Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/kef-r3-meta-loudspeaker

The R3 Meta’s rated 87dB sensitivity and 4ohm nominal impedance might suggest a tougher-than-typical drive, but I found it worked happily with Audiolab’s similarly priced 9000A integrated [HFN Aug ’23], and had superb results with Primare’s beefier, Class D A35.2 power amp [HFN Dec ’19]. Ramp up the level and KEF’s latest standmount rewards with a dynamic, full-range performance.

Some well-worn demo tracks, including Dire Straits’ ‘Telegraph Road’ [Love Over Gold; Vertigo 800 088-2], Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ [Honky Chateau; Mercury 528 162-2], and the York remix of Mike Oldfield’s ‘Ommadawn’ [Tubular Beats; Ear Music; 44kHz/16-bit] reinforced my belief that KEF has achieved something rather special here. This is a well-priced speaker with high-end aspirations and a sound to match.

All these ground-breaking new drive unit and crossover developments are housed in a beautifully curved, exquisitely finished inert enclosure. The hybrid ‘Resonance Suppression Composite’ (RSC) cabinets have a minimum thickness of 22mm and vary up to 50mm for optimal performance. The 4° tilt improves the time alignment of sound to listener, whilst the 6mm ultra rigid aluminim front baffle firmly houses the drivers and isolates any cabinet resonances from the listening environment.

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/dynaudio-emit-50-loudspeaker-review

The Emit 50 may be Dynaudio’s entry-level offering, but it serves as a shining example of the Emit line. These towers reveal an impressive amount of information, making them one of my favorite options in this price range. They perform admirably even in less-than-ideal conditions, a feat many speakers fail to achieve. When attention to the room is given, such as adding acoustic treatments and digital signal processing, the Emit 50s rise to the occasion, making the improvements audible and appreciated.

While not a “budget” speaker, the Emit 50 is within reach and a worthwhile investment for anyone seeking a quality pair of 2-channel towers or the foundation of a home theater system. Whether you opt for a minimalist 2-channel setup or a full-blown home theater, the Dynaudio Emit 50s consistently impress. Their exceptional soundstage and imaging capabilities make them stand out, providing hours of enjoyable listening and rediscovering familiar songs in new ways. Dynaudio’s commitment to quality shines through in the Emit 50, offering a natural, easy sound that anyone can enjoy.

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1206-vivid-audio-giya-g 3-series-2-loudspeaker

As an aside, Laurence Dickie shared, “The watchword from the beginning for our company has been freedom from resonance and reflection. It is what defines the non-sound from Vivid Audio.” Having spent several months with Vivid Audio’s Giya G3 Series 2, I can confidently confirm the former, but would qualify the latter. There’s no such thing as a perfect loudspeaker, and the Vivid is no exception. That said, the G3S2 is the closest thing to perfection I’ve heard. This loudspeaker does everything well, from macrodynamics to microdynamics, transparency to the source, you name it. It’s also impossibly fast and has exceptionally holographic stereo imaging. Combine that with a superbly well-controlled, punchy bottom end, and it leads me to the inexorable conclusion that Vivid Audio’s Giya G3 Series 2 is more than just a superlative loudspeaker. It’s a dream machine.

The bass produced by the active dual 12-inch woofers felt powerful enough to scramble your insides in that basement listening space. It was tight, visceral, and unrelenting. At times and depending on the track I felt, while fun, the bass level might have been a little too much for that room. This is saying something as I’ve heard all manner of speakers and subwoofers in Craig’s basement over the years, and while I loved the powerful bass for most tracks, on select others I came away thinking the bass was a bit too much on certain tracks. The way Craig had the speakers configured with the Marantz AV10 pre-pro allowed for adjustments to the bass levels. I didn’t ask him to turn it down as the room pressurization was too enjoyable. If one is planning to bi-amp the Focus XD while using a standard stereo preamp and some Y-cables, then getting the optional Nobsound external attenuation box (mentioned in the Design section) might be a good idea.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/jbl-4329p-active-loudspeaker

Wanting to move on to highest-resolution playback, I connected the speakers together with their CAT5e tether and plugged an Ethernet cable into the primary speaker. I selected the network/streaming input on the JBL remote and fired up Roon software on my office desktop computer, which was set up as a Roon Core. It found the JBL speakers on the network, noting that they were not “Roon Tested” but were available as a designated endpoint. I selected them and started streaming music from my own library and Qobuz. Although JBL folks didn’t say the speakers needed break-in time, all new woofers, in my experience, benefit from some limbering up, so I played music for hours on end for a few days. By the third day, the bass was sounding deeper, fuller, and less like it was pushing against the tide. The horn tweeters seemed a little less jangly, and the bass-treble balance settled in. I felt refreshed from all the hard rock, metal, and old-school hip-hop I’d played as the speakers worked out their birth pangs.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/sonus-faber-homage-amati-g5-loudspeaker

Meanwhile, the two G5 bass drivers, with their ‘ultralight CCAW voice coils’ and neodymium-boosted magnet, work into a larger vented enclosure, but even this is unusual. Its use of ‘Stealth Ultraflex’ bass tuning, realised as long alloy slots that exit via the speaker’s spine, aim to reduce the size of bass chamber required for a given LF extension while also smoothing out the airflow.

They’re handsome beasts, these Amati speakers, taking their name from Nicolò Amati, active in the 17th century as part of a dynasty of violin makers stretching back to his grandfather Andrea, who first formulated the modern shape of the violin, viola, and cello. Nicolò is acknowledged as the greatest of the family, and later had as his student Andrea Guarneri, and possibly Antonio Stradivari (though this is disputed).