Stuart and Linette Smith of Hifi Pig visited the factory of Focal, the well known French loudspeaker manufacturer, in Saint Etienne near Lyon. Read the history of the company and full details of our visit.

Click on the image to read and download the full PDF 

Kralk Audio is owned by Alan Clark and located in the Yorkshire town of Wakefield. Ian Ringstead takes a listen to the company’s BC30 loudspeakers (£429) and matching PAW stand (£350). 

Alan Clark who owns Kralk Audio is a relative new comer to the quality hifi scene, but he has been a passionate audiophile since his youth. At the age of 12 he made his first speaker by putting some EMI 6×9 drive units inside a shoe box with rock wool nicked from his dad’s loft and which he thought sounded great. From there Alan experimented and his music teacher at school showed him how to build simple crossovers to add multiple drive units enabling him to build better speakers. 

The name Kralk comes from his school days when a friend used to turn people’s names backwards and call them by their new name. So Kralk Audio was begun when in 2012 Alan was told by friends that the speakers he had been making for friends to use in studios were so good that he ought to make a business out of his hobby.

CONSTRUCTION

The BC30’s (Black Cat) were named after Alan was building a pair in his workshop and a black cat walked in curious to see him at work and so the name stuck. The 30 is from the fact the speakers are 30cm high. Essentially they are a classic small bookshelf design hand crafted and are finished in real wood veneers of which there are several options. They are felt lined for natural damping of the cabinet and Sonarflex acoustic foam padding is used. Drive units are a 130 mm bass mid doped paper cone which has a flat response. The tweeter is 25mm fluid cooled design with Alan’s own 6mm solid aluminium face plate, which offers excellent dispersion and maintains cabinet rigidity through the 6 hole mounting to the front baffle. Each speaker has matched components and the crossovers are hand built using hand wound inductors and audiophile MKP capacitors whilst internal wiring is Van Damme. The back panel has a very smart aluminium terminal plate with very good quality gold plated binding posts. 

The grilles are black cloth covered frames that are slim and elegant with magnets built in to make attaching to the front baffle a cinch (a nice touch I have seen in a few designs and far nicer than the usual peg and socket arrangement). The front baffle comes in either a natural wood veneer finish matching the rest of the cabinet, or a smart black acrylic finish that I felt was quite eye catching.

SOUND

Because the BC30 is an infinite baffle design and very compact it is meant to be positioned on a bookshelf or close to a wall to work optimally. I found it they were moved out into my room on the stands then the bass reinforcement was diminished and they then sounded bass light. In close proximity to a wall or on a shelf they sound great as they were designed to do. Alan was conscious though that not everyone had an ideal spot to place the BC30’s in or they wished to have them further into their room on stands so he developed the PAW stand (Passive Audio Woofer). Inside the PAW is the same 130mm bass driver which is on a 12db 200hz resin cast crossover, it’s an equal part bandpass design with the drive unit firing downwards into a heavy damped foam and long fibre wool chamber, the top part is damped with foam and outputs through the 50mm port. The stands are 70cm tall and finished in black ash but any other veneer finish can be made to order to match the speakers or room furniture finish. 

The PAW is an interesting concept and although not a new idea, it makes for a neat solution in order to add extra bass without having a separate active sub in your room taking up valuable space. As they are passive all you have to do is link the PAW’s pair of terminals to the main speakers with the wire links provided and away you go. I have found in the past that subwoofers can be problematical, especially passive designs where you are totally reliant on them matching your main speakers perfectly. Gladly I was pleasantly surprised how well the PAW did match the BC30’s and spent the vast majority of my reviewing time with them in use. They integrated very well with good control and didn’t boom like a lot of subs can. I would say that they are an essential add on if you buy a pair of BC30’s and want the extra bass on offer. It wasn’t just more bass though that the PAW provided. Like all good subwoofer designs, if integrated properly they gel with the main speakers and add air and space to the sound field giving a far more believable sonic picture and focussing of the sound.

The sound quality of the BC30’s is very natural and clear with great depth when there in the recording and the clarity is excellent. All types of music faired well from rock to classical, solo acoustic and vocal. There was a lovely 3D sound stage which made the speakers disappear and they could be driven hard without fear of blowing them up, unlike older designs I fondly remember back in the 80’s. They are not power hungry and are sensitive at 90dB 1w. Low powered amps can be used, whether valve or transistor. Dynamically they are very good for the size and didn’t baulk at loud levels when pushed sensibly to test them out.

As they produce a very clear open sound they might take a bit of getting used to if you aren’t familiar with that type of presentation. Personally I love an open sound as long as it is accurate and musical (i.e. I can listen to it for hours without switching the system off). This is what greeted me when I first heard the BC 30’s at Whittlebury this year and made me want to review them. They are unlike any other small monitor I’ve heard from my long experience in the business and I recommend you don’t try and compare them with old designs like LS 3/5 a’s or Linn Kans which are classic designs from the 80’s and have great attributes in their own rights, but are also unique and have their own fan base.

What I love about the BC30’s is their honest approach to the sound which Alan has honed from many hours of experimentation in his workshop and listening room. He has lovingly created a cracking little speaker that is beautifully made by himself and utilised excellent drive units and components to produce a superb addition to the classic British mini speaker range. In a small room on shelves the BC30 will shine especially if, like me, you have a spare room where I do all my hobbies or you have a man cave  to get away from it all (or your other half occasionally !!). Used in a standard living room you will probably want the PAW stands for the added bass.

Now to price. The BC30’s are £429 a pair in the standard range of finishes which are light oak, sapelle, walnut, black ash or cherry. As stated earlier, Alan can finish them in any veneer you wish such as bird’s eye maple or piano finishes, but with a commensurate increase to cover additional costs. The PAW stand can also be finished in any finish to suit and cost £350 in black ash as standard with special finishes at an additional cost.

Frequency response:  20Hz to 200Hz , Rear ported (only on powered PAW)

Impedance: 8 ohms. Dimensions: 720mm x 280mm x 280mm (hwd)

Column size: 180mm x 180mm .Connectors: 2 high quality gold plated connectors with anti-shred washers.

The PAW can also be bought just as a stand without the bass units and are £150, so you can use them with other speakers such as Kralk Audio’s DTLSP speakers which are a larger stand mount.

CONCLUSION

So here we have a lovely little speaker that is easy to drive and has a very musical sound. You could try them on their own first if the budget is tight, but I really liked them with the PAW and feel the extra money is well spent.

So for £780 you get an excellent set up that won’t dominate your room and will sound fabulous.

With the PAW you’ll be amazed how deep they go for such a small design and they will go pretty loud. I have to say I was rather taken by the BC30’s and for the money are well worth trying out. Alan will gladly let you call at his home to hear them in his extension or try them in your own home. Being made to order Alan keeps his costs down and sells direct to the public from his website which is very informative and a useful guide to his product range. Compared to like for like products these are a seriously good buy for less than £800 as a combination, or just a great book shelf speaker in a study.

BC30’s 

Sound Quality: 8.6/10 

Build Quality: 8.6/10 

Value for money: 8.7/10 

BC30 With PAW Stand 

Sound Quality: 8.8/10 

Build Quality: 8.6/10 

Value for money: 8.8/10

Pros  

Very well made neat design

Great value for money

Clear open sound that is detailed and lively

With the PAW added bass is very welcome when used out into the room 

Cons

Not everyone will like the openness of the sound if not matched with decent electronics and cabling

Bass freaks will want a bigger design altogether

Ian Ringstead

Designer’s Notes

I make all the cabinets and crossovers myself in the workshop and assemble everything up, there is no workforce, just me and the wife Christine, she has the design eye and the typing skills.

The BC-30 design came about when a friend had asked me to make a small bookshelf speaker that would actually fit on a bookshelf without sounding “boomy” and coloured, as all the other speakers he had tried had suffered from this problem. The design brief was a speaker under a foot tall that still could do room filling sound from a bookshelf position. The BC-30 was born.

The BC stands for Battened Cabinet and the 30 is cm tall. For the bass driver I chose a 1.8kg 110mm Doped paper unit well known for being almost indestructible and a 25mm 160watt silk dome tweeter. The crossover is a 12dB Bessel design crossing over at 3khz, with an engineered presence peak at 1300hz to counteract the bookshelf positioning. The cabinet was originally made from 9mm birch ply, but was later changed to heavily damped 9mm MDF – I just found the ply too inconsistent to work with and it caused all sorts of problems. The speaker was a hit with my friend and others who heard it.

The BC-30 was launched at the Whittlebury Audio Show September 2013 and sold alongside our popular DTLPS-1 monitors. I kept the price as low as I could so everybody could enjoy the little speaker and it was an instant success packing out the room and getting a great reception on the show blogs.  Over the coming years the speaker sold well and overtook sales of the DTLPS-1.

In 2014 I made a few changes to the crossover using even better quality Capacitors and this time I used hand wound air core inductors instead of the ferrite rod ones I used in the previous versions. I found every little tweak just made them sound better and better.

In 2014 the BC-30 was upgraded to Black Cat status and I upgraded the speaker with new terminals and now with a nice new Alloy terminal plate and black acrylic face plate to make the speaker look even better. I made a dedicated stand for the Black Cat for the 2015 show called the PAW (Passive Audio Woofer) – the reasoning behind this was people were wanting to use them on stands into the room and the design simply didn’t work in that situation as it needs the rear wall and the bookshelf to get the right bass extension from the tiny box. The PAW stand features the same bass driver as the speaker but mounted in an equal part ported band pass cabinet working below 200 Hz and it allows the Black Cats to come down off the bookshelf and play with the big boys. The stand worked really well and was a hit with the public at the show and I feel it has taken the little Black Cats to another level and given them a wider appeal to the buying public.

For the time being I think this version of the BC-30 will run for quite a while although I do have plans to make an over the top version with an external crossover like our DTLPS-1 Elite, but for now orders are coming in for them and I’m happy with the steady flow. I’ve tried over the years to get away from the LS3/5 look, but people still love that, so now I manufacture the Classic and the Face Lift versions of the Black Cats side by side to give more choice. With each pair being hand crafted from scratch it also make it easy for each individual pair to be customized to the customers’ needs with regards to cabinet finish and colour…and all done for the same price, unless it’s an exotic veneer finish and then I have to charge extra according to cost. And that’s about it, thanks.

Alan Clark

KEF has announced the launch of three new finishes for its LS50 loudspeakers.

The new finishes are Racing Red, Titanium Grey and Frosted Black, all of which enhance the appeal of what must be one of the most well received small loudspeakers. The LS50 was designed to celebrate KEF’s 50th anniversary, and was conceived as a ‘mini monitor’ derived from the legendary LS3/5a, to bring professional studio monitor performance into the home.

