Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/vivid-audio-kaya-s12-standmount-speaker

Finally, at the end of long listening sessions, I found myself winding down with Brad Mehldau’s recent Après Fauré album [Nonesuch Records; 96kHz/24-bit download], featuring arrangements of works by the French composer. Here, the jazz pianist gives delicate, detailed readings that the Vivid Audio speakers translated into one of those ‘piano in the room’ experiences so, er, vivid was their sound. This wonderful, dreamy music proved these unusual and remarkable speakers can do everything from the massive to the minute with equal excellence.

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0125/PureAudioProject_Duet_15_Loudspeaker_Review.htm

For designers who have a developed musical point of view, the choice among speaker categories is thoughtful and intentional. That makes reviewing their products particularly enjoyable and educational for me. For it is their musical point of view as well as the extent to which they can realize their vision that drives them and interests me. Every familiar speaker type has desirable characteristics – from a particular musical point of view – as well as those that present challenges to realizing their vision in practice. Unsurprisingly a conventional ‘wisdom’ appears to have developed regarding both the virtues and vices associated with each speaker type.

For example, conventional wisdom has it that because planars, electrostatics, and open baffle designs lack enclosures they cannot fully pressurize the drivers and thus lack ultimate dynamics and are limited in their capacity to play at significant volumes that some music calls for. On the other hand, horns and enclosed boxes are commonly criticized for their ‘honking’ and box colorations, respectively.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/canton-reference-9-standmount

Playing the Modern String Quartet’s imaginative, jazz-leaning arrangements of Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition [Solo Musica SM468], the Reference 9’s combination of control, weight and resolution was very much to the fore. This balanced performance made the most of the interplay of the four musicians and the instrumental timbres, while at the same time placing the performers between and beyond the speakers in a noticeably three-dimensional manner. All this gave the album’s twists on familiar music – and a nod to ELP’s version of the work – plenty of space to breathe. Therefore, while Canton’s smallest References might not be an immediate choice for those seeking a standmount design, it would a mistake to overlook them – these have much to offer.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/ps-audio-aspen-fr5-loudspeaker

Though very good, the FR5s can’t perform miracles. Like the 6.5″ midwoofers in the B&W 705s, those in the FR5s, even aided by those passive radiators, could not compete in bass extension with larger speakers. Moreover, when driven at high levels with low-frequency content, their output is affected—somewhat coarsened—well up into the midrange. It’s just physics.

The solution—my solution anyway—is to add a subwoofer or two. Adding a pair of KEF KC92s and an 80Hz crossover produced an Aha! experience. On the Berio and Vollenweider recordings, low notes that were only hinted at previously were now felt. I was also pleased to note that at high listening levels, no matter the source, there was an added clarity, subtle but greatly appreciated, throughout the midrange, probably because the FR5 midwoofers were no longer also responsible for producing the lowest bass.