while positioned on 19-inch tall metal stands with tippy-toes attached.

Associated equipment for this review included my Rogue Audio 99 Super Magnum preamplifier, newly purchased PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP power amplifier, music dedicated Asus laptop loaded with JRiver 20 music player, and iFi Micro iDSD DAC. An Oppo 981 was used as a transport and connected to the iFi Micro iDSD to spin CDs. You remember those, don’t you? For speaker comparison, my AAD 2001 and Heybrook HB150 bookshelf speakers served as references. The pair of Fritz Carbon 7 SEs that Fritz sent me has had many hours of listening use and therefore, well broken-in. I nod in appreciation that I am able to jump into my listening chair and start auditioning right away. All listenings are performed with the magnetic grills off.

Past memories and current impressions

A few years ago, I had the original Fritz Carbon 7 speakers in my possession for several weeks. The reason why the speakers were in my keep temporarily is because I was holding them until a reviewer friend made some time for an audition. Naturally, I listened to the Carbon 7 in my system until I passed them on to my friend. In fact, I compared them to both my reference AAD 2001 and Heybrook HB150 bookshelf speakers at the time. It is a fortunate circumstance that I can compare the newer Carbon 7 SE with my two reference bookshelf speakers again.

While some specific sonic attributes have faded from my memory of the original Fritz Carbon 7 model, I do remember the overall sound was warmish, almost a lush quality, which was evident over the entire frequency spectrum, regardless of whether I used tube, solid-state, or digital switching amps. This is not to say that the original Carbon 7 was veiled sounding, but it did not provide the utmost detail compared to a few other bookshelves I had heard up to that time, mainly in the lower midrange/upper bass region. The speakers had a nice midrange fullness which is an important factor in my giving at least a thumb up for any particular model.

Overall, the original Carbon 7 sounded almost like my classic British Heybrook HB150 speakers; that is to say, a sweet and warmish musical presentation. This last point is important because the sound equivalent of being covered by a heavy blanket on a summer day implies too much warmth. An overly warm presentation doesn’t sound real to me-like what I hear at a live concert-and the original Carbon 7 never came close to reaching that point. But add the proper amount of warmth in the mid-band and the presence region comes alive! This type of sound is preferable to me more than a sound that is merely detailed and transparent, but lacking any soul. If I could have the proverbial cake and eat-it-too situation, the ideal sound would be a blending of the two, without over-emphasis of one or the other. Achieving the ideal, of course, is no easy task. A synergistic marriage with the various components of one’s system and positive room interaction, are required for my ideal sonic result.

So, how does this SE version of the original Carbon 7 sound with my system? I’m happy to report the Carbon 7 SE provides a better blending of warmth and detail in getter close to my sonic listening ideal, more so than the original model. Overall, the SE version offers a nice balanced sound, without sounding too lean or sounding too thick. This balanced sound is attributable I think to an even emphasis across the frequency spectrum, with no particular region shouting, for example the bass region: “HEY, LISTEN TO ME!”

Speaking of the bass region, the SE delivers a tight and impactful punch, without any detection of flabbiness, even with my PrimaLuna tube amplifier. For example, on Adele’s infectious debut album 19, the track “Tired” has a punchy and rhythmic bass guitar line that never overwhelms the other instruments. The bass guitar notes exhibit excellent pitch and articulation.

Micro-dynamic shadings of the kettle drum are exemplary on “The Cowshed” from Fionn Regan’s terrific album, The End of History. I could determine how much force is used for each note as the drumstick is struck on the kettle drum, producing correspondingly small changes in volume level.

On organ recordings such as Jean Guillou’s masterful rendition of Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, the SE delivers many of the low bass notes but doesn’t quite have the low-end grunt that one gets with larger woofers. You can’t defeat the law of physics by asking a 7-inch mid/bass driver to do the work of a 12-inch or larger woofer. But the Scanspeak driver achieves excellent bass reproduction within its design parameters. So, for organ and double bassoon music lovers, a separate subwoofer should mate well with the SE and produce the deep grunts of the lowest bass.

Compared to my Heybrook HB150s, bass with the Fritz Carbon 7 SE is tighter, cleaner, punchier, and produces lower notes. My AAD 2001 reference is the king of small speaker bass, designed by bass guitarist Phil Jones-famous for also designing the award winning mini-monitor Acoustic Energy AE1. The Carbon SE delivers almost the same amount of clean bass extension and bass impact as my AAD, and this is quite a complement to Fritz’ design of the SE.

Moving on to the all-important midrange, there is better resolution-more detail-than what I remember of the original Carbon 7’s capabilities. For example, track 10 of Chasing the Dragon (warning: audiophile recording) is a studio recording of a piano composition, in which the striking of the keys is accurately reproduced with the Carbon SE. Furthermore, the harmonic overtones are beautifully rendered as the hammers strike the strings, resulting in soundboard vibrations reverberating within the piano walls. Piano transients are very good but not quite up to the speed of ribbon tweeters.

I’ve used Joni Mitchell’s Blue in several of my past reviews, partly because it’s fairly well-recorded, and partly because of her purity of singing and exquisite use of vibrato on several tracks. At the beginning of the title track and on “River”, the weight of Joni’s piano playing is evident with the Carbon SE, and her use of vibrato is reproduced perfectly. I could sense the emotion she put into singing and playing of both songs.

The Carbon 7 SE nearly excels at producing the liquidity and smoothness of the midrange, almost equal to the amount of “presence” that I hear with my reference AAD 2001 speakers, but far superior than the midrange reproduction of my Heybrooks.

Feist’s The Reminder could sound like a bright, thin, or brittle recording on some components, including speakers. Feist has a fairly high-pitched voice. Components that accentuate the treble will render her singing as unpleasant. Not so with the Carbon 7 SE in my system. Feist’s vocals is dare I say, pitch-perfect. The treble region is smooth, organic, without stridency and never approaching brightness. My AAD and Heybrook bookshelves also provide similar treble abilities.

Joe Morello, the drummer on Dave Brubeck Quartet’s ‘Take Five,” performs his version of the jazz classic on Morello Standard Time. Joe Morello takes the listener for a ride around his drum kit during the two minute intro before anyone will realize that it is the same tune. The imaging is great with the Carbon 7 SE as I can hear exactly which piece of the kit he is attacking in its own space. This precise imaging of the SE is better than both my AAD and Heybrook speakers.

Playing music at fairly loud levels-at least to my ears-at the 92-97 dB range, I could not subjectively discern any anomalies, compressions or distortions of any kind from the Fritz Carbon 7 SE.

In walks the substitute

Near the end of this review, I received from Kevin Deal of Upscale Audio an octet of KT150 output tubes for audition as he wanted my impressions compared to the KT120 that I used for my review of the PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP power amplifier. Well, the KT150 corrected the gripe I had with the KT120: a slight loss of midrange smoothness and corresponding increase in muddiness. Not only is the KT150 smoother and more detailed, but more musically involving, more transparent, more bass impaction, and more everything else that is musically important, which the Carbon 7 SE and the rest of my system were able to demonstrate.

The Wrap-up

The Fritz Carbon 7 SE is a really good loudspeaker and will sound its best if quality components are used. Anyone will be rewarded with extremely pleasurable listening sessions as a result of synergistic pairing of the SE with other components. The Carbon 7 SE is a fine producer of reproduced music, and I believe it is Fritz’ finest effort to date. I give them two thumbs up! I highly recommend auditioning the Fritz Carbon 7 SE to anyone looking for an extremely capable and affordable loudspeaker. Until next time, I bid you happy listening.

When I was writing the articles about the Quad 57, John McDonald of Audience commented that if I liked the Quad 57 I should hear their ClairAudient 1+1. I had reviewed and been very impressed with their “The ONE” speaker, so I asked him if I could review the 1+1. That’s how this review came about, and I’m very glad I got a chance to hear this special speaker.

When the 1+1 arrived, I was surprised by two things before I even plugged them in. First, they weren’t that much bigger than “The ONE” speakers. The 1+1 is a truncated, beveled trapezoidal shape, weighing well under eight pounds apiece, and are just 8 inches high, 9.75 inches deep, and a scant 6 inches wide. Like I said they aren’t much bigger than “The ONE” and very small even as mini-monitors go. The second surprise was how beautiful they were; the overall build-quality was very luxurious. The side panels had a rich, high gloss wood grain finish that looked as good as any speaker finish I have ever seen. The front and rear panel, as well as the top of the little gem-like looking speaker, was a very deep-black gloss finish. The 1+1’s enclosure isn’t a rectangular box; it has non-parallel front and rear baffles as well as angled sides for diffraction. The 1+1 rear panel has a single pair of five-way gold-plated binding posts. The front and back panels have magnetic mounting grills to cover the driver, but there are no grills for the side firing passive speakers. Since you can’t tell they need a grill when they aren’t on, I prefer the look of the speakers without the grills.

Like “The ONE,” the 1+1 is built around Audience’s own 3-inch A3S full range drivers. These special little drivers have a total moving mass of only 2.5 grams. Their cone material is made from a titanium alloy to provide strength and rigidity. They also use a very large magnet/motor structure for a 3-inch speaker. This combined with the light weight of the cone assure response times that Audience says will rival electrostatic panels. Of course, there is also the advantage that all single-driver speakers have no crossovers.

As you would expect from its name, the Audience ClairAudient 1+1 uses two A3S drivers. One faces forward while the other one is mounted on the back of the enclosure and fires to the rear. The two A3S drivers are in phase with each other, resulting in a bi-pole arrangement. This should result in several advantages over the single-driver “The One.” The two drivers increases the 1+1’s power-handling capabilities as well as its sensitivity. The two-driver configuration also should provide more bass. To further augment the bass, the 1+1 also have a pair of passive drivers mounted on each side of the enclosure. All the drivers are still operating full range so even though it’s not a single driver speaker, but in fact a four-driver speaker; it still has no crossover.

Systems

I started with them in my digital/video system that consists of an Electrocompaniet PI 2D integrated amplifier with a built-in DAC and a built-in USB DAC. This powers a pair of

Teresonic Magus A55 with Lowther Alnico drivers. The sources are a Direct TV HiDef DVR and a Mac Mini with a Drobo with over 7 Terabytes of hard drive space that is plugged into the PI 2D. There is also a Marantz Blu-ray Player and a Sony 4K Video Player.

Since John said to compare his Audience ClairAudient 1+1 to the Quad 57 I also used them in my reference system that consist of a pair of Teresonic Ingenium XR Silver, a Pass Labs XA30.8 amp, the SoundSmith SG-220 Strain-Gauge preamp and cartridge mounted in an AMG Viella V12 turntable system.

Listening

I need to start by saying that like the Quad 57, the Audience “The ONE” and ClairAudient 1+1 are both best used for near-field listening in larger rooms. In my 2013 Review of the Audience “The ONE” speaker, I said, “The ONE” speakers were far and away the best speakers I had set on my desk . . .” and “Their midrange is truly beautiful. They are one of the least colored speakers I have heard, but not analytical at all. In fact, just the opposite: They let you hear the timbre, tone, and colors of music in a way that is easy to listen to. They have plenty of detail, especially at low levels.”

So how much improvement does the 1+1 give us? The answer is simple; a lot. In general it plays louder, sounds fuller, has a bigger soundstage and is more emotionally involving. This review isn’t a comparison of the two speakers from Audience though; the 1+1 is good enough to be compared to any speaker with a lack of low-frequency extension.