The three new finishes are designed to enable the LS50s to be compatible with a wide range of contemporary interior designs. This ensures the LS50s are capable of being a harmonious and attractive presence in any home environment, enhancing the décor of the consumer’s home just as they improve the sound of music playback.

The new Frosted Black version utilises a cool matte finish and KEF’s striking signature blue cone, also used on the white finish, while the Racing Red finish is designed to complement bold and dramatic interior designs. The Titanium Grey finish uses a copper cone, based on the driver designed for KEF’s Reference Series loudspeakers.

All three new finishes use intricately layered textures between the cabinet, baffle, cone and driver surround, to extend and fulfill the aesthetic promise of the LS50s’ original design philosophy.

Availability: November 2015 Price: £800.00 (pair)

Lithuanian loudspeaker maker Audio Solutions has been in touch with Hifi Pig to tell readers all about their newest speaker line which is called Overture.

Overture consists of five different speakers and creates whole line including a centre speaker model, one bookshelf and three floorstanders.
Audio Slutions have developed special type of protective grill which they say will not distort sound and  whereas typical grilles have frames their grilles are of a completely different type. Each speaker comes with two detachable front panels which is identical with one of the panels being covered with protective cloth. “This way you get exactly the same sound, tonal balance and clarity with or without grilles” says the company’s representative.

The tweeter on the Overture range of loudspeakers is loaded with a mini horn to raise sensitivity in critical region and unload the tweeter itself which they say lowers THD very efficiently.

Overture comes a variety of finishes. A lot of gloss finishes, never seen before textured gloss finishes, classic oak finishes and high gloss, natural, exotic wood finishes. In addition they use a special coating which is scratch-resistant.

Prices are:

O201C 660Eur
O202B 800Eur
O203F 1880Eur
O204F 2330Eur
O205F 2790Eur

Hifi Pig was invited to visit French loudspeaker manufacturer Triangle at their offices in Bordeaux, but first of all who are Triangle and what is the history behind the brand?

A Brief History Of The Brand

Triangle was initially founded in 1980 by Renaud de Vergnette in 1980 and launched their first loudspeaker the 1180. In 1981 they introduced the CX2 which was the first Triangle design to mount the tweeter on top of the cabinet and by 1985 they were producing their own drivers which remain the company’s trademark to this day.

By 1990 Triangle introduced a new loudspeaker, the Altair, which was the first loudspeaker to incorporate a curved cabinet, something that has become all but an industry standard in modern loudspeakers.

The very first Esprit range was introduced in 1994 with the Antal TZX and these names have remained with Triangle ever since. Indeed the Antal was this listeners first introduction to the Triangle sound.

Triangle’s flagship Magellan loudspeaker was announced in 2003 introducing new technologies which the company have since trickled down into other ranges in their portfolio.

The Decelle family (Olivier Decelle) purchased Triangle in 2006 and began to reorganise the company. By 2009 Triangle had opened purpose built R&D facilities which were separated between mechanical and acoustic research and development. The facilities include CLIO software, 3D print capability and an anechoic chamber.

To celebrate its 30th anniversary Triangle introduced the Anniversary range in 2010 and later, in 2011, the Color range was introduced combining a modern design with vibrant finishes.

The Signature range of loudspeakers was introduced in 2013 as was the new sales and marketing offices in Bordeaux.

The Triangle Esprit EZ series of speakers was launched to the public in 2014.

Triangle’s Philosophy

The team we met at the Bordeaux offices was young, vibrant and as well as having a good deal of experience in the audio industry. Above all they are passionate about their product and where it is going in the marketplace. Production of loudspeakers remains in the Northern French town of Soissons but sales and marketing is located in Bordeaux, the wine capital of the World, as the Decelle family are heavily involved in the wine industry – as you’ll read later.

Keen to promote the Made in France aspect of their loudspeakers both the Signature and Magellan series of loudspeakers are made exclusively at the Soissons facility, whilst Triangle continue to develop their own drivers.

Currently Triangle is sold in around 40 countries around the world with France being the biggest market. Rune Jacobson (pictured below) is charged with developing the brand’s presence around the world and this multilingual Danish national certainly knows a thing or two about the industry.

One of the trademarks of Triangle loudspeakers is the use of horn-loaded tweeters which are developed by Triangle for Triangle and this remains an important part of the business, with triangle selling OEM drivers to a good number of other loudspeaker manufacturers. The tweeter horn is 100% injected aluminium with different solutions and materials being used on the more expensive models, but all maintaining the core technology and philosophy.

Triangle’s midrange driver is a new design with the 185cm aluminium basket being designed to offer improved ventilation for the double-layered voicecoil. This paper coned driver is equipped with a small pleat peripheral short travel suspension with newer versions using a specially treated paper. Triangle have replaced the phase plug on earlier models with a dust cap made to an identical size and shape.

Whilst we did not visit the Soissons facility Triangle say they have undertaken a complete review of their manufacturing process and now engineers work very closely with the people who put the loudspeakers together with several acoustic tests being carried out throughout the process to ensure each element of the loudspeaker’s make up meets Triangle’s strict standards.

Speakers are finally tested in the company’s anechoic chamber with veneers later being carefully selected to produce a matched pair of loudspeakers. At the time of writing (2014) Triangle has four series of loudspeakers in their portfolio: Color, Esprit, Signature and the range topping Magellan which we got to listen to at the Jean Faure Chateau in St Emilion and owned by the Decelle family.

Triangle is headed up by its CEO Marc Le Bihan with Olivier Decelle being both a major shareholder and his son Hugo Decelle (pictured below) involved in marketing the brand. Rune Jacobson and Nicolas Serra deal with the international sales and marketing, whilst Sebastien Miguel heads up the R & D team.

The Visit

When we were invited to visit Triangle my first thought was what a great opportunity this was. I’d heard the company’s speakers a couple of times at shows on the end of valve amplification and had always been impressed with their open and fast sound. We’d expected to have been invited to make the journey east to the Northern French town of Soissons where they have their factory and R & D facilities and it came as a bit of a shock when we were asked to join them in Bordeaux. Thinking now about the people behind the company, Bordeaux shouldn’t have been such a surprise as the Decelle family are heavily involved in the wine industry, owning a total of five vineyards around France, including the Jean Faure chateau in St Emilion which has recently been awarded “Grand Cru” status…but more about that later.

Triangle’s offices in Bordeaux are the main administrative offices where the company’s sales and marketing team are based as well as its web designers etc. The offices have been stunningly transformed from an old wine shipping building into a modern and spacious environment that seems perfect for this young team of professionals to operate from. Speaking to Hugo Decelle he tells us they plan to open up the ground floor space (which still houses the huge wine vats) to host evenings of music where people will have a chance to hear Triangle’s loudspeakers in informal and relaxed surrounding.

Our hosts for the duration of our stay were the aforementioned Hugo Decelle and Rune Jacobsen who were keen to discuss Triangle’s plans for the future as well as the philosophy behind the brand. Hugo is the son of major shareholder in the company Olivier Decelle and takes care of marketing for the company, whilst Rune is in charge of international sales and marketing and getting the brand better recognised around the world. Hugo studied business management at university with him spending a year in Hull at the university there.

Olivier Decelle, who we will meet later, has an interesting background in hifi and has involvement with Triangle from the very outset of the company. In 1980 he became the very first retailer for the model 1180 loudspeaker when he had a hifi shop on rue Saint Jacques in Paris. In 1995 he became a minority shareholder in the business whilst the company was reorganising itself and positioning itself as one of the three top brands in France. Indeed, if you go into any of the large retailers in France (Boulanger for example) you will find Triangle sat beside Focal and Cabasse. There’s an inclusivity apparent with the brand and, despite having the mega-bucks Magellan in their range, there is also ranges that are much more affordable and that will have appeal not only to the dedicated audiophile, but also for the more casual music lover.

When in 2006 Triangles’ original founder Renaud de Vegnettes left the business, Olivier, with the help of Marc le Bihan (the company’s CEO), took over control of Triangle both modernizing and consolidating the brand, whilst maintaining its core values and philosophy.

Rune Jacobson also has a strong background in hifi with him having bought his first hifi at the age of fourteen and later working part time in a hifi shop and becoming export manager for Italian brand Pathos. He’s worked in pro-audio with TC Group and speaks far too many languages than is good for one person. Interestingly Rune’s degree is not related to hifi or audio in any way and is actually in wine production and so the move to Triangle, given the Decelles’ other interests, is somewhat natural. What is clear from speaking with Rune and Hugo is that their passion and belief in the brand is very strong and they also have a very clear vision of where the brand should be. Yes, they are keen to talk about the Magellans and the Signature series of loudspeakers, but they’re also eager to tell us about their affordable and funky Color series too. I like this outlook a good deal and think it is to be applauded.

Of course many readers of this article will have invested thousands upon thousands in their music play back system, but it remains that there are a vast majority of folk out there who want a simple hifi that allows them to enjoy their music or films in great quality and without having to spend a king’s ransom… or have something in their sitting room that just takes over.

At the heart of Triangle’s philosophy it is clear that their starting point is always their own drivers and trademark horn tweeter. It’s also evident that they want to keep a family sound with all their products. They’re investing heavily in R & D and Rune is keen to have the brand better represented in the UK marketplace and I believe it deserves a higher profile than it currently has (Triangle’s distribution is now handled by Audio Emotion).

As we wrap up our chat in the Bordeaux office it’s nearing lunchtime and if you’ve ever been to France you’ll know that everything stops for this ritual and having lived here for nice years it’s one we’ve taken on wholeheartedly. We jump in our car and follow Hugo and Rune to make the half hour or so trip to St Emilion where we eat a great meal and then head up to the Decelles family home, Chateau Jean Faure.

Now this is an impressive place! The chateau has been transformed from a virtual ruin into a beautiful family home with a working vineyard that Olivier Decelle is keen to tell us has gone a good way to them being awarded Grand Cru for their chateau.

After a brief look around the very impressive wine making facilities of the chateau we are invited to a tasting (we can confirm that Chateau Jen Faure is a truly delicious glass) and then we take our refilled glasses into the living room of the Decelles to listen to some music via some rather impressive Audio Research amplification, Krell CD player and, of course, Triangle’s range topping, €56K Magellan Grande Concert loudspeakers.

