Audiophilepure

Many small and inexpensive speakers claim greatness, but few achieve it. The JBL L52 Classic Bookshelf Speaker is one of the best of those few. It achieves big speaker status to a greater degree than pretty much any bookshelf/stand-mount speaker I’ve listened to. It produces a clean and clear sound that is balanced across the frequency range. It delivers strong but controlled bass that reaches lower than you’d expect. You can place them straight or toed, wide or narrow, and they’ll create a huge sound stage that goes far beyond the confines of your room. And they look amazing. The retro style in this case is simple and to the point. The real walnut veneer adds a touch of high-end and the grille can only be called cool. And if you don’t want them to stand out, get the black grille.

Bottom line: Like the superb Estelon X Diamond Mk II, the Stenheim Five SE is not just a great speaker; it is one of high-end audio’s greatest speakers. Its ability to generate truly deep, linear, powerful bass, unusually rich and lifelike tone color, near-visible three-dimensional images, and astounding detail and dynamics from such a modest enclosure is not just a surprise; it is one for the ages. For those of you looking for the high-end answer to a limited listening space, look no further. Hie thee to the nearest Stenheim dealership—pronto. In cones-in-a-box loudspeakers, you just don’t find this big a gift in this small a package every day (or every decade). 

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/klipsch-la-scala-al5

One of my favourite loudspeakers currently on sale, Klipsch’s La Scala AL5 is a mighty design that sounds like few others available and makes music absolutely captivating to listen to in the process. Although huge and heavy, it’s not actually the company’s flagship – that accolade goes to the £17,500 Heritage Klipschorn AK6 – but is a far more practical proposition for anyone in terms of space. It’s far from perfect – as are all speakers – but it has a unique charm and an enthusiasm for music that’s hard not to love. Match carefully to a smooth sounding source and amplifier, and you’re close to hi-fi nirvana.

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/magico-a1

As we’d expect from a cabinet of this size, the standmount excels when it comes to reproducing vocals. And not because the midband is anyway emphasised at the expense of the bass and treble. Sure, it can’t quite match the ‘in-you-head’ illusion of demo-quality vocals displayed by the likes of Avantgarde horns, but challenges such as Gregory Porter’s Hey Laura and Richard Burton’s spoken word introduction at the beginning of Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds are deftly handled, revealing a seamless all-of-a-piece integration that is deeply impressive.

Even lower frequencies – so often the Achilles’ heel of even the best standmounts – keep up the good work. Listening to the Volle Dynamik remix of Yello’s Oh Yeah, taken from the 2009 album The Race sees the bass delivered with effortless drive with no sign of artificial bloom or boom. It simply descends very smoothly and then quietly exits so the absence of that missing octave goes by barely noticed. And while a glance at the specs suggests that the Magico isn’t the most sensitive of speakers, the A1 still manages to soak up plenty of power and push out those SPLs as if its very existence depends upon it.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/q-acoustics-concept-50-loudspeaker

A while back I wrote that $7000/pair was becoming the sweet price spot for affordable tower speakers, offering excellent sound quality and measured performance without much in the way of compromise. The Q Acoustics Concept 50 lowers that sweet spot to $3000/pair. Okay, the fact that it’s made in China will contribute to the lowering of the sweet spot price, but this immaculate-looking, -sounding, and -measuring loudspeaker gets a strong recommendation from me for use in moderate-sized rooms like mine. Just make sure you can place it close to the wall behind it.

https://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2022/8/2/acelec-model-one-loudspeaker

Designer Cees Ruijtenberg’s words to represent his speakers, “Model One is possibly the most transparent conventional loudspeaker available today.” reminds me of Robert Duvall’s outlaw character to John Wayne at the final gunfight in True Grit, “I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!”. That said, the bold talk has a lot of merits. There’s some real magic going on here. Careful design, choice parts and everything well implemented. With the result, you may hear what Ruijtenberg does. The Model Ones certainly are transparent and dynamic bookshelf speakers that can live in many musical settings. And at the introductory price, a steal. Have a listen before the price goes up. Very highly recommended.

records are uniformly fine sounding, a few so much that they’ve made their way to this magazine’s Super LP List. On her third release, The Window, you’ll find her moving take on “Somewhere” from West Side Story—a wonderful live recording on which she’s accompanied by collaborator-pianist Sullivan Fortner in a breathtaking give and take. All the qualities I’ve attributed to the Pienza were in evidence—wonderful purity, warmth, texture, a more-than-impressive sonic vanishing act. But ultimately it was my getting lost in their performance, actually tearing up at the song’s conclusion, that made me truly appreciate what Francesco Rubenni and his team have accomplished. Bravo! 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/audiovector-qr-7-loudspeaker

At $6500/pair, Audiovector’s QR 7 is competitively priced, though it is up against other floorstanding speakers in this price region, such as the PSB Synchrony T600 ($7999/pair), which I reviewed in November 2021, and the Canton Reference 7 K ($6995/pair), which I reviewed in September 2021. The Audiovector offers a different balance of qualities than those two loudspeakers: While its midrange has a little more character than the PSB, its highs are more neutral-sounding than the Canton’s, and it offers more extended, more powerful-sounding low frequencies than either of those speakers. The QR 7 will work best in medium- to large-sized rooms. Recommended.