The ClairAudient 1+1 are worthy of whatever associated gear or cables you can afford to pair with them. Which leaves Audience with the problem in regard to their relatively modest pricing. I’ve seen this problem before with speakers that inexpensive, and perspective owners severely underestimate how they could sound with appropriate equipment. There are speakers out there only a little bigger and that don’t play any deeper that cost as much as $7,000, for example, the Raidho Acoustics X-1. It is an excellent speaker but because of its price and even more the cost of other Raidho speakers, people usually use them with very expensive gear. I promise you that the Audience 1+1 deserve equally good equipment. Here is the good news though, the 1+1s are just slightly more forgiving. This is not enough difference to ever say they aren’t as fast, quick or detailed, but it does allow you to start with less expensive gear and move up when you can afford it.

How the ClairAudient 1+1 sounded in my Reference System

The ability of the 1+1 to produce a reach-out-and-touch-someone soundstage was the best I’ve heard in my house for speakers under $17,000 and maybe just as good as any. Their inner detail and imaging were also in the same class as speakers at any price. Well, let’s talk about some specific examples of how these speakers sound.

The top-end of the Audience ClairAudient 1+1 surprised me at how good it sounded for a 3-inch full range driver. It was nicely extended, fast, smooth, delicate and most of all effortless. The 1+1 passed my top-end test with flying colors. It never drew attention to itself, and I expected it to be not extended; what a pleasant surprise. I found string instruments, cymbals, and the treble end of the piano to all sound very open, airy, and most of all like themselves. The sound of the 1+1 was articulate, with very natural timbre, and beautifully transparent. Best of all they never sounded analytical or etched. I could go on and on about how good the midrange of this speaker is, but let me simply say there are very few speakers with this kind of midrange.

The more time I spent with the Audience ClairAudient 1+1, the more I begin to believe that the only thing that kept these little speakers from being world class at any price is their inherent low-frequency roll-off. In my reference system with them sitting on stands out from the wall, they started rolling off at about 90Hz. In my digital video system with them sitting closer to the walls they seem to go down into the 60Hz range.

When using them in my digital/video system, I made an interesting discovery. The ClairAudient 1+1 mated extremely well with my TBI Audio Systems Magellan VIP subwoofers. So I added them to my reference system and voila! I had a speaker that was truly world class for less than $5,000. We now had a speaker that truly competed with a pair of Wayne Picquet’s Restored Quad ESL 57. Truth is this system plays deeper and does not suffer from the beaming of the Quad 57. Still, even with the subs the ClaireAudiet1+1s are limited in ultimate macro-dynamics and how loud they will play.

Conclusion

Listening to the Audience ClairAudient 1+1 speakers is truly a beautiful experience. These speakers in many ways totally shocked me. As much as I liked Audience “The ONE” speakers I did not expect the ClairAudient to raise the bar so high. It is very hard to believe that a pair of mini-monitors selling for under $1,800 a pair, weighing less than eight pounds, would be able to compete with and best in many areas with speakers that cost over five figures. If you are looking for a world-class speaker for small to medium-sized rooms or even much larger rooms for near-field listening, I can’t think of speakers that I would recommend over these with a pair of TBI subwoofers. Even without the subs these are great speakers in small to medium-sized rooms. The highest recommendation!

I reviewed the Audience ClairAudient 1+1 loudspeakers, now called V1, in June this year. Just after I returned the speakers, John McDonald of Audience called and said there were two updated version of the Audience ClairAudient 1+1, namely the V2 and V2+. I have heard both and each is a major improvement over the originals that I reviewed in June. That doesn’t change the fact that everything I said in the review is still true about the V1 version.

Before we talk about the difference in sound though, I should tell you about the physical differences between the three versions. All three versions look exactly the same from the front or the sides, and that is a very fine looking speaker, indeed. On the back of V2+, you will notice different binding post, and that is the only difference you can see between the three versions.

Still, there are significant internal differences one can easily hear. Both V2 and V2+ have significantly improved drivers and differently tuned passive radiators to match the new drivers. These drivers are built to higher mechanical tolerances. This is done by manufacturing the frames and motor to fit together more precisely. They have also used motors that are stronger; this was done by making the magnets with higher quality steel, the tensile wires are OCC copper, and the drivers now use a single 16 ohm voice coil instead of dual 8 ohm. All of this results in fewer solder connections and lesser wire. The V2+ has “Tellurium” binding posts and are wired internally with Audience’s top-of-the-line Au24 wire.

In my review of the original version, I mention that John had commented that if I liked the Quad ESL 57 I should hear their ClairAudient 1+1. I want to tell you that both V2 and V2+ are significantly more transparent than the Quad 57 and will play louder. The volume and power difference between the originals and V2 and V2+ really surprised me. In addition, they now sound better in bigger rooms.

I guess nothing could make this point better than the sale of my Teresonic Magus A-55 bookshelf speakers that I use in my video/digital system. With both the Teresonics Magus and Audience speakers, I used them in this system crossed over to the TBI Audio Systems Magellan VIP subwoofers. The amp in this system was the Electrocompaniet PI 2D integrated amplifier. The Audience V2 and V2+ actually blended better with the subs than the Teresonic Magus did.

The room this system is in measures 24 feet by 15 feet with a vaulted ceiling. The speakers and 65-inch Sony 4K television are set up on the short wall, and I sit about 18 feet from the speakers. The speakers are about 2 feet off the wall behind them and about 8 feet apart. With both V2 and V2+, this system fills the room with more than enough volume and great dynamics. The speakers are about 18 inches above the floor and mounted on four of the brass cones that have the screw in tips for leveling. I took the tips off and filled the opening with blue tack and use blue tack to attach them to the speakers. Yes, they would sound better on stands, but that is not possible in this system, and I am simply amazed at the sound I am getting from movies, TV, and music.

For review purposes, I also used the Audience ClairAudient  1+1 V2 and V2+ in my reference system that consist of a pair of Teresonic Ingenium XR Silver, a Pass Labs XA30.8 amp (also read the Part II and Part III Reviews), the Soundsmith SG-220 Strain-Gauge preamp and cartridge mounted in an AMG Viella V12 turntable system. In this system, I placed them on 30-inch lead filled stands and placed about seven feet apart and about 18 inches off the back wall. The biggest difference was again in dynamics, micro-dynamics and available power. In this system, I was amazed at how incredibly like live music they sounded from the lower midrange up through the top end. They also provided an incredible soundstage. Now, if only Audience could give us a speaker that sounded like this down to around 40Hz.

So far, we have been talking about how the V2 and V2+ differed from the original as they are now called the V1. I know you want to know how the V2 and V2+ differ from each other. Well, the edition of the “Tellurium” binding posts and Audience’s top-of-the-line Au24 wire results in an additional layer of refinement. They have a slightly smoother and more extended top-end. They have one of the most natural sense of timbre I have heard from any speakers in the midrange. The bass seems slightly fuller as well.

All the versions of the Audience ClairAudient  1+1 are worthy of whatever associated gear or cables; you can afford to pair with them. The ability of the ClairAudient 1+1 to produce a reach-out-and-touch-someone soundstage, to my astonishment, is even better with V2 and V2+. It was already the best I’d heard in my house for under $17,000. I would say that the V2+ speakers are the reigning king of this much-desired attribute of high-end speakers.

Conclusion

I guess you can tell I really like these speakers ,and while they are an incredible setup for near-field listening in a small room, I found V2 and V2+ were wonderful in my big rooms. I’m replacing my Teresonic Magus with the V2+ in my video/digital system. I am very pleased with how well they mated with my pair of TBI subwoofers. Even without the subs, these are great speakers in small to medium size rooms. I gave the originals my highest recommendation and V2 and V2+ are even better!

Description

I’ve had a pair of Audioengine A2 powered speakers since 2008. They’ve been with me during vacations, they played music off my iMac, and I’ve always loved them. I’ve recommended the company’s bigger A5+ to friends because of how great they always sounded at Audio Shows and how much I love the little A2. So, it was with great anticipation I unboxed their new top of the line HD6 speakers.

When you unpack the new HD6 speakers, it’s obvious that these are Audioengine’s flagship powered speakers. The box was larger and heavier than I expected. Everything about the packaging for these speakers says high-end. Not only do the speakers come in nice microfiber bags, but so do all the accessories. I mean each accessory has its own little bag. I got the idea unpacking these that Audioengine was proud of these speakers, as well they should be.

When I replaced the beautiful little Audience 1+1 speakers with the Audioengine HD6, my 30-year-old daughter-in-law said, “man those are beautiful.” I agreed; the HD6’s are some of the best looking small speakers ever. One of the things I liked was the way they looked like real wood instead of the super high gloss most speakers are today. The finish reminded me of a pair of Rogers from the 80s, which even then cost more than these and weren’t powered. The review sample was in a luxurious cherry, but you have a choice of satin black, cherry or walnut. Like my $2,400 Audience speakers, the HD6 had really nice magnetically attached grilles that just add to the HD6 the look, fit, and finish of a far more expensive speaker.

The HD6 drivers consist of a 5.5-inch Kevlar woofer and a very nice one-inch silk dome tweeter. The left speaker houses the power amplifiers for the left and right speakers, with all the inputs listed in the specifications as well as a pair of stereo RCA output jacks you can use to run a powered subwoofer. The 75-watt per channel amp isn’t Class D but a very nice Class AB power amp. Also inside of that left speaker is a 24-bit/192 kHz DAC. On the back, there is a small antenna for the on-board aptX Bluetooth receiver. This allows you to stream music from your phone or other devices. There is also one more thing on that left speaker, namely a small volume control knob on the front baffle. The speakers also come with a simple solid metal remote control with volume, mute, and standby buttons.

Listening

To start with, I simply set the HD6s where my Audience 1+1s had been sitting. Of course I didn’t use the Electrocompaniet integrated amp and at first, I didn’t even hook up the subwoofer. I ran the very nice speaker cable that came with it from the left speaker to the right speaker. I hooked up the Oppo BDP-105D Bly-ray player and the audio from the rest of the video system to that magical left speaker. It took about five minutes.

I was so excited about these speakers as I unpacked them and saw how they looked, that I made what may seem an odd decision:  I would compare them to the sound of my Audience 1+1 V2+ speakers driven by my Electrocompaniet PI 2D Prelude Integrated Amplifier without hooking up the pair of TBI Audio Systems Magellan VIP su Active Subwoofers. Not counting cables, this means I was comparing a pair of $749 powered speakers and DAC to $8,900 worth of speakers and amplification. I know this was crazy, but my hopes were high.

I first used them playing a TV show, and my hopes crashed. The sound was muffled, the bass was boomy, and the top-end was splashy. My son commented they didn’t sound very good and that evening, while watching a docudrama, my wife commented that the sound seemed muffled. I could have given up and just taken them upstairs and reviewed them as a pair of computer speakers. I didn’t though because I realized there was both a pair of speakers, an amplifier and a DAC that needed to break in. They didn’t sound a lot better the next day, but by the time they had a hundred hours on them, I’m glad to tell you it was a very different story.

In some way the broken-in sound reminded me of the B&W 805S speakers I reviewed —  maybe it’s just the way Kevlar drivers sounded after breaking in. They sounded better at 100 hours, but they didn’t sound their best until about 200 hours. I suggest setting them up and playing them hard for about 200 hours, and you will be well rewarded. As they were breaking in they moved from slightly muffled sounding, to slightly veiled and finally, opened up.

Let me get the shortcomings of the Audioengine HD6 out of the way so I can end the review with all their positives. I should preface this by reminding you that they replaced a system that retails for $8,900 and that the Audience 1+1 V2 is some of the most transparent speakers on this planet. Compared to this system, the HD6 never developed quite the same degree of transparency or articulation. They also weren’t the last word in PRaT (pace, rhythm, and timing), but they were more than respectable in this area.

The only problem of the Audioengine that’s not a sin of omission is they were a little thick sounding in the upper bass/lower midrange area. This is a fairly narrow range and not noticeable a lot of the time. Placing the speakers on stands and moving them out into the room really minimizes this problem.

