Audiophilepure

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One other forgotten aspect is the ability to play at a reasonably convincing level. When the other speakers have long run out of dynamic capability, the L-100 Classics still have plenty of headroom left. Oddly, while they are slightly grainy in comparison to a few other speakers, this does not increase at higher levels. I’d venture to guess that some of the insight gained in studio monitor and sound reinforcement has trickled down to these speakers. If you want a pair of real rock and roll speakers, these will do quite nicely.

At the end of the day, the JBL L-100 Classics remind me a lot of that great American amplifier, the McIntosh MC275. It’s not the last word in any of the standard audiophile qualifiers, but I dare you to have a bad day listening to one. The same goes for the L-100 Classics. I dare you to have a bad time listening to your favorite music, no matter what generation it’s from when you’re rocking a pair of L-100 Classics.”

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“To me, this limitation isn’t a major issue in this scenario, but purists should be aware of this digital signal processing. Speaking of DSP, it’s probably crazy to assume high rate DSD and 384 kHz PCM would stay I their native rates anyway because speakers like this use DSP that doesn’t operate at such high rates. In other words, even if the interspeaker connection was native (384/DSD256), the music would go through resampling for digital signal processing anyway. Thus, it’s a non-issue and I’m happy to read KEF released this information publicly. I love transparency. ”

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“Scrolling through Qobuz to find some tasty tunes to stream, I settled on the famous 1961 live Bill Evans Trio recording from the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City. Right out of the gate I heard many similar qualities between the Magnepans and the Quad ESL-57 speakers I use every day, with LRS delivering high levels of transparency and coherency. The volume of air in this tiny club, one I’m familiar with, was instantly recognizable, with every murmur from the audience or clink of glasses on the bar plainly audible. The sound of Evans’ piano had the percussive attack of the real thing, while Paul Motian’s cymbals sizzled. But the real star of this recording is young bassist Scott LaFaro, whose blazing virtuosity was cut short by a car accident just days later. LaFaro’s fingering and speed were startlingly clear through the LRS, and while the panel didn’t deliver the deep thunder of his instrument, I didn’t really feel like I was being short-changed.”

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“Audiophiles, of course, cannot live by deep bass alone—at least the experienced ones. Those frequencies should provide a foundation for everything else that happens. I’ve mentioned this before, but Bob Clarke of Profundo loves to evaluate high-end audio systems with recordings of grand pianos—as opposed to female voice. That prompted a listen to Australian pianist/composer Alister Spence’s album, Whirlpool, a two-disc set that’s his first solo album in three decades.

Spence is a pianist who spends a lot of time on the left half of the keyboard, so to speak, and most of these improvisations focus on deep water—its power, its persistence, its expansiveness. The Joseph Audio Pulsar2 loudspeakers were so adept at drawing out that aquatic vastness that I could easily hear the inspiration from Debussy’s La Mer, that sublime and humbling rise and fall of ocean waves, without any hint from the liner notes.”

The Sonus faber Lumina III is a fairly petite floorstanding speaker, not heavy at all at 35 pounds per, which suggests another reason why these speakers are so affordable (MInimalism!) The ply on the baffle can be covered with wenge or walnut, or in gloss black. I was immediately interested in the wenge from the press photos but I got walnut, which is still gorgeous. You can also get them in matte with maple inlays, which sounds like something I’d dig. And, of course, the rest of the enclosure is covered in that “iconic” leather. (LUxury!)

The Lumina line borrows plenty of technologies from the more expensive lines, another reason for the affordable MSRPs. The tweeters are the same DAD (damped apex dome) models used in the Sonetto series, as are the 5” midrange drivers. The 5” paper cone woofers are new, designed to match well with the mids. The Sonus faber Lumina III is a three-way, four-driver design with a sensitivity of  89 dB and a 4-ohm impedance and a frequency response that goes down to about 40 Hz.