Audiophilepure

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“Lately, to gauge audio components’ reproduction of women’s voices, I’ve been listening to Carpenters albums. Richard Carpenter’s backing vocals irritate me to no end, but Karen Carpenter’s pure-sounding contralto mesmerizes me, and it’s her voice that’s always front and center in the mix. One of their best albums for evaluating gear is With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (24/48 FLAC unfolded to 24/96 MQA, A&M/Tidal), a new album comprising remasterings of already-recorded Carpenters hits with overdubbed accompaniment by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Richard Carpenter, who oversaw all production. Richard has the reputation of being a perfectionist, and from what I heard he got it right — this is one smooth, clean-sounding recording.

In “For All We Know,” the GoldenEars rendered Karen’s voice so clearly that I was spellbound — she hovered unwaveringly in space between the speakers, sounding clean, clean, clean. Had I not been going back and forth between the One.Rs and the two-way, stand-mounted Focal Kanta No1s ($5999/pair), also in for review, I’d have had trouble dredging up a single complaint about the One.Rs in that area. But the Kantos reproduced the sound of Karen Carpenter’s voice just a little bit more purely and a touch more openly than did the One.Rs. Don’t read that as a knock against the Triton One.Rs — they were surprisingly close to the Kantos even in this regard, and in the bass they cleaned the little Kantos’ clocks, as you’d expect a couple big floorstanders to do against a pair of minimonitors.”

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“In actuality, the integration of the drivers was such that it was impressively conducive toward piano music listening. The Unisinger’s portrayal of the slowing aging Murray Perahia’s Chopin 24 Etudes was first-class in dynamic contrast and tonal integrity. The reproduction of harmonics was ethereal and surreal. This level of integration makes listening to solo classical piano fun, because their way of reproducing music was complete and completely spectacular.

It’s not unconventionally long in development history for a speaker to be created in nineteen months, and now in hindsight, seeing what Dr. Zhang and his team can do, I wish they had taken a bit longer to amaze us with something even more extraordinary.”

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“Today, Audio Solutions offers five attractively styled product ranges that go under the names Vantage Classic, Vantage 5th Anniversary, Guimbarde, Figaro and Overture. In the spring of 2019, Audio Solutions will add a sixth line, called Virtuoso, which will sit Visually, I love the styling of the Vantage 5th Anniversary series the most, perhaps because these speakers look like they would fit perfectly into a sci-fi movie like TRON. Sonic Artistry’s owners Jonathan and Ed promised for the Figaro M to deliver a stunning performance to price ratio, but of course they would say that – after all they are a retailer for the brand. As a reviewer, I hear such promises all the time so naturally I take such statements with a grain of salt. There is only one way to judge a loudspeaker: you have to give it a good listen.

But first, let’s examine the range of products offered by this company. The Audio Solutions Figaro M loudspeaker hails from company’s third-from-the-top series in terms of performance and price. There are four floor standing models in this series – the Figaro S ($5,750 US), Figaro M ($7,500 US), Figaro L ($10,000 US) and the headlining Figaro XL ($15,000). The series also includes the Figaro B bookshelf speaker ($3,250 US) as well as the Figaro C center channel ($2,500 US). The inclusion of a center channel of course indicates that the company intends these speakers for use in both 2-channel music systems and home cinema setups. All the prices I mentioned are for the standard finish, and like most high-end loudspeaker manufacturers today, Audio Solutions’ speakers can be ordered in many custom options – in this case there are 17 custom side-panel colors to choose from.”

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“Master volume can be adjusted via the app, the Sound Hub’s remote control or volume knob, or by swiping across the top front of either Callisto speaker. Any way you go, data is relayed to the Sound Hub so that all components remain fully synchronized, and a row of white LED indicators on the 6 C’s front reflect the adjustment. While DALI’s remote handles the system’s control basics, I found myself relying on the BluOS app for everyday use. Compared with many other wireless control apps I’ve encountered, this one proved extremely easy to setup and use. It instantly recognized the NPM-1 module installed in the Sound Hub and making a wireless connection with a Bluesound Pulse 2i speaker in my kitchen was a simple matter of selecting it in my iPhone’s Wi-Fi setup panel and entering my password. The app features two control panels: one for selecting individual players (or multiroom player groups) and a second for playback sources like streaming apps, Internet radio stations, or UPnP servers. (BluOS has already been covered in-depth in multiple Sound & Vision Bluesound and NAD product reviews.) For my purposes, I linked the app to my Tidal, Qobuz, and TuneIn accounts. I also verified that both the DALI Sound Hub and Bluesound Pulse 2i worked as Roon endpoints,”

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“I also heard another pair of Forte IIIs at a friend’s apartment with a very high-end Japanese Shindo Haut Brion tube amp, and the sound was to die for. I heard similar treble sweetness with solid state amps such as the Schiit Aegir, First Watt J2 and F7, and a Pass Labs XA100.5 in my large listening room.

The Forte IIIs’ effortless sound with high volume listening was expected — lots of big speakers can do that — but the Forte III also excelled with late night quiet levels. Detail and dynamics were consistent, regardless of volume level. The Forte IIIs let you feel the music.”

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“The other half of the ‘not what you do’… equation is to be found in the crossover; the M126Be has a ‘high order’ (actually, fourth-order) slopes provided by film-only capacitors and air core inductors. This is a well-regarded approach to keeping distortion at a minimum and transparency good and high. The mid/bass driver has an aluminium cone of the sort Revel describes as a ‘deep ceramic composite’ and is finished in the same white as the tweeter waveguide. The colour contrast gives it and the PerformaBe floorstander a distinctive look that sets them apart from the crowd, but you can’t help wondering if they got the idea from their colleagues at JBL who have used white woofers for decades. Little is said about the box itself, which presumably means it’s fairly conventional in construction but distinguishes itself with a curved top section finished in metallic black with the brand embossed in relief using a process called electroforming. The finishing overall is to an exceptional standard. On the back panel there is a reflex port and a single pair of cable terminals. Bi-wiring seems to be on the wane these days; it’s hard to say whether that’s because of fashion or the limited aesthetic appeal of cables in an increasingly wireless world, but I for one am all for it. ”

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“Let the Revels begin: these wonderfully enjoyable speakers are able to conjure realistic scale and impact while conveying all the detail and flow of whatever’s being played. With effortless dynamics, fine integration and the ability to create excellent 3D soundstage images, they deserve very serious auditioning if you’re in the market at this level – and show a clean pair of heels to some more expensive rivals, too. ”