The Magellans are an imposing loudspeaker with a total of eight drivers (four bass drivers and one of each mid-range and tweeters mounted both on the front baffle and on the back panel). It’s a three-way loudspeaker that is 91dB sensitive and a claimed frequency range of 28Hz to 20KHz. Their nominal impedence is 4 Ohms, each one weighs 100Kg and they stand 2.15m in height. Ok this is a large and high room and not all rooms could reasonably accommodate the Magellans, but in this setting they do not look overly out of place and blend into the beautiful décor pretty well.

We spend an hour or so listening to a wide range of music through this system and despite being in unfamiliar surroundings we were able to get a reasonable measure of the speaker’s main attributes. The first thing we noted was that there’s a really wide sweet-spot being thrown and so, despite neither of us being bang centre, we were both able to enjoy an striking stereo image and deep, deep soundstage. There’s good dynamics, as you would expect, with great detail being evident even in quieter passages and whilst the Magellans certainly sound like big loudspeakers, they are still somewhat sweet and delicate sounding in a not at all “in your face” style – indeed one of the notes I made reads “natural and unforced – shut your eyes and forget that the speakers are there”.

Listening to a Danish female vocalist it’s very easy to spot the slight Danish twang in her voice and the guitar on Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is as natural sounding as I’ve heard. There’s a feeling with the Magellans that no one frequency is being over dominant and what you are left with is a very detailed and relaxed sound that, had we time, I’d have happily spent hours in front of. Needless to say the finish on these loudspeakers is of a very high quality and they really do ooze style and sophistication that is enhanced somewhat by our surroundings. But then, as I mentioned, Triangle aren’t just about these high-end loudspeakers and having heard the €6K Signature Alphas in our own home I can confidently say that there is certainly a family sound with Triangle speakers at all price ranges.

Linette and I would like to extend a huge thank you to the folks at Triangle and particularly Hugo and rune for looking after us and making us feel so welcomed. Thanks also to Olivier and Madame Decelle for inviting us into their wonderful home and being so welcoming.

Ian Ringstead comes over a bit Austin Powers when he gives the British made Ophidian Mojo loudspeakers, which cost £995, a listen.

Having recently reviewed the Minimos, the babies of the M series range I am now focussing my attention on the middle model, the Mojo. This differs from the Minimo in having two bass/mid units and the tweeters are offset in mirror image to allow positioning them either to the inside of the speaker or outside depending on taste.

The Mojo is a compact 2-way loudspeaker designed for use either as a stand mount speaker or alternatively wall mounted. Utilising dual mid-bass units in a close coupled array and the unique Aeroflex port system, it is capable of producing a truly room filling sound. Dual 3.5″ bass/mid units utilise lightweight and stiff aluminium diaphragms, balanced neodymium magnet motor systems and long throw rubber surrounds.

Aeroflex technology enables this highly compact speaker to produce deep and precisely controlled bass by keeping port velocity to a minimum and ensuring the drive units are properly supported throughout their stroke. By building the port systems directly into the cabinet structure the outer walls are braced and strengthened minimising panel resonances. High frequencies are produced by a 27mm tweeter with a Sonolex coated fabric diaphragm and low distortion neodymium motor system closely coupled between the bass/mid units

I won’t go into the Aeroflex technology as I discussed this in the previous review other than to say it is used to great effect again to control the airflow inside the Mojo cabinet. Being a bigger cabinet and having an extra bass/mid unit means obviously more bass and so a greater room filling capability. At the Cranage show the Minimo’s worked better in the room used on the day but in my living room in much better surroundings the Mojo’s showed their character to far better effect. It was a much punchier sound and although initially not as impressive as the Minimo’s had been, over time they began to grow on me and my wife.

SOUND

I experimented with the tweeters both inside and outside of the bass/mid units and although there was a slight difference I didn’t have a particular preference. Others may prefer one position over the other, but like all components this is down to personal tastes. Although the sound wasn’t as airy as the little Minimos, I would say it was more solid and cohesive, having fleshed out the sound. Gareth said he had to experiment with the crossover components and make it more complex in order to get the right sound balance due to the different cabinet interactions of the Mojo’s.

The word Mojo originally means a charm or a spell. But now it’s more commonly meaning is sex appeal… or talent. I remember seeing Austin Power’s many years ago with Mike Myers playing a spoof on the James Bond character in the sixties. In the film he lost his Mojo briefly and so was desperate to regain it. The Ophidian Mojos certainly have talent and appeal and for their size are impressive. Again they can take power without sounding strained and reproduce all types of music successfully, especially in the standard UK living room where space is at a premium. I listened to Capercaille’s live album (a current favourite) and was rewarded with the rich acoustic setting of the live venue. All the little clues were there in abundance to the live recording and there was a good sense of depth which aided the illusion of space in the arena.

I tried Ed Sheeran’s latest album X which has some excellent songs on it and it was most enjoyable to hear this talented artist singing about experiences I am sure he has gone through, of angst and of love.

A characteristic of all the M series speakers is that they don’t sound flustered and get on with the job of reproducing music like an experienced professional. The Aeroflex technology really does pay off here and makes them work more easily with awkward rooms I reckon than a lot of other designs. I’d like to try some room acoustic treatments sometime to see how they affect my living room’s sound such as bass traps or sound deadening panels (Review on these coming soon – Ed).

In contrast to the Minimo which had less airflow output from the rear port, the Mojos produce more airflow, so I wonder if this had an effect on its sound characteristic in my living room. I can’t move the speakers too far forward into the room for practical reasons, so maybe some form of dampening behind them might alter the sound. Anyhow they still worked well in my room which is quite well damped, without being dead acoustically and there was plenty of headroom.

CONCLUSION

The speakers I had were in the walnut veneer finish and were very well made and would suit a lot of homes aesthetically. I can see the Mojos appealing to people with a taste for heavier/bassier music, or a larger room that requires filling more easily than the Minimo could manage. Gareth James the designer has again done an admirable job of producing a great sounding, smaller speaker to suit most tastes. My wife and I both love the Mojos and Minimos and it would be a hard choice as to which one we would keep. They both have real plus points. I will be trying the largest model the Mambo at some point in the near future, which will be interesting to say the least. The extra bass and scale they can produce may tip the balance in their favour, or perhaps be too much for my room. Watch this space….

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review Austin Power’s lost his Mojo for a while. Well having lived with the Ophidian Mojos for a couple of weeks I think Austin would have been pleased to say he had regained his. They certainly have appeal and a magic about them well worth seeking a dealer out for in order to audition them or the other models in the range.

As Austin Power’s stock phrase in the films was “Yeh baby”, these babies are too cute to ignore. You never know you might just regain your mojo.

Build Quality: 8.5/10 

Sound Quality: 9.0/10 

Value for money: 8.8/10 

Overall: 8.76/10 

Ian Ringstead

The original Leema Xen was initially designed as a “cost no object” nearfield monitor for use in studios and the like, but then it was embraced somewhat by those in audiophile circles. Stuart Smith takes a listen to this diminutive £1295 loudspeaker that hails from Wales.

Each speaker is a tiny little thing measuring just 21cm x  14cm x  20cm (HWD) and has a volume of just five litres. There’s a 10cm woofer and a soft dome tweeter coupled with a pair of front firing ports and the whole package looks tremendously well put together, feeling solid and weighty enough. The knock test suggests the cabs are far from absolutely dead and this is to be expected as they are thin walled, but they don’t sound overly hollow, ringy or empty. The cabinet is made from 1.2mm steel sheet then lined with a bitumastic material and then lambs wool. 

Down each side of the speaker is a large bolt in the cabinet which I assume is to add a degree of rigidity. Round the back you’ve got two pairs of speaker binding posts on a plate that covers the whole of the back of the speaker and this is bolted onto the main chassis. On this plate is also a frequency response graph showing that the little Xens roll off at 57 Hz (-3dB – (the website says -6dB)) and go all the way up to 25kHz. They are quoted as being 85dB efficient and have an impedence of 6 Ohms. The website says that the efficiency is “good” but you will need to have a power amp capable of delivering a decent amount of welly to the Xens to get them singing as they should…flea power valve amps need not apply.  

SOUND 

They look pretty cool I reckon in a stealth-black kind of way and I had them perched on 70cm stands which brought the tweeter perfectly to ear height in my listening position…there are no grills supplied or available but I rarely use speakers with grills on anyway. I had the speakers in our large listening room and I genuinely thought they would be lost in this space, but I was very pleasantly surprised indeed. I had them 150cm apart, with me sat 170cm away bang in the middle, with them being well away from both rear and side walls…so sort of nearfieldish to midfieldish positioning. 

Power was supplied by a pair of Merrill Thor Monoblocks fed with a signal direct from the Lampizator Big7 DAC. Speaker cables were from Tellurium Q Ultra Blacks on this occasion, with interconnects and power cables being a mix of Atlas, Vermouth and Chord Company.

As mentioned in the preamble, the Xens were originally designed for nearfield monitoring and I’m very familiar with this kind of speaker, having sat in front of them for years and years in studios. First impressions are that the Xens are typical of the very best of this kind of monitor, with them feeling accurate, balanced and composed. Of course they don’t go super low, but you know what, you don’t always miss trouser flapping bass when the mids are just so “right”. I can see some people reading this and saying “Surely this isn’t Stuart reviewing these, we all know he likes his bass strong and taut” but guess what, with the right kind of program you can get a good deal of enjoyment from these despite he lack of bass. Popping a bit of spoken word on the stereo is a good thing to do when testing speakers and I did this with the Xens where you get a pretty natural sounding voice, without a hint of nasality to it.

The Xens throw a huge stage and whilst they don’t disappear (I think that’s a bit of a hifi cliché anyway) the music does extend beyond the left and right of the speakers, with instruments remaining just where they should in the mix…again just what you would want from a loudspeaker designed for the studio. Imaging is great and you get a real feel for the mix…again just as you would expect! They throw a good image in three dimensions too. 

One of the issues I often have with this kind of loudspeaker designed essentially (or initially) for pro use is that they can sound a bit boring and sterile, but the Xens just don’t. Yes they feel accurate and what not, but you can actually listen to music on them…and enjoy it a good deal into the bargain. They’re not warm and cuddly though, something I hate in a speaker and which to me suggestsg that there is an over exaggeration in the lower-mid/upper-bass frequencies…nope these sound flat and truthful to the source material. I once had a bit of a discussion in the days before I learned to keep away from the dreaded beast that is hifi fora about loudspeakers being flat. Basically the chap I was discussing this suggested that if in room response was flat then the speakers were good. I disagreed and moaned about the crossover adding something to the mix that was audible. Well the Xens are pretty much flat and I don’t reckon that the crossover is doing the majority of the work here…clever design, careful choice of drivers and a crossover that is sympathetic is how I would describe the Xens. 

