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Welcome to Audiophilia. We publish honest and accurate reviews of high end audio equipment and music.
Welcome to Audiophilia. We publish honest and accurate reviews of high end audio equipment and music.
All in Loudspeakers
The Accordo Loudspeakers were the last Franco Serblin voiced before he died in 2013. Serblin was founder of Italy’s Sonus faber (1983), maker of exquisite speakers with a reputation for the finest cabinetry in high end audio. Sonus faber practically invented artisanal cabinet making. Serblin left Sonus faber in 2006 and continued the high standard of art and design with his eponymous company.
I can report to you that the build quality of the Serblin Accordo is as good or even better than the glorious looking Sonus faber speakers. The mirror-imaged Accordos are small and beautifully balanced in design—they will pass any significant other test and fit into any decor.
The first thing I heard through the Usher Audio SD-500 loudspeaker was the sound of Tony Dungy’s voice on Sunday Night Football. Watching television is a great method of speaker break-in because, for me, it’s the furthest thing from critical listening fare. Still, accompanying Dungy’s comforting drawl I couldn’t help noticing a realistic ambient din from the sparsely populated stadium. The feeling of air and space was immediate. Listening to the sound of an empty stadium, a sign of the times, and a neat first impression, but could the SD-500 impress with music as well? And who is Usher Audio anyway?
For a deep dive into the big sibling of the new HomePod mini ($99), please refer to our review of the original, full sized Apple HomePod (and our six month follow up). Many HomePod features found at launch and in updates can be found on the new mini.
With the mini, Apple’s smart home ‘Homekit’ features have been improved. Even silly Siri is better and she has added a useful ‘Intercom’ feature. Security, as always from the mothership, is a priority. No ‘anything goes’ Alexa.
There are literally hundreds of reviews on the web and YouTube videos with in depth looks at the features of the mini. I’ll list some important ones below then jump right into our brief, with focus on its use and sound.
Down the ribbon of highway, due east from the frenetically paced GTA (Greater Toronto Area), lies the somnolent university town of Kingston, Ontario. Queen’s University, as an intellectual hub of all eastern Ontario, has been the centre of Kingston’s relevance for a century. But if one looks past this well established landmark, one finds a business of some significance that has been quietly sounding out its audio relevance for the last 10 years—Tri-Art Audio.
Arising out of the ashes of the great stereo retail shop of the 1970s and 80s, House of Sound, where Steve Ginsberg worked as a technician—that wonderful bricks and mortar place penurious Queen’s students like myself hung around in the few moments we had free—has come Steve’s and his sons, Simon and Evan’s extraordinary business adventure—a quality international seller of fantastically sophisticated paints and some of the hippest audio equipment on the planet—the fabulous jewel of Tri-Art Audio. A fantastically interesting business anomaly—paint and sound!
The excitement in late Spring 2020 was palpable. Sonos was debuting its most exciting product for years, the Arc ‘Premium Smart Soundbar’ ($799), successor to Sonos’ very popular and very fine Playbar.
Getting an Arc was a challenge, with (communication) hurdles at every level, corporate, distributor, dealer and mass market. I dug deep and found one nailed to the floor of my local ‘Sonos Platinum’ dealer. As usual, the staff were very kind and allowed me a long stretch with its sole Arc for the day. You can read my thoughts here.
Driving with cabriolet top down on a particularly sunny Spring day last month, I heard the CEO of Sonos, Patrick Spence, being interviewed by Nilay Patel of The Vergecast. Spence was particularly smooth and spoke mostly in corporate talk but did take responsibility for the debacle last year where some bright spark at Sonos decided to brick older products when new software updates were applied. Even with a healthy discount, my older purchased review units were expensive and not ready for the landfill. As such, the anger was not typical of the ‘faux-outrage’ you read every day on social media. It was visceral.
The tenor of the Verge interview got me thinking about the birth of Sonos and its exponential growth based on superior engineering and brilliant marketing. Word of mouth, too. And then my thoughts turned to more challenging days—the massive layoffs, the paradigm shift to ‘smart’ speakers and how Sonos navigated those minefields. Finally, the transition to the new products and post debacle marketing.
This is the first update since its debut in 2013 to what I consider Michael Levy’s finest loudspeaker design. Others would disagree as to his finest—the Hestia Titanium ($32,000/pair) or the Alec ($10,000/pair) as examples—but the Celesta FRM-2 is certainly my favourite. For almost 8 years, it has led the pack in its $15,000/pair price range. In my experience, to match or better the musical and aural experience from the Celesta stand mount (one could hardly call the FRM-2 a monitor-style or bookshelf speaker with its heft and girth), you would have to purchase speakers such as the Raidho D1 at $28,000/pair or the Magico Q1 at $26,500/pair. To be sure, both speakers are exceptional and do things that are very special, but so does the Celesta—for far fewer dollars.
In business since 2011, Alta Audio is based on Long Island and has a plant in Connecticut. They manufacture a discerning line of loudspeakers to fit a variety of room sizes and budgets. Audiophilia has reviewed most of them. Like the very best loudspeaker companies, Alta Audio has a ‘house sound’.
My introduction to Qln loudspeakers was at the 2019 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest where they played along side Vinnie Rossi’s new L2i-SE Integrated Amplifier ($18,995—review up next month). This room was chosen by all Audiophilia attendees as one of their favourites. For sure, there were other rooms featuring systems approaching a million dollars which sounded like the proverbial ‘million bucks’, but there was an innate musicality to the presentation from Rossi’s integrated design and these Swedish floor standers that improved upon superb every time we returned. Mark Sossa of Well Pleased A/V and distributor of both Qln speakers and Vinnie Rossi gear had the moderately-sized room sounding balanced, dynamic and musically inviting.
