Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

My listening room is 26' long, 13' wide, and 12' high, with a semi-cathedral ceiling. The back of the room opens into a 25' by 15' kitchen through an 8' by 4' doorway. The Charios were set up 3' from the rear wall (faced with framed watercolors 8' from the floor) and approximately 30" from the side walls (which have sliding equipment shelves).

For most of my listening I sat 8' away. I also tried my favorite listening distance (for larger loudspeakers) of 18', but found it less satisfactory. My chair places my ears 37" from the floor. The Academy Ones were also auditioned in my 15' by 10' study, which is furnished with wall-to-wall carpeting, an area rug, and a couch.

LPs were played on a Linn Sondek/Lingo/Ittok/Sumiko setup. Digital sources were Adcom GDA-700 and Audio Alchemy DDE v3.0 HDCD (over its I²S bus) D/A processors, both driven by a Krell MD-1 transport via a 75 ohm Silver Starlight digital coaxial cable and an Audio Alchemy DTI jitter attenuator. Day-Sequerra FM Reference Classic and Fanfare FM-1 stereo tuners pulled in music from WQXR, our local New York classical station. Preamplification was provided by a Krell KBL for CDs, and a Mark Levinson ML-7A with Duntech MX-10 head amplifier