I said earlier that I fully expected the Xens to get totally lost in our listening room, and if you aren’t sympathetic to their size they sort of can get lost, but set them up as I did (near/midfield) and you will be rewarded handsomely!! The average person buying the Xens isn’t going to be placing them in a huge space anyway and in a normal sized sitting room they will be perfectly fine…and played loudly they are a right laugh and great fun. They certainly give you a great insight into the recording you are listening to (as you’d expect) but they aren’t so over analytical as to be ruthless to the recording you are trying to enjoy, or give you so much information overload that you feel like you are listening out for errors in the recording, rather than sitting back and enjoying the music…this is a fine balancing act to do but the Xens pull it off with aplomb.
The speakers integrate all the frequencies really nicely and are evenhanded, with nothing jumping out and coming to the fore frequency-wise. Again, this is to be expected given they are monitors, if anything there is a little lift at the very top end, but this only serves as to add a little air, space and what not to the tunes. Box speakers are always coloured to a greater or lesser extent and of course there is colouration here too (show me a speaker that isn’t) but it’s not huge and it’s more than livable with. 

I had a bit of a shuffle in my seating position away from the “hotspot” and found that I could still enjoy a very satisfactory stereo image anywhere on the couch and this means that you can sit and listen with your friends too should you be of that bent. 

Of course I need to talk you through a few of the tunes I listened to on the Xens or this review would not be a complete review and so first up we have some jazz-funk/P funk in the guise of Mtume’s “Kiss the World Goodbye”. Here we have lovely crisp hats and that whole flying round your head feel to the top end, and vocals come across as being balanced and correct. Effects (phaser surprise, surprise) on Phase 1 (40 Seconds Dedicated To All Conga Players) sound like they should and when the next tune (Day Of The Reggin) comes in the Xens react quickly and spritely. I suppose this is one of the huge benefits of little, well designed loudspeakers like the Xens – they are fast, nimble and agile. On this kind of music I would have loved to have a bit more of that lovely tight bass (the Xens don’t do much below 60Hz) and this got me thinking as to what these would sound like with a really well integrated sub. Sadly I’ve not got a separate sub, BUT if you could have this pinpoint accuracy and speed of the Xens but with just that extra 20 or so Hertz further down the registers you’d be like the proverbial pig in muck and well pleased with yourself for being so clever and getting these speakers. 

One of the highlights of the Xens for me was female vocals and on the same Mtume album and the track This Is Your World, the woman singer comes in and there’s just none of that ear-cringing-“that’s-bright” reaction that you can sometimes get with some loudspeakers just before the high note that you know is coming…a sort of “oh god this is gonna be horrible” feeling where you squint your eyes and pull your head in a bit…it just doesn’t happen with the Xens at all and they feel composed, unruffled and in control. This isn’t to suggest that the Xens are overly polite or trying to hide things, it’s just they don’t screech and shout at you, if that makes sense. 

CONCLUSION

I really enjoyed these loudspeakers and I can heartily recommend that if you are in the market for a small pair of well made speakers then you should certainly have these on your short list. They cost £1295 which seems a lot for such a diminutive package, but the proof is in the pudding and all that and clearly there has been a lot of research and development that has gone into this cleverly designed loudspeaker. On top of that the Xens from Leema are very nicely made indeed and feel solid and sturdy. Appearance wise they look really cool and because of their size they should find favour in all but the pickiest of homeowners rooms. 

Due to the forward firing port the Xens are easy to locate, with Leema suggesting they will be ok on bookshelves etc. I didn’t try this as it just wasn’t practical but I have no reason to doubt this given the ease with which I positioned them in our room. 

Standout feature to the sonics of the Xens is the lovely even-natured mid-band that integrates beautifully with the upper registers. On the downside bass will be lacking for some, but to be fair to the Xens, in a normally proportioned space, anything lower than 50Hz or so will need taming with room treatment…something just not practical for most people. So here we have a compromise, but it is a sensible compromise that is well thought out and intelligent…don’t have the frequencies there that are going to give you issues and you just won’t have issues! Personally I think the Xens would benefit from an optional and matching sub to fill in the bottom end a little  – built by Leema it would, I’m sure be perfectly integrated and a popular add on. 

Yes, the Xens are going to struggle to an extent I huge spaces, but even here, if you set them up properly and position your listening chair midfield you should have little to moan about.

As always the question is always “Could I live with them” and the response here is a definite yes…with a caveat – I prefer my big horns and subs of course in our main listening space, but if I was to add a second system, say in the bedroom or in our television/lounge area which is more of a normal size, then I’d snap these up in an instant. In fact I did snap them up and I’ll be using them as our reference for mid priced kit reviews. 

Sound Quality: 8.85/10 

Build Quality: 8.75/10 

Value for money: 8.65/10 

Overall: 8.75/10

Pros: 

Beautifully balanced yet revealing

Easy to position

Solid build and decent finish

Fast and responsive

Cons:  

Bass will be lacking for some

Stuart Smith

Designer’s Notes

Both Mallory and I were very early adopters of surround sound at home, way before Dolby stereo decoders for home use were widely available…..I was after all a TV and Cinema sound mixer in my proper job.

I purchased a very expensive  VHS machine which featured Nicam…and more importantly……adjustable tracking……in the late eighties…it cost about £1000…sounds like a lot of money now, but in 1985 I bought my first flat…in Earls Court London…for £25,000 (probably worth about a million now….oh the joys of separation :-) So back then it was the price of a decent car.

The important thing is that I could access the HiFi track encoded in the picture and adjust the tracking to get rid of the horrible chopping sound that resulted from poor line up.

The HiFi track on pre-recorded VHS tapes was usually encoded in Dolby Stereo (a two channel phase encoded surround system).

Dolby stereo is loosely based on the Hafler principle so I wired my living room system with a stereo amplifier and four speakers connected in a Hafler network (see below from Everyday Electronics 1975.

This worked spectacularly well

No discrete centre, but with a decent set of speakers, the phantom centre image was more than adequate.

I used this system for quite a while, but then two things happened which forced me to change:-

1. I got married.
2. I suddenly noticed three little girls running around the house who all insisted on calling me daddy! …don’t remember ordering them but there you are.

Now I should explain that the front speakers were a pair of transmission line four way monitors that my Father and I built in the 70’s from an article in HiFi answers magazine…only my father made them bigger because he said “they” had got the maths wrong for the line! May seem a funny thing to say but my father turned down Mensa membership because they were “all too stupid”. He was probably right.

Consequently they sounded great but were less than domestically friendly…about 6 feet tall, 18 inches wide and 2 feet deep….solid mahogany…they are probably living on as someone’s dining table even now.

Following some fairly exhaustive discussions with the current Mrs T, we decided (Ahem….the Royal we) to downsize the speakers so she could actually get some furniture in.

So… what to use instead…despite what you may have heard, the mid to late nineties were not a great period for loudspeakers….if you wanted something neutral and monitor like.

Mallory and I decided the only thing to do was build our own…and just to make it “interesting” the new speaker would have a maximum volume of 5 litres, thin wall cabinet construction and would comply with BBC grade 2 monitor spec (plus or minus 2dB max with limited low frequency capability). Sounds quite straightforward but it proved to be anything but.

We really wanted the new speaker to work on its own, with sufficient bass output to make the use of a subwoofer optional.

The thing is that most loudspeaker drive units want lots of volume to make bass. The technical parameters for small box driver units are very specific and hard to achieve.

We originally designed the Xen (as it came to be known) as an isobaric using two Audax paper drivers…which they handily discontinued just as we were going to make the first set!

So the search was on for a replacement…we tried dozens, if not hundreds of drive units from many manufacturers and most simply did not perform correctly….in fact we ended up writing a suite of software tools ourselves to aid in the design because most of the information out there was too course, with significant rounding errors, in fact it made it very clear that much commercial loudspeaker design at that time was a combination of maths and “suck it and see”.

The only company that understood what we were trying to do were Seas in Norway, who came to the rescue with a terrific driver…perfect parameters, good linear cone excursion, excellent power handling and….very important in those pre-flat screen times…they could make it magnetically screened!

So the Xen was completely redesigned around the new driver.

The Seas drive unit had a resonant frequency of 57Hz which is very low for a four inch diameter unit. This made the ports difficult to squeeze in to the box because they are 10 inches long….bigger than the longest dimension of the cabinet. So they had to be made with a bend part way down.

Two ports were used to avoid port noise. It is important to keep the velocity of the column of air in the port below 0.1 mach (the speed of sound) otherwise it behaves as a solid and generates noise of its own…usually heard as chuffing or distortion.

Also, inadequate porting leads to compression because too much friction is produced so the air cannot move easily.

The cabinet is formed from 1.2mm steel sheet then lined with a bitumastic material from the automotive industry to damp resonance.

The cabinet is then lined with sheep’s wool. We tried all the artificial alternatives but none worked as well as sheep’s wool. Ironically, despite the fact I stare out of my office window at fields full of Wales’s finest sheep, we had to import it from Germany.

The tweeter is a very sweet soft dome with Ferrofluid damping and a Neodimium magnet.

The crossover design is somewhat over engineered…but the Xens were designed as a pro monitor and high power handling and no power compression in the crossover is an absolute requirement, so it’s air cored inductors and large ceramic power resistors all the way.

So, in what way is the new Xen different to the old Xen?

Well the simple answer is “not a lot”.

Sadly, Seas had discontinued production of the original bass driver so we had to design our own replacement…which gave us an opportunity to engineer out a slight midrange hump in the original design, making the presentation of the new Xen a little more neutral and easy to listen too…otherwise, the new Xen has all the attributes of the old…including the 14 bolts on the front holding the baffle on…The Xen was never designed to have a grill and attracted a fair bit of criticism in its early days…but somehow, a more industrial approach to design seems to be more acceptable now…or maybe we have all just got used to the look

So what started out as a project to maintain domestic harmony ended up as one of the last truly British HiFi companies, making several ranges of electronics, speakers, cables etc.

Lee Taylor

The original Leema Xen was initially designed as a “cost no object” nearfield monitor for use in studios and the like, but then it was embraced somewhat by those in audiophile circles. Stuart Smith takes a listen to this diminutive £1295 loudspeaker that hails from Wales.

“As mentioned in the preamble, the Xens were originally designed for nearfield monitoring and I’m very familiar with this kind of speaker, having sat in front of them for years and years in studios. First impressions are that the Xens are typical of the very best of this kind of monitor, with them feeling accurate, balanced and composed. Of course they don’t go super low, but you know what, you don’t always miss trouser flapping bass when the mids are just so “right”.”

