Audiophilepure

Given this philosophy, it’s not surprising that the line tends to be self-effacing in nature. The folks at Bowers & Wilkins aren’t interested in creating a particular sound; they’re into building good drivers and giving them the best possible environment in which to thrive. The 805 D4 is firmly in keeping with this tradition. Its cabinet is the quietest it’s ever been, and the drivers are more linear and well-behaved than ever. As a result, you don’t hear them. 

That’s not to be construed as implying that these speakers are dull. Far from it! They have a wide dynamic range and plenty of rhythmic pizzaz. But they also allow more subtle musical flourishes, such as tiny dynamic nuances, to emerge in a natural, unshowy way. I suspect this is down to the diamond tweeter, which isn’t as extended as some I’ve heard but is incredibly smooth and never etched.  

https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/mission-qx-2-mkii

Now it’s time to answer the big question. Do the new Missions still have the magic of the old pair? Well, they’re still a very entertaining and fun-sounding pair of speakers. They waste no time punching out the lively piano play found in Kate Nash’s Foundations. Upbeat guitar strums and percussion also combine to get the track rolling along at a rapid rate of knots. There’s a good sense of solidity to the overall sound and the Missions do a fine job communicating the sarcastic, slightly annoyed tone of her vocal.

Switch to Kanye West’s Black Skinhead and the QX-2 MKII construct a robust soundstage, flexing their muscles from the very first note. In Hulk terms, they’d be looking for a new shirt and pair of shorts. The Missions are capable of delivering a big, muscular sound – they not only summon an impressive amount of bass weight to hammer home Kanye’s stompy bass arrangement but they also probe surprisingly deep too, painting notes with a nice amount of texture.

I’m mindful here that this could sound like an ‘all detail, no fun’ loudspeaker. There are some high-end loudspeaker designs that make music a sterile, if detailed, event. There are others that go for the sense of occasion, at the expense of transparency, clarity and detail. Few manage to have feet in both camps, and the BC150 is one of those rare exceptions that are both musically communicative and musically analytical at the same time. That’s a heady mix, but might require some sensory readjustment on the part of the listener; we are used to having to make a choice in this trade-off, and the first time you get to experience both the detail and the musical intention that underpins that detail, it can be a daunting experience. Don’t be surprised if that doubles your listening energies at first, but you soon get past this and will find the sound just beguiling and inviting you to play further.

A sonic reevaluation could be short-hand for ‘it sounds so bright, you need to wait a little for your ears to be reprofiled’ in some cases, but not the BC150. This is a loudspeaker of great balance, remember. The BC150 is not bright, or boomy… it’s extremely neutral. There’s just so much neutrality on offer, it takes some time to process at first. Once you get over that hurdle, there’s no real going back however. It’s that good a loudspeaker.

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/aperion-audio-super-tweeters

I wasn’t a big fan of the pricier dual ribbon model. By measurement it actually began rolling off closer to 15kHz than to the 20kHz plus of the other two. But few of us are likely to be very sensitive above 15kHz, and there’s not a lot of source material that goes significantly higher (sorry, high-res fans). Nor did its rear-reflection capability add any audible benefits for me. But that might be different in another setup in a different room.

One issue I did find, particularly on the Aluminum Ribbon, is that the tweeters weren’t all that well matched. Each required different crossover and level settings for identical measurements. (I did swap them left and right to insure that the measured differences weren’t room or position related; they weren’t). This suggests that the ribbons themselves might not be tightly matched. The different settings available did ultimately result in a good match, however, and even in the same settings, without the benefit of measurement-matching, the differences were unlikely to be audibly obvious.

Sonus faber Lumina II Speakers

Although the bass produced by the Lumina II speakers was sufficient for most of my music listening, it could be improved with the addition of a good subwoofer. In the later part of my review, I used my Rythmik F12SE subwoofer, which is capable to extend the bass to well below 20 Hz, to augment the Lumina II pair and achieved an excellent result. In the setup, I let the Lumina II run full range and crossed over the Rythmik subwoofer at around 55 Hz. The combination turned out to be a potent one, improving the bass presence and adding more weight to the foundation of the overall musical presentation. Combining these bookshelf speakers with a good subwoofer in a 2.1 configuration like this made the whole musical reproduction more complete and would be my method of choice to gain the best sonic advantage of the Lumina II based speaker setup.