Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/avid-reference-four-loudspeaker

Staying with events in that county, the Fours do a fine job with the 2020 Bergen Philharmonic/Edward Gardner recording of Britten’s Aldeburgh-set Peter Grimes [Chandos CHSA 5250; DSD 64]. Yes, in absolute terms I could have done with a little more bass growl and weight for that celebrated ‘Storm’ interlude, but for speakers so small what’s on offer is still mighty impressive. In the context of an unfolding drama whose every nuance and twist is illuminated by the levels of insight these loudspeakers deliver, the loss of that last iota of room-shaking ability is a very minor concession.

In practice, those crashing, wind-tossed waves are certainly tumultuous enough considering the diminutive size of the speakers unleashing them, as is the way the Reference Fours portray the unearthly nature of the despairing conclusion to the piece. These are speakers to grab the listener and command attention, and they do that regardless of the musical genre being played.

Finally, VSA’s revolutionary Room Adjustment Control Suite. Von Schweikert Audio’s designs are 100% analog and achieve reference flat frequency response shipped from the factory. Yet they understand the real-world challenge of getting flat response in the various listening room By utilizing our Room Adjustment Control Suite consisting of autoformers with induvial signal paths for each level selection, they can adjust the Main Tweeter, Super Tweeter and Rear Ambient Array independently by 1/2 dB increments allowing us to achieve much greater reference performance in your room than any other analog loudspeakers available. This is one of the key factors that led to our unprecedent number of Best in Show awards over the years.

TAD has put a lot of R&D into creating a compact stand-mount speaker. The ME1s look high quality and sound remarkable for their size. If you don’t like larger towers in your media room, these might be what you are looking for. When mated with a small sub, you have a two-channel music system that sounds amazingly large. I can only imagine what the ME1s larger brothers sound like!

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0422/Canton_Vento_100_Floorstanding_Loudspeaker_Review.htm

To test its competence in the field of coarse dynamics, we of course listened to the legendary “TriCycle”, with which the Vento skillfully pins you into your seat. Tori Amos with her Montreux debut and the delicate sounds therein however also enchants the listeners, while the changing tempos in “Music” by the sadly recently deceased John Miles, for example, just pull you along with them. And cantatas from Bach are presented with a filigree lightness that provides sheer pleasure. The aspect of agility has increased even more in the new Vento, that’s for sure. A possible tonal weakness can also simply not be detected in the speaker, especially since the measurement diagram once again almost perfectly looks as if it was made with a ruler and thus stands to certify the highest possible balance.

It might sound obvious, but of course this Vento is the best of all time thus far – excluding the Reference K models, from which its development unquestionably benefited, for obvious reasons. Titanium graphite marks a further step towards the ceramic cone materials, that’s also for sure. It is a kind of intermediate step in making the membrane even better compared to the preceding generation. The difference in sound quality compared to the Reference is certainly no longer as great as the difference in price.

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1092-focal-scala-utopia-evo-loudspeakers

During my listening tests, I found that several subtle nuances distinguished each speaker’s sound signature, but the two characteristics that most differentiated the Scala Evo and 7F were bass reproduction and cohesiveness of sound. The Scala Evos consistently revealed punchier, weightier, and richer bass notes with greater volume and impact, despite the use of only one 10 5/8″ driver per speaker compared to the 7F’s twin 8 1/2″ drivers. This made the Scala Evos unequivocally more fun to listen to, particularly at low-to-medium volume levels. But—and this is a big but—the bass note delivery through the 7Fs was unfailingly more resolved, tuneful, and deeper when called for, and it ultimately felt as if this part of the frequency range was communicated through a clearer lens with the Paradigms. To give an example, after queuing up Boz Scaggs’s 2001 album, Dig (16/44.1 FLAC, Virgin), and focusing on the deep and rhythmic bassline on “Thanks to You,” I found that the Paradigms cleanly laid bare all of the bass notes contained within this track, whereas the Focals rolled them off more quickly and at times failed to illustrate the deepest notes altogether. In terms of resolution, the bassline through the Scala Evos was less articulately defined.

There’s a phrase used in audio; the ‘mug’s eyeful’. It summons up images of products that look like a bargain, but any notions of quality quickly stop at the word ‘look’. The Dynaudio Emit 30 is the absolute opposite of a mug’s eyeful; it offers superb value coupled with outstanding performance. They are every millimetre a Dynaudio loudspeaker, with the family sound and a deep, pounding bass that matches perfectly with the rooms in which such a loudspeaker will live. It’s a sophisticated design that cuts few corners to achieve that low price. Not only is it a good speaker, the Dynaudio Emit 30 throws down a gauntlet to other brands; if Dynaudio can do something like the Emit 30, why the **** can’t you?

The Trio15 Coax10 does not accomplish the full range, single point source sound signature perfectly. It obviously cannot, as there are two huge 15” woofers flanking the 10” driver. The ear perceives this, especially when bass-infused music is heard. However, this is not a problem, except for those who are willing to eschew lower frequencies in search of a perfect point source sound. You simply cannot have it both ways; the closest you can come is with a speaker like the Tannoy Glenair, which I reviewed back in 2008. But like the Glenair, with the Horn1 you are making a more difficult match of the 1.4” polymer tweeter to the 15” woofer. It works, and to many persons’ ears is a splendid result. But, by necessity, it leaves some room for improvement in the midrange and mid-bass, and that is where the Coax10 shines.

One of my system-building principles is that unless absolutely necessary, I will not be without deep bass, and ideally not without LF, i.e. lower than 20Hz from high-resolution audio files. I see those frequencies as necessary to grasping the extent of the performance. If it is a choice between having the pure point source with only a 10” driver or the PAP design with assistance from the 15” drivers, I will opt for the presence of the 15” drivers, because elimination of the bigger drivers forfeits not only the reproduction of those low frequencies, but also the potential for the tactile sense created by deeper and stronger bass. I do not wish to have a large set of forward firing open-air headphones, but a speaker system!