Audiophilepure

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“Last, let me reference the track ‘The Town Burns’ from John Williams’ original soundtrack for the film Rosewood [Sony Masterworks, 16/44.1]. ‘The Town Burns’ conveys a dark sense of foreboding conveyed in no small part by deep, very low-pitched percussion that seems, at times, to arise out of nowhere. Here, the powerful, but also tautly controlled and sharply focussed, bass of the Vantages comes into play. One moment the listener is following the track’s vocals and melodic lines and the next one is aware of the deep, potent, but never overblown or boomy, presence of very low-pitched percussion instruments that fairly bristle with ominous portent. Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, the low percussion sounds decay and vanish—as if inviting the listener to wonder is s/he even heard them at all. Great low bass is often this way; it’s not present until the music calls for it, and it doesn’t linger around once its impact has been heard and felt. The Vantages are great low-frequency”

Sonner Audio Legato Unum

“Unum’s soundstage, replication of scale, and dimensionality were solid considering its humble size. Images were cleanly spaced and stable. Orchestral section-layering was indicated, but ultimately stage depth was limited. To my ears, Unum had a more focused signature, emphasizing a musician’s direct sound rather than extended ambient decay, a trait that registered with me as I listened to The San Francisco Opera’s live performance of “Somewhere” from West Side Story. The ability to send ambient information fanning across a stage to the furthest edges of the soundfield was notoften fully realized—nor were the tactile and textural backing that supports and reinforces individual musical images and allows those images to fully inhabit the soundspace. 

In terms of unbridled output and dynamics, Unum’s physical size is a factor, so mind those 100dB P’s and Q’s.  While it can’t fully break the bonds of its own compact genetics, I’m not suggesting Unum needs to be coddled, either. Never shrinking from a challenge, cue up the heavy dance groove of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” [Thriller], and you’ll likely be as surprised as I was by the amount of whomp, rhythm, focus, and drive coming from such a small speaker. Or, an even more extreme case, try listening to the gale-force depth and impact of the Kodo Drums during “Air” from the soundtrack to The Thin Red Line. Of course there’s some compression, and certainly there are limitations to how much kettle- or bass-drum air a compact can launch into the soundspace of a room, but the Unum surprised me time and again at its effectiveness in capturing the broad range of sonic color of this powerful material.”  

https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/pmc-twenty523i

PMC has always promoted transmission line bass loading over the use of reflex ports or sealed cabinets, and things are no different here. The idea is that the rear-firing sound from the mid/bass driver passes through a folded path inside the speaker cabinet. 

This path is carefully lined with damping materials so that all but the lowest frequencies are absorbed. These frequencies exit from the opening at the base of the front panel and augment the bass from the drive unit. It’s important to note that the transmission line’s output is in-phase with the drive unit.

http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/pmc-fact12-signature-floorstanding-loudspeaker/

“OK, so scratching the surface, there are some observations to be made. The fact.12 Signature’s room-flexibility might weigh against it when shoe-horned into a really tiny room, or used where the Fenestria should sit; in other words, there are speakers that might be a better ‘fit’ for really challenging room volumes. The other observation is that if you hook the fact.12 Signature to some really meaty power amplification and play it loud, something’s gotta give… and that something is your ears. These speakers play clean, loud, and undistorted. If you like to play music at ‘a fair lick’ a lot the fact.12 Signature’s headroom means your usual ‘turn it down, it’s distorting’ point could be ‘turn it down, my ears are relaxing on each beat’. “

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“Last, let me reference the track ‘The Town Burns’ from John Williams’ original soundtrack for the film Rosewood [Sony Masterworks, 16/44.1]. ‘The Town Burns’ conveys a dark sense of foreboding conveyed in no small part by deep, very low-pitched percussion that seems, at times, to arise out of nowhere. Here, the powerful, but also tautly controlled and sharply focussed, bass of the Vantages comes into play. One moment the listener is following the track’s vocals and melodic lines and the next one is aware of the deep, potent, but never overblown or boomy, presence of very low-pitched percussion instruments that fairly bristle with ominous portent. Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, the low percussion sounds decay and vanish—as if inviting the listener to wonder is s/he even heard them at all. Great low bass is often this way; it’s not present until the music calls for it, and it doesn’t linger around once its impact has been heard and felt. The Vantages are great low-frequency performers.”

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“No matter how you cut it, $16,990 is a lot of money for a pair of minimonitors. Throw in the matching, semi-obligatory stands and you’re looking at an investment of $19,970 to coax Focal’s Diablo Utopia Colour Evos into your life. Yet there’s no denying that, 12 years after the launch of the original Utopia platform, it remains a hugely competent and satisfying communicator of music. Its fantastic tweeter boasts all the extension and refinement you could ever want, and Focal has voiced the all-important midrange to perfection: it’s vivacious and lifelike, and the speaker imposes on it no colorations of its own. You also get healthy servings of Focal’s signature industrial design and excellent build quality. And while it doesn’t provide much in the way of weight and slam at the lower limits of the audioband, the Diablo Utopia Colour Evo’s frequency response remains linear and composed even at unreasonably high volumes — across the board, this speaker is unflappable.”

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One other forgotten aspect is the ability to play at a reasonably convincing level. When the other speakers have long run out of dynamic capability, the L-100 Classics still have plenty of headroom left. Oddly, while they are slightly grainy in comparison to a few other speakers, this does not increase at higher levels. I’d venture to guess that some of the insight gained in studio monitor and sound reinforcement has trickled down to these speakers. If you want a pair of real rock and roll speakers, these will do quite nicely.

At the end of the day, the JBL L-100 Classics remind me a lot of that great American amplifier, the McIntosh MC275. It’s not the last word in any of the standard audiophile qualifiers, but I dare you to have a bad day listening to one. The same goes for the L-100 Classics. I dare you to have a bad time listening to your favorite music, no matter what generation it’s from when you’re rocking a pair of L-100 Classics.”

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“To me, this limitation isn’t a major issue in this scenario, but purists should be aware of this digital signal processing. Speaking of DSP, it’s probably crazy to assume high rate DSD and 384 kHz PCM would stay I their native rates anyway because speakers like this use DSP that doesn’t operate at such high rates. In other words, even if the interspeaker connection was native (384/DSD256), the music would go through resampling for digital signal processing anyway. Thus, it’s a non-issue and I’m happy to read KEF released this information publicly. I love transparency. ”

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“Scrolling through Qobuz to find some tasty tunes to stream, I settled on the famous 1961 live Bill Evans Trio recording from the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City. Right out of the gate I heard many similar qualities between the Magnepans and the Quad ESL-57 speakers I use every day, with LRS delivering high levels of transparency and coherency. The volume of air in this tiny club, one I’m familiar with, was instantly recognizable, with every murmur from the audience or clink of glasses on the bar plainly audible. The sound of Evans’ piano had the percussive attack of the real thing, while Paul Motian’s cymbals sizzled. But the real star of this recording is young bassist Scott LaFaro, whose blazing virtuosity was cut short by a car accident just days later. LaFaro’s fingering and speed were startlingly clear through the LRS, and while the panel didn’t deliver the deep thunder of his instrument, I didn’t really feel like I was being short-changed.”