Sossa is as pleasant as they come in high end audio. Professional, patient, knowledgeable and kind. In partnership with his high end star roommate, Vinnie Rossi, Sossa’s carefully curated representation (also incl. Swiss Cables and Gigawatt) produced amazing, digitally-sourced sound (Innuos—review forthcoming).
At the recent 2019 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF), Alta Audio premiered a new $10,000/pair 2-driver loudspeaker (1 tweeter, 1 woofer) named the Alec. Unlike Alta’s flagship FRM-2 Celesta ($15,000/pair), which also has 2-drivers but is monitor sized and sits on stands, the Alec is a floor standing model, with a larger (8.75” versus 6”) woofer, and 20 more pounds in weight (75 pounds versus 55 pounds). In the showroom at RMAF, Alta’s President, Mike Levy, joined forces with VPI Industries for the source (an HW- 40 direct drive turntable loaded with an Audio Technica cartridge, and VPI phono stage) and Krell Industries for the amplification (amp, preamp). Not only was Levy in the room, but so was Mat Weisfeld, President of VPI, and Walter Schofield, Chief Operating Officer of Krell.
Whenever I entered the room, it was abuzz with crowds of listeners and was widely acclaimed as one of the finest sounding rooms at RMAF. Audiophilia, for example (including yours truly), found the room superb sounding and unanimously placed it in the top two rooms. You can imagine then my surprise and satisfaction when two weeks after RMAF, Levy pulled up to my apartment in a car with a gorgeous pair of the Alec in black Onyx for my perusal (they are also available in Rosewood); hence this review. I add that the Celesta are my reference for speakers for almost 4 years now, and the VPI HW-40 serves as my reference for vinyl.
I was contacted by the marketing manager of Xavian Loudspeakers (Italian design/manufactured in the Czech Republic) requesting an Audiophilia review of the ‘Perla Esclusiva’, a stand mounted monitor from Xavian’s Natura range of loudspeakers and the recent successor to the original Perla.
We lost contact for some months after the initial request. Later, I was contacted informing me the newest iteration of the Perla was ready for review. The pair was shipped from the Czech Republic to the island in a solid, quality cardboard box (wrapped in cling film) with hard foam around the speakers ensuring safe passage. They arrived in pristine condition.
Several years ago, I experienced Mike Levy’s original loudspeaker design, the FRM-1s, at a well attended CES. The sound was wonderful but the design was hamstrung somewhat, needing four channels of amplification and DEQX room calibration. Score one for the sound, but zero for the needs of everyday audiophiles.
For more than a few years after the show, Levy received requests to modify the speaker to a standard two channel amplification design so the beautiful sound could be enjoyed by all. Well, maybe not all, at $15,000 (plus stands), but the thoughts were pure.
I had a lovely Facebook Messenger conversation with Lars Kristensen of Denmark's Raidho Acoustics about how much I was loving my X-1 Loudspeakers -- more like adoration, if truth be told.
He mentioned the X-1 now had an upgrade to XT-1 and that he could organize that for me if I wished. Giddyup! True to his word, my speakers were picked up, shipped to Denmark, and were upgraded and back on their stands in less than three weeks! The cost of the upgrade is USD $1,500 /pair plus shipping. A new pair of XT-1s will run you USD$7,700/pair plus the proprietary (and necessary) stands.
Readers may find my original review of the X-1 helpful.
Michael Levy, the owner of Long Island's Alta-Audio and designer of its range of speakers, is as passionate an audio professional I know.
Levy leverages every ounce of that energy, extreme knowledge and passion into his loudspeaker design.
Two Audiophilia writers, Martin Appel and Karl Sigman, both have Alta Audio FRM-2 Celestas as their references. At USD$ 15,000, they are worth every penny. Encased in the most gorgeous polyester piano black finish, these stand mount gems are among the best sounding speakers you can buy. Truly magnificent.
The new bookshelf loudspeaker from Montreal's Totem Acoustic looks almost identical to the company's legendary Model 1 from twenty years ago.
That speaker, like the new Sky, was housed in a small enclosure that packed a musical wallop. It was refined, too. So much so that my choice for my first reference came down to it and Stuart Tyler's ProAc Tablette Signature. I went with the signed Brit. And loved it. It was my reference for several years. All the while my friends with the Totem kept reminding me of the 1's superiority in many audiophile checks and balances.
It would be instructive to read my original review of the full SONOS system [PLAYBAR, SUB, PLAY:5].
This review will examine the addition of two PLAY:1s to that superb system. The PLAY:1 is the smallest SONOS speaker at (USD) $199.00 /each. They will be auditioned as rears converting my main floor lifestyle system into 5.1 surround sound. I'll also add my thoughts with the PLAY:1s setup as a standalone stereo pair.
When it comes to loudspeakers, I like ones that are meant for a relatively small intimate setting as opposed to a large space. This is in line with my preference for attending small get-togethers as opposed to huge parties, or my preference for listening to a string quartet, or a small ensemble consisting of a handful from among a pianist, singer, bassist, cellist, guitarist and percussionist (drummer) versus a full-blown orchestra/band; it’s just the way I am, other people are different. This allows me to be very happy with the sound of my reference system in my small cozy apartment living room (16′ (W), 9′ (D), with 9.5′ high ceilings).
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.
