Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/jbl-summit-ama-loudspeaker

JBL’s huge, varied range of loudspeakers can make it hard to work out what belongs where, but one look at the oh-so-stylish Summit Ama will tell you it’s a flagship model. It has all the attributes of one too, from the quality of its craftsmanship (including the partnering stands) to a pristine performance that brings out all the life and energy of your recordings. A peaky blinder, if you’ll pardon the pun…

https://www.stereophile.com/content/egglestonworks-andra-5-loudspeaker

The Andra 5 sound tends toward detailed and revealing. Recordings that can stand up to sharp focus and honest reproduction of their tonality will shine. Poor recordings may sound worse than they do through more forgiving speakers. EgglestonWorks’ stated goal is “to re-create a musical experience so vividly and accurately that it evokes the same emotion as a live performance.” The Andra 5s succeed at that if that emotion was captured in the recording.The look of the Andra 5 is unique and may be polarizing. The limitless choice of paint color gives buyers the choice of either blending them into the room decor or having them be more visually conspicuous. Fit and finish is superb.My brief relationship with the Andra 5s involved some adjustment and accommodation. In the terminology of modern human relationships, I had to put in the work. Then they delivered the promised sound qualities, and the work was quickly forgotten. It was a fun ride.

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!