My first discovery of these fascinating speakers was at the Montreal Audio Show from a few years ago. A local dealer had them set up beautifully with well matched gear SET gear and nothing but some red Barcelona Chairs for company. It was a very musical and stylish presentation.

I have a long history with JM Labs/Focal. One of our most fervent supporters has been a long time dealer.  

The original JM Labs looked magnificent with their great covers of wood. For some reason, these beautifully engineered speakers were not my cup of tea.  

A good solid read of my detailed review of the powered version of this speaker may well be instructive. 

The new passive version from Audioengine maintains many of the qualities from that fabulous little gem of a speaker, with the new one allowing for your own favourite type of amplification.

The HDP6 is a retro version, stripped of all the powered guts and gizmos. 

It feels invigorating to get your long held audiophile pre conceived notions smashed to smithereens on occasion. This was such an occasion. Three weeks earlier, it felt as though I was knocking on the door of a very cool house party location. The host answered and looked at me with surprise. 'Actually, the party's just winding down'.

The HD6 is the latest powered speaker from Audioengine, the company founded by two young American audio entrepreneurial dynamos, Dave Evans and Brady Bargenquast. I've been impressed with Audioengine's digital products and speakers from its startup over ten year's ago. In the here and now, I'd call today's Audioengine a 'modern legacy' company.

Totem Acoustic loudspeakers debuted on the high audio scene in 1987 and first gained notoriety with the wonderful and diminutive Model 1 Loudspeaker. I was very taken with its detailed and very dynamic sound, and was one of the main reasons I began to write about high end audio. It's been a pleasure to observe Totem's growth over the years into one of the few long-term success stories of our industry. 

There was a time that I could not get enough of monitor speakers. I lived with ProAc’s very best for a few years, the Response One SC and the Tablette Signature. I truly loved both speakers and had a flirtation with Canada’s very good answer to them, the Totem Model 1s. About 15 years ago, as Audiophilia morphed into something new on the new internet, I had to make a 180 degree shift and, at the time, was none too happy about it.

Good things are supposed to come in threes, but sometimes, one or two of the three decide not to play nicely. This is especially true with unruly members of a ‘family’ of loudspeakers. Most speaker manufacturers, if well funded and have a good designer, will attempt to produce a line or family of speakers. The most vested among them will produce several families, at various price points. This makes good financial sense but is far more difficult than you would imagine, especially the ‘baby step’ from monitor to floor stander.

Chario was a company hitherto unknown to me. I happened upon their speakers during the 2012 Toronto Audio Show (TAVES). They looked amazing in beautifully finished wood and artisinal cabinetry and even under show conditions, sounded quite wonderful. A review pair was requested.

Focal asks on its website whether the Grande Utopias are the best speakers in the world. It’s an almost impossible question to answer given audiophiles’ tastes, style, etc, but in other ways, it’s almost a simple question. I figured out my answer quite quickly, so resplendent are these extremely expensive monoliths from France.

I’ve been listening to JM Lab products for many years, primarily at shows and at a few Canadian dealers. They always seem to be on show. They look magnificent, feature top quality components and are in the upper echelon of high end pricing. Interestingly, they have never been among my favorites. Sure, all the models, from stand mounted monitors to the aptly titled Grande Utopia sound grand, indeed, but to my ears they miss some of the clinical nature of other similarly priced loudspeakers.