Read the full Review

The DX-1SE replaces the DX-1 HCP. The new package sports a number of improvements, including fine-tuned drivers, increased efficiency and redesigned cabinets with larger internal volumes. The result is improved bass response, more detail and “greater sonic scale”.

Each DX-1SE Satellite sports a 19mm silk dome tweeter and 75mm mid/bass driver with a woven polypropylene cone. The enclosure is an infinite baffle (closed-box) design, which aids the speakers’ ability to be sited in close proximity to a wall without adversely affecting their performance.

The DX-1 Centre incorporates the same silk dome tweeter flanked by two 75mm mid/bass drivers. Its design includes a sophisticated aperiodic loading system consisting of a vent that is filled with resistive porous foam to control airflow.

The matching WH-D8 active subwoofer combines a 200mm long-throw bass cone with a 120W amplifier in extremely compact unit –328x268x322mm (HxWxD). It also sports an ‘auto-power’ facility, automatically switching out of standby when a signal is sensed and back again when it stops.

Available in high-gloss black or high-gloss white, the DX-1SE 5.1 speaker package delivers smart, space- saving contemporary style and which Wharfedale say is fast, punchy and detailed, with a sense of scale that belies the diminutive size of the speakers.

“In the UK and around the world, there is high demand for compact 5.1 speaker systems that combine crisp, modern aesthetics with high-quality sound,” says Peter Comeau, Director of Acoustic Design for Wharfedale’s parent company IAG. “In the DX-1SE we have incorporated elements from Wharfedale’s award-winning Diamond speakers to deliver a high-value package that is not only a delight in the home, but also extremely enjoyable to listen to. Modern movie soundtracks are exceptionally demanding, but we’ve made sure that this package is tailor-made for the job.”

The Wharfedale DX-1SE 5.1 home cinema speaker package is available from December at an RRP of £399.95. An optional satellite expansion pack is also coming soon, ideal for those seeking to expand the 5.1 package to a 7.1 configuration.

French loudspeaker maker Triangle have announced a gaggle of subwoofers which the company says successfully blend performance and compactness.

Thetis & Tales subwoofers feature 21 and 25cm drivers, with long throw enabling a frequency response as low as 25Hz. The cabinets have been specially designed in order to remove vibrations and avoid distortion.

The subwoofers are equipped with class D amplifiers of 150 to 250 RMS (400W peak) for a deep and tight low register rarely seen in such compact subwoofers. The stereo RCA inputs enable you to adjust the crossover on your subwoofer with a frequency roll-off ranging from 30Hz to 120Hz for an optimal balance of your system.

The Thetis series also offer an LFE input leaving the crossover function to your home-theatre amplifier, as well as high-level inputs for amplifiers with no “subwoofer” output. The subwoofers include the following features: volume control, cut-off frequency, phase switch and automatic standby. The Thetis models feature an LED display indicating the sound level and all is controlled via the remote.

THETIS 320

The Thetis 320 subwoofer has a closed cabinet, equipped with an 10” driver with half roll suspension. In order to reduce vibrations, the cabinet has been carefully designed with ingeniously placed internal reinforcements.

Equipped with a class D amplifier of 250-watt RMS and 400 watt peak power it also features a remote control and a sound level indicator on the front panel so you can adjust the subwoofer.

THETIS 280

The Thetis 280 subwoofer also has a closed cabinet but is equipped with an 8.25” driver with half roll suspension and with a class D amplifier of 150-watt RMS and 250 watt peak power.

TALES 340

Tales 340 offers a reasonably priced subwoofer with “great performance improving your system in terms of punch and dynamics”. This subwoofer is equipped with a 10” driver with half roll suspension and a class D amplifier of 200-watt RMS (350-watt peak power). 

The MunroSonic EGG150 is a £2000 active monitoring system with a twist. Dan Worth takes a listen to this egg shaped speaker and tells us if it’s all it’s cracked up to be. 

Many have chosen to abandon the typical box shaped loudspeaker enclosure for one of a more curved profile, aligning drivers and chassis to eliminate standing waves and cabinet interactions, aiming for as inert an enclosure as possible whilst pushing technical craftsmanship and machining to their limits in order to sculpt a design which intrigues the eye, is domestically acceptable and most importantly sonically superior.

The ‘egg’ style design has been implemented by several companies over the years and I have heard many of them. However the shape has been mainly used for speakers who’s frequency ranges are higher than the typical ‘full range’ box design, leaving bass duties to a matching subwoofer.

MunroSonic a British company have created an active speaker design which provides a frequency response from an egg shaped speaker that is so life like I wanted to get a giant spoon and break the shell.

I believed, when I was aware of the potential for the review that as the EGG150s were active and deemed as a ‘monitoring’ speaker that they would naturally have two amps and crossovers installed into the perfectly scaled up egg enclosures and as people know I prefer to go into a review blind without any preconceived ideas or website information of any product, soI was indeed surprised to open a box hitch revealed unexpected contents.

When I unpacked them I was very intrigued to see the speakers accompanied by a control amplifier. Not a control amplifier as you would imagine for preamp duties, but rather a full integrated type.

The amplifier design incorporates all the electronics required to power the EGG150s with a crossover upfront adjusted by small screw trim pots for high and low frequencies and a midband equalisation to emulate either hifi or monitoring type frequencies. Four individual amplifiers rated at 50wpc with 100w of headroom powered by a large toroidal transformer power the passive eggs.

The amplifiers main input is via  balanced XLR and an AUX RCA input allows for other front end devices such as CD players and streamers to be connected. Each of the two inputs have there own volume control. Speaker outputs are via speakon sockets and a 3m pair of cables are supplied. To top things off MunroSonic have graciously installed a Class A headphone amplifier.

It’s not really thought of that often for pro audio gear and hifi to merge into each other’s environments. Manufacturers such as ATC can and do align their ranges with each type. For me, a long term user of active speakers, although I have greatly enjoyed many, I have also had some absolute horrors. I like a warmer and bouncier type sound from a typical monitoring speaker such as the Kevlar drivers of a KRK, but I also like the definition and reveal of say a Focal or ATC for instance. To be able to obtain the best of a monitoring speaker’s attributes and convert it into an everyday listener is no mean feat, so I approach this review with an open mind and intrigue.

The enclosures or monocoques of the EGG150s are pretty solid to a knuckle wrap, although I do not like their plasticky finish. It strikes me every time I look at them that they really are a scaled replica of an actual egg! There have been very similar designs but these are just uncanny. In order to seat the EGGs on any surface and to keep their downward firing port free and open the units come with rubber ‘Nests’ which allow the user to move the speakers up, down, left and right for perfect placement and a small LED above each tweeter (which can be switched off) allows the listener to align the sweet spot easily.

Setup in my listening space was on a pair of speaker stands in my main listening area with the EGG150s seated in their nests, ever so slightly angled back, about 6 feet apart, the smallest amount of toe in and my listening position placed at around 7′-8’away.

THE SOUND

On switch on for the first time I could hear buzzing coming through both drivers which I wasn’t prepared for and I back-tracked through the whole system before determining that this was 100% down to the review equipment. It was barely audible from my listening position but as soon as I moved closer to the speakers I could clearly hear it.

Playing music even at low levels masked the irritant and during the first few tracks played I knew I had to tailor the crossovers to open up the sound as it was very coloured out of the box with the trim pots set to full. It didn’t really make for a great first impression with me I’m afraid.

After trimming for my room and my tastes was accomplished, further listening tests were really beginning to prove that after some burn in time these speakers will have fantastic potential, with a warmth that slightly underlined a good transparent and neutral sound.

I often begin to listen to a speaker with a range of pop music, there’s usually so much going on in this type of music that any pros and cons quickly emerge, which I can then investigate further. On this occasion I found the top end to be simply stunning, a real nice handful of refinement and revealing detail and with some intent listening I found the ‘Hifi’ setting on the midrange pot to offer a far more open sound which gave more insight and emotion, where as going back a notch to ‘Reference’ and back again to ‘NS10′ made the sound progressively more compressed or closed in.

I listened to Loreena McKennits ‘Mask and the Mirror’ album and my findings were backed up when Loreena’s exquisite vocal went from pure and openly projected to a more monochrome sense to its display. Her vocal was more singled out on the pro settings and would be great for analysis, but for playback in a hifi sense, which is really the main concern here for review, the ‘Hifi’ settings was far superior.

Damien Rice’s ‘Older Chests’ allowed me to tune in to the upper bass particularly and also discern the transducers extension. The colouration I mentioned earlier was still apparent and although never overwhelming I would say that upper bass notes had a small hump which sometimes clouded notes had a link to lower mids which gave a richness especially to male vocalists such as Rice. Bass extension was light and very rolled off which I believe, especially in my room (regardless of the low frequency trim) allowed for this upper bass colouration to have more prominence.

Dance and R&B proved to be a real treat, whatever these speakers do to some music to cause any quarrels in my mind made them addictive in these genres and even with some nastier more forward recordings, a slight adjustment to reference or NS10 levels calmed any in your face hardness and still maintained excellent pace and rhythm, with micro details becoming the true star of the show.

Dynamically the EGG150s can also be a little confusing. Where the top end sores with all the control of a butchers knife the upper bass hump can over shadow the purity of the midrange in some instances, yet in others enhance mediocre recordings. The speakers, for me are screaming out for more clarity in this area, revealing more rather than clouding the sound which is something I thought I’d never say about a pro speaker, most warrant criticism for being way too analytical here.

There’s no denying that the EGG150s are a very musical speaker and criticisms although tough are based on my experience with many other active speakers and the ones I currently own which offer qualities I just don’t think the Munros posses and for me it’s aligned with the mid/bass driver and the use of the rubber nests, as when a friend held one up in the air the colouration minimised to a very nice level that with the correct stands and supports would transform this speaker from good to great and match its top end beautifully.

CONCLUSION

The EGG150 active speaker system migrates from the pro audio arena to in home hifi exceptionally well, but I would also like to see the guys at MunroSonic adapt the setup to a completely passive design with passive crossovers and a more premium finish to rival the likes of say the Kef LS50’s or even ATC’s SCM standmounts with complimentary stands.

The EGG150s provide a solid integration into the listening space and combine a truthfulness that converts intricate detail retrieval into a good all round listening experience.

When talking with our editor Stu about these he remarked ‘ if you can find pro audio gear that really suits the listening space of the home user, he or she can really obtain fantastic value for money.’ I agree, wholeheartedly and the MunroSonic EGG150s are a new breed of setup that can do just this and with a few little tweaks for the ‘hifi’ user (which is very different from a pro user) I can see these being a winner.