Now getting on to the things these speakers did so well. After break in, I was shocked how big these speakers sounded. I mean they had real scale. It didn’t matter whether I was listening to a big band, a symphony orchestra or watching an action movie, they sounded huge. The soundstage was very wide, very deep and they had a great vertical soundstage. Add to this scale a sense of real power and you have a really impressive sounding system.

The Audioengine HD6 played voices very naturally with a really nice sense of air around them. There was also nice air around instruments. The balance of the midrange on the HD6 reminded me a lot of some of the excellent British monitors; especially the balance of the midrange to the upper bass. The Audioengine speakers never sounded bright or over detailed, but I hardly ever thought they lacked in detail. They provided a very satisfying sound for music and videos. No, they didn’t have the sparkle of my Audience speakers, but again I’m comparing them to a system that cost more than ten times what they cost.

Now, let’s talk about the bass. While I mentioned the small problem with the upper bass/lower midrange area, overall the bass on the HD6 was amazing for a speaker at this price point. This was especially true considering the amps and DACs are built into the speakers. Come to think of it, maybe this has something to do with why it’s so good. I’ve never had much experience with active loudspeakers except for subwoofers and smaller desktop speakers.

Anyway, the bass sounded much deeper than the 50Hz quoted in the specifications. I think it’s because of the scale and power this little package delivered. Anyway, I found the bass very satisfying and involving without hooking up my subwoofer, even when watching movies.

Comparisons

I have reviewed two speakers that would be worth comparing the Audioengine HD6 to. First, are the Serene Audio Talisman active desktop speakers. The Talisman cost $300 less; they included a phono preamp, but not a DAC. I think these two speakers are for very different applications. The Serene was pretty well limited to being used as a desktop speaker, but if that’s what you’re looking for it’s hard to beat. Simply plug an iPhone or similar device into it and you have wonderful music with lots of snappy micro-dynamics and real Pace, Rhythm and Timing. The sound was lively and it was lots of fun. With vocals, these little speakers distinguished themselves above other desktop speakers I have heard.

If you want a more full range speaker that can also play loud enough to fill a room with sound, then the Talismans aren’t for you. The HD6 can do this, though. They ware much more powerful, they produce a much louder sound and have deeper, more powerful bass. So, the second speaker I want to compare them to is the Vanatoo Powered Speakers I reviewed in the summer of 2014. Just looking at the two speakers one would think the Vanatoo speakers with their addition of a passive woofer might outperform the HD6. They don’t, though. The HD6 were better in every way. I think this may be because of the quality of AB class amp verse the class D amp in the Vanatoo. The HD6 simply sounded more alive, had a nicer top end and were less boxy sounding.

Conclusion

I think for many people the Audioengine HD6 is just what the doctor ordered for putting together a dorm, bedroom or office system. They are very user-friendly; they look great, and they are a complete audio system for digital and with the addition of a turntable with a built-in phono preamp, they can even meet the vinyl lovers’ needs. I cannot overstate how impressed I am with this little audio system that disguises itself as just speakers. Highly Recommended!

Copy editor: Laurence A. Borden

Fritz Carrera Rev 7 BE in Bamboo Wood

Technical Highlights:

Bass/Midrange Driver: 7″ paper cone revelator features a non-resonant cone and dust cap structure, dynamic linear suspension, SD-1 magnet system, “Grasshopper” cast chassis with maximized air flow and resonance terminating mounting system. Less resonance in all structures, lower compression and higher linearity, faster termination of excess energy and higher sound pressure capability.

Tweeter: Transducer Labs Beryllium- From their web site- At Transducer Lab, our goal is to produce drivers that accurately transform the original electrical signal to an acoustical signal with minimal alteration. Quality is a factor as well. Our drivers are carefully assembled and tested in lab conditions. Transducer Lab tweeters are matched to +/- 1db and each tweeter is thoroughly tested and evaluated to meet our standard specifications. The N28BER is a high purity Beryllium dome tweeter with advanced design and premium parts to match. Response to 47khz at 95db SPL with a natural airy sound

Ultra High Purity (99.4%) Beryllium Dome

Decompression chambers

CNC machined metal parts / ceramic terminal posts

High dynamic range/ Acoustic dampening; no ferro-fluid

Frequency matched to +/- 1db

Under-hung Voice Coil (1.2mm Linear Excursion)

Pure Silver Lead Wires and Terminal Posts

High-Flux Double Magnet Design

Designed, Assembled and Tested in the USA

Crossover: Series crossover without any capacitors or resistors in the circuit with the tweeter. Acoustic Reality Series Crossovers

The Carrera Rev 7 BE speakers are the second model I have reviewed that are designed and built by Fritz Heiler. In the summer of 2014, I reviewed the excellent Fritz Accuton 6 speakers. The Accuton 6 used all ceramic drivers and were very impressive sounding. Then in mid-April of this year, I got a phone call from Fritz wanting to know if I wanted to hear his newest speaker, the name and the price of which were yet to be determined. I didn’t have to think twice because over the years I have heard many of Fritz’s speaker at audio shows, and have always blown away by them.  For example, at the 2013 California Audio Show, I had the pleasure of serving on a panel discussion where attendees were invited to ask audio writers questions. On the panel was Jason Victor Serinus of Stereophile, Neil Gader of The Absolute Sound, Michael Mercer of Positive Feedback, and myself. One of the questions we were asked was what rooms we would recommend not to miss. Only one room was named by all four of us, that using Fritz Speakers, WyWires, and Wyred 4 Sound room.

Fritz Carrera Rev 7 BE – Transducer Labs BE tweeter

Description

These all new speaker from Fritz Heiler use a very expensive 7-inch paper cone from ScanSpeak’s “Revelator” line for the mid/bass driver. The tweeter is a small beryllium dome driver model N28BER from Transducer Labs. (Transducer Labs build all their drivers in the USA. )

Fritz uses a series crossover without any capacitors or resistors in the circuit with the tweeter. It’s called an Acoustic Reality Serial Crossover. On his site, he gives us a link to an explanation. I can tell you this, though, my ears say that Fritz speakers produce the most coherent sound I heard from a two-way speaker.

In addition, all Fritz speakers I have seen have a well-built cabinet in common. The cabinet for the Carrera Rev 7 BE is a simple two-way, rear-vented, stand-mount monitor with a dense, solid walls. The Carrera weighs in as the most solid-feeling 30-pound small box speaker I have ever picked up. A nice optional bonus is that you can have Fritz build your pair in almost any finish you want.

Review Systems

Digital/Video System

I first listened to the Fritz Carrera Rev 7 BE in my upstairs digital/video system. The system consists of a 65-inch Sony XBR 4K TV, an Electrocompaniet PI 2D Prelude Integrated Amplifier, Direct TV HiDef DVR and an Oppo BDP-105D Blu-ray/SACD player/streamer. Normally, the Electrocompaniet is driving a pair of Audience ClairAudient 1+1 V2+ Loudspeakers and TBI Audio Systems Magellan VIP su Active Subwoofers. The cables in this system are from Audience.

In many ways, this system seems to me to be the kind of system where the Fritz speakers will often be used. The combination of the Electrocompaniet, Oppo and the Carrera 7 BE speakers comes in under $10,000, leave you room for some nice cables.

The Carrera Rev 7 BE seemed to me to be a match made in heaven with this system. So much so that they are the only speakers I have ever had in the upstairs system that after listening to music for a little bit I didn’t decide to move downstairs to my reference system. I have had some pretty special speakers in this system, including the 47 Labs Lens 2, Audience ClairAudient 1+1V2+, Audio Note AN-Ks, Audio Space’s LS3/5a, Fritz own  Accuton 6, Lindemann BL-6, Teresonic Magus and the GamuT L3. I love the way the Fritz Carrera Rev 7 BE sounded in this system and will surely miss them when they are gone.

The Carrera Rev 7 BE is not quite as transparent as the Audience speakers, but they were close enough such that I never missed that last little bit of transparency. The fritz have a much richer sound with beautiful tonal colors. I almost hate to say that because some of you will think I’m saying this is an overly warm and forgiving speaker. Nothing could be further from the truth.

These are very sophisticated sounding loudspeakers. They never call attention to themselves, but make it very easy to slip into the emotions of the music. This is true whether it is Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis or Yo-Yo Ma. They manage to play music with a big sound that defies their size. They have a smoothness, and areeasy to listen to for long periods of time without any harshness. The extension of the BE tweeter allows you to experience the air around and within the instruments.

Fritz Carrera Rev 7 BE in Rosewood

Reference System

My reference system consists of a pair of Teresonic Ingenium XR-Silver speakers driven by a Pass Labs XA30.8 pure class A stereo amp. The linestage duties are carried out by an Emia Remote Autoformer. The source is my AMG Viella V12 turntable and arm. I used two cartridges for the review, the Soundsmith SG-220 Strain-gauge and the DS Audio DS-W1 Optical Cartridge. All the cabling is by High Fidelity CT-1 Ultimate Reference. Everything is plugged into an HB Cable Design PowerSlave Marble power distributor.

I moved the Teresonic speakers and placed the Fritz Carrera Rev 7 BE on a pair of 28-inch stands. I played around with placement and found they sounded best in my room about two feet off the front wall and about 3 feet from the side walls. In this position, they produced a wonderfully wide, deep and tall soundstage. They produced instruments and voices outside and behind the speakers, but they did this in a way with a coherent and solid stage. Never did instruments just seem to be floating in space, but sounded like part of the whole. I really appreciate this.

The most impressive and expensive stand mounted speakers I have had in the reference system was the $17,000 Raidho Ayra C1.0. They had a huge image and huge bass, but the lack of continuity between their tweeter and woofer made them less enjoyable to listen to music over the Carrera Rev 7 BE. The Raidho had detail, transparency, bass power and speed, while the Fritz has musicality.

The stand mounted speakers I had most recently in this system, and which were closest to the Fritz in price, were the Audio Note AN-K/SPe. In design, they differ from the Fritz in that they are a sealed box instead of a rear ported speaker. The Audio Note cabinets are designed to play along with the speakers instead of being a dead cabinet. There is a lot to like about both of these speakers, but they sound quite different.

The AN-K/SPe have incredible Pace, Rhythm, and Timing. The bass is tight and quick. It was hard to talk about these speakers without talking about how incredible they sounded for their size. As good as the Audio Notes sound, the Fritz speakers have a much more full range and fuller sound. They play music with more beautiful tonal colors and simply sound bigger. I do not remember thinking that they sounded great for their size, but just how great they sounded.

Having them in the reference system meant they were being driven by the wonderful Pass Labs XA30.8, which can just reach out and control a speaker and give them incredible sound in the bass. This was surely true with the Carrera Rev 7 BE. While in the digital/video system I used them with a subwoofer, I did not feel the need in the reference system.

Conclusion

Fritz Heiler started designing and making loudspeakers in college over 40 years ago. His speakers have had many, many good reviews over the years. His rooms are often listed among the most musical at audio shows, but Fritz isn’t one for resting on his laurels. He seems to love constantly experimenting with new drivers and cabinet construction to improve his designs. Fritz uses expensive drivers from established and well-known international companies. He then makes well-built and well-braced cabinets. His cabinets look very nice and can be ordered in multiple finishes, but he chooses to put more money inside his speakers than on eye candy.

The result of all this experience and choices in design is that we end up with a speaker like the Fritz Carrera Rev 7 BE, aspeaker that should provide many years of musical enjoyment without breaking the bank. These aren’t just great speakers for their size or great speakers for their price. These are great speakers for listening to music.

Copy editor: Laurence A. Borden

Audioengine HDP6 in cherry

The Original HD6

Recently reviewed by Dagogo Senior Reviewer Jack Roberts, the $750 Audioengine HD6 combined an internal amplifier and a version of the company’s B1 Bluetooth Premium Receiver, meaning it received Bluetooth audio wirelessly while accepting Toslink digital signal. If one only has an iPhone, just by adding the Audioengine HD6 and you’d have a complete audio system. At the same time Jack was reviewing it, I was also sent a pair for auditioning. My pair of HD6 was placed on 24-inch stands far away from wall boundaries, 6 feet apart and 6 feet from my listening couch.

