Audiophilepure

https://www.stereophile.com/content/klipsch-nines-integrated-loudspeaker-system

I closed my eyes, forgot I was listening through little wooden boxes (and worked hard to ignore the vinyl ticks and clicks). Lo and behold, there he was in front of me, to my right, blowing that wonderful solo.

But can these speaker-gadgets rock? My acid test for speakers—for determining whether they have any hope of compatibility with my listening tastes—is the Rolling Stones’ “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” from Sticky Fingers. The version I have preferred lately is on the Japanese SACD, which claims to be a “flat transfer” of the master tape. It preserves the dynamics I remember from the LP—nice, crisp drumbeats and distinct and varied guitars—as opposed to recent CD reissues, which are superloud with almost no dynamic range and so sound mushy. To my surprise, The Nines played the DSD file on my hard drive (ripped from the SACD by a friend who knows the “PlayStation method”) through the Foobar2000 player with the DSD/SACD plug-in.

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1848-arendal-sound-1723-tower-s-loudspeaker

First on the CD tray was Jerry Garcia and David Grisman’s Shady Grove (Acoustic Disc ACD-21), one of my go-to discs. Whenever I set up a new pair of speakers, I start by positioning them exactly where my reference speakers normally stand. This has often been a useful starting point, but it doesn’t always work. With the Arendals, it didn’t: in that position, their imaging was more diffuse than I would have liked. I moved the two speakers several inches closer to each other and toed them in so that their tweeters’ axes passed just outside my ears. After some tweaking of the speakers’ positions and toe-in, while playing “Off to Sea Once More,” I was able to bring images into focus. Instrumental outlines were sharper and their positions on the soundstage were more precise. The greater coherence of the presentation solidified the image of the bluegrass ensemble at the front of the room. The more I listened, the more I agreed with Arendal’s characterization of their tweeter as sweet-sounding. It was incredibly smooth, making listening easy and inducing me to turn up the volume.

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0224/Phillips_Design_OH16_Omnidirectional_Loudspeaker_Review.htm

The intimacy of a musical performance is what we all strive to reproduce. The feeling of “being there” without putting up with the sky-high ticket prices, parking, and crowds. We all want to have Pink, singing in our Audio Room (but that’s probably not going to happen). The best we can do is to take the time (and what’s left of our savings) and assemble a sound system; that reproduces our music of choice, to the best of its capabilities.

With just hours to spare, the Phillips Design OH-16 omnidirectional three-way loudspeakers could do just that. They reproduce music with such a wide dynamic range that you would assume they stood six feet tall. They reproduce vocals with such detail and clarity, and in fact, you’d assume they cost twice as much. With the Bryston amplifier, the bass was present and properly forward and strong. Nice, tight, fast responsive bass.