Audiophilepure

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“Male voices got even healthier doses of presence from the A1s, which I liked — it made these little speakers sound even more robust. For example, in “Glow in the Dark,” from Iggy Pop’s Free (16/44.1 FLAC, Loma Vista), which I streamed from Tidal, Pop’s voice . . . well, it popped onto the soundstage with such fullness and presence that I had trouble reconciling it all with the A1’s size. Later in this track, the drums, set way back on the stage, enter strongly — through the A1s they sounded not only convincingly positioned 20’ back from the front of the stage, but reproduced with startlingly massive heft and fullness.”

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“The new Vela FS 407 is a very capable floorstanding speaker, and one that shows ELAC is now able to deliver a broad spectrum of models that are right up with the best of their contemporaries. It performs the unusual trick of both being very appealing to look at, and to hear. Fast, lithe, agile, smooth, open and engaging, it works skilfully across a wide range of music, and so will surely have far reaching appeal.”

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“The first point to make is that there are two distinct types of coloration, additive and subtractive. A little like odd and even-order distortion, subtractive coloration is relatively benign, whereas even small amounts of additive coloration can (and often do) wreak havoc. That’s because of the different ways in which they impact on the sense of the musical signal. The notes and different instruments in a recording constitute a three-dimensional pattern, laid out in space, time and amplitude. That pattern is what separates music from noise; it’s what a system is trying to reproduce and what our brain is trying to recognize. Subtractive distortion, as long as it is not too gross or specific, will diminish the scale or scope of that pattern, but leave it essentially intact. Once you start adding things to the pattern, especially because additive distortion is so often frequency-specific, you start to bend the pattern out of shape, so that it no longer makes sense. A bit of stored energy in a cabinet, arriving later than intended and at the wrong frequency? An energy spike in the structure of a poorly designed driver? Excessive bass output at particular frequencies? You can hear how they serve to alter not just the relative weight or amplitude of notes but their timing too — and that’s where things get destructive.”

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“It really is impressive just how bold and confident these speakers are when challenged with the music’s savage dynamics and dense instrumentation. The R1s stay composed even when pushed hard and barely harden-up in such circumstances.

Detail levels are as high as the price point demands, but the Audiovector’s musically cohesive way of assembling all that information really impresses. These are the kind of speakers that allow you to analyse the production of a recording if you want to, but they’d rather you step back and enjoy the musical experience.

When we listen to this Stravinsky piece we’re wrapped up in the musical drama rather than wondering about the mechanics of the recording. That’s just as it should be in our view”

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“Play most any recording taken from a concert hall or other large acoustic space and you will “feel” the pressurizing of the room with these speakers. It’s amazing how much ultra-low low bass information there is on many of these recordings and how much that information enhances the illusion of your room being that same concert hall. There is a down side, though. It can get a little disconcerting when you can plainly hear the rumblings of the air ventilation system or the traffic outside the recording site. I hear way too much of this on Chesky’s Johnny Frigo with Bucky and John Pizzarelli and the other recordings made at the RCA Studio “A” site in New York City.

Another down side is that a speaker that goes this low with real authority, will excite room resonances and standing wave problems much more than speakers that don’t move as much air or that have limited range. I don’t have resonance problems in my “audio bunker,” my room being underground with concrete under the floor and on all four walls, but I do have a standing wave problem at about 34 and 37Hz due to the long straight and diagonal lengths of my room. With the Wilsons, they’re heard as only minor peaks—with the VR-4s, they’re quite a bit more prominent. Not to worry though, the problem is nicely solved with a few of ASC’s 20″ tube traps or some of Tyll Hertsen’s (Mr. Headroom’s) home brew frequency specific cancellation tubes. Let’s face it, you have to pay your dues if you want killer bass with no peaks.”

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“I’d actually asked a friend over to help with some fine-tuning and tweaking, but it turned out it wasn’t necessary because the minute the music started playing, it was obvious that the positioning was perfect, not least because the soundfield I experienced was virtually holographic from the outset, so that there was no way I could localise the sound as issuing from the speakers. It was as if the speakers didn’t exist, just the musicians.

I have experienced this before, of course, but rarely so perfectly from such large multi-driver loudspeakers, because a prerequisite for this level of performance is that the left and right speakers are perfectly matched, so this must certainly have been the case with my review pair. And by holographic soundfield, I am referencing not just the stereo imaging, but also the height and depth of the soundstage. It was the sonic equivalent of a hologram.”

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“The science of loudspeaker design is like any science: it obeys the law of diminishing returns. For anyone buying loudspeakers, this means that the more you pay, the better the sound will be, but there will eventually come a point at which the increased costs are not matched by similarly satisfying increases in sound quality.

The ideal is to find a speaker at the ‘sweet spot’ where the balance is just right for both your ears and your own budget. For me, the Focal Kanta No.3s represent that ‘sweet spot’. For you? You’ll obviously have to make that judgement for yourself – but I do sincerely recommend that you at least listen to a pair of Kanta No.3s… no matter what price you might originally have had in mind.”