The HD6’s polished, 3/4-inch thick, MDF cabinet was said to be of furniture grade veneers and extensively braced and heavily damped. The grill was detachable and “firmly held in place with hidden neodymium magnets for a clean look.” The speaker employed “audiophile-quality, ferrofluid-cooled silk dome tweeters with neodymium magnets” to provide smooth response even under high power. The woofer was “Kevlar woven glass aramid composite with rubber surrounds” that retains its shape when being driven hard. The woofer was housed in cast aluminum frames for high rigidity and heat dispersion. Both drivers were magnetically shielded.

For $750 the pair including the hookup cable between the two speaker, the HD6 would not be expensive even if it delivered merely moderately. In actuality, per my observation, Jack was spot-on when he described the speakers as sounding “huge” with a soundstage that was “very wide, very deep…” In my sessions, I pushed the speaker louder and louder until it was near maximum volume and I had to scale back. It thus dawned on me that the Audioengine HD6 was very competently designed, and I began wondering about the potential of a pair of passive HD6. In the active HD6, only one speaker harbored the active amplification and Bluetooth electronics while the other was linked passively by a single wire. I wondered what the result would be if a passive pair were augmented by superior electronics and cabling.

I asked Gavin Fish of Audioengine to send a lone, passive HD6 to me to complete a passive pair and the speaker arrived shortly after. Onto the 24-inch stands the passive pair went in my medium-sized listening room, in the same location as had been the active pair. The source was the $3,098 Arche Audio Opus 5 DACT USB DAC with the Opus 501 Power Supply. Amplification was the $3,599 Wells Audio Majestic solid-state stereo amplifier, interconnect and speaker cabling was by Nordost Tyr 2.

Passive-aggressive

Audioengine endowed the passive pair of the speakers with a new designation: HDP6. It sells for $499 the pair.

At medium-to-high volumes, the HDP6 was able to present an even more coherent top-to-bottom behavior, one in which all instruments onstage was given their own sound intact. This trait lent exceptional realism to acoustic instruments, such as a powerful bottom-end of the piano in the HiQ XRCD24 disc of Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 (HIQXRCD37). The portrayal of the piano via the two-way passive speaker was incredibly full and wholesome; the recreation of the spatiality of the venue was done very competently.

Then, the HDP6 exhibited a soft top-end that made vocalizations very palatable. The “Un-Mastered” Patricia Barber standard, Cafe Blue, sounded intimate with highly focused imaging while Barber’s voice was efficacious and reverberating. The fullness of the electric and double basses was gratifying from a speaker this small and affordable.

Naturally, I had to play the Metallica “The Unforgiven” at high volumes to see how far the HDP6 could be pushed. Past 70% of full volume compression began to set in, cone breakup became audible and I was going deaf. Turning it down to around 70% of full volume and the music was restored to its head-banging glory.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that there aren’t $1,000 of premium parts in the HDP6, nor should we expect a performance in the way of the $5,000 mini-monitors. What we should consider is a quality from solid engineering that is commensurate with the scale of economy accorded Audioengine in the production of the HDP6. And that is some serious pounding for the penny.

For some time now I have been professing my ideal speaker system is one capable of recreating the spatiality and dynamics of a full orchestra but occupies only a miniscule footprint. The Audioengine HDP6 proved to me how close we are to that prospects in the realm of budget designs. Costing next to nothing in high-end audio, the Audioengine HDP6 pushed the performance envelope of budget bookshelf speakers of the day. It was not an everyday happenstance when a bookshelf design can accomplish such feat. I reckon that in a leisurely afternoon in a more intimate setting and for a true pittance, the reader will have serious fun playing the HDP6. What audiophile fun that would be!

Walnut

Copy editor: Laurence A. Borden

In June, I reviewed the surprising Audioengine HD6 powered speakers. Playing a Bluetooth device through the HD6 speaker is the best sound I know of for the money. No, it isn’t quite truly high-end, but it sure is satisfying for a price most people can afford. I’ve personally owned a pair of Audioengine A2 powered speakers since 2008. They’ve traveled with me on vacation and played music from my iMac, and I’ve always loved them.

The guys at Audioengine told me, “Our goals for the HD3s were to use HD Series design cues, add wireless, and tune the sound to be pretty much the same as A2+ but to take it up a notch.  The bass-cut switch is also a useful feature, and not only for subwoofers but people using the speakers on a more reactive (or more resonant/less dense) desktop or similar surface.”  So it was with real anticipation that I unboxed the new, similar-size Audioengine HD3.

As I said, I liked the HD6s when I reviewed them, and in many ways, the HD3s are a desktop version of the HD6s. They have the same beautiful looks, the same versatile inputs and good sound for the money. They also have a very good headphone amp that can be used by just plugging your headphones into the front of the left speaker. One nice addition to the HD3s is the switch on the back to reduce the bass — a real blessing if you are positioning the speakers close to the wall. While the HD3s can be put on stands and used as speakers for a small audio system or in a video system, they really come into their own as desktop or bookshelf speakers.

Description

The HD3s are available in matte black or furniture-grade cherry or walnut wood veneer. Like the HD6 speakers, they have aluminum trim. Each HD3 speaker measures 7 by 4.3 by 5.5 inches (HWS). This size makes them small enough to be used as desktop computer speakers or to pack in a small bag and carry with you on trips. The drivers are a 0.75-inch Silk Dome tweeter and a 2.75-inch Kevlar woofer. The removable grilles snap on magnetically.

As for ease of use, the Audioengine HD3 has most any connectivity option you could want. The power/volume knob is on the bottom left-hand corner of the left speaker. On the right side of this speaker are a headphone jack and a button for Bluetooth pairing. The HD3 can remember up to six devices, though it can only pair with one at a time. The amps are also in the left speaker, and all of the inputs and outputs are located on the back of this speaker. The connections include an antenna for Bluetooth reception and a binding post output for connecting the two speakers using a cable that is included. There are also RCA stereo inputs and outputs, a 3.5mm audio input for mobile devices, and a micro USB input for connecting to a computer — a way to bypass the digital-to-analog converter on your computer’s output and let the HD3 handle things. The HD3 upsamples to 24-bit PCM with its DAC.

The back panel also includes the connection for the AC adapter and the bass reduction switch that I mentioned earlier. Audioengine included the bass reduction switch for a couple of reasons. If the speakers are to be used with a subwoofer, the bass switch helps to ensure that the speakers aren’t doubling up on the same low frequencies. The second reason for the switch is to control resonance and extra bass vibrations that can occur when the speakers are placed too close to the rear wall or in a corner, a problem I had when I traveled with the A2. I have found that the bass reduction switch works great to prevent things from getting too boomy when the position of the speakers is less than optimal.

With any of these connections, the sound quality of the HD3s was very good, though the range for the Bluetooth option didn’t sound as full as the range for other options. Still, the Bluetooth option does give you the ability to quickly hook up a smartphone or tablet and stream music wirelessly if you are in a hurry. The built in DAC sounds much better than plugging into the 3.5mm plug from laptops and desktop systems.

Listening

If you are familiar with the sound of Audioengine products, the Audioengine HD3 is cut from the same bolt of natural-sounding cloth. For those who haven’t listened to a pair of Audioengine speakers, check out my reviews of the Audioengine A2s and the HD6s. The HD3s are a significant step up in refinement, power and dynamics from the A2s. They give you much of what you get from the HD6s, but in a smaller presentation and with a low-end that goes lower than you would expect from a speaker of its size. The quality of the bass is also better than most tiny speakers. It’s quick and tuneful and not at all boomy, unless you have to place it right up against the wall, which is where the bass reduction switch comes in very handy.

One of the breakthroughs of the A2s was how little they compressed the dynamics of the music for such small speakers. With the HD3s you get really quick micro-dynamics and better-than-expected overall dynamics. The HD3s weren’t as satisfying in my home video system as the HD6s, but with a sub, they did a very nice job.

Where the HD3s are exceptional is as desktop speakers. I listened to them in my office, which is about 110 square feet. This setup has a Samsung 38-inch monitor, so I set them on the far sides of the desk and brought them out about ten inches from the wall. In this system, they sounded great on music and movies and did a good job playing complicated passages with lots of instruments or voices. While they don’t go much below 60 hertz, the bass has nice punch and tunefulness. I never thought that I needed a subwoofer in my office system. They also sounded quite nice when I had to get up and walk around the office or wander into the next room.

The Audioengine HD3s played voices naturally with a better sense of air around them than I had expected from a speaker sitting on a desk. The balance of the midrange and lower midrange on the HD3s was natural and warm but without any thickness or looseness. They never sounded bright or overly detailed and provided a very satisfying sound for both music and videos.

I have been amazed that the little A2s could handle everything from orchestras to rock at pretty loud volumes without falling apart. This is even more true with the HD3s; it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about a tympani passage from an orchestra, the upright bass in a jazz trio, or a singer really belting it out, the HD3s handled it in a way that let me enjoy the musical experience. Of course, they don’t go that deep. I mean, don’t forget that they output a mere 30Wpc peak and have only 2.75-inch midrange/woofer drivers. I’m saying this, I guess, because when listening I often did forget.

Conclusion

So now Audioengine gives you a real choice when it comes to powered desktop speakers. If you only want to spend $249, they still sell the A2 Powered Speakers. If you want a little better sounding speaker with better looks, a headphone amp with volume control, and every feature I could want, then there is the HD3. They are the best desktop speakers I have ever heard.

Copy editor: Dan Rubin

Trenner & Friedl was started by two friends, Andreas Friedl and Peter Trenner, in the mid-1990s in Graz, Austria. If you spend some time reading about them on the Internet, you will discover that their goal is a little different from most high-end companies. In a review on TNT-Audio, Andreas Friedl says, “One of our main goals is to create classics; it is very important to be surrounded by things which have a long lifetime!” Thus instead of releasing new products year after year, they build just a few models and improve them only when they feel they can make a significant difference.

I have heard several Trenner & Friedl speakers at audio shows and at each show I have been impressed with the naturalness of the sound. The speaker in for review is their smallest and is called ART; it is named for the great saxophone player Art Pepper. The ART is on the small side of mini-monitors at 10.5 inches high by 7 inches wide and 12 inches deep. The fit & finish is very nice but in no way flashy. Trenner and Friedl say on their website that their objective is the same for all their speakers: to deliver an involving musical listening experience.

The cabinets fall into the dead, stiff school of speaker cabinet design. They feature a multi-layered body with a sandwich front of rigid, hand polished Corian©. The ART uses Cardas internal wire and the crossover is built from parts made by the German company Mundorf. The five-inch aluminum cone with its phase plug is mounted above the 1-inch ring radiator tweeter, which uses a neodymium magnet that is encapsulated in the rear chamber. This makes for a rather different looking mini-monitor in a rather pedestrian, though well-built cabinet. I mounted the speakers with Blu Tack to the top of a pair of 28-inch, sand-filled metal stands. The stands were then spiked to the carpet.

The Review System

The system I used for this review consisted of the AMG V12 table and Turbo tonearm sitting on the HRS stand made for the AMG table. The cartridge was the DS Audio Master1 with the DS 1 phono preamp. Standing in for a line stage was the Emia Remote Autoformer, which fed a Pass Labs XA30.8 power amplifier. All equipment except the speakers was set on a doublewide Box Furniture rack and everything was plugged into the HB Cables PowerSlave Marble. The power cords were High Fidelity Cables CT-1 Ultimate Reference Rhodium Plus. All of the interconnects and speaker cables were High Fidelity Cables CT-1 Ultimate Reference.

