Audiophilepure

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.

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.