Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/paradigm-founder-120h-loudspeaker

While far from the largest speakers to have graced the room in recent times, the 120Hs did a more than fair job of both filling the space with sound and conveying hugely exciting and involving music. The crystalline recording quality of Anna Fedorova’s Shaping Chopin recital [Channel Classics CCS 43621; DSD128], rewarded us with the familiar combination of beautifully-realised instrumental timbre and a good sense of the concert-hall acoustic.

Yes, we’ve heard this set rendered with slightly more solid imaging, and an ever-greater impression of the ambience, but the 120Hs still deliver that winning mixture of substance and detail required for a convincing picture of a large instrument being played in a generous space.

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1652-stenheim-alumine-two-loudspeakers

Below about 100Hz or so, I found the Alumine Twos’ bass output to be seriously lacking in my room—especially given the speakers’ high asking price. So, if you expect and demand that your two-way standmount speakers have good bass output and extension, then, unless you have a very small room and are willing to place the Twos quite close to the wall to leverage some bass boost from the room, I must urge you to look elsewhere—either that or consider matching these speakers with one or two subs.

That recommendation for the sub(s) is something I hope you might take seriously, because the Alumine Twos’ midrange and treble reproduction was, without question, the finest I’ve ever heard in my room, providing spot-on tonal accuracy combined with transparency that was second to none—I could hear the recordings so clearly it was uncanny. Song after song, the solidity of the aural images and their 3D precision placements as they emerged from an empty space in my room consistently left me mesmerized. Those sounds, so sharply and expertly carved into tall, wide, deep soundstages, were so utterly devoid of even the subtlest cues that they were emanating from the utilitarian-looking square-ish boxes I knew were reproducing them, I found the sound of the Twos difficult if not impossible to find fault with. Except for the bass, that is.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0122/Bowers_Wilkins_805_D4_Standmounted_Monitor_Speaker_Review.htm

This speaker is more than another helping of ‘worthiness from Worthing’: it’s still supremely accomplished, and if I were to be remunerated for the number of times ‘unflappable’ made it into my listening notes, this would have been a very lucrative listening session indeed. You can buy the 805 D4 secure in the knowledge that every aspect of its engineering is ‘just so’ and that the measured performance is likely to be exceptional: there’s not a single regressive aspect of the design from their predecessors and – in pure engineering terms at least – not a great deal of competition at the price.

More than this, though, it delivers levels of emotional engagement and enjoyment that have never featured in my past experiences of the 800 Series. It’s forgiving, both of less than pristine recordings and the equipment with which it’s partnered, and commendably unfussy about placement, too. The latest 800 Series seems to set to do all the things we expect better than ever before, but do them with a level of unbridled fun, too – and that makes this the most appealing iteration yet.