Audiophilepure

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All our treatments – the corner and Tri-Traps, absorption, diffusion and scattering panels – were built to specification by GIK Acoustics LLC in Leeds. GIK Acoustics was even able to colour match its fabrics to our interior decor – everything counts when creating a peaceful room…

Aside from the Scopus bass traps already discussed, all our treatments are broadband, a mix of diffusion at the point of first reflection with intertwined absorption and scattering in the rear half of the room where 50% of the panels include scatter plates.

KEF’s engineers even specified the IKEA Kallax shelving system at the rear of the room as part of the strategy. Filling the cells with random shapes, rather than packing them solid with LPs, is still a work in progress! Nevertheless, this all has a purpose – we change what’s coming back from the walls by the same amount across all frequencies, so our reflected and reverberant soundfield has the same tonal balance as the direct sound.

Atomica floor speakers, full-bodied, pure 2-way D’Appolito configuration, made from okoumè, poplar wood, and glass, proudly posing in Atomica Audio Solutions’ brand-new official listening room at their headquarters in Italy.

One might still question whether the very efficient Ensiums need all the power that the SPA-8 has to offer. As mentioned in part 1 of this review, contrary to popular belief, it is usually the midrange that consumes most power, not the bass, which answers part of the question. But even if these speakers do not require much power, knowing firsthand how revealing they are, this sure says a lot about the amplifier’s refinement, fluidity, and neutrality, and the SPA-8 passes these tests with flying colors.

Even so, I will admit that audiophile prejudice remains hard to suppress, and I kept wondering how much different the amplifier would behave when driving a fully passive speaker. Aequo Audio also offers the Ensium as a passive version without the assisted bass section, and I was pretty sure it would sound very different, since the crossover’s additional capacitance for the passive woofer loads the amplifier differently and demands more of it. Even though Ivo at Aequo Audio had already assured me the two models sound very similar, I’ve been eager to directly compare the Ensium to the Adamantis to judge this for myself. Alas, the Adamantis was not yet ready for that initial visit.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the BluOS had a few glitches in it. When playing a list of music, it would occasionally hang up on a track and give an error message. I assume it is the BluOS app, as I have never gotten this error with the Quad Platina Streamer or my WiiM Ultra. It appears to be a timeout error. It did not happen often, but it did happen more than twice during my listening sessions, and I am sure it can likely be patched later. Otherwise, the BluOS App worked well with my Qobuz library, and navigation was intuitive and easy. I wish the app would allow me to change the display from my seat, but I found once I settled on a screen, there was little reason to change it again.

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The material structure of our walls, ceiling and floor was not overlooked – along with the dimensional modes there are colourations introduced by the very nature of modern brick, concrete, wood and plasterboard construction methods, the latter the least favourable to audiophiles. Sound-proofing was also part of our build profile – no unwanted noise in or out… Good suppression is readily achieved at mid and high frequencies with Rockwool infills but there’s no substitute for sheer mass when it comes to attenuating the lowest bass frequencies.

The floor is solid – a liquid screed pumped over the existing concrete and stone foundation, securing the flexible plumbing/pipework for underfloor heating and with square-section trunking alongside, running down the centre of the room. Here our audio cabling rests hidden and free from vibration within the floor substrate, exiting behind the Artesania rack [see below] and inside the plant room. Interconnects and speaker cables emerge from ports behind the power amp and speakers at the ‘business’ end of the room [see above]. It’s very neat and tidy!

The brand-new Point Grande Ultimate speakers are Perfect8’s ultimate take on the open-baffle, full-dipole, point-source loudspeaker concept.