Audiophilepure

I had a hard time wrapping my head around the XVX’s tonal balance. On one hand, it is extremely flat, smooth, and neutral in character, all the way down to the bottom octave. When playing music without much energy in the mid-to-upper bass, the XVX’s bottom-end is world class in pitch definition and clarity, but doesn’t sound qualitatively different from other reference-class loudspeakers. But when asked to reproduce instruments with a lot of energy in the lower registers, the XVX takes on an entirely different character. Suddenly, it’s as though there’s another level of weight, richness of tone color, solidity, and visceral power. The XVX, unlike any other speaker I’ve heard, fully reproduces the solidity, density, and weight of low-frequency-rich instruments such as an orchestra’s doublebass section, or brass instruments when playing in their lower registers. This is the classic “power range” of the orchestra, and heard through the XVX it is thrilling. Listen, for example, to the Dallas Winds brass section on the spectacular Keith Johnson recording John Williams at the Movies on Reference Recordings (176/24 downloaded from Reference). The big brass-section tuttis will lift you out of your seat with their force. Not only that, but the timbre of the instruments is fully fleshed out, without the common affliction of low-frequency-rich instruments sounding thinned in tone color and robbed of their weight.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/avantgarde-acoustic-duo-loudspeaker

Stereo image focus was fairly good, the phantom center image wider than usual but not unduly so. In general, I obtained good image depth and transparency from the Duo. Image stability was very good, and notably unaffected by sound level. I heard less room-excited ambience; the sound was clearly more directed (as horn theory teaches us) toward the listener, with less room contribution than usual in the mid and treble. This kind of room drive took a little getting used to; I consider it a significant component of the “difference” felt to exist between the horn and direct-radiator technologies. Of course, in some rooms with awkward, asymmetrical dimensions and acoustics, the horn speaker will provide a more consistent and more accurate sound at the listening position because of its controlled directional behavior.

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“Another test favourite, Lake Street Dive’s stripped-back take on ‘I Want You Back’, from Fun Machine [Signature Sounds SIG2032], is also well within the speakers’ comfort zone, and they treat it to deep, tight bass and crisp percussion, combining with the lone trumpet to underpin Rachael Price’s vocals perfectly.

So when these speakers are good, they’re very good, as a listen to the opening ‘Funeral For A Friend’/’Love Lies Bleeding’ sequence from Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road [Mercury/Rocket 981 320-5] makes clear with its combination of atmosphere and serious low-end grunt. However, to hear them at their best, you have to choose your recordings very carefully indeed.”