Audiophilepure

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.

https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/kef-reference-1-meta

We switch musical genres to Major Lazer’s Pon The Floor and the KEFs shift gear effortlessly. With music such as this, they sound agile and punchy, delivering the song’s rhythmic drive with verve. Bass notes kick hard and lows are delivered in a taut and tuneful way. Move up the frequency range and you’ll find that voices come through with clarity; every nuance is delivered in a clear and proportional way.

https://43339e74f51053fc645bd085ff03aa25.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html

There is plenty of bite at the top end too, but never to the extent where the speakers make a meal of a less-than-perfect recording. While there is no denying the Reference 1 Meta’s high level of transparency, they never sound like the flaws in the recording are being highlighted. If those flaws are there you’ll hear them but there won’t be a spotlight on them.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/mofi-sourcepoint-10-loudspeaker

With modern dance tracks that care little about stereo imaging, these speakers get on with sounding full-range and subjectively uniform. Trance anthem ‘Carte Blache’, by Veracoche [Pure Trance Classics; New State Music NEWCD9068], thundered along with a punchy kick drum and synth notes that ebbed and flowed through the midband, while DJ Brockie and Ed Solo’s drum ‘n’ bass piece ‘Represent’ [Undiluted 44.1kHz/

16-bit download] was less musical, more visceral. Both proved MoFi’s woofer isn’t slow, particularly with the deliberately jerky bass on the Brockie track, and with the McIntosh amp as back up the SourcePoint 10s smashed out these nightclub staples. Unsurprisingly, given their proven spec. and sheer size, they can be cajoled into sounding far larger than a staple standmount.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/monitor-audio-hyphn-loudspeaker

The same is true of The Who’s much more recently recorded With Orchestra Live At Wembley set [Polydor 4883160]. Here the Hyphns show Pete Townshend’s guitar can still slam and Roger Daltrey’s vocals snarl, but also make the most of the added warmth of the 57-piece ‘big band’ backing, whether on the opening ‘Who Are You’ or classics such as ‘Baba O’Riley’, the latter also notable for the contribution of the ‘audience choir’.

With this and the classic Floyd set, the Hyphn shows it can let down its hair and rock hard when required, but then the next moment it can go back to lush and intimate. For example with Joyce DiDonato’s radiant Eden recital [Erato 0190296465154] every word of ‘As With Rosy Steps The Morn’, from Handel’s Theodora, is crystal clear, thanks to the speakers’ focused, insightful view of the singer’s remarkable voice, with every timbral nuance laid out for inspection. Or then again you could just enjoy the magic of the performance – these loudspeakers work on both levels.

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1187-pmc-twenty5-26i-loudspeaker

A somewhat surprising loudspeaker, then—having experienced earlier transmission-line designs from IMF Electronics and TDL Electronics, I was expecting to hear incredibly extended but potentially boomy bass. But PMC has refined its transmission-line designs to the point where they sound extremely controlled and tight. The Twenty5.26i goes low but with zero overhang; bass is very clean, all the way down.

Despite its size, this loudspeaker was extremely flexible in terms of placement. It wasn’t sensitive to room boundaries, and never boomed. On the contrary, it had an extremely articulate and controlled bass response. My only gripe was that the low end was somewhat dry. Just occasionally, I found myself wishing for a little more upper- or mid-bass fullness so that tom drums hit a little harder and pianos sounded a little more sonorous.