Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/kef-reference-5-meta-loudspeaker

With more intimate recordings, the ability of the towering Reference 5 Meta to sound small and precise, yet with plenty of weight, is again in evidence. Erin Bode’s cover of ‘In My Life’, from her YourSong Volume 1 album [Bandcamp download], was given a rock-solid stereo image, every breath clearly delineated, as was her version of ‘Happy Together’, where the presentation was like a high-definition version of something wonderfully old-fashioned, with every word crystal-clear. Rachael Price’s voice on ‘Join Me In A Dream’, from the Rachael and Vilray I Love A Love Song set [Nonesuch 075597909746], was equally lucid, bringing great vivacity to a piece with a deceptively simple – but gorgeous – arrangement. And with Thibault Cauvin’s acoustic guitar arrangement of the Bach ‘Toccata and Fugue’, from his Bach album [Sony Classical 19658784622], the Reference Meta’s superb resolution did a magnificent job of placing the solo instrument in an atmospheric, reverberant space, with laser-like focus and every touch of finger on string clear to hear.

https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/kenaz/

https://www.stereophile.com/content/raidho-td38-loudspeaker

Next, I played “Chorale,” an Anthony Fiumara–composed tribute to Philip Glass performed by the Dutch ensemble Slagwerk Den Haag. It’s a hyperdynamic recording of rich sonorous bells and other resonant percussion instruments. The album is called Vitreous Body (24/48 FLAC, Orange Mountain/Qobuz), no doubt a reference to Glass’s oeuvre (vitreous means glass-like). The bells and their incredibly long reverb t(r)ails were, again, beautifully delivered, with a subtle, sumptuous shimmer.

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1192-estelon-xb-mk-ii-loudspeaker

In retrospect, I don’t think it hurt that the Estelon speakers’ backing cast of characters was at the absolute top of its game. My system has been building itself up over the past year, and right now, with the Hegel H30A amplifier fed by the EMM Labs DS-EQ1 phono stage and DS Audio’s DS 003 cartridge, I feel like I’ve entered another dimension. My own Aurelia Cerica XL speakers, as crazy-good as they are, really don’t do justice to this world-class front end.

No, it took the injection of the Estelon XB Mk IIs to show me what the rest of this kit can truly do. Now, the XBs are expensive speakers, by any stretch, but while I’d be an idiot to brand them a bargain, I truly believe there’s huge value here, given their world-class sound and outrageous, provocative, seductive looks.

I think it’s fair to contrast the XBs to the YBs I’ve lived with for the past three years. The YB is already a Class Three speaker, with its heroic build quality, high-end driver complement, and exceptional sound, and it stands out as a worthwhile purchase on its own merits. The XB, at an additional twenty thousand dollars per pair above the price of the current YB Mk II, is a big-ass jump, and you’d think it would need to be significantly better to justify that Honda-Civic-sized upcharge.