Price at time of review – £2000

Build Quality – 8.0/10
Sound Quality – 8.0/10
Value for Money – 8.6/10
Overall – 8.2/10

Pros:
Adaptable to environment
Detailed hearty sound
Great flexibility compared to standard actives

Cons:
Premium finish desired for the hifi enthusiast
Nest stands look bad and add colour to the sound
No dedicated floor stands 

Dan Worth

Martin Logan make the fabulous (and massive) Neolith electrostatic loudspeaker and it is electrostatics they are best known for, but they also produce a wide range of smaller and more accessible loudspeakers and here Dan Worth takes a listen to the company’s £899 Motion 15 standmounter.

When I was offered a pair of Martin Logan speakers for review I thought great! Now I need to just assemble a team of lumps to help me get them up the stairs to my place. So when I actually realised that I was to receive a pair from their Motion range I knew my back was not going to be in harms way.

The set of Motion 15s I received had already done their rounds and were subsequently ready for the review process, so I can’t convey any burning in period.

The pair I had in for review were in a black lacquer and looked very nice indeed (white and deep cherry-red (pictured) lacquered finishes are also available).

A folded ‘Motion’ ribbon tweeter looks great adorning the upper section of the 15’s front baffle and the 5.25″ aluminium mid/bass driver with its bullet dust cap/phase plug compliments a very sleek and pleasing on the eye design. Binding posts are of the wing nut variety making connection using spades or bare wire an easy affair allowing for great clamping and grip of the speaker cable ends, 4mm plugs are also accepted.

The Motion 15 are of a diminutive size, just about sitting on my stand’s top plate fully. Measuring 173 x 290 x 242mm and weighing in at 5.4kg each their 92db sensitivity is rated at 5ohms but ML state that they are fully compatible with 4ohm and 8ohm amplifiers rated between 20-200wpc.

The 15s are rear ported for extended bass response which can of course be a hindrance sometimes regarding placement. I didn’t feel as if they really suffered from being close to the front wall and moving them about a bit didn’t really affect the overall performance much, apart from having them right up against the wall of course which is great as smaller speakers will often be used in all sorts of situations from bookshelves to desks to stands.

SOUND

The first track up on my playlist was Fink’s ‘Sort Of Revolution’ – Live version. Slightly after the short intro there is a periodic snare drum, which Dom and I argue about sometimes, he states that the drums dynamic intensity and weight should often be greater than he hears it in my system but I disagree and state that as I have solid walls and floors and his are plasterboard and floorboards that he is hearing a greater heft around this frequency which perceivably adds to the weight of the snare.

The Motion 15s are a small standmounts and therefore will not produce all the bass of a larger speaker, although my room by its very nature gives a tighter bass response I found the MLs to produce a nice rich bass note – the amount of bass they produce and the way they extend was admirable. Yes the crispness of the snare wasn’t as apparent as say the ATC SCM7s or 11s, but the bass weight, detail and flow of the smoother response was more pleasing to my ears with acoustical music and vocals.

Next up was Loreena Mckennit’s ‘The Mask and the Mirror’ album which has a vocal that allows you to sink into your seat and be washed over with pure emotion. The combination of the wonderfully controlled and smooth Motion ribbon with the aluminium mid/bass driver gave a fully intense and natural vocal which has nice inflections and harmonics with great situational awareness.

I didn’t expect Pop or Dance music to be a correct match for these speakers after my initial listening tests and I was right. Bass comes over really quite thin and the speakers become mid to top dominant and this leads to a forwardness. In their favour though, what I was hearing wasn’t ever hard, bright or grainy and it did show that the ribbon has some good speed. The Motion 15s excel so well with natural instruments and vocals that anything heavily manufactured or synthesized just fails to impress. You could simply state that these are voiced for ‘real music’.

I spent a few hours with the likes of Chris Jones, Fink, Derrin Nuendorf, Sean Lakeman, Damien Rice and Ben Harper. Each male vocalist was greeted with a fleshed out lower midrange response that gave the impression that the sound could have been coming from a larger cabinet, although when AB-ing with larger speakers revealed that there was more to be had, it took this process to remind the mind.

So congratulations to Martin Logan for addressing an area of the sound which can be either stark with other smaller footprint standmounts, or over rich in order to compensate for cabinet size.

I was, in my system, happy with soundstage height and front to back staging from the little Logan’s allowing for nice amounts of reverb, conveying spatial awareness and, dependant on recording, I heard many details outside of the speakers boarders across the front of the soundstage.

The combination of all of these areas gives a wonderfully cohesive and involving presentation, a balance which honestly reflects cabinet size yet reaches into the room and grabs the listener’s heart at any volume.

CONCLUSION

I wouldn’t conclude the Martin Logan Motion 15 speakers to be lively and subsequently not a punchy little speaker, but what they do offer is a strong and vibrant well staged sound, with crisp and controlled treble married to a strong stable midrange – for their price and size they do a remarkable job and have a sheer enthusiasm for instruments and vocals rather than punchier electronica.

They won’t ever get caught in a speed trap, but the top-end has great pace and the bottom-end doesn’t lag behind or ever seem slow, balancing nicely for a more natural presentation.

Overall characterisation is slightly smooth, un-offensive and particularly pleasing in a smaller sized room. The design and finish is great and the included grills protect the delicate ribbon from little hands and is also non-offensive or detrimental to the sound.

Build Quality: 9/10

Sound Quality: 8.7/10

Value For Money: 8.7/10 

Overall: 8.8/10

Price at time of review – £899

For:
Great controlled top end
Strong rich vocals
Very natural balanced presentation
Well finished

Against:
Lack a bit of punch
Character doesn’t compliment energetic music 

Dan Worth

The MunroSonic EGG150 is a £2000 active monitoring system with a twist. Dan Worth takes a listen to this egg shaped speaker and tells us if it’s all it’s cracked up to be. 

“There’s no denying that the EGG150s are a very musical speaker and criticisms although tough are based on my experience with many other active speakers and the ones I currently own which offer qualities I just don’t think the Munros posses and for me it’s aligned with the mid/bass driver and the use of the rubber nests, as when a friend held one up in the air the colouration minimised to a very nice level that with the correct stands and supports would transform this speaker from good to great and match its top end beautifully.”

Read the full review of the MunroSonic EGG150 Active Monitoring Loudspeakers here. 

ECLIPSE will be demonstrating its flagship TD series loudspeaker at CES 2016, along with its range-topping subwoofer in a multichannel system that showcases the brand’s ‘accurate sound’ technology.

Visitors to the ECLIPSE suite at the Venetian Tower (suite 25 – 219) will also be able experience the TD-M1 desktop-orientated home audio system, which offers wireless music playback from both Android and iOS devices (via AirPlay). ECLIPSE will also have a number of other key models from its TD series at CES 2015, including: TD510ZMK2/TD510MK2; TD508MK3 and TD307MK2A, plus the TD520SW subwoofer.

The multichannel system will comprise the TD712ZMK2 and TD510ZMK3 speakers, plus the flagship TD725SWMK2 subwoofer. Electronics will be supplied by Onkyo and Pioneer with 2L of Norway supplying Blu-ray Audio content.

French based Cabasse make the renowned Sphère loudspeaker system, but they also produce more modestly priced items.Here Dominic Marsh takes a listen to the Stream 100 amplifier (£499) and Surf loudspeakers (£379)

Cabasse Loudspeakers hail from France and have a long history of quality speaker manufacture, founded by Georges Cabasse in 1950. The Cabasse name goes even further back than that, with generations of the family engaged in building musical instruments since the 1700’s and still in use today with many orchestras, much prized by their musician owners.

CONSTRUCTION

STREAM 100 AMPLIFIER

Weighing in at only 1.9kg, there is nothing lightweight in its performance, with a continuous power rating of 50 watts per channel into an 8 ohms impedance.  It measures some 21cm wide by 22cm deep (including speaker terminals) by 9cm high.  The outer case is fabricated from black gloss Perspex on all sides except the rear panel, along the bottom edge of the Perspex runs a silver coloured alloy strip, inset into which is the front panel USB socket.  To the rear we find the input and output connections, starting with the LAN Ethernet wired connection plus ‘reset’ and WPS  buttons to synchronise the internet connection, a digital data input TOSLINK socket, 2 pairs of RCA analogue inputs, a trio of RCA analogue outputs to a pre-amp and subwoofer, then two banks of four (eight in total) speaker binding posts confusingly labeled 1 to 4.  The left bank of 4 binding posts is devoted to left speaker connections, while the right hand bank corresponds to the right speaker connections.  Unusually too, the positive terminals and the negative terminals are arranged horizontally, so to connect one set of speakers you need to connect to the top pairs of binding posts in the horizontal plane only for left and right accordingly.  A second pair of speakers can then be connected to the lower tier of binding posts in the same sequence, again arranged horizontally.  Note the lack of SPDIF digital input terminal, although there isn’t much space left on the rear panel for such an inclusion.  To the left of the speaker terminals is a small switch which configures the amplifier for either 4 ohm or 8 ohm speakers.  To complete the rear panel layout, we have an IEC power inlet socket without an earth pin which tells us it’s a double insulated device, a mains protection fuse and a small fan.  The Stream 100 is also configured for AptX Bluetooth connection.

Without any power applied, it appears to be a plain black Perspex box with rounded corners and an alloy trim with the Cabbasse legend screen printed onto the alloy strip, but power it up and a backlit display appears.  It is also touch sensitive controlled with all functions available, so if the dog runs off with the remote control and buries it in the garden, you are not hamstrung by having a device that won’t function.  Talking of which, it is an oval or pebble shaped unit that adjusts volume, input selection and mute, which fits neatly in the hand and you have to look twice sometimes to make sure the ‘right’ end is pointed at the amplifier due to its symmetrical shape. 

The Stream 100 amplifier has a retail price at time of review at £499.00.

SURF LOUDSPEAKER

A fairly compact enclosure measuring 29cm high by 17.5cm wide by 22cm deep, with a tweeter measuring  27mm and a long throw 13cm bass driver with a rubber roll surround, the crossover frequency being 3,600Hz, with a frequency response envelope ranging from 65Hz to 23,000Hz.  Power handling is said to be 65 watts continuous with a maximum short term peak of 450 watts so Cabasse say, with a quoted  efficiency of 85dB for 1 watt of input measured at 1 metre on axis.  There is a single pair of binding posts, so is not biwire or biamp capable.   It is a reflex cabinet design with a rear facing port.  Available in either piano gloss black or gloss white finishes, the review pair submitted were finished in black gloss.  A pair of protective perforated metal grilles is supplied, which fits snugly into vertical slotted recesses either side of the front baffle.