I tried setting the ARTs close to the rear wall, but they sounded overly warm and the imaging seemed kind of blurred. So I moved them out for nearfield listening. By moving them so that they were only about six feet apart, I was able to get the lower midrange and upper bass to sound better than I would have expected. If I separated them any further the bass became too thin. So I ended up with the front of the cabinets 66 inches from the wall behind the speakers and about nine feet from the listening chair. They worked best with just a little toe-in. The only problem I had with set up was that I don’t care for the speaker wire terminals they use. You can’t use banana plugs or very large spades, just thought you should know.

Listening

Let’s start with a few of the questions that we all have about really small speakers. For example, I love the sound of the Audience 1+1 V2. As good as they are, and they are incredibly good, they can’t play quite as loud as a big floorstander. The ART, however, sounds big and plays loud, something you’d never expect from such diminutive cabinets. The overall tonal balance is slightly warm but very natural in my room. I would say the tonal balance reminded me of the Audio Note J speakers, though the Js do go lower.

It did not take much listening to hear that these speakers are fast. Transient speed is one of the ART’s strongest attributes. This sense of speed comes from excellent micro-dynamics, which allows them to deal deftly with changes of pace and rhythm. The ART also have better overall dynamics than I would expect from drivers this small in such a dead cabinet. This combination of speed and dynamics give the ART a more powerful sound than I had expected.

The ART are able to create a huge soundstage and they really pull off that disappearing-from-the-room trick. Few bigger speakers can do this to anywhere near the same extent. So if soundstaging is important to you, this speaker should really please you, especially in a small room. They are also imaging and detail champs. Even though the overall sound of the speaker is slightly warm, I found the leading edge of the detail in the upper midrange is slightly analytical sounding.

If you have read my reviews for long you know how important it is to me how a system reproduces voices. The ART played voices in a way that sounded clear and detailed. They reproduce male and female vocals equally well, which isn’t a given with multi-driver speakers. They do have somewhat of a monitor “feel” in that you can hear every detail of the voice or voices. The ART is very transparent, with good musical flow from note to note. The sound is direct and alive.

Bass performance is really room dependent. Trenner & Friedl states that the ART’s bass is -6dB at 44Hz. I don’t know where they are 3dB down, but in my main listening room it has to be somewhere above 50Hz. When I moved the speakers to my office, a room that is 11’ by 10’, the ARTs sounded like they went below 50Hz with authority. Truth is these speakers really came to life in that smaller room. So I set up some stands and listened to them in my office. I have to say that, in a small room, they are one of the better speakers I have heard.

Conclusion

There is a lot of competition at this price point, the new Elac Adante floor standers being one of them, for instance, but not everyone wants a floor-standing speaker or has a room that can handle that much bass. I, therefore, see many situations where the Trenner & Friedl ART bookshelf speakers would be a wonderfully musical speaker choice.

Copy editor: Dan Rubin

The Mundorf speaker is available as a package of parts and detailed plans for constructing the speaker boxes, not actually meant to be sold assembled.

I’m sure many of our readers have heard of the West German company Mundorf in the context of highly regarded speaker crossover parts, such as capacitors, coils, resistors, complete crossover assemblies, wire, fuses, terminals, etc. As it turns out, this same Mundorf, along with its extensive parts catalog, also manufactures a rather extensive line of AMT (Air Motion Transformer) speaker drivers and complete ready-to-use crossover assemblies for both the home audio and pro audio worlds. Therefore, offering a full speaker system in kit form is not a real stretch from their established core competencies.

My first encounter with the Mundorf MA30 speaker system happened a couple years ago at the sixth California Audio Show in 2015, where the speakers were shown briefly in the Grant Audio exhibit. At that time I noted that the Mundorfs were sporting an AMT driver, of which I am a fan from my current ownership of the Eficion F300, and that the Mundorf sounded quite nice for their size. I made a mental note to revisit them at some point and request a pair for review but that did not come to pass. Instead, a few months ago, I was approached by the North American distributor of Mundorf, Mr. Simon Au, from the audiyo.com website, and was offered an opportunity to review the latest and greatest iteration of the Mundorf-branded speaker kit offering, the MA30 Anniversary SilverGold Series speaker. These are offered in two configurations: fully assembled in a high gloss white or black lacquered enclosure at an MSRP of  3,900CAD per pair (roughly $3,100USD), or as a speaker kit without enclosures with an MSRP of 2,630CAD (roughly $2,100USD). Of course, I jumped at the chance and the MA30s are the subject of this review.

The Mundorf MA30 Anniversary SilverGold Series Speaker is actually a collaborative effort between Mundorf and fellow German speaker driver manufacturer Accuton. Both manufacturers celebrated their 30-year anniversaries back in 2015. Mundorf and Accuton enjoy a long and storied relationship of cooperation when it comes to Research & Development projects. In fact, it was Accuton that contributed much of the R&D for the MA30 collaboration due to their extensive expertise in utilizing Mundorf parts in conjunction with Accuton drivers in many of their design efforts. This research work notably includes the matching of Mundorf components and drivers to Accuton ceramic drivers. It is Accuton’s engineering and crossover development prowess that are largely responsible for the execution of the end product loudspeaker design in the MA30. Accuton’s contribution in this design effort begins with their fine ceramic mid-woofer unit used in this diminutive two-way speaker. This driver is then mated with the Mundorf AMT19CM1.1 tweeter unit and the crossover, a design born from Accuton’s R&D labs. These crossovers are pre-assembled with a generous helping of premium parts from the Mundorf parts bin, including MCap EVO and MCap Supreme EVO from the SilverGold range.

The resulting design of the Mundorf MA30 SilverGold Speaker Kit includes the following:

2  – Mundorf AMT19CM1.1 Tweeters 2  – Accuton C158-8-085 Ceramic Mid-Woofer Units 2  – Matched Crossover boards

Each pre-assembled crossover board contains the following components:

1 – MCap SUPREME EVO SilverGoldOil 1 – MCap EVO SilverGoldOil 3 – MCap EVO Oil 4 – PBH resistors 3 – MCoil Copper Foil Inductors

Set-up

The fully assembled pair of Mundorf MA30 Anniversary Silver Gold speakers were in sturdy white lacquer cabinets and fully broken in, as they were a demonstration pair from the distributor. Having already read the speaker’s literature and installation instructions that are published on the main German Mundorf site, I had planned originally to set the MA30 SGs atop the Eficion 300 woofer units and Stillpoints isolation pods that make up a part of my reference speakers, the Eficion F300.

Inserting the Mundorfs was a breeze, as the resulting height is nearly spot-on ideal for my seating position. I particularly liked the Mundorfs’ large speaker terminals as they enabled me to hand tighten the bulky and rather stiff Enklein “David” cables to the speakers easily due to their ergonomically savvy rectangular shape. I don’t care much for speaker grills since they all block sound to some degree. It was refreshing to see that Mundorf (or perhaps Accuton) apparently shares this opinion and opted not to offer a speaker grill per se and instead cover the delicate ceramic woofer driver with a hard steel mesh screen.

A quick listen while shifting seating positions confirmed that the sweet spot was essentially the same positioning as with my reference Eficion, a very fortunate outcome since I wasn’t looking forward to moving my 100+ pound woofer units! This is the listening position I used for the remainder of the evaluation period. Please note that the Eficion woofer units were not active in this process and the cabinet merely served as stands for the diminutive Mundorf speakers.

The reference system used throughout the extended review period was my all-tube setup, which includes:

• Enklein David interconnects on the analog source through to power amplifier
• Enklein David speaker cables
• Enklein T-Rex power cords on the monoblocks and the line stage Pass Labs XP20 Line stage
• MIT Magnum power cord
• Arcam FMJ CDS27 universal audio disc player
• Merrill-Williams REAL 101.2 / Technics EPA-501M / ZYX Yatra playback system
• Melody Valve P2688 line stage
• Melody Valve MN845 Monoblock 150w Class A power amplifiers
• Pass Labs XP-20 line stage
• Zesto Audio Andros PS1.2 Phono Amp

Listening Notes

From the moment the ZYX Yatra moving-coil cartridge touched vinyl, I knew this was going to be an entertaining experience. Right out of the gate, the Mundorf MA30 Anniversary SGS proved to be a well-balanced performer, the AMT driver appeared to be seamlessly mated with the Accuton ceramic woofer unit. Encouraged by what I was hearing, I pulled a wide range of music from my vinyl collection and settled in. Going over my notes, there is a remarkable consistency in my impressions regardless of the type of musical material I played.

Putting the Mundorf speakers through the sonic wringer, I started with well-recorded acoustic and vocal works from Neil Young, Janis Ian, Rickie Lee Jones, and Katie Melua. To say that the speakers simply performed well would not do them justice. The Mundorfs exhibited remarkable midrange coherency as they reproduced Neil Young’s somewhat difficult voice along with the accompanying acoustic guitar. Listening to the superbly captured Live at Massey Hall recording, the diminutive Mundorf monitors cast a broad and deep multi-layered image while at the same time delivering intimacy as Neil Young played his acoustic guitar and belted out his classic, “Tell Me Why.” Thanks to the ultra lightweight ceramic midrange/woofer unit and the ultra fast ribbon AMT driver, the MA30s were able to resolve and reproduce a remarkable amount of detail, including room cues. More amazing still is the thunderous applause in the hall afterwards. The Mundorfs have enough bass response to provide a reasonably good image of the immensity of a venue, including height. No, they are not going to shake windows out of their panes, but these speakers have absolutely remarkable bass response and imaging.

On one occasion, I just needed to listen to an album because an earworm was driving me nuts. Normally, I would hear my own speakers on these occasions and not a review piece, but it was late and I didn’t want to mess with cables, so I listened to it on the Mundorfs. This turned out to be a great listening session. My 47-year-old UK pressing of Gentle Giant’s Acquiring the Taste was pure fun and the Mundorfs were more than up to the task. It was, in fact, remarkable that the MA30s did bass so well. One tends to forget that it is just a diminutive two-way monitor. On the cut, “The Moon is Down,” the tympani strikes carried very nice weight and textural substance in each strike without even a hint of boxiness. The magic of the AMT driver was in full effect. In fact, truth be told, the Mundorf units were sounding quite a bit like my reference Eficion F300 at $16,900.

Other listening sessions yielded similar comments. The Mundorf MA30s were articulate and engaging through all the LPs and CDs I challenged them with. On live recordings especially, they flat out disappeared as the venue took shape and the performers emerged. This held true with female vocals, such as Katie Melua or Rickie Lee Jones, as well as with male vocals. On dynamic rock recordings, the MA30s acquitted themselves remarkably well and delivered plenty of head bobbing goodness with an impossible amount of clean and tuneful bass. The Air Motion Transformer driver bestowed this speaker with superb detail, speed, and dynamics without ever sounding strained, edgy or compromised in any way. Marrying this driver with the ultrafast and lightweight ceramic woofer/mid unit gave the MA30s a top to bottom consistency that is extremely rare for a two-way at any four-digit price.

Summary

I could go on and on about how much these speakers impressed me, but I think I have made my point. Speakers are a very personal choice and have the power to make or break a great home system. The Mundorf MA30 Anniversary SilverGold speakers are, to my ears, an engineering marvel. When either purchased as a kit or fully assembled, to my knowledge there are no speakers that deliver the sheer likeability, musicality, and tonality that these do at anywhere near their asking price. I would like to thank Mr. Simon Au for the opportunity to experience the Mundorf MA30 SilverGold Speakers. They are indeed a magnificent two-way monitor and a must listen if you are in the market for a stand-mount speaker.

Highly recommended.

Copy editor: Dan Rubin

Distributor Response:

Dear Raymond and Dagogo Publication,

We, at Audiyo Inc and Mundorf would like to thank you and your team for this comprehensive review and enjoyable read of the MA30 speakers.

