Audiophilepure

https://www.stereophile.com/content/marten-oscar-duo-loudspeaker

The track begins with a short introduction: Oscar’s piano center stage, a bit of finger-cymbal percussion on the left, and then Ray Brown’s arco bass sweep, which should go deep and produce, at one point, a shuddery, visceral swell that’s felt as much as it’s heard. The tune then follows, with the trio in full swing. I’ll borrow a Dudley-ism here and write that these little speakers played the tune, with Brown’s bass sweep rising to a deeply felt swell and then, once the tune gets underway, well-articulated finger plucks that are not at all shy on bottom. Peterson’s piano sits, well-focused, well forward and center-stage, with clean attack, neither “tinkly” nor softened nor in any way inhibited by the lower/midbass congestion that’s so often the trade-off for bass extension (or the illusion of it) in small two-way loudspeakers.”

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/991-dynaudio-contour-20i-loudspeakers#most-read-equipment-reviews

I really like what Dynaudio has done with the new Contour 20i. Your $5250 earns you the privilege of owning a mature, no-compromise, two-way minimonitor that does everything well. Built and finished to a high standard, it can play loudly and cleanly without the assistance of a high-powered, high-current amplifier. Its supremely balanced sound has been only slightly [ahem] contoured to have a subtly polite top end and a touch of midrange emphasis. Its bass performance is flat-out excellent, with healthy extension and outstanding control. It likely won’t thrill you in the ways some of its more effervescent competitors might, but I believe that the Contour 20i will prove to be a loudspeaker that the great majority of audiophiles could happily live with in the long run. It makes everything played through it sound good, whether it be after ten minutes of listening or ten hours.”

Sound Lab Majestic 645 electrostatic panel loudspeakers Review

“But the electrostatic panels are also bass monsters. In the Sound Lab, I’m hearing the least compressed, swiftest in takeoff, and most natural bottom end of any loudspeakers. Apogee diehards prefer the fast, mass-less, potent bottom ends of ribbon panels like no other speaker users’ business.  Being an owner of a pair of Apogee Duetta Signatures, I found the externally charged panels of the Majestic 645 produced a bottom end at the “0” setting that was not merely mindboggling but mind-bending. At this setting, the bottom-end reproduction of the Sound Lab attained such speed and force that it created a pseudo vacuum effect on my ear drum the moment the bass was cut during a scene in a movie. Panels microns thick that are the Majestic 645 excited the air with tidal waves of bottom-end densely woven in resolutions like I’ve never experienced before. The “+3” setting was too powerful for my taste, while the “-3” and “-6” settings accorded readers with smaller listening room a high degree of control for the best sound.”

The LSA-10 Signature Speakers

Trying to stay more in tune with those not wanting a six-figure hifi system, yet still craving a great musical experience, we’ve been auditioning more speakers in this price range, and we all agreed that the LSA LS-10s would be on our top five list if we actually did that kind of thing. It’s not often that a $1,495 pair of speakers do this much right tonally and offer an excellent sense of scale too. Those needing more oomph can step up to the LS-20 floorstanders or add a pair of subs to the LS-10s.

Balance and nuance will always be my catnip, and this is something the LS-10 Signatures excel at. I can’t imagine a better choice in the context of a $5k – $15k system. Different, yes, but in terms of sheer sonic quality, these are awfully impressive. The design choices by the LSA team havemade serve the music. I am very happy to give the LS-10s an Exceptional ValueAward for 2020.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/alta-audio-alyssa-loudspeaker

For this comparison, I returned to those two songs, “Nobody” and “We Shall Be Happy,” from Ry Cooder’s Jazz. I wanted to compare the DeVore O/93’s male vocal and bass regions to what I experienced with the Alta Alyssa. Very quickly, both songs made it clear: the DeVore’s greatest strength was the Alta’s greatest weakness. The more expensive O/93s resolved more detail in the male-vocal region (approximately 85–600Hz) than did the Alyssa. After a full day playing a variety of music through the Orangutan O/93s, I returned to the Alyssa, which then—sequence is everything—seemed dark and slightly rounded.

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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”