Audiophilepure

UK distributor Greg Chapman of VAL Hi-Fi brought the Contra 100S over with a pair of Solid Steel SS-5 three-legged stands which he said are a little short for my listening position, but he likes the way the speakers sound on them. Listening started with the Aretai being driven by a Moor Amps Angel 6 power amplifier with the speakers placed about a foot from the wall which worked well for the mid and treble, but the bass was a little boxy on some tracks. That said Joni Mitchell’s voice sounded rather good on ‘The Man I Love’ and the bass on Kraftwerk’s ‘Radioactivity’ had more gravitas than expected for a box of this scale, the reverb on the live mix giving real depth to the soundstage. Moving the Aretai closer to the wall meant that the soundstage got bigger, but the bass didn’t really change which was surprising, having an active rear bass driver clearly brings benefits in terms of control. Deadmau5’s ‘Seeya’ was delivered with real spatial precision at high levels without any sense of glare or hardness, a characteristic that was to become more apparent the further the listening went on. Aretai favour pro drivers which are generally designed to cope with higher playback levels without distortion and this certainly came through.

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