Knowing that you had such a positive experience with these speakers indicates that the Mundorf and Accuton collaborative efforts was well worth it.  

Thank you!

Simon

Audiyo Inc.
www.audiyo.com

To say that Ophidian’s MINIMO speakers are compact is the understatement of the year. The speakers measure roughly 5” wide, 7” high and 6” deep. The footprint of each speaker is smaller than the base plate of Pangea’s DS-400 stands (6” wide x 8.5” deep) and, while the image of them resting atop is indeed humorous, do not be fooled.

As Ophidian suggests, a home can be found for them on the desktop and this is where I had them, resting upon a pair of Iso-AcousticISO-L8R130 isolation stands designed for small speakers and studio monitors. They were paired with a number of my integrated amplifiers (Bel Canto Design s300 i/u, PS Audio Sprout 100) and a few receivers (McIntosh Mac1700, Tandberg TR200 and Tandberg TR3030). I did try them out for a bit in my main system powered by the Rogers High Fidelity 65V-1 integrated tube/valve amplifier, but that’s not what the MINIMOs were designed for and, even though it was just a lark, it was unfair. Fun dispensed, I connected them to my secondary system in the living room, which is comprised of a Parasound Halo 2.1 integrated amplifier and Parasound’s LTd900 linear tracking turntable. Why that turntable? Well, how often do you get to see one in person, let alone have it be mentioned in a review?

Ophidian attributes the MINIMO’s ability to project a sizable sound stage, which belies its size, to its ‘combination of mid-bass driver with a powerful throw motor system and its unique AEROFLEX port system.

Apparently, it’s all about the mid-bass from the long throw 90mm mid-bass unit, with its deep rubber surround and light, stiff aluminum diaphragm driven by a powerful balanced neodymium magnet motor system. AEROFLEX technology enables the MINIMOs to produce deeper and more controlled bass notes than their size would suggest by keeping port velocity to a minimum and ensuring the mid-bass unit is properly supported throughout its stroke. That’s what it says on the website, and as concise as it may be, it is not so straightforward for those in the mainstream. I requested a further explanation from Ophidian’s own Gareth James:

“So primarily it’s all to do with reducing air velocity in the port system. By using a much longer port almost transmission line length with a much greater area the velocity is kept down. Above a certain velocity ports act like a hole in the box and totally unload the driver. When air velocity is too high the driver is moving more than necessary without producing any more useful (or clean output). The driver selection itself is critical as the optimal system requires a decent bit of motor strength to drive properly.”

I first encountered Gareth and his Ophidian speakers earlier this year at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show in England and was taken not only by a brand that was new to me, but by someone as young as Gareth entering the industry. He was nice enough to let me play non-audiophile music so I could put his micro-monitors to the test, as speakers this small rarely if ever can handle the deep heavy bass of honest straight-ahead FUNK. The MINIMOs did not crumble; they did not shy away from the task. Were they up to the task? No, not ideally, but to get to the level of bass to which these tracks plumb is a tall order. With the speakers here at my place in the States, I employed the PS Audio Sprout 100’s bass-boost, an 8 dB boost, and that helped matters considerably.

As British as the MINIMOs may be, their 90mm drivers (which can be found in OPHIDIAN’s entire M series line of speakers) are sourced from Parts Express just down the road/highway from me in Dayton, Ohio. The mid-bass driver measures a shade over 3.5” while the tweeter, sourced from Norway’s SEAS, is a shade over 1”.  The transmission line design came as a bit of a shock, as I have not been accustomed to its implementation in such a relatively small micro-monitor cabinet. There are bound to be some drawbacks: bass extension and lower sensitivity (85 dB), but what with amplification of today the latter is far less of a concern and, as for the bass, well if you’re looking for that punchy bass, I would have to ask Why are you looking at a micro monitor?

From their size alone, one would assume that the MINIMOs were designed for the desktop and, while a logical assumption, that’s not entirely the case. I set the speakers in four different rooms of varying dimensions (24’x 20’, 18×20’, 15’x10’, and 13’x10’) and with the speakers far enough from back walls – at least 18” – I was pleasantly surprised byhow they were able to make use of the mid-bass driver’s celebrated long throw. My duplex apartment is comprised of a sizable living room and three bedrooms, so the speakers made the rounds through rooms with varying amounts of furnishing, and roundly delivered on their promise.

With their transmission line tuned to 60 Hz, there’s no way else of my saying it: Meghan Trainor isn’t going to be happy, as it is not all about the bass. That being said and just for kicks, I connected a Parts Express/Dayton Audio SUB-1200 12″ 120-watt powered subwoofer, as there would be some level of synergy with the MNIMOs. The extra bass was indeed a plus, but its addition came at a physical cost, as the footprint of the 2.1 speakers just grew exponentially. No doubt there are smaller subwoofers to do the trick, perhaps even a passive one. Looking through the Parts Express project gallery online, I just might be inclined to design and build one myself.

How do the MINIMOs sound? I close my eyes and I want more from them. I open my eyes and realize I’m being greedy. Just how much more can they give? The sound is neutral, not accurate. I make the distinction because accuracy can be fatiguing, and the MINIMOs are anything but. From the nominally powered Tandberg TR200 at 20 watts per channel to the Parasound Halo 2.1’s 160 watts per channel, and the others I listed earlier, while on the face of it they might not be ideal physical matches, save for the TR200, the MINIMOs could and would be ideal for a secondary system, in one’s office, one’s bedroom and one’s guest room. At least that’s what I found in my home.

Without the subwoofer attached the MINIMOs come back down to earth, the limited bass extension is apparent, but then for a pair of speakers this size, you have to expect at least one compromise.

It’s not a secret that I travel a lot and live across continents, so I keep toying with the ultimate audiophile system that I can fit in my Samsonite rolling carry-on suitcase. Given TSA penchant for drama these days, I’m not sure how they would react to its contents: PS Audio Sprout 100, iBasso DX80 DAP, Iso-Acoustic ISO-L8R130 stands, and Ophidian MINIMO speakers. They all fit nicely with room to spare for speaker cables, interconnects and yes, the odd bit of clothing.

I first came into contact with the Studio Electric M4 speakers in 2017 at a show, where I met company founder David MacPherson for the first time. We would and have met regularly since then at shows. There was something about these speakers that I could not shake. It was as if I had heard them decades ago, years earlier, but that’s just not possible. It turns out that a fellow Hi-FI reviewer from another online journal had these speakers for a while, and he was tempted to mention that they reminded him of a pair of speakers that I also own, my trusty and well regarded Platinum Audio Studio 1 speakers designed by Phil Jones, who some of you might know better from his present company Phil Jones Bass (PJB), and his bass amps. In a past life, Phil was also responsible for Acoustic Energy’s speaker designs.

So, now back to the Studio Electric M4 and why I like them so much. As I have just recently set up my 30+-year-old Platinum Audio Studio 1 speakers, it dawned upon me that the very same musicality that drew me to them is what draws me to the M4. Accuracy is great up and until it becomes so sterile that gloves need be worn to listen.

The M4 traveled around my home from room to room: the primary listening area, the office and the guest room. Three different rooms sporting varying dimensions and obstacles to be surmounted. The speakers came through like a champ in each of them. As instructed by David, their designer to whom I alluded earlier, I put them on 28” stands, the DS400 model from Pangea, and just to be unconventional I also had them placed on tables and desktops. They did not disappoint as each and every room was filled with sound no matter what.

With my constant travel and setting up homes in numerous locales, I have been in search of the ideal stand mount speaker. It would have to make the music come alive but not slap me in the face. It would have to reproduce the music but do so in a way as not to be so reserved, so polite. These are the extremes with which I wrestle, and at the price point $2,400 to $2,750, depending upon finish, both my readers and myself would be hard pressed to find a more 21^st century sounding speaker of its size.

I straddle the Atlantic: London, England and Columbus, Ohio. The former has made me not only aware of but witness to a fair share of British stand mount speakers and, having listened to oh so many Harbeth, Spendor, KEF, Rogers and ProAc speakers, there was something missing in them that I found in the M4: a sense of humanity. There was not a time when living with the Studio Electrics that I wanted to listen to anything but them in my home. They picked up where my Platinum Audio Studio’s left off and proceeded to thrash those 30-year-old trusty companions. The M4 would be so at home at mine in London. There’s a thing the Brits refer to as one’s “short and curlies” and these speakers rather impolitely grab at them letting you know who’s the boss and what to expect. The M4 sound so right, and that’s not wrong.

Visually, I can while away the hours just staring at these speakers. They’re not Tron-like but there’s something about the figured maple and the parallel lines running down the spines that hearkens back to Art Deco design. The silver grilles take the edge off the black fronts and the cabinets built of HDF and MDF, and the grilles are options, not standard with the speakers. I requested them for the review, because who doesn’t like a bit of bling? Nothing out of the ordinary here with these speakers being 12” tall, 6.25”wide and–wait a minute ­–15” deep. It makes for a solid, robust speaker cabinet design. Both physically and acoustically the speakers are making a statement, and are not about to shrink into the woodwork.

As mentioned earlier I have heard my share of sealed enclosure speakers and for them to extend themselves as low and as high as the M4 is a product of good design and components. The M4 features Studio Electric’s proprietary HighX™ 6.5″ copolymer woofer, which is both designed and selected with a sealed cabinet in mind. Its ability to hit the “high notes” as well allows a crossover point of 3.4kHz, rather unique for a speaker of this size and design. One hears so much through this “magic” woofer that the M4 could be mistaken for a single-driver speaker, like my Blumenstein Audio Marlins, but no. The M4 are of a sealed design but my Platinum Audio Studio 1 are not. The sound is reminiscent and that’s still what grabs me.

The 1” silk dome tweeter really does add that extra something, the really high notes, the ones one doesn’t want to miss. These speakers are substantial, they are solid,and their sheer mass belies their delicacy and refinement.

For those of you still unfamiliar with my home, let’s just say that each room in this 3-bedroom condominium, apart from my bedroom, hosts a system of one sort or another. Why not in my bedroom? Well, even I have limits. It’s good to be the King, even better to own several pairs of speaker stands so as to be prepared and not have to transport more than the speakers from room to room.

These rooms of which I speak measure 24’ x 20’, 18’ x 13’ and 17’ x 15” respectively. No mean feat for a pair of stand mount speakers to fill up each of these rooms with sound. And the M4 passed with flying colors, feeling at home in each of the rooms as if they were purposely built for each of them.

From all outward appearances, given what the public knows from images of Tekton Design’s speaker range, one would be hard pressed to immediately identify the Mini-Lore Monitors as part of the family. But, they would be wrong. Absent the inverted tweeter-woofer drivers positioning, these speakers are about as standard in design as one would get from the mind of Eric Alexander, Tekton Design’s Founder and CEO.

I was on a mission after seeing/hearing/experiencing a revival in tube/valve gear and there being a concerted effort to make such equipment somewhat more relatively affordable. Besides the Rogers High Fidelity 65V-1 of which I have written and the Audio Note iZero of which I shall in the near future, there are a host of truly affordable and low power / single-ended triode (SET) amplifiers hitting the market. Regardless of price, all have one thing in common and that’s the need for highly sensitive and efficient speakers. It got me to wondering if an equally affordable pair of speakers meeting those criteria was possible. No doubt about it, the Mini Lore Monitors answered the call.

The speakers are more than the sum of their parts and, as I alluded to earlier, apart from driver placement, nothing much here should knock one over apart from the 5th item on the list. This is taken exactly from the company website. I found it odd that what I consider the most inviting feature, the Mini Lore Monitor’s sensitivity/efficiency is tucked in the middle. From where I sit I would have thought it would have rated being the 1st feature up there. Sensitivity was what first attracted to me Tekton Design as a speaker manufacturer. Known for their unconventional designs and use of drivers (plural), not to be overlooked are Tekton Design’s range of bright colors.

