Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/sphinx-audio-element-3-loudspeaker

The pounding drums and soaring, repeating harmonies of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten [Stuttgart State Opera/Dennis Russell Davies; CBS Masterworks M2K 42457], found the Element 3s shaking the room with thundering bass. They then opened up wide with the intertwining voices of ‘The Window Of Appearances’, sung between the countertenor Akhnaten and the contralto Nefertiti. This is always tricky for any system to reproduce as the voices reverberate over each other. The Element 3s held it all together, before gathering things up with more dramatic power chords as the scene ends.

Time to dial back and examine how well the Element 3 handles more relaxed music. Given the thoughtful Espen Eriksen Trio cover of ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ [What Took You So Long; Rune Grammofon RCD 2129], the simple clarity of piano, bass and brushed drums was so effective. As was the rock-solid stereo soundstage picture, creating a ‘you are there, as good as live’ experience. And I swear I have never heard Elvis Costello’s vocals on Squeeze’s ‘Tempted’, from their East Side Story set [A&M 96kHz/24-bit], quite so shiver-inducing.

While I strongly prefer to conduct reviews in my own system, that is not always possible given that my reference speakers, namely the Acapella Audio Arts Triolon Excalibur, weigh 1000 pounds and are not easily moveable.  A local dealer Timbre Audio offered to allow me use of their listening rooms and systems for purposes of the review over a number of listening sessions.  Given that I had previously spent many pleasant hours at this store listening to their systems, that seemed to be a reasonable path forward.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/kii-audio-seven-active-loudspeaker-system

I was surprised by how similarly the two speakers reproduced a solo voice or instrument. The ambience and soundstage cues are another matter. Consider the old chestnut Eliot Fisk Plays Bach and Scarlatti (SACD rip, Red Rose Music RRM 06). This is an intimate recording with negligible space around the instrument. With this album, there’s very little difference in the presentation of the Kiis and the KEFs. It is almost like listening to test tones, which also sounded much the same.But any recording with good spatial ambience revealed that the KEFs and Kiis are no more twins than Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. On “Tarrega’s Capricho árabe,” performed by Stefano Grondona on La Guitarra de Torres (CD rip, Divox CDX-29701), we hear everything from the touch of fingers on the strings, the strings themselves, and the resonant tones from the body of the instrument, all within a richly warm ambience. The SEVENs directed more attention to the early items on that list—the close-in, local things—while the KEFs made a stronger case for the ambience.It comes down to how they interact with the room. With the SEVENs nearly against the front wall, listening from a seat fairly close to the speakers, the cardioid radiation minimizes the excitation of room modes and delivers a finely detailed soundstage defined by the width of the speaker pair. The KEFs sound best a few feet from the walls and from a listening position farther from the speakers than they are from each other. Under those conditions, the soundstage conjured is consistently wider than the speaker span. While their imaging is marginally less incisive than the SEVENs’, they are somewhat better at separating the music from the speakers. Tough choice.

It’s nearly impossible to fault the Raidho X2.6 floor-standing speakers. Their designers set out to create a perfectly neutral and accurate speaker, and they achieved that goal. They’re so neutral that they make most of the speakers I’ve heard before sound colored. They take accuracy to another level. And therein lies a quandary.

I’m a fan of neutral speakers, and I’ve said so on many occasions. The X2.6’s accuracy gives rock and heavy music an addictive quality. They capture the feel of every band’s performance style and their recording aesthetic in a way I haven’t heard before. I could listen to Pantera and The Beatles, and everyone in between, all day and twice on Sunday.

But my main interest is classical. As I’ve also said on many occasions, there is a huge gap between the best and the worst orchestral recordings. The X2.6s are almost too good here. They demand the best fidelity and balance from orchestral tracks. Anything short of reference quality sounds fine until you hit the volume barrier. Then, it’s less enjoyable. This is a small thing that I don’t see as a flaw, but as something that comes with audio gear that is so meticulously precise. And I can’t say it better than that. The X2.6 floor-standing speakers are incredibly good at their job, and Raidho is to be highly commended. If you want to rock out at arena volume levels, or you want to build a library of classical reference recordings, there are none better in my experience.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/mofi-sourcepoint-v10-master-edition-loudspeaker

MoFi’s SourcePoint V10 ME gives you a lot of loudspeaker for the money, and rewards with an authentically largescale, enveloping and weighty sound. Always easy to listen to, thanks to that smooth treble, this floorstander is also easy enough to drive, further bolstering its bang-for-your-buck appeal. The size and styling of these heavyweight cabinets means they won’t suit everyone, though!

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/opinion/2025-recommended-reference-component-arendal-sound-1528-monitor-8-loudspeaker

The ability of the Monitor 8s to reveal details was illustrated by several recordings that Philip auditioned during the review period. For instance, with The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco, Philip describes how he “could hear everything through the Arendals” and that the pair “sounded as clean as any speakers” he’s ever reviewed. “Adderley’s band was spread wide across the front of my room, and the position of each musician was a cinch to visualize.”

Listening to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ Moanin’, Philip writes how “the wide stage conveyed by the Arendals was bookended by the rich tones of the trumpet on the left and the tenor saxophone on the right. The drum kit emerged with commendable clarity almost directly behind the right speaker, which seemed to disappear entirely.” He sums up his listening impressions of this song by explaining that the speakers “called little attention to themselves and simply communicated what was in the grooves of the vinyl.”

Philip compared the 1528 Monitor 8s with his reference speakers: a pair of Monitor Audio Gold 300 5Gs. The Gold 300 5G is a three-way design that is now discontinued. It sold for US$9500 per pair when Philip made his purchase. Like the Monitor 8, the Gold has two 8″ woofers, but it has a 2.5″ midrange and a 1″ AMT-type driver for high frequencies, and it’s a floorstander. Philip describes an extensive back and forth that demonstrated to him that both pairs of speakers have “a fair amount in common,” but in the end, he leaned more to the 1528 Monitor 8s, declaring: “At higher volumes, the Arendals were more effortless, betraying no sense of exertion whatsoever. That being said, the 300s could also play louder than I’m able to tolerate, but the Arendals were just more at ease doing so. . . . For this reason, I found they encouraged higher playback. If you have a large room and/or listen at high volumes, you’ll almost certainly favor the Arendals.”

https://www.dagogo.com/dealership-audition-magnepan-2-7i-three-way-quasi-ribbon-panel-speakers/

The MG2.7i is a three-way speaker consisting of a foil bass and mid and a 40” True Ribbon Tweeter column.  The 2.7i can be thought of as an MG1.7i with a True Ribbon Tweeter.  In both performance and price, it nestles perfectly between the $2,995 MG1.7i and the $9,495 MG3.7i.  Besides the $2,495 Mini Maggie system which is intended for desktop use, the MG2.7i is Magnepan’s smallest model with a True Ribbon Tweeter.  It is designed for smaller spaces than the larger Magnepans.  The Magnepan’s operation is very different from that of dynamic speakers, which has its pluses and minuses, as will be discussed below.