Audiophilepure

Acoustic Energy AE520 Floorstanding Loudspeakers

As long as you have the physical space to accommodate them, there’s very little downside to Acoustic Energy AE520 ownership. They play no favourites where types of music are concerned – from full-on symphony orchestras to voice-and-guitar demos, they locate the fundamentals of a recording with real tenacity and are endlessly, easily listenable in the process. They’re as enjoyable and as information-packed at very low volumes, and they don’t get shouty or coarse when you turn the wick up – they simply get louder. 

https://www.hifinews.com/content/paradigm-founder-100f-loudspeaker

The more time I spent with the 100F, the more I realised there was no flavour of music with which it really struggled. Fed the ethereal, electronic textures of Jean-Michel Jarre and Hans Zimmer’s ‘Electrees’ collaboration [Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise; Sony Music] it was all smoothness and light, with a purity to its midband that encouraged a game of ‘how loud can these go?’. The answer was ‘plenty loud enough’ for my circa 4x5m space, with no subjective trace of them losing their composure before I lost my nerve.

The track ‘Exit’ was faster, synthesisers acquiring a nastier edge and the 100F locking in step with the pounding techno rhythms. At the opposite side of the spectrum, my enjoyment of The Royal Festival Orchestra’s rendition of Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons – Winter’ [Stradivari Classics; Tidal] was dependent on the 100F’s presentation of the strings. I won’t insult your intelligence by saying they sounded like ‘the real thing’, but this lilting, layered piece came across with wonderful timbral detail.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/audiovector-r-8-arret%C3%A9-loudspeaker

This was a subtle thing, and it’s not unnatural. Setting aside the fact that the vocal was probably recorded in an isolation room, and that studio effects could be added, the degree of resonance or room sound is determined by where the mikes are placed. Salvant is close-miked while the piano is miked—well, I’m not sure how or where, but well outside the piano case, so there’s more room sound on the piano.

Still, I wondered: What would happen if the piano and the voice were in the same acoustic? This album is a mix of live (recorded at NYC’s Village Vanguard) and studio tracks (Sear Sound Studios), so I didn’t have to go far for a live comparison. I put on Salvant and Fortner’s account of Bernstein and Sondheim’s “Somewhere,” from West Side Story, another track I turn to often in reviews.

https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/fyne-audio-f701

The Fyne Audio F701 are truly entertaining performers, if installed with care. They sound big, bold and enthusiastic in a way that eludes much of the high-end competition. Most rivals concentrate on refinement and detail resolution whereas the Fynes sound like they just want to have fun. 

Fed the likes of Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes, these speakers sound right at home as they pound out that distinctive plump bassline with real verve and grip. There’s an impressive degree of punch and power low down, but just as pleasingly, that is coupled to a strong sense of articulation too.

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1574-paradigm-founder-series-100f-loudspeakers

I’d already listened to this album often through several different speakers, so I knew its sound well. But no more than 30 seconds into track 1, “White Dress,” I could tell that there was something very different about the sound of the Founder 100Fs. This track has a bright, bass-light sound, with a wispiness to Del Rey’s voice that, through too-bright speakers, can be off-putting. Through the 100Fs it was still a bit bright, but not too much so, and that wispiness, while still quite audible, was now more pleasing than offensive. The track also sounded a bit smoother and richer than I’d heard it before. In fact, it was the best I’d heard it reproduced.

The four tracks that follow “White Dress” are less trebly, and without that wispiness in Del Rey’s voice. Here the 100Fs’ midband was as neutral as I’m used to hearing from my reference Revel Ultima2 Salon2 speakers ($21,998/pair), as well as clearer and a bit more detailed—which speaks well for the 100Fs at less than a quarter the price. And while the 100Fs’ highs weren’t quite as sweet as the Salons2s’ with these tracks, they were still clean, very refined, and with a good amount of air when the recording included that.

What I enjoyed most about the Alyssas was their precise detail. I couldn’t stop listening to them because they truly brought things out of my most familiar recordings that I had not heard before. The sparkle of piano tones, the nuances of different bassoon sounds, and the huge soundstage and presence all suggested a much larger speaker. If you can set them up on stands with some breathing room away from the walls, you will be rewarded with a sound that is much larger than the small cabinets would suggest. Those ribbon tweeters are pure gold. The Alyssas truly disappear into the room.

Burmester BC150 Exclusive First Look

Burmester Audiosysteme GmbH is one of the world’s most renowned manufacturers in the field of high-end audio systems. The owner-managed company based in Berlin was founded in 1977 by Dieter Burmester. With a clear focus on home and automotive audio, Burmester maintains global collabora­tions with industry leaders in other industries (including Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and the Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur Berlin, among others) and is a member of Meisterkreis Deutschland and Initiative Deutsche Manufakturen. 

I cautioned him that I would vet the speaker first in demo before committing to an article, because I was not going to spend my time on an inferior speaker, and I did not intend to destroy a small manufacturer with a review seen globally if his early effort fell short. I have done enough reviews of ok but not scintillating products that I simply do not care to spend any more time on them. Reviewers can damn small enterprises with one article, and they need to be sensitive to the disproportionate power they possess over the welfare of a company. One component maker lamented to me that among several very positive reviews, a single one gone sideways due to what he felt was malfeasance on the part of the reviewer was a sticking point in the minds of many potential customers. They had no idea of the issues the manufacturer had to endure as a result of the reviewer and magazine not following the manufacturer’s advice in preparation and setup of the product. As another manufacturer of a preamp, who had brought it for me to hear, said out of the blue as we were listening, “If you don’t like it, I’m not going to give it to you to review.” I was taken aback by the comment. Is that collusion? Is it the evil industry? No, it’s self-preservation, as he said were I to have a negative disposition, “My family is on the street. I’m literally wiped out.” As it turned out, he was not able to leave the unit and never did send another.

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/vienna_acoustics_beethoven_concert_grand_reference.htm

The second movement of Peteris Vasks’ Concerto for Viola and String Orchestra (Maxim Rysanov and Sinfonietta Riga, [BIS-2443 SACD]) is both beautifully recorded and performed — and a one-stop shop when it comes to appreciating the qualities of the Beethoven Concert Grand. The dispersed, pizzicato phrases that scatter across the stage to create the staccato opening reveal the scale and nature of the church acoustic, the Concert Grands not just re-creating a coherent sense of that towering space, but locating each section of the orchestra precisely within it, defined in terms of height, lateral placement and depth, scale and specific tonal character. It’s a spatial tour de force, helped of course by the depth and transparency of the speaker’s bottom end. But that is only the start. The plucked notes have a real sense of life and attack, naturally rich harmonics and the size of the sound box behind them. There’s no confusing the violins and violas, or the identity and character of the solo instrument, with its plangent, almost melancholy tonality.