There’s something to be said for efficient speakers, especially if you live in a high-rise apartment building with a lot of neighbors on every side of you. Listening to music at its full measure without the volume doing likewise and aggravating the neighbors is no mean feat. So, besides matching efficient speakers with tube/valve gear there are also other applications. I proceeded to connect the Mini-Lore Monitors to my solid-state gear: Parasound Halo 2.1 160 watts-per-channel integrated amplifier, Bel Canto Design s300 150 watts-per-channel integrated amplifier, McIntosh MAC1700 40 watts-per-channel receiver, PS Audio Sprout 100 40wpc integrated amplifier, and my trusty Tandberg TR200 receiver liberally rated at 20 watts per channel. The speakers held their own and I was truly impressed when paired with the Sprout 100, MAC1700 and Tandberg TR200.

Now let’s get something straight here. There are trade-offs when it comes to highly sensitive efficient speakers, in this case ones rated at 95dB 1W@1m. The stated frequency response of 55Hz – 20kHz isn’t going to win any limbo contests this century or any other for that matter. Readers familiar with my primary listening system know that an SVS SB Ultra16 subwoofer figures prominently in the mix. This, too, will be written up shortly, as I have experienced and learned so much from having it here, which can be summed up in one adjective: Mammoth.

Compromise is not my strong suit, so right here, right now with the Mini Lore Monitors placed on my dependable Pangea DS 400 24” stands, there was no getting around it, these speakers on their own without a capable subwoofer were not going to cut it. There are fuller range, lower frequency speakers in Tekton’s stable, and I knew this full well. Still, higher efficiency stand mount speakers were/are what I’m after and will be writing about.

Pairing these Tekton Design Mini-Lore Monitors with the SVS SB Ultra 16 brought them to life. My chosen subwoofer is of the sealed box variety and it is their top of the line. Having heard SVS’ more relatively economical SB4000 model, I believe that too would/could have done nicely, but I simply went all out. On the subject of price, the speakers cost $625 per pair without grilles, $700 with and if one considers what one’s getting, either way it’s a bargain. There are but a handful of truly sensitive stand-mount speakers priced below $1,000 per pair.

The relative uniqueness of these speakers with respect to the Tekton Design range prompted a number of questions from me to Eric Alexander, the company’s CEO and Founder:

Q: Chicken and Egg. Given that Tekton Design is known for its seemingly unorthodox speaker designs, how did the ostensibly conventional Mini-Lore Monitor come into existence? Do the others speakers take the piss out of them in the shop?

A: I first created the original Lore in 2008. Next, I scaled the Lore theme down in size to meet the needs of clients that were requesting a smaller version, this scaled down model became the Mini-Lore. The next step was an intuitive one as well…. I am also a speaker provider/musician that does a lot of work within the music industry and the local music scene. The Mini-Lore was sounding great and being highly reviewed (about 2011) so it was a natural step to simply produce the Mini-Lore in a studio monitor cabinet size.

For years I’ve stated the larger, more complex loudspeaker models are: “Simply more of a really good thing.” My favorite Mini-Lore Monitor combo is to run them in the 2.1 configuration. In my opinion, two properly placed Mini-Lore Monitors correctly mated to a powerful subwoofer (I use the Tekton Design Cinema Subwoofer here) has the potential to produce ‘world-class’ sound at a loudspeaker total cost coming in under $1,700. It sounds so good it’s hard to wrap your brain around the thing considering the total cost.

Q: As I noted earlier the Mini Lore Monitors are more than the sum of their parts. What have you done in your design to make them so efficient? And why the unique driver placement? They remind me of my Mission 727’s with them having their woofers looking down upon the tweeter.

A: The tweeter located below the woofer is a type of time-alignment. The path length to the listener is corrected when the tweeter is placed below the woofer. The efficiency is obtained by choosing to use 8″ pro audio transducers over audiophile type transducers.

Q: What was/is the motivation for the Mini-Lore Monitor? I know that Tekton makes professional studio monitors and fuller range towers, so what market did/does it have in mind for them? Who do you see as being the audience?

A: We have clients that need a high performance/high efficiency loudspeaker in a reasonably compact package and priced competitively – this is why we produce the Mini-Lore Monitor. The larger professional studio monitors and our larger towers are geared for both the audiophile with a larger space and the music professional.

Q: When voicing these speakers in the shop, which gear do you couple them with? Solid-State? Tube/Valve? Is it one or the other? A combination of both?

A: Measurements and simulations are done exclusively with solid-state amplification that I’ve evaluated for linearity. Design work requires an amplifier that possesses a razor flat frequency response from 10Hz-100kHz and cannot have an output transformer in the signal path. From there, I’ll do the final with a wide variety of amplification. For example: a highly regarded class A solid-state, a 300B tube-based amplifier, a higher powered EL34 based amplifier, and I’ll also want to hear them through a modern class D type amplifier.

To say that I have a few sets of sensitive speakers would be an understatement. Besides listening to the subject of this review on their own, I listened to them in comparison to Klipsch Quartets, Audio Note AX-2s, and Blumenstein Audio Orcas & Marlins. The Mini-Lore Monitors, while being the least expensive of the bunch, could hold their own. The Klipsch Quartets could literally and figuratively stand on their own, the others all benefited greatly from being paired with a subwoofer. Note: the Blumenstein Audio speakers are of the single driver variety.

Readers familiar with me as a writer, an audiophile and as a music lover know full well of my beliefs: both HiFi and music can be wholly subjective and as such I will point to my New Album Releases Facebook group and the most recent list of curated music to which I have been listening and more importantly making use of to evaluate these speakers.

New Album Releases (https://www.facebook.com/groups/newalbumreleases)
Prince – Piano & A Microphone
Medeski, Martin & Wood – Omnisphere
Jonas Kaufmann – An Italian Night
Seasaw – Big Dogs
The Guess Who – The Future Is What It Used to Be
Marc Albrecht – Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben & Burleske
Queer as Folk – Grace Petrie
Raul Midon / Metropole Orkest – If You Really Want
13 Rivers – Richard Thompson
The Chills – Snow Bound
Suede – The Blue Hour
Sunny Sweeney – Big Machine Classics
House of Stairs – House of Stairs
Various Artists – Chicago Plays The Stones
12 Ensemble – Resurrection
Harold Lopez-Nussa – Un Dia Cualquiera
Berti/Ciaccio/Fujiya – Arthur Gottschalk: Art for Two
Macy Gray – Ruby
Slash – Living the Dream
The Pretty Things – Singapore Silk Torpedo
Orrin Evans – Presence

There’s one album in particular that I heartily recommend for its mastery of the bass, and for its sonic beauty. That would be Peter Dominguez’ Groove Dreams. Never before have I been so entranced by an entire album of solo bass pieces. In particular track no. 3 on the album: ‘Bossa Nova Nemo (The Jive Samba)’. This is music to be heard, to be listened to, and to be felt, emotionally and physically. Attention was indeed paid to microphone placement in this recording. And if it is possible for there to be too much of a good thing, I can also recommend Billy Drewes’ Under One Sun as a worthy percussion album.

I can think of a number of reasons to acquire the Mini-Lore Monitor. Being in the market for an affordable, highly sensitive/efficient stand mount comes to mind, as does not having to raise the volume past 11 o’clock. For those with low-power gear and for those embarking on the wonderful journey that is tube/valve, the Mini-Lore Monitors make for an inviting proposition, both sonically and economically.

Copy editor: Dan Rubin

By Popular Demand, Legendary Paul Barton Redefines Performance/Value Equation

PSB Speakers, long renowned for affordable excellence in loudspeaker design,launched an all-new range of Alpha speakers that,like their predecessors, deliver remarkable valueand performance. Four models in all, the new AlphaSeries is comprised of compact monitors P3 ($199 per pair) andP5($349 per pair), a center channel C10 ($299 each) and a tower model T20 ($599 per pair). Additionally, all four models are available now in a choice of Walnut or Black Ash finishes.

The Story Behind PSB Alpha

PSB introduced its first Alpha speaker range in 1991 with a clear purpose: create an affordable speaker that is focused on performance first. By leveraging the research conducted at the Canadian National Research Council (NRC) over many years by PSB’s founder Paul Barton, these early Alphas went on to win every competitive speaker shootout and garner many 5 star reviews. By popular request, PSB has now revisited its Alpha offerings with four models that are “clean sheet” designs, while maintaining Paul Barton’s original intent. Today’s Alphas benefit greatly from improved materials and production techniques, not to mention an additional 30 years of experience, to create a natural sounding speaker of minimalist elegance, while costing less than the original Alphas when adjusted for currency inflation.

In PSB’s new Alpha range, the P3 and P5 are classic two-way bookshelf designs that are both compact and versatile. They can be placed on a stand, a shelf, a desk or a table and are equally well-suited for home theater or stereo listening. The T20 tower adds an additional woofer in a larger Floorstanding cabinet yet occupies a small footprint. The C10 center channel speaker can be used as the center or dialog speaker in a home theater or could also be used for music.

Improved Drivers and Materials

For the new Alphas, PSB developed two new woofers; a 4 1/2” and 5 1/4” both employing dual layer voice coils with powerful magnet structures to provide low distortion and high output levels. The cones are made from a special textured polypropylene compound that prevents cone breakup and extends frequency response for a smooth integration with our tweeter.

New Alpha tweeter with Neodymium magnet and wave guide. New Alpha woofer with textured polypropylene cone.

A new 3/4” (19mm) tweeter was designed and is used in all four models. The tweeter is ferrofluid cooled and features a Neodymium magnet for high sensitivity and power handling. A wave guide on the front of the tweeter helps match the response of the tweeter near the crossover point with the woofer for a seamless transition. Of note, the tweeter is placed below the woofer on some models which, in concert with the precisely engineered crossover network, provides a uniform sound field whether the listener is seated or standing.

Crossover– An unusually complex fourth-order Acoustic Linkwitz-Riley filter design is used to get a perfect blend between drivers and keep distortion very low even at high sound pressure levels.A crossover this sophisticated is unusual for speakers in these affordable price points.

Cabinets are often overlooked in their importance and for the new Alphas, each model has a unique combination of wall thickness and bracing to control resonances and provide a perfect platform for the drive units. Notably, the internal damping material is specialized for the purpose having been developed over many years on much more expensive PSB models and positioned precisely for optimum effectiveness. High quality precision machined cabinets in simulated Black Ash and Walnut finishes combine with magnetically attached grilles to provide a rich and timeless design. Even the grille is unique in that is does not change the sound of the speaker whether attached or removed.

“The PSB Alpha speakers were among the most popular speakers we have ever made so we have had constant requests from the market to design an updated and improved range. The original Alphas were quite good for the time, so this was a tall order” commented Paul Barton, founder and Chief Designer of PSB. “However,by leveraging new materials and design techniques as well as advanced manufacturing capability, these Alpha models are a substantial improvement over the original ones with respect to looks, performance and value.”

Key Features ofthe new PSB Alpha models:

• ¾” (19mm) Aluminum Dome tweeter with Neodymium magnet
• Woofers with Textured Polypropylene Cones and Rubber Surrounds
• Choice of simulated Walnut and Black Ash finishes
• 5-Way, Gold-Plated Bing Posts
• Design and final voicing engineered by Paul Barton

The new PSB Alpha Series will be on display at CES 2019 in the Lenbrook Suite 29-236 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, January 8-10, 2018. PSB will be joined there by sister brands NAD Electronics and Bluesound with Lenbrook personnel on hand to demonstrate the company’s premium products and answer any questions.