SOUND QUALITY

I was rather pleased with the sound right at that first hearing, even knowing that both were factory fresh units and needed some running hours.  The bass in particular was constrained somewhat so I left the pair running for a full 24 hours, by which time the bass cones had loosened up considerably.  My initial listening sessions concentrated on this pair’s sound quality through the RCA analogue inputs, leaving the wireless, Bluetooth and digital inputs until much later.  I noted the top of the case had become slightly warm and although there is a fan fitted to the rear panel I didn’t hear it operating, that is if it activated at all during the listening sessions.

So, connected up to the analogue outputs from my resident CD player, I began by playing my current reference disc, namely Fink’s “Wheels Turn Beneath My Feet” live album.  Track one on this album called “Biscuits For Breakfast” contains plenty of ambience cues from the venue it was recorded in and indeed this track probably has the greater wealth of this attribute than the entire album, each track recorded in different venues.  The Stream/Surf pairing did a pretty good job of relaying that ambience, although there were not unexpected limitations as how far they could scour the last drop of detail that other systems manage – albeit at greater cost, I might add.  Throughout this opening track the drummer gives a pounding rhythmic kick drum that underpins the entire piece and some fine cymbal work with crisp rim shots to the snare drum too, all of which has to sound tonally accurate with spot on timing to be believable and the Stream/Surf pairing gave a good rendition of that.  Moving on to the track “Sort Of Revolution”, the pace quickens and the audience shows plenty of enthusiasm by clapping along with the bass guitarist’s intro, adding whistles and cheers for good measure.  Once again I expect realism in this part of the track and lesser systems tend to blur and smear here, but to their credit the Stream/Surf pairing acquitted themselves well.  Following the intro the drummer sets up a pounding kick drum beat and he really does drive down onto the floor tom which has to be delivered with crisp power and authority by the speaker and amplifier under evaluation here.  A pleasant surprise as they mustered a goodly percentage of the standards I’m expecting during this track and I then became curious which component out of the two was the better performer.

“Go for broke Dominic” I thought to myself and paired the £499.00 Cabasse amplifier with a pair of Audiofilia AF-F6 floorstanders costing 6000 Euros no less.  Much to my surprise, the Cabasse amplifier drove them with absolute ease and produced a clean open sound with some decent heft in the bass registers too.  Top end too was well extended and crisp, with the Audiofilia speakers having a sensitive ribbon tweeter installed, any deficiencies here would soon have been readily highlighted.   Time for the Surf speakers to show what they are made of and in they went into my resident system, mounted on to 60cm stands around 15cm from the rear wall.  Given the size of the enclosures and drivers, they managed to produce a big hearty sound with plenty of drive and dynamics, comparable with speakers from a much higher price bracket.  However, I would liked to have heard just a tad more resolving power and detail resolution at the very top end of the treble registers as I struggled to hear the venue ambience changes in the Fink live album.  OK, I am nit picking here and at their £379.00 price point they performed rather well against their contemporaries in a similar price bracket, so they are worthy contenders for a serious listen in maybe an overly bright sounding system where that slight curtailment in the upper treble could be beneficial.

Fine then with analogue input, so how did the digital evaluation pan out?   Cabasse have their own downloadable software suite which I duly installed on my mobile phone so I could connect to the Stream amplifier both internet wirelessly and via Bluetooth.  The software perpetually told me I had to download the latest version after it had finished installing and that was despite downloading the current version and in the end I just ignored that message.  Apart from that small hiccup, the software worked very well, it was easy to set up and navigate, so for a crusty old reprobate like me it was a small blessing.  Of course my perpetual gripe about battery life with tablets and mobile phones still holds true and my own preference would be to link via internet wirelessly from my PC running Windows rather than a mobile device relying on limited battery power with either Apple iOS or Android operating systems, which of course my PC won’t run.  I cannot be the only person on this planet who wishes to stream wirelessly from either a PC or laptop running Windows surely?  My PC recognizes that these devices are registered on the ‘net, but no software to connect with them to send music to.  There is software that purports to do that available for Windows, but I have yet to manage configuring any of them to work in that role.   Sermon over, I did manage about 90 minutes of music from my mobile phone before the battery expired.

The Stream is equipped with a TOSLINK digital input and my resident CD player has SPDIF output only so apologies for skipping that, nor does it have HDMI or USB connections and that is a hindrance at times.  I do have a convertor box thingy but that isn’t a great performer so decided that was not a worthwhile move.  OK then, a USB cable from my PC to the front panel input on the Stream produced a comparable sound to the analogue input, again a satisfactory result.

CONCLUSION

While the Stream amplifier isn’t the Swiss Army Knife of media players with a plethora of inputs like some of its immediate rivals (notably the Pro-Ject MAIA), it more than makes up for that shortfall in outright sound quality and ease of use.   I particularly liked the touch sensitive front panel controls which means that if the remote control unit stops working or gets lost, at least you have full control of the device’s functions regardless.   It would therefore be wise before purchase to ensure that your source output connections match the input connections available with the Stream, as the convertors available on the market leave a lot to be desired.

On the subject of sound quality, the Stream managed to drive really well a pair of speakers that were well out of its league and capable of showing up any deficiencies the amplifier may have had and the Stream amplifier acquitted itself really well in this respect.  Paired with the Surf speakers they produced a powerful and pleasing sound that I could not really level any criticism at, save a slight rolling off at the extreme top end and I do mean extreme, which shouldn’t perturb the average listener.  A lack of SPDIF RCA digital input should be noted here again though.

The Surf loudspeakers also deserve merit as being very good performers in their own right both for their performance to size ratio and price.

SCORED AS A PAIRING

Build quality: 8.4/10

Sound quality: 8.8/10

Value for money: 8.5/10

Overall: 8.56/10

Pros:

Ease of setup and good sound quality

Front panel touch controls are a welcome feature

Cons:             

No SPDIF digital input.

Dominic Marsh

Estelon celebrates its 5^th anniversary with the launch of a new product “Model YB”

It’s been a successful five years for Estelon the company’s latest press release says. Each year a new model has been introduced to the X Series, leading to numerous awards and recognitions worldwide, the most prominent of which has been the Estelon’s flagship “Extreme” which Hifi Pig was lucky enough to experience at Munich High-End and it is bot extreme and amazing in sound and concept.

Years of research and development have led to a new handmade line of products called “Y Series” which compared to the X Series, represents new design, materials and technologies.

The first product from the Y Series – Model YB – has now been revealed. “Its sculpture like elegant design by Alfred Vassilkov once again brings freshness to the loudspeaker market”  The left and right speakers are asymmetric and designed as a matching pair. “The elegant twists heading in opposite directions make these speakers look like jewels in exquisite interiors”.

“The sound they deliver meets Estelon’s highest standards. It is pure, natural and life-like. It re-creates the original soundscape and makes the music sound unbelievably real, making you believe that “You are there”, at the concert” the company say.

Technical Data:

3-way (Drivers: 8” Woofer, 5,25“ Mid-woofer, 1” Beryllium Tweeter; with removable grilles); Frequency Response: 30 – 40 000 Hz

Power Rating: 150 W

Nominal Impedance: 6 Ohms

Sensitivity: 86dB/2,83 V

Dimensions (HxWxD): 1285x365x430mm

Net Weight: 40kg per piece.

Speaker cabinets are cast of composite material.

Manufacturer’s recommended price in Europe for Model YB is €15 900.

Standard finish is Black Matte. Black Gloss and White Gloss available at €16 900.

Preorders start now, estimated shipping from March 31^st, 2016.

“The Platinum II project has produced the most accurate and beautiful loudspeakers Monitor Audio has ever made” says the company’s recent press release, continuing “ Platinum II is a mix of evolutionary refinement and discovery, offering genuine audiophile performance with simply stunning design and materials specification”.

For the first time in a Monitor Audio speaker, Platinum II deploys a new MPD (Micro Pleated Diaphragm) high frequency transducer, supported by next-generation RDT ®II bass and mid drivers, improved crossover design and bespoke speaker terminal designs.

The new seven-model line-up premieres the luxury flagship PL500 II tower; two further floor standing models, the PL300 II and PL200 II; the PL100 II stand-mount monitor; matching centre-channel speakers in two sizes: the PLC350 II and PLC150 II, and a 1400W, twin 15” subwoofer:  the PLW-215.

PL100 II

Compact 2-way monitor design using a single 6.5” RDTII bass-mid driver, and MPD tweeter. Bespoke floor stand available separately. MSRP: £3,150 pair

PL200 II

Compact 3-way/4 driver floor-standing system using twin 6.5” RDTII long-throw bass drivers, a 4” RDT II mid-range driver in a sealed TLE enclosure and MPD high frequency transducer. MSRP: £6,300 pair

PL300 II

3-way/4 driver tower system using twin 8” RDTII long-throw bass drivers, a 4” RDT II mid-range driver in a sealed TLE enclosure and MPD high frequency transducer. MSRP: £8,000 pair

PL500 II

Flagship 3-way/7 driver tower system using four 8” RDTII long-throw bass drivers, twin 4” RDT II mid-range drivers in a M-T-M array with a MPD high frequency transducer. MSRP: £15,000 pair

PLC150 II

A 2.5-way/3 driver centre-channel system matching the PL100 II and PL200 II models, using a single 6.5” RDT II bass driver, single 6.5” RDT II bass-mid driver and MPD high frequency transducer. Bespoke floor stand available separately. MSRP: £2,100 each

PLC350 II

A 3-way/4 driver centre-channel system matching the PL300 II and PL500 II models, using twin 8” RDT II bass drivers, single 4” RDT II mid-range driver and MPD high frequency transducer. Bespoke floor stand available separately. MSRP: £3,150 each

PLW-215 sub

A sealed twin 15” active subwoofer system featuring:  opposing individually powered C-CAM drivers / 1400W continuous and 2000W peak / 172MHz DSP Core / 4 fully configurable user presets / auto room EQ per preset from panel or via PC/tablet through proprietary SubConnect App / LED display / night mode. MSRP: £3,500 each 

The Platinum II range will receive its world premiere at the CES show, Las Vegas, 6-9 January 2016, at the Venetian, Suite 29-140 on Wednesday January 6 between 17:00 and 21:00

Availability: February 2016

At just under £20 000 the Polish Zeta Zero Venus Picolla are a substantial investment, but they are gorgeously built and something of a work of art Janine Elliot thinks? How do they sound?

