Audiophilepure

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.