About PSB

Founded in 1972, by renowned speaker designer Paul Barton, PSB is a leading global speaker brand, now celebrating more than 40 years. Currently sold in more than 70countries around the world, for music or movie listening, the company has set the standard for high-performance, high-value speakers. PSB products are distributed in the Americas by Lenbrook Americas.

Publisher’s note: Announcing a new Series, “Reign of the Mini-Monitors.”

Loudspeaker systems pressurize the space between the speakers themselves and the listener. Placing large, multi-driver speakers in a small room curtails the system’s potential, while forcing a pair of small speakers to play in a large room exposes their limitations. Using the right size of speakers in any given room, however, can bring about a very realistic recreation of the recording venue, be it an intimate jazz club, a 100-piece-plus symphony hall or a cathedral.

Dagogo Reviewer David Snyder uses the top floor room in his house as his dedicated listening room. Its dimensions are 15.5 feet long, 10.1 feet wide and 8′ high. This new Series will share his continuing discoveries on mini-monitors with our readers.

About loudspeaker design/designers

The saying goes that designing great-sounding loudspeakers is more art than science. I’ve had the opportunity to discuss the matter with a number of loudspeaker designers, and each seems to have their own approach and priorities. You see, the problem is that there are an impossible number of variables to consider—hundreds, if not thousands, of different driver and enclosure materials and types, even more ways to combine and assemble them, and countless ways they can interact with listeners’ rooms. A good designer will prioritize the manageable subset of parameters that they feel are essential to achieving their goals.

When you study the designs of popular manufacturers, patterns begin to emerge. Some espouse matching piston area to the frequencies being reproduced, while others are more concerned about moving mass. Ultra-wide dispersion is a common characteristic of some designs while other designers are all about controlled directivity. Some build different models around the single high-frequency transducer that they poured most of their R&D into while others focus on getting the midrange right.

There are at least as many sets of design priorities as there are designers. After exposure to many different loudspeakers, one begins to develop her/his own preferences and priorities. Since you can’t try all of them, I suggest that you pay attention to the designers of products that interest you and follow those whose priorities are aligned with your own, keeping in mind that these may change over time.

As a personal example, for most of my audiophile life, I was into piston area; borrowing a line from muscle car enthusiasts: there’s no replacement for displacement! I enjoy the big ease with which big loudspeakers make big sound. However, after a move to the west coast, I found myself and my system in a much smaller room. This change forced me to consider the interaction between speakers and room on a much deeper level than I had in the past. Standing waves, dispersion, power response and driver integration are bigger problems with big speakers in a small room. Bass traps and room treatments combined with judicious use of DSP got me close to the sound that I wanted, but I ultimately discovered that you just can’t fight the room!

Paul Barton

Enter Paul Barton, the “P” and “B” in PSB Speakers (“S” is for Sue, his beloved wife). He’s been designing loudspeakers since before I could walk, and while studying under Dr. Floyd Toole at the NRC (National Research Council) in Canada, he discovered that the power response of a loudspeaker is at least as important as its response on-axis. Paul would explain that most of us don’t listen to loudspeakers in an anechoic chamber or in free space; our listening rooms have a floor, ceiling, and walls with all sorts of reflective surfaces. Rooms collect and store acoustic energy from the entire sphere around the transducers. The sound that arrives at our ears is actually a mix of direct sound, reflections from nearby surfaces, and tonality of the diffuse field, which consists of secondary reflections and beyond. A design with flat on-axis response but lumpy or uneven response off-axis may measure well in the lab, but the relationships among fundamentals and harmonics will be distorted in any real listening room, resulting in a tonality that fails to match real-life acoustic instruments like the violin.

Paul Barton’s primary design priority is to achieve perceptually flat response on-axis while also delivering smooth response from all angles in the sphere surrounding the loudspeaker. He’s been utilizing the loudspeaker testing facilities at the NRC to achieve this design goal for longer than anyone on the planet and has become incredibly good at it. Every aspect of his speaker designs, from driver construction and materials to waveguides, baffles and enclosure shapes and materials, and crossover characteristics supports this goal across his entire line of products.

About the PSB Alpha

Alpha B1

When the original PSB Alpha loudspeaker was launched in 1991, Paul wanted to create an affordable speaker that heavily prioritized sound quality over features. There were no 5-way binding posts or removable grills. The woofer was flush-mounted from the rear of the baffle, and the crossover was simple. This left more of the budget for quality components and design, and the results spoke for themselves. The PSB Alpha was the budget darling of the audiophile press for more than a decade after it arrived on the scene, establishing it as a sonic benchmark for what could be achieved under $200 USD. An updated Alpha B1 model followed in 1999 and was in continuous production for nearly 20 years!

For 2019, Paul decided to apply that same design ethos to the creation of a new Alpha line that could meet a range of needs from quality 2-channel performance to fine home theater. He designed new drivers, waveguides, enclosures and crossovers from the ground up using modern materials and lessons learned while creating his high-end Imagine series. The results are in line with what you’d expect from a music-first designer with nearly a half-century of study and experience.

THE PROJECT – BECAUSE THERE IS NO FUTURE WITHOUT A PAST

Some products are not meant to be tied to a singular historical moment. Electa Amator III and Minima Amator II were born with this concept in mind and together give life to the Heritage collection from Sonus faber.  Paying homage to its past through classic design, while strongly breaking through the barrier of time with an electro-acoustic point of view, the Heritage collection transmits the tradition of the brand and enhances its artistic relevance. Because there is no future, without a past.

The natural evolution of today’s Sonus faber, is enclosed in this new creation. Minima Amator II is the restatement of a fundamental product first introduced in 1992 when the company was establishing key principles that would go on to guide future productions: accurate design and high-quality natural materials, combined together to obtain a sound reproduction as natural as possible.

THE DESIGN

Inspired by 36 years of worldwide experience in the Audio High-End sector, Minima Amator II merges the brand’s iconic style with innovative technology bringing to life the fundamentals of high-end Italian craftsmanship to create musical instruments.

The new Minima Amator II is a creation clearly dedicated to music reproduction with a lifestyle aesthetic that effortlessly lends itself to any environment.

The compact, solid walnut wood of the cabinet adds to the speaker’s sound quality, resulting in a harmonious, smooth and consistent listening experience. The cabinet is embellished by a thin brass insert at the base, reminiscent of the elegant Electa Amator III design.

The front baffle shows the iconic shape of the Voice of Sonus faber and is covered in leather. The rear panel, also covered in leather, houses the exit of the reflex duct and  is embellished by the brass binding posts.

The Minima Amator II was intended to be a bookshelf speaker but is designed to be paired with the Carrara Stand (natural completion of Electa Amator III) or with the Unicum stand.

ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC SOLUTIONS – TINY BUT MIGHTY

Minima Amator II is a 2-way bookshelf loudspeaker system; a simple project that features the patents and technological solutions that characterize the latest Sonus faber creations:

• A 28 mm silk dome Tweeter, implemented with the DAD- Damped Apex Dome^TM technology, for a clear high frequency reproduction. The tweeters of both the models of the Heritage collection feature the tripod design solution that recalls and transmits the style of the first models

• The “Paracross topology^TM” crossover design, with Clarity Cap ESA capacitors, is specifically customized for Sonus faber

• A 6-inch midwoofer, developed in the Vicenza-based laboratory, features the well-known cellulose pulp and natural fibers cone on a die-cast aluminum basket, able to reveal even the smallest details during music reproduction

RETAIL PRICE

The suggested retail price for the pair of loudspeakers is 4.000€ (VAT included)

MARKET AVAILABILITY

Minima Amator II will be available in European markets in June and in North American and Asian markets in July of 2019.

Audioengine HDP6 in cherry

The Original HD6

Recently reviewed by Dagogo Senior Reviewer Jack Roberts, the $750 Audioengine HD6 combined an internal amplifier and a version of the company’s B1 Bluetooth Premium Receiver, meaning it received Bluetooth audio wirelessly while accepting Toslink digital signal. If one only has an iPhone, just by adding the Audioengine HD6 and you’d have a complete audio system. At the same time Jack was reviewing it, I was also sent a pair for auditioning. My pair of HD6 was placed on 24-inch stands far away from wall boundaries, 6 feet apart and 6 feet from my listening couch.

The HD6’s polished, 3/4-inch thick, MDF cabinet was said to be of furniture grade veneers and extensively braced and heavily damped. The grill was detachable and “firmly held in place with hidden neodymium magnets for a clean look.” The speaker employed “audiophile-quality, ferrofluid-cooled silk dome tweeters with neodymium magnets” to provide smooth response even under high power. The woofer was “Kevlar woven glass aramid composite with rubber surrounds” that retains its shape when being driven hard. The woofer was housed in cast aluminum frames for high rigidity and heat dispersion. Both drivers were magnetically shielded.

For $750 the pair including the hookup cable between the two speaker, the HD6 would not be expensive even if it delivered merely moderately. In actuality, per my observation, Jack was spot-on when he described the speakers as sounding “huge” with a soundstage that was “very wide, very deep…” In my sessions, I pushed the speaker louder and louder until it was near maximum volume and I had to scale back. It thus dawned on me that the Audioengine HD6 was very competently designed, and I began wondering about the potential of a pair of passive HD6. In the active HD6, only one speaker harbored the active amplification and Bluetooth electronics while the other was linked passively by a single wire. I wondered what the result would be if a passive pair were augmented by superior electronics and cabling.

I asked Gavin Fish of Audioengine to send a lone, passive HD6 to me to complete a passive pair and the speaker arrived shortly after. Onto the 24-inch stands the passive pair went in my medium-sized listening room, in the same location as had been the active pair. The source was the $3,098 Arche Audio Opus 5 DACT USB DAC with the Opus 501 Power Supply. Amplification was the $3,599 Wells Audio Majestic solid-state stereo amplifier, interconnect and speaker cabling was by Nordost Tyr 2.

Passive-aggressive

Audioengine endowed the passive pair of the speakers with a new designation: HDP6. It sells for $499 the pair.

At medium-to-high volumes, the HDP6 was able to present an even more coherent top-to-bottom behavior, one in which all instruments onstage was given their own sound intact. This trait lent exceptional realism to acoustic instruments, such as a powerful bottom-end of the piano in the HiQ XRCD24 disc of Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 (HIQXRCD37). The portrayal of the piano via the two-way passive speaker was incredibly full and wholesome; the recreation of the spatiality of the venue was done very competently.

Then, the HDP6 exhibited a soft top-end that made vocalizations very palatable. The “Un-Mastered” Patricia Barber standard, Cafe Blue, sounded intimate with highly focused imaging while Barber’s voice was efficacious and reverberating. The fullness of the electric and double basses was gratifying from a speaker this small and affordable.

Naturally, I had to play the Metallica “The Unforgiven” at high volumes to see how far the HDP6 could be pushed. Past 70% of full volume compression began to set in, cone breakup became audible and I was going deaf. Turning it down to around 70% of full volume and the music was restored to its head-banging glory.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that there aren’t $1,000 of premium parts in the HDP6, nor should we expect a performance in the way of the $5,000 mini-monitors. What we should consider is a quality from solid engineering that is commensurate with the scale of economy accorded Audioengine in the production of the HDP6. And that is some serious pounding for the penny.

For some time now I have been professing my ideal speaker system is one capable of recreating the spatiality and dynamics of a full orchestra but occupies only a miniscule footprint. The Audioengine HDP6 proved to me how close we are to that prospects in the realm of budget designs. Costing next to nothing in high-end audio, the Audioengine HDP6 pushed the performance envelope of budget bookshelf speakers of the day. It was not an everyday happenstance when a bookshelf design can accomplish such feat. I reckon that in a leisurely afternoon in a more intimate setting and for a true pittance, the reader will have serious fun playing the HDP6. What audiophile fun that would be!

Walnut

Copy editor: Laurence A. Borden