Audiophilepure

When Gunny handed off the Duos to me at the Pacific Audio Fest, he seemed apologetic when he told me that due to supply chain issues, he had to raise his prices. I replied that everyone is dealing with the same thing in this industry, so everyone should understand. Then he told me the new price, $9,500/pair USD. I almost laughed. These speakers, the Sonner Audio Legato Duos, were under ten grand per pair? That simple fact makes these splendid transducers an out-and-out bargain, and they’re worthy of stellar amplification—which I gave ‘em.

It’s funny, though, that now I shift my attention to the Sonner Audio Allegro Unum, a two-way bookshelf monitor that’s still the flagship of the Sonner company. I’ve already compared them to the Sonner Audio Legato Duos quite a bit, and each speaker has slightly different tastes when it comes to matching to an acoustic space, but that spirit is in both, that gentle and music-loving spirit that Gunawan Surya and his team puts into everything they do. Highly recommended.

UK distributor Greg Chapman of VAL Hi-Fi brought the Contra 100S over with a pair of Solid Steel SS-5 three-legged stands which he said are a little short for my listening position, but he likes the way the speakers sound on them. Listening started with the Aretai being driven by a Moor Amps Angel 6 power amplifier with the speakers placed about a foot from the wall which worked well for the mid and treble, but the bass was a little boxy on some tracks. That said Joni Mitchell’s voice sounded rather good on ‘The Man I Love’ and the bass on Kraftwerk’s ‘Radioactivity’ had more gravitas than expected for a box of this scale, the reverb on the live mix giving real depth to the soundstage. Moving the Aretai closer to the wall meant that the soundstage got bigger, but the bass didn’t really change which was surprising, having an active rear bass driver clearly brings benefits in terms of control. Deadmau5’s ‘Seeya’ was delivered with real spatial precision at high levels without any sense of glare or hardness, a characteristic that was to become more apparent the further the listening went on. Aretai favour pro drivers which are generally designed to cope with higher playback levels without distortion and this certainly came through.

Vivid Audio’s Kaya S12 flat-out caught me off guard—not an easy thing to do given the number of two-ways I’ve road tested over the years. Nonetheless, few compacts have managed to achieve the overall sense of midrange balance, tonal verisimilitude, and seat-of-the-pants musicality of the Kaya S12. Within its limits it offered an unfiltered, uncolored window on the music. Its whimsical appearance belies a serious engineering effort to extend the capabilities of the small loudspeaker segment. An impressive achievement and a joy to listen to. 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/estelon-xb-diamond-mk2-loudspeaker

How’s the maximum volume? More than ample for my needs—I never came close to running out of power—though I’m not sure I’d choose speakers with ceramic membranes as party speakers. These are too good for that anyway.

And the bass? Ample quantity, approaching full-range depth while perhaps not quite plumbing the lowest reaches. Certainly, the bass was present at full volume down to the bottom note on acoustic or electric bass (41.2Hz), and it comes very close to full volume down to the lowest notes on a standard grand piano (27.5Hz). Acoustic (double) bass was lively and articulate. On tracks with lots of bass—I’m thinking of EDM tracks like Cristoph’s “Reachin’,” from Consequence of Society Vol.1 (16/44.1 FLAC, Noir Music/Tidal), the bass is fun, although the XB Diamond Mk IIs don’t quite provide the bass massage of the big-sister Forzas. In a room smaller than mine, perhaps they would.

As designers get more control over frequency response and radiation pattern, it becomes more and more clear that they are not all aiming at the same thing. This situation makes it even more important that one listens carefully for oneself. No one else can walk that path for you, of trying to decide what you want your speakers to do. The Five17s present a distinctive view and a definite philosophy of how a loudspeaker should behave. It is surely worth checking them out—there is not much else around like them, since most DSP designers are going via the narrow-pattern controlled-directivity route and for a slight, or not so slight, downslope in on-axis response. The Five17s do neither of those things but present a different view of neutral sound, and one which can be convincing, indeed. Your choice. What they do, they do very well, and in a remarkably small and elegant package. 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/estelon-xb-diamond-mk2-loudspeaker

How’s the maximum volume? More than ample for my needs—I never came close to running out of power—though I’m not sure I’d choose speakers with ceramic membranes as party speakers. These are too good for that anyway.

And the bass? Ample quantity, approaching full-range depth while perhaps not quite plumbing the lowest reaches. Certainly, the bass was present at full volume down to the bottom note on acoustic or electric bass (41.2Hz), and it comes very close to full volume down to the lowest notes on a standard grand piano (27.5Hz). Acoustic (double) bass was lively and articulate. On tracks with lots of bass—I’m thinking of EDM tracks like Cristoph’s “Reachin’,” from Consequence of Society Vol.1 (16/44.1 FLAC, Noir Music/Tidal), the bass is fun, although the XB Diamond Mk IIs don’t quite provide the bass massage of the big-sister Forzas. In a room smaller than mine, perhaps they would.

If you are wondering about my emphasis at the start of this review on how impressed I was with IRS Reference and Genesis I in their day, let me stress that I’ve been reviewing for far too long to let hope or nostalgia substitute for real-world performance in a constantly evolving high end. If anything, I tend to be a bit hypercritical in evaluating anything I consider for purchase. The FR30, did more than live up to my hopes, however, and one way to sum up is to state that I’m buying my review pair as another set of reference speakers. The FR30 is truly outstanding, highly recommended, and well worth the set-up effort necessary to make it perform at its best!