Audiophilepure

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1915-bryston-model-t10-loudspeaker

Since its release early this year, I’ve been enjoying the Smile’s sophomore album, Wall of Eyes (16-bit/44.1kHz ALAC, XL Recordings). “Bending Hectic” is a standout track, one of the most thrilling rock songs I’ve heard in some time. This tune has sufficient reverb to make it sound spacious, creating an expansive atmosphere. It starts by panning from an electric guitar on the right side of the stage to the sparkle of the cymbals coming from the drum kit on the left. When the strings of the London Contemporary Orchestra enter, the music extends further back, expanding the stage. The song builds slowly, the lyrics describing a vintage sports car cruising the mountainside along the Italian coastline before intentionally driving over a cliff and crashing onto the rocks below.

The tension from the strings as the car descends and the sound of what seems like a jet falling from the sky are nerve-wracking, creating extraordinary suspense. When the car finally reaches the bottom, the music explodes, unleashing the tension that had built to that point. Unsurprisingly, “Bending Hectic” deserves to be heard at high volumes, so as to create visceral impact. The T¹⁰s were effortless in their ability to communicate the scale of the track, sounding composed and resolute at volumes I could barely tolerate. When being driven by the more powerful 4B³, the T¹⁰s were unflappable. Bryston claims they can play up to 118dB before they start to distort, and while I’d never test the veracity of such a claim, I’ve no reason to doubt it.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/avantgarde-duo-sd-itron-g3-active-loudspeaker

This review involved a certain amount of fighting with room acoustics, a battle that was mostly—intentionally—self-imposed, since I allowed speaker placement to be dictated by the availability of power cords and interconnects. In this contest between speakers and room, the speakers won. The Duo’s DSP didn’t allow me to neutralize all the things my room was doing wrong, but they did manage to fix most things, including the things that bothered me most. The result was superb. Small jazz combos, where the key elements are percussion, horns, piano, and bass, were spot-on. They were articulate, and their timbres were harmonically dense and complex. The small amount of extra bass I dialed in to achieve a pleasing balance in jazz turned out to be great with classic rock; I flipped when I heard the clarity, definition, and presence of Chris Squire’s distinctive bass guitar riffs in “Roundabout,” on Yessongs (Atlantic SD 3-100 LP). If those riffs weren’t burned into my memory before, they most definitely are now.

Defying even positive expectations—such as my expectation that the Duo SD would sound like a typical horn speaker—is usually a good thing, I’ve found. It means that something interesting is going on. Such was the case here. The Avantgarde Duo SD iTRON G3s are truly excellent speakers. I loved spending time with them and would be perfectly satisfied if they could have remained in my listening room long term. (Unfortunately, they departed months ago.) They did everything well and some things extraordinarily well. What shortcomings I heard are best attributed to the room and placement constraints and not to the Duos themselves.