Tomasz Rogula takes after my heart. He is a sound engineer and owner of a recording studio, unadventurously named TR Studios, apparently very major in Poland. More than that, he is chief designer and founder of Zeta Zero. Zeta Zero is an audio manufacturer from Warsaw, Poland, specialising is multi-ribbon tweeters with large woofer loudspeaker systems, whilst also branching into original powerful monoblocks offering damping factor of 1600 at 8Ω (that is over 1000W RMS!).

Tomasz’ heart and soul is really in the speakers, and having seen them and heard them in a recent UK show I wanted to take them for a ride myself. My own reference system includes a Townshend ribbon supertweeter and the Wilson Benesch Torus subsonic generator, so I wanted to test for myself an all in one offering using similar technology of carbon (though smaller at 12”) woofer, and this time no less than three ribbons.

The Venus Picolla comes in a choice of four finishes (Black, Mahogony-Brown, Sahara Sand and Transparent) with other colours on request, all artistically designed curves of hundreds of beautiful layers of wood all braced together with hundreds of screws at more than 200 points, forming a design inspired by architecture and sculptures. The shape is also based on musical instruments and with the absence of any parallel points the design effectively diminishes harmful effects of standing waves or resonances.

Lionel Monageng from Superior Hifi (UK Distributor)  delivered the beautiful work of art to my living room, making my house look more like it was Tate Modern. Apparently the shape is also based on the female form. Being a Venus, I guess that relates to a woman’s beauty, as captured by Paleolithic sculpturers of the past. As long as that is not how the designer sees me; its large bottom, holding the 12” carbon woofer built to Zeta Zero’s specification, looks like it seriously needs to go to weight-watchers. Whether or not you like the looks, this certainly is a radical speaker, reminding me of Vivid and other radical enclosures, and perhaps Lawrence Audio Cello or Double Bass.

The Zeta Zero models (presently a range of 4) are all designed not just for aesthetics, but to get the best sound. Quoted at 26-50,000Hz this 3-way design of a single bass, two mid-ribbons and a super tweeter allows short-term peaks up to 1000W, meaning your house, or rather mine, was filled with music with no signs of stress or pain. Indeed, these 65kg speakers can cope with rooms of up to 100sq metres quite well and delivering in excess of 130dB peak SPL, not that I tested this.

All Zeta Zero speaker systems employ ribbons for the high frequencies. Tomasz is passionate about ribbons. Indeed, his latest offering, after 6 years of development, has no less than a 360 degree array of a single ribbon and single magnetic ring, the “Orbital 360⁰  ” creating omni-directional sound.  What makes the Piccola special is the fact that the ribbons can handle such high levels of sound. These are constructed using nano technologies and the most advanced components which – Thomasz says – are usually only found in military applications. These help to keep down the temperatures.

As well as four terminals allowing biwiring, there are two port holes at the back; one a tuned hole, and the other holding a potentiometer to vary the volume level of the HF above 14dB in a range of +/- 2dB. Also in this port is an RCA socket for a small box housing a 9v battery, supplied with the speaker that activates the computer on-board the Piccola to view the history of overloads on all speaker drivers. The display panel for this is located in the Super tweeter and flashes one of three colours; amber, green or red. Amber means you are still within recommended wattage levels for this model. Being fed with more than 800Watts will turn it red, though I didn’t want to try to test this out. Usually this computer is activated by the signal fed to the speaker when playing music too loud and works as defence mechanism to protect and record overloads. As Lionel told me; “The speaker owner can happily go on holiday and be able to check if the kids had a party while they were away. A ‘Big Brother’ in the Speakers!” (or rather, big sister, going by my earlier comments). Bear in mind the top frequencies only use 1% of the power of the lower frequencies, the highest ribbon would probably only be fed 1 – 5Watts from my own listening tests, so there was no chance of overloading it. The mid ribbons, well perhaps 10 Watts max. I do have neighbours…

This was an interesting review. At £19,990 these are not cheap. They sit alongside B&W, Focal, Kef, Sonus faber, Wilson Audio, Wilson Benesch, Vivid and many other makes of top-notch loudspeakers, so this is a serious review. For just short of twenty thousand pounds this is a lot of money for speakers, but the design and build is certainly worth every penny. There is no MDF or plywood in this model. It was beautifully carved and glossed by a carpenter and is therefore necessary to be part of the cost of owning the artwork, taking considerable time to build each pair.

SOUND

Once set up and toed into my sitting position and around a metre from walls and anything else, I began my listening. The sound was very large, covering the soundstage with mighty detail and with smoothness only ribbons can do. Vocals were precise and inviting and all sounds carried a good depth in front and behind, and a reasonable width. Some people see in colours and for me the colour was a healthy green; not red or yellow brightness or a dull or boring blue or grey. This was exact, just as it should sound. The woofer is so close to the ribbons there wasn’t even a separation of sources or frequencies like some well-known and very expensive speakers that I could name.

Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique (Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Robin Ticciati, Linn 24/192) was exact and not showing any stress when the music gets excited, and this and anything else I played had sounds that were fast and with an ease of driving that only ribbons can do well.

Passing to David Gilmour’s latest offering, ‘Rattle that Lock’, showed the 12” woofer and ribbons at their very best. I don’t normally like large woofers, preferring a smaller bass or two or more in parallel, but these Carbon fibre bass units are very light, and actually don’t move a great amount, so the sound is still quite quick. From the bird atmosphere at the start of the first track “5 am”, to the bass pizzicatos under the string line followed by the electric guitar, to the broken chords on the acoustic guitar that followed, everything was there, and so very clear.

Even with all the power I needed to feed this Venus I could still have played this at 5am without annoying the neighbours, it was so beautiful.  Indeed, a test of a really good set of speakers is your ability to talk over loud sections and still be heard. “Rattle that Lock” is very bright and with complicated harmonies, but it was still so clear.  Whatever I played gave an authoritative and clear rendition from the very lows to the highs. I only at times found the music lacked the stereo spread I was hoping for that I get from my Wilson Benesch/Townshend Supertweeters, but it was only a small criticism. Everything else was there. And that’s just it; it was all there, very clear, just like I would expect in a recording studio, or even Tomasz’s own studio for that matter. Gilmour “The Boat Lies Waiting” sounded too clinical for me. Perhaps I was missing something that wasn’t there. It was just too easy for me. This album is very top heavy and I could feel it being slightly emphasised by the ribbons; it wasn’t adding anything, just showing the album as it was.  I was sitting in a Rolls Royce with beautiful wood veneer, and I really wanted a Ferrari for my bucks. I wanted more excitement.

Switching to the Zeta Zero 1175 poweramps the sound was a different experience, actually working better than the Krell Class A amplifier I normally use to heat up my house. Although at first thought these are Class D, they are claimed as “operating on the principle of continuous (non-digitised) modulation of signal in a purely analogue manner”. Whatever magic is inside the box these amps are very efficient with my electricity supply, which is always a good thing, and with so much oomph available to pump up the Piccola they form a good partnership, though the sound from the amps didn’t work so well when I connected them to my Wilson Benesch. These mono-blocks are really good looking and have connections for single-ended RCA or balanced XLR, with sockets hidden under a flap so you only need to open the one you need, just in case your partner is keen on tidiness.

CONCLUSION

This is a really good offering, particularly if you place importance in the looks of your hifi. You would pay thousands for a work of art such as this, and on top of this it is a pair of loudspeakers. They work well in large or small rooms alike, though if a small room you might not have room for the settee. The sound should be the very best bearing in mind great bass and ribbon tweeters, and whilst it is excellent, it didn’t warrant a 9 from me (I rarely give a nine).  There is indeed brilliant harmony between the drivers, particularly bass and mid. But, £19,990 is a large amount of cash to spend, so I would listen to these and a few alternatives before you spend your hard earned cash.

Pros:

Looks and build to the very highest level

Detailed sound

Excellent frequency range, particularly tops

Ribbons!

Work in small and big rooms

Cons:

Price

Can expose errors in the recording

Not everyone will like the looks

Sound Quality: 8.5/10

Value for Money: 8.4/10

Build Quality: 9.0/10 (Not everyone will like the looks)

Overall: 8.63/10 

Janine Elliot

Read more loudspeaker reviews

Designer’s Notes

The beginning of   Zeta Zero was over 12 years ago but I have been building loudspeakers for over 40 years now.  The roots of the design came from pressure from my friends and family to build for them very special and rather unique in sound quality. My wife was a very sensitive audiophile but also business a woman in Citi Corporation which meant she was very tough in her demands and so she was very demanding for the overall quality of the speakers, but also regarding the ART shape design.

One day she said to me: “Thomas,  I  want  for my living room something that is the best not only in a quality, but also very  very  beautiful in its styling.  I will never allow a …” wooden rectangular coffin in my house”. This order drove me to join my ribbon drivers with unusual shapes. Fortunately for me I found shapes that are different to traditional, rectangular boxes are much better in sound quality.

For thousands of years humankind has known very well that  non-rectangular shapes are good for  music and sound reproduction – look at nearly all instruments and  nearly all  sources of sound including percussions, pianos, guitars, violins, cellos etc. We do not need a university degree to understand that gently shaped loudspeakers will be better than traditional, rectangular shaped speakers.

Unfortunately contrary to real instruments most loudspeakers are the opposite of acoustic instruments in the respect of the shape.  Most loudspeaker designers are probably simply …very very lazy and they prefer to  build ” simple coffins” because they are very easy and much cheaper to build than gently shaped or with streamlined  bodies as with violins etc…

Of course some may say ‘but  a trumpet or  a horn is very directional so what?”   Ok…  but don’t you know that all professional musicians NEVER direct their horn at you directly during the performance??  They always try to move the horn around higher or lower “above your head and into the sky” when they play,but never directly at you as a listener. So they try to create multi directional emission of energy depending on played notes.

In 90% of world class recording studios you will also not find parallel walls or any parallel windows!  Any simple shape or parallel walls or planes are strictly forbidden in any good acoustic designs. Unfortunately in most of loudspeakers this simple rule is forgotten, missed and omitted.

So streamlined Zeta Zero shapes were developed and patented.

Mr Tomasz Rogula

Dynaudio has announced the launch of the new Xeo 2 priced at. The firm’s smallest and most accessible system to date delivers a sound that completely belies its compact cabinets says the Danish company’s press release. 

Featuring wireless connectivity and DSP technology the new model works with any source you desire, with simple plug and play functionality.

A typically clean and understated Danish design, the finish and solid build of Dynaudio’s latest model promises to enhance any environment it is placed in, with Xeo 2 being available in satin white or satin black finishes.