Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/magico-s3-2023

The Espen Eriksen Trio/Andy Sheppard’s recording of ‘In The Mountains’, from the album of the same title [Rune Grammophon RCD2227] was a perfect choice for Magico’s S3 2023 to set out its stall – the immediate impression being of presence and three-dimensionality, along with fine instrumental timbres, especially in Sheppard’s sax. Similarly, Anaïs Reno’s atmospheric Live At Pizza Express, on the venue’s own PX Records label [PXRCD1008], arrived with all its ambience intact. It was a real ‘you are there’ experience, with Reno’s voice almost tangible.
The recent Lang Lang Saint-Saëns album [Deutsche Grammophon 4875019] is so deceptively easy to listen to via these speakers that it’s easy to overlook the sheer amount of information on offer, from the scale and delicacy of the soloist’s piano to the accompanying orchestra. There was a lovely light airiness to the woodwind in the ‘Aviary’ section, plus tight control of the plucked strings, while the ‘Fossils’ section proved joyous with its xylophone and exuberant finale.

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/sonus-faber-lumina-iii-0

And the longer you listen, the more sense the Lumina II makes. Where specific rivals will best it in specific areas, when you judge the Sonus faber across a really varied selection of different music, it quite literally doesn’t miss a beat. It might lack the joy that the sheer improbability of the Lumina I’s performance can deliver but, as a £1,000 all-rounder, the Lumina II is a hugely compelling speaker likely to win many converts to the Sonus faber brand

Our experience with the aforementioned models was always somewhat of a mixed bag; proper alignment of the drivers and positioning of the loudspeakers were critical to getting the maximum amount of performance out of them.

EIC Ian White recalls more than a few Avantgarde demonstrations with very expensive amplification that were shockingly poor considering the extremely high price of admission.

Get everything correct, and the older models could absolutely vanish in your listening room and deliver a rather immediate and forceful sounding presentation.

Get it wrong — an absolute mess that would have a hard time making a case for itself against most systems today under $10,000. And that includes everything.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/voxativ-ampeggio-2024-loudspeaker

At that task, the Ampeggios excelled. Out of the gate, the combination of the two PrimaLuna components—the EVO 100 phono stage and EVO 300 integrated—pushed a vast soundstage out from the Ampeggios, with the best low-end slam I’d hear in my Ampeggio listening sessions.

The Ampeggio 2024s were unique in their ability to remove themselves from my listening space while filling it with physical, natural-sounding music, from delicate vibraphones and glistening guitars to punchy vibrating drum skins and vocals that were spookily real. Repeatedly, I relaxed into the music and forgot about my reviewing task. When I did manage to focus on the sound, I marveled at how the Ampeggios transmitted sound in the upper mids through the treble with such fine layering, lucidity, tonal keenness, and textural precision that the sum bordered on holographic. These characteristics joined with a low end delivered with oceanic impact while remaining consistent with the natural-sounding fluidity of the higher frequencies.

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/superioraudio/equipment/0624/Acora_Acoustics_QRC2_Floorstanding_Loudspeaker_Review.htm

The music completely escaped the speaker and was spread over a soundstage that was as wide and deep as the Kharma. The outer edges of that soundscape, particularly toward the front corners of the stage, were even more transparent than any speaker I’ve had in-house. I found my head turning to those extremes when a musician on either side broke into a solo. Overall, it was a very fine presentation but I still felt a gnawing sense of disappointment that they didn’t sound as good as I heard them at the shows. Was it just the much more expensive rigs that achieved such greatness?

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1862-amphion-argon7ls-loudspeaker

Unsurprisingly, given the difference in size and driver complement between the two models, the Argon7LS floorstanders could play far louder and far deeper than the MG-10 minimonitors. When the Esoteric speakers were asked to play loudly, they didn’t misbehave in any egregious way, but they did compress the signal and, more problematically, shifted the frequency balance toward the treble. The Amphions simply got louder.

The MG-10 has average bass depth for a speaker of its size, but I’ve always been impressed with the cleanliness and articulation of that bass. When driven by the NAD, however, the Amphions matched the Esoterics in bass articulation and thoroughly trounced them in both depth and impact. Bass performance was closer when driven by the Graaf, with the Argon7LS speakers still leading on depth and impact, but slightly trailing the MG-10s on articulation. When driving the speakers with either amplifier, however, the MG-10s rendered Christian McBride’s bass on “Armando’s Rhumba” with a little more tonal specificity. Both speaker models energize the same bass modes in my room—that’s just physics—but the significantly greater bass capabilities of the Amphions meant they benefited more from equalization; the Esoterics simply can’t overload a room with bass.