Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/castle-windsor-duke-loudspeaker

The crossover is a fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley type set at a moderate 2.1kH and featuring air-cored inductors. While it is more common to use iron-cored inductors in the bass arm of the crossover for their reduced copper turns, the slightly higher resistance of these air-cored types is allowed for in the design of the bass/mid driver. The result, according to Castle, is ‘a flat response with an easy load for amplifiers and low distortion’, claims that are largely backed up by PM‘s independent measurements.

Fit and finish of the loudspeakers is immaculate, and they are glorious pieces of furniture in their own right. Magnetically attached grilles are supplied but they are best left in the box, for reasons I’ll return to. Dedicated open-frame metal stands are available for an additional £500 but these were not supplied for review, so the Dukes were auditioned atop mass-loaded Atacama SL-600 stands, and connected to my regular Yamaha C/M-5000 pre/power amplifiers

https://www.hifinews.com/content/martinlogan-motion-b10-loudspeaker

This was recorded in a club, quite audibly without the benefit of the microphones or recording equipment which enabled Graham Nash (above) to deliver such magnificent sounds. Even with these handicaps, the sound was rock-solid, detailed and hardly revealing of its limitations. It may have languished undiscovered for decades, and made no claims to audiophile quality, but, wow! was it engaging through these diminutive MartinLogan standmounts.

Then I put on 1990’s Dick Tracy soundtrack [Sire 7599-26279 1], music made to sound, via the arrangements, as if recorded in the 1940s. Stage width – deliberately, no doubt – was variable, while vocals ranged from Jerry Lee Lewis in full-on sinner mode to Darlene Love and k.d. lang. It boogied from track-to-track, the Motion B10 an open window. If you prefer the analytical, this speaker is a short-list must.

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/reference-components/1840-recommended-reference-component-t-a-elektroakustik-solitaire-s-530-loudspeaker

In conclusion, Hans writes that the S 530 is different from any other loudspeaker he has heard in more than a decade of reviewing high-end gear—different in the way it looks and different in the way it sounds, which was “profoundly, stupefyingly good.” He declares the Solitaire S 530 the best-sounding loudspeaker he had ever heard. Hans’s praise for the S 530, which pervades his review, earned this loudspeaker a Reviewers’ Choice award at the time the review was published. Those same words earned it our Recommended Reference Component award this month.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/monitor-audio-platinum-300-3g-loudspeaker

 I see I haven’t commented yet on the Platinum 300 3G’s degree of tonal neutrality. This speaker is commendably uncolored. Solo piano recordings are very revealing of problems in the upper midrange, but the piano on the Silverman concert recording sounded both natural and full range, with no notes emphasized. The only aspect of the Monitor Audio’s sonic signature that did occasionally concern me was a slight emphasis to recorded sibilance, more noticeable with the solid state Naim and Parasound amplifiers than with the tubed Audio Research I/50 or, paradoxically perhaps, the class-D NAD. The I/50’s top octave starts to roll off prematurely into low impedances (footnote 1), which could account somewhat for its mitigation of this slight sibilance, though the shape of the Platinum 300 3G’s impedance magnitude trace (fig.1 in the Measurements sidebar) suggests that this rolloff will be minimal.

I finished my critical listening sessions with Joni Mitchell at Newport (24/192 FLAC, Rhino/Qobuz), recorded live in 2022. What can I say? With its lack of coloration and neutral tonal balance, Monitor Audio’s Platinum 300 3G did justice not just to Mitchell’s age-deepened voice but to those of all the singers featured on this album.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/focal-maestro-utopia-evo-loudspeaker

One moment, the Maestros take on the character of a 200lb street brawler, the next, that of a ballerina. They did the only thing that matters in the wild world of hi-fi: connect me to the music. I produced pages of notes full of terms like authority, grace, ebullience, grandeur, brawn. But maybe this says it better than reams of descriptors: During the evaluation of almost every new piece in my system, I make a fresh Roon playlist of songs that show off the product particularly well. On average, I end up with a list of 30, 40 songs. After two months with the Maestros, I was up to 157 tracks. From chamber quartets to EDM, orchestral showpieces to Appalachian folk, delta blues to big band, these exceptional French speakers brought the joy. Astute and revealing, they’re among the hautest of haut-parleurs.

https://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/wilson_audio_alexia_v.htm

is Alexia V the last word — the best speaker I have ever heard? Of course not. There are much more expensive and larger speakers that have impressed me in certain ways that no others have come close to matching. When I heard the WAMM in David Wilson’s house, it had a high-frequency delicacy and lucidity that nothing else has equaled. And more recently, I visited the Göbel factory/showroom where their 1200-pound Divin Majestic produced bass density, resolution, and dynamics that I have not heard in any other system. However, those speakers cost seven to nine times the price of Alexia V, and they would not fit in my home or the homes of most audiophiles.

I have paid close attention to Wilson Audio speakers over the years. I fell in love with Yvette and was sorely tempted by Sasha DAW. However, the Alexia V is now the sweet spot of the Wilson lineup, with its breathtaking dynamics, improved sensitivity, and acute tonal accuracy. Combined with these attributes, its adjustability makes it possible to fit this fairly large speaker into a somewhat modestly sized room. Most of all, the Alexia V has rekindled my love affair with records. I’ve spent the last couple of months playing treasures I acquired over the years that only now are revealing their hidden beauty. The Alexia V stands out among a select few audio products I have reviewed over the years. This is a pair of speakers that will not be leaving anytime soon

https://www.hifinews.com/content/bw-801-d4-signature-loudspeaker

Both voices are richly characterised, and there’s tight, rich and weighty bass, as indeed there is on the cover of The Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s A Sin’. Here I’ll admit to preferring the version on the PSB’s recent Smash compilation [Parlophone 5054197296215], and the replacement of Elton John’s mannered vocals with Neil Tennant’s. The voice is just as affected, but much less of a drag on the rhythmic drive of the track, which still sings through the oddly ‘brickwalled’ production.

There’s no such problem with the mystical, deeply moving sound of Paul Simon’s Seven Psalms [Sony/Owl Records 19658779112]. Via these speakers it’s going to grab and hold you throughout its more than 30-minute running time, the seamless music punctuated with temple bells and bowls seemingly hanging in three dimensions in the soundstage. The imaging is wonderful, and the effect hypnotic.