Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/perlisten-s4b-loudspeaker

If you’re partial to electronic music where effects are thrown across the soundstage, then you’ll appreciate this speaker pairing’s ability to lock in step for such acrobatics. With ‘100’ by Jon Hopkins [Contact Note; Linn Records; 96kHz/24-bit] it was a delight to follow the synthesiser effects as they moved smoothly between the speakers.

Not that such production techniques are new-fangled, as proven by the woozy breakdown of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ [Led Zeppelin II; Atlantic; 96kHz/24-bit]. Coming after two minutes of hard-hitting blues rock framing Robert Plant’s triumphant vocals, this near-psychedelic section felt like it was from another planet. Perlisten’s small(ish) cabinets concocted a wall of sound bigger than you might expect, casting Plant’s wails high and wide. Then Jimmy Page let rip on his Les Paul and I was grinning from ear to ear.

The Accordo Essence is a truly unique proposition. They look stunning, curvaceous and fabulously constructed in a natural wood that assures the most anti-audio partners! Their sound, as I discussed earlier, bares a striking audio resemblance to the violins made in the golden age of Venetian violin making; not bright and sharp, but liquid and smooth, not known for their vast power, but a pleasingly balanced and warm sound. They seem to extract the best from a piece of music without being overly analytical and appeal to the actual music lover who just wants to enjoy their music. Even if that music arrives in a romantic rose-tinted way. It is worth careful partnering with a suitable amplifier. Valves are a sure-fire winner, but EL34s work best in my system. In these dark times, who wouldn’t permit this marvellous sonic indulgence?

https://www.hifinews.com/content/cabasse-pearl-pelegrina-loudspeaker

All of this is governed via Cabasse’s StreamControl app along with access to streaming services including Deezer, Napster, Qobuz, Spotify and Tidal, plus the user’s own music, whether held on network storage or USB drives plugged into the speaker system.

The speakers include Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking, Bluetooth, and optical/coaxial inputs, and depending on which input is chosen can handle audio at up to DXD-level LPCM and DSD128. Meanwhile, analogue inputs are also provided on RCAs and balanced XLRs, with a stereo pair on each speaker – sources connected this way to one speaker will be shared to the other via the network connection.

Switch to Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven and the cable helps to communicate the harmonics of the piano and the differentiation between key strokes. The ebb and flow of the track is communicated with greater clarity. Notes sound natural and realistic. The speaker cable doesn’t allow dynamics to shine quite as brightly as the very best at the money, though, and there’s a slight emotional disconnect from the music.

The TAD Evolution One TX is an exemplary performer all-around and, thanks to the care that went into its design, one that will work well in a wide range of real-world listening environments. If your room isn’t palatial, but you still want sound that maintains coherency, detail, and timbral consistency as the music scales up, this could be the speaker for you. Sonically, the E1TX is competitive with similarly priced products from other top manufacturers, including some with the name of the company’s founder on the faceplate. If someone does ask who designed your loudspeaker, you can always point to the badge on the front baffle and say: “Oh, some guy named Tad.” I’m sure that Mr. Nagatani and the others on his talented team won’t mind.

REVIEW: The LSA Signature 80 Speakers

The $1,000 – $2,500 speaker market is probably one of the most highly competitive segments going. The LSA Signature 80 belongs in the top tier of this group. Rather than concentrating on blowing you away with one optimized aspect of the frequency range, the LSA team brings you a well-balanced speaker, that you can actually live with.

It’s hard for companies like KEF, Elac and such to put as much forward in this area of high-end audio, because everyone needs to get their piece of the pie. For those of you looking for the maximum value, it’s tough to beat a company like LSA, because there is no importer, distributor and dealer in the chain. Comparing the Signature 80 to the KEF LS-50 and the ELAC Uni-Fi, the Signature 80s not only reveal more music, they are much easier to drive.

Sticking with Speakers Corner records (why not, they are the best after all), I can tell you that listening to Janos Starker’s suites for unaccompanied Cello [Mercury] was also a near-religious experience paired with the Totem Metals. The point is easily made on any of the tracks so start at the beginning with Suite No 1 in G Praeludium. The Metals push the cello right out into the living room in a way that was disorienting for the first few moments it was so untethered to the speaker cabinets. In a way that you would read the sound if someone were to break a wine glass on a wall close behind you, the Metals endowed Janos’ playing of the cello with that electric “in the room” crispness that can not be faked. When Janos draws the bow across the strings and you hear his physical mannerisms and body shifts coming through in space behind the cello; word to the wise, make sure you know who is presently in your house. You wouldn’t want to have to jump up to look in the other room for robbers (as I did more than I would like to admit) while getting used to the knife-edge detail and realism the Metals illustrate so well.

Like the original 600M, the new MKII needs some room to breathe, especially with such a large port in the rear. To that end, I placed the speakers on my 24” metal stands about three feet away from the front and side walls.

As always, I started with the speakers pointed straight ahead, and unlike the first 600M which needed a bit of adjustment in terms of toe-in, the 600M II immediately snapped into focus and projected an awesome soundstage.

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But they’re just as effective with the exuberant playing on Tuomas Antero Turunen’s ‘Joy Dance’ from his Lifesparks album [Skip Records SKP 9154-2], fully making the listening experience live up to the title. Similarly, albeit different, the Helensburgh Tango from the Tord Gustavsen Trio’s Opening album [ECM 2742] is wonderfully dark and sombre, with its snare rolls and recessed instruments very unsettling.

Then again, the speakers soar with Sandrine Piau’s voice on her Rivales album [Alpha ALPHA824, 96kHz/24-bit], her aria from Gluck’s ‘La Clemenza de Tito’ especially vibrant thanks to the speaker’s free-breathing sound and purity of tone. They present Holly Coles voice on ‘I Could Write A Book’ [Holly, 2xHDRR1101; DSD128] with superb intimacy as she duets with Wycliffe Gordon before slipping into the languorous ‘Lazy Afternoon’, her voice set against the gentle Hammond B3 of Larry Goldings. It’s all delicious stuff – and addictive.