Audiophilepure

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/bowers-wilkins-703-d3-loudspeakers-review

One of my favorite tests of a speaker’s mettle is “Disc Wars” from the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. It’s Daft Punk’s synths plus the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s thick, and it is easily diminished by a speaker that can’t keep up with the dual demands of a full orchestra and relentless subwoofer-crushing synth bass.

I auditioned the track at live music volume levels three separate times. First with the 703 S3s alone, 2.0, no room correction. Then as a 2.1 system, with just one DB3D pitching in below 40 Hz while the speakers run full range, again no room correction. And then I let loose the big guns and ran all four subs along with the speakers while using a 60 Hz crossover and applying room correction below 300 Hz—which is roughly where room effects start to dominate the bass response. The result? Three distinct presentations, each with its merits.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/cadence-arca

After using the Arca in both my listening rooms, I concluded that it was better suited to the larger, better-damped area. Bass output from the speaker was full, very well extended and apparently with a classically flat response. I detected little or no sign that it had been tailored for room-matched alignment.

It quickly became apparent that the Arca displayed more character than usually encountered these days, its rich, sweet sound, overall balance and the way it voiced the listening room being reminiscent of an old 1957 Quad ESL with extra bass extension and power. Rock music played through the Arca will sound too saccharine for some tastes, though its delicate upper range helps to control the effect of distortion and roughness in poorer quality material. Conversely, many speakers do not have the clean, deep bass – of virtually subwoofer quality – which this Cadence design can provide.

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/neat-acoustics-orkestra

This is more than just a ‘big Ekstra’. The Orkestra takes everything that the slimmer floorstander does so effectively and adds a level of scale and effortlessness that ensures it will tackle pretty much anything you care to throw at it with assurance and genuine talent. You can buy prettier speakers for the asking price and they will need to be driven rather than powered, but so long as you can meet these two requirements you have a speaker that is capable of truly extraordinary performance that is hard to rival at the money. Neat’s evolutionary journey continues to deliver the goods and it’s fascinating to see where it takes us next. 

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/neat-acoustics-orkestra

This is more than just a ‘big Ekstra’. The Orkestra takes everything that the slimmer floorstander does so effectively and adds a level of scale and effortlessness that ensures it will tackle pretty much anything you care to throw at it with assurance and genuine talent. You can buy prettier speakers for the asking price and they will need to be driven rather than powered, but so long as you can meet these two requirements you have a speaker that is capable of truly extraordinary performance that is hard to rival at the money. Neat’s evolutionary journey continues to deliver the goods and it’s fascinating to see where it takes us next.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/canton-vento-100-loudspeaker

In terms of fit and finish the speaker ticks all the boxes, including high-quality bi-wire enabled terminals around the back. The Vento 100 is raised over a broader plinth that lets the speaker ‘float’ above the floor and allows its down-facing bass port to vent uniformly out from the base of the cabinet. Spikes can be added and, of course, the Vento 100 doesn’t mind standing a bit closer to the wall compared to rear-firing bass reflex boxes.

The ‘100 is the biggest of eight passive Vento models, alongside the Vento 90 and Vento 80 floorstanders, Vento 30 and Vento 20 standmount/bookshelf speakers, and centre channel, surround and on-wall options for multichannel systems. The range extends further, though: Canton has been a proponent of active designs for decades, offering so-called ‘Smart’ versions of many of its loudspeakers, and that’s the case here. Not of the Vento 100, but there is the wireless, active Vento 9 S2, related to the Vento 90, with claimed built-in amplification of 600W and support for 96kHz/24-bit playback.

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/pmc-twenty523i

This is a speaker that looks and feels very similar to its predecessor and loses absolutely nothing of the positive qualities it possessed. Instead, it works in new talents that broaden its appeal still further. It isn’t cheap and you can point to rivals that will challenge it in relatively straightforward rooms. Where the 23i starts to make its worth felt is as these locations become more challenging. Thanks to the care extended on the decoupling, the ability to create a consistent and believable stereo image and the clout it can wield from a comparatively small cabinet, the PMC can continue to deliver its many virtues as rivals start to struggle. The twenty5.23i looks like business as usual, but in fact marks an impressive step forward for the company. It isn’t very big, but it is rather clever. 

Fhttps://www.hifichoice.com/content/fyne-audio-f1-8

Sensitivity of 91dB and a nominal 8ohm impedance suggest an easy drive, but the F1-8 naturally cries out for a quality system. Assembling the best supporting cast at my disposal, digital feeds are handled by Chord Electronics’ Hugo TT2 DAC (HFC 468) while amplification duties are shared between Hegel’s Class A/B H120 (HFC 460) and Primare’s Class D I25 Prisma (HFC 461) integrated amps. Not high-end enough to require oxygen, but a great fit as it transpires.

What’s clear from the start, music has that ‘natural fibre that breathes’ quality – nothing seems contrived or dialled-up to impress. The speaker conjures scale and dynamic freedom that would be remarkable in a strapping tower, but also incorporates an ability to unearth detail right down to the noise floor and project solid, full-blooded images into the room with almost tangible dimensionality and exacting precision. On Chick Corea’s compilation of jazz/classical live performances, Play, the grand piano simply sounds real with thrilling attack, harmonic colour and texture and lower octave power – a quite stunning achievement for a standmount, even one as rotund as the F1-8.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/pmc-prodigy1-loudspeaker

Then I remembered what PMC is also noted for, so it was back to the bass and the efficacy of its ATL topology. Ron Carter’s bass was so fat, so substantial – and, yes, so beautifully extended – that I wondered what the prodigy5 could add. Should it turn out that there’s even more bass from the floorstander, note that its footprint is the same and will rob you of no more vertical real estate than the prodigy1 on stands.

Having tasted the bass, however, I was drawn to a recording where a bassist was the main focus. The Leroy Vinnegar Sextet’s Leroy Walks! [Contemporary CR00594] is one of those intimate, late-1950s jazz LPs that makes your system sound better than it should, so I had to temper my analysis with the realisation that I wasn’t actually giving the prodigy1s a hard time. Having previously heard the LP through a system with 10in woofers, I was expecting the sound to feel diminished. It was not.