Audiophilepure

https://www.stereophile.com/content/devore-fidelity-orangutan-obaby-loudspeaker

Were sacrifices required to develop a smaller, cheaper ape? Of course. “Compared to the O/96, the O/baby cabinets are much less expensive to make and ‘finish,'” DeVore said. “The cabinets are made from a high-recycled-content MDF made in Europe with black pigment mixed into the pulp to make the material itself have that charcoal gray color. While this is far more expensive than standard MDF, it ends up saving costs in production, as there is no veneering the panels and no staining. We just clearcoat the gray material to get the finished product.” Functionally, “the smaller woofer is less expensive and requires a smaller internal volume to work optimally,” DeVore said. The O/baby is not as sensitive as the bigger Orangutan speakers, and it won’t play as loud.

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1214-tad-compact-evolution-one-tx-loudspeaker

While listening to Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” from her second album, 21 (16/44.1 AIFF, Columbia Records), I reveled in the CE1TX loudspeakers’ soundstaging prowess. From the plucks of Ben Thomas’s acoustic guitar that open the track to the Tottenham-born songstress’s powerful opening verses—presented front and center in vivid detail—and the backing drums behind her that resound with ample reverbed spatial cues, each component of the track was laid out before me with assiduous precision. This exactness did nothing to rob Adele of her vocal power as the TADs propelled her into my listening room in all her soulful glory. The backing tambourine lent a touch of trebly splash that punctuated my deep enjoyment of the CE1TXes’ efforts. I would have enjoyed a touch more shove in the mid-bass, as the hearty kick drum on the track felt a bit lightweight, but it’s also worth noting that my basement listening room—a space measuring roughly 16.5′W × 14′L × 9′H—is part of a larger, L-shaped space measuring 29′ at its longest and 37′ at its widest. Put plainly, my room tends to swallow bass energy at certain frequencies, and I suspect that was a partial contributor here.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/estelon-aura-loudspeaker

The instruments and their aural environments are remarkably similar to each other, but I detect a bit more focus in the BIS recording. And, although Zhang was recorded in a film/recording studio in Munich and Piemontesi in a small, modern concert hall in Lugano, neither recording offered much information about the acoustics of the recording sites. The contrast is in the playing. Zhang clearly relishes articulating individual notes, which he does with almost superhuman precision. Piemontesi leans toward a more legato expression, although the Estelons still let me hear each of the notes when I attended to them. Zhang’s delineations were thrilling in the “big” pieces, such as No.4, “Mazeppa,” and No.8, “Wilde Jagd,” but also surprisingly touching in the more delicate No.7, “Vision”; he kept me hanging on every note, with bated breath. Strangely, Piemontesi’s more fluid playing achieved more momentum in the big pieces and provided a much-appreciated grace in the delicate pieces. I listened to both performances several times via the AURAs. The experience was informative, enjoyable, and totally nonfatiguing.

These are well-engineered speakers, but buyers will need to do a bit of room matching and think about augmenting them with a sub. If being used for home theater duty, I think a sub would be a requirement. For more casual listening the speakers will perform well. Their frequency response, dynamic range, clean undistorted audio, and imaging skills are something I don’t always find in similar speakers. A lot of thought obviously went into the design and manufacture of the PSB T54 speakers.

Although the T54 doesn’t reach as deeply as some other speakers I’ve heard at the $1499 price, I haven’t heard other speakers do so many other things as right as the T54 speakers. Since the deepest low end (if you want it) can be solved with a good subwoofer, I think the T54 speakers represent a solid and competitive value. If you’re not considering using them for home theater, and you have a good match for a room, I have high praise for these speakers.

Great as everything else is, these speakers are equally smooth throughout the frequency spectrum. Those of you that enjoy this aspect of single driver or panel speakers will appreciate how well the three drivers in the Hailey’s work together. No matter how loud or soft the Haleys are played, they deliver the electrical impulses presented to them with one voice.

If you really want to blast the system, you will need more than 15 watts per channel, and though the Haileys reveal a lot at low volume, they are glorious when being played loud. Whether you’re listening to Deep Purple’s Made in Japan, The 1812 Overture, or grooving on some Slowdive, these speakers will take you anywhere you want to go.

Ironically when YG hit the market 21 years ago, under their original ownership they claimed to be the “world’s greatest loudspeaker.” While I can’t make that claim about any one loudspeaker, I’d certainly say that today, YG is in that small top tier of the world’s finest speakers without hesitation.

https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/audiovector-qr-7

Their low frequencies are tuned by a downward firing port. This port exits near the front edge of the QR 7’s base and vents through the small gap between the main cabinet and the plinth that supports it. Such an arrangement tends to make speakers less fussy about placement within a room, and so it proves in this case with the Audivectors sounding pretty balanced from around 50cm away from the closest walls. They don’t prove too fussy about angling towards the listening position either, which points to a decently wide dispersion from those AMT tweeters. We end up with the QR 7 pointing towards the listening position, crossing a little behind our heads, which gives a broad and nicely focused soundstage.