Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/system-audio-legend-602-silverback-active-loudspeaker

The drivers remain the same, of course. The 25mm high-frequency unit is a woven silk dome with a DXT (Diffraction eXpansion Technology) lens to fine-tune its off-axis response and better integrate with the 150mm woven-fibre midrange driver mounted below it. There are then four 150mm woven-fibre woofers, running in pairs off separate internal amplifiers.

Although certainly tall at 118cm, the Legend 60.2 Silverback is just 20cm wide and, thanks to its curved sides, easy on the eye. Outriggers with spikes and rubber feet are supplied, as are full-length black fabric grilles. System Audio’s placement recommendations are for a toe-in of 15o, a listening distance between 2.5m and 3m, and rear wall clearance of 20cm-40cm. After experimentation, I found the greater distance gave better results when it came to bass performance, even with the sealed design making near-wall positioning more appealing.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/magico-a5-loudspeaker

Indeed, the imaging is the first thing I noticed about the A5. These speakers don’t only disappear under optimal conditions; they disappear always, including when the volume of the music is extremely low. Turn it down as far as you like. The image shrinks at very low volumes, but it shrinks toward a point halfway between the two speakers and not toward the speakers themselves: a phantom radio on a phantom shelf, a ghostly sensation.

Off-axis imaging was exceptional, too. I could move my chair to any point between the two speakers and still hear a stable stereo soundstage; when my chair was directly in front of the right speaker, the soundstage stretched all the way to the left speaker (this, for example, on “Smiling Phases” from Blood, Sweat, and Tears’ first album, Qobuz 24/176.4 FLAC, a new version of which is due out in a few days as a MoFi One Step LP). This off-axis imaging performance is great for social listening, with actual friends, something the CDC has now endorsed as long as everyone’s been vaccinated. I’ve heard otherwise excellent speakers that can’t do this off-axis imaging trick, some of them quite expensive.

ProAc K1 stand-mount loudspeaker

Every time I sat for a listening session with this ProAc, I was struck by its clean-edged directness and the neat, compact shape of the music. Suppose you like low-frequency bandwidth and love to feel that initial and compressive impact of a bass drum, then you won’t be disappointed. The sheer weight and punch is dramatic and, most importantly, clean. I ran through a few Billy Cobham albums, and it was good to hear his agility at the bottom of the kit potently expressed. Zero cabinet effects are dragging the tempo down. The interplay between Billy and his numerous bass players over the years was great because that strict sense of taut, bang, bang, bang pistonic drive that comparatively few speakers manage is easy work for the K1.

 it helps to avoid the creation of standing waves inside the enclosure by adding a non-parallel wall; on the other, it prevents the solid slabs of wood from moving too much in relation to temperature and humidity changes. Wood is a living material, and the long lateral slabs creating the speaker’s side panels would be, in theory, exposed to the chance of moving if left completely free. Such a design was always in the mind of our founder…but the technology available 30 years ago wouldn’t allow it without the risk of cracking over time. It’s thanks to this construction, to today’s improved solid wood drying techniques, and to advanced compound technologies for producing special glues with a lot of flexibility that we were finally able to turn this old dream into reality.”

The crossover is something new, a configuration developed to more fully exploit the potential advantages of a two-way design that Sonus faber has named “Interactive Fusion Filtering.” The crossover has an accelerated progressive topology, the slope becoming steeper as the frequency moves away from the crossover point. This is an approach that Sonus faber has long utilized. But the Maxima Amator also employs what Tezzon refers to as a “forgotten path in crossover design”—the tweeter and mid/woofer are connected in series, rather than in parallel circuits. “Each driver’s moving coil becomes part of the filtering circuit of the other driver. This potentially leads to a better sonic merging. The Maxima is conceived as a glorification of the two-way design…the two drivers are able to work in a maximally interconnected and organic way.

https://www.audiopursuit.com/2021/02/kef-q950-floorstanding-speakers.html

The Q950’s fleshes out the warm tones of Bonnie Raitt’s “Nick of Time”. This quality stays present whether amplified by tubes, solid state, or class D amplification. On the Q950’s, tubes sprinkle an extra bit of midrange magic, solid-state maintains excellent grip over bass frequencies, and class D detailed articulation. Pairing the Q950’s with the Peachtree nova150 provides enjoyable listening and makes for a fine starting point for a system.

Switching over to the jazz of Dave Grusin, the Q950’s dual ABR passive radiators in unison with the LF driver recreate the jabs of funky electric bass-led music in “Punta Del Soul”. The impact of this closed design places the entire Migration album in regular rotation during the review. Delving into the second and third tracks “Southwest Passage” and ‘First-Time Love”, the smooth decay of top piano keys and the natural tight ring of the triangle demonstrates the engineering and quality of the Uni-Q design.

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1042-magico-a5-loudspeakers#most-read-equipment-reviews

They only began to describe what I heard. I started with “Avratz,” from Israeli trance duo Infected Mushroom’s Converting Vegetarians (16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC, Hommega/Qobuz). This 2003 release is, um, infectious from the very first hearing. The bass line enters 40 seconds in, and I was absolutely mesmerized by it. The A5s’ bass was deep, articulate, and soooo easy to hear into. I’ve heard this track through other speakers, but the A5s nailed it best. Yes, the bass was deep and weighty, but it was also more tuneful than I’d heard before—not a hint of one-note, homogenized bass. Audiophiles are often forced to choose between weighty bass or tuneful bass, but the A5s in my room gave me both simultaneously—a treat indeed. At 1:50 into “Avratz,” the A5s delivered physical impact to my chest, and made me want to turn up the volume a bit more to hear if they’d reached their limit. Instead, they delivered even more impact, the sound and the music scaling perfectly with increasing volume level. Bass drives this song, and the A5s’ bass left me wanting nothing

Bowers & Wilkins 702 Signature floorstanding loudspeaker

This source proved highly engaging with a variety of records, the less smooth among them were not masked but neither were their shortcomings emphasised. For a contrast I swapped amplifiers for a Rega Elex-R integrated, a musically inspiring few days ensued with what turned out to be a surprisingly well-matched combination. The bass wasn’t as solid but it still went down low with adequate control and the mid and treble provided a spark that was hard to put down. It proved to be highly enjoyable with everything from Nick Drake to Blind Faith (the live version of ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’ is a blinder) and Terry Callier to name a few. All had three dimensionality, pace and good projection when the recordings allowed it.

Magnepan LRS planar quasi-ribbon-type dipole loudspeaker

The LRS’s articulacy and dynamic agility are outstanding, too. To appreciate what I mean by this, try Rodrigo y Gabriela’s rendition of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ from their album of the same name [Universal Imports, 16/44.1]. Folklore has it that this song has been so over-played that it has been banned in most every music store in the known world, but Rodrigo y Gabriela’s flamenco guitar interpretation is so energetic, expressive, and finely crafted that one can’t help but stop and listen. Happily, the LRS’s do their part to bring the music alive. First, they capture the sharp transient attacks and the fiery but also warmly rounded timbres of the guitars in a highly realistic way. Next, the speakers effortlessly keep pace with the performers’ often fleet-fingered runs of notes while also making it easy to appreciate differences between the guitarists’ playing styles. Most importantly, though, the LRS’s show this guitar duet is truly a conversation between two world-class musicians who both have a lot to say.