Audiophilepure

https://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2024/9/30/alta-audio-aphrodite-speakers

In short, Aphrodite is gorgeous in Piano Black and bold-looking. As with all Alta Audio speakers, the cabinet is not just a rectangular box; its sides taper off from the bottom up to the top. The drivers are beautifully displayed in the front, from top to bottom, with the symmetrical D’Appolito near the top, followed by the larger 9” mid-bass and then the thunderous-looking 10.4” subwoofer. The Alta Audio logo is a dash further down, followed by a bass port. A tasteful-looking black removable cloth cover for the front can easily be attached and removed magnetically.

At first sight, the entire cabinet appears to be a solid enclosure. Still, a closer look reveals that the upper half of the unit’s back and sides have a sturdy black cloth hood protecting the open-back dipole, which, when exposed, looks like a thin black monolith with the back of the drivers showing. It connects magnetically and firmly and should be kept on even when playing music, but it can be taken off to look at (admire?) the dipole. Only the subwoofer is enclosed/sealed in the lower part, the Alta XTL bass enclosure, the back of which, near the bottom, is the pair of speaker posts (for the use of either jumpers or Bi-wiring or Bi-amping). “Aphrodite” is written in orange script font between the posts for a final elegant touch.

Shown below is an exploded view of the FR5. The inside of the enclosure is open to both drivers, but there is a 4mm deep cup with damping material that seals the tweeter voice coil along with a foam gasket for the tweeter frame. There are several braces as well as long bolts that attach the front baffle to the rear panel. This pulls the enclosure very tightly together. Polyester fiber is used inside the enclosure for damping.

The box is tuned to 35 Hz. Passive radiator enclosures have a steeper roll-off below their tuning point than a typical ported enclosure because of the additional compliance term of the passive radiator.  As such, there isn’t much output capability below the tuning frequency.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/canton-reference-7

The Reference 7 may ‘only’ be the smallest floorstander in Canton’s reinvigorated top-of-the-line range but it’s still a very solid performer that easily fills larger rooms. Introducing a radical but pleasing industrial design and embodying new ‘acoustic smarts’, the Reference 7 is a capable performer that, while extracting the finer points of recordings, really excels at communicating power, dynamics and thrills.

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/opinion/1920-arendal-sound-1528-tower-8-loudspeaker-why-im-going-3500-miles-to-learn-how-it-happened

The speaker is made in China, mind you. But still, $9500 seemed like such a steal that, as I was reading Jan’s email, my eyebrows rose, my hands went down to the seat cushion on my chair, I propped myself up straight, and I realized that I might have to travel 3500 miles to Norway and visit this company so I could find out how they could possibly supply such a large, tech-heavy speaker for such a low price.

But I have a confession to make: I estimated the price based solely on what I was seeing—I hadn’t yet listened to the pair. Now that I have listened, I know my early reaction was on the right track—sonically, there’s much to admire here. However, not all my listening is done, so I’ll hold my thoughts on the Tower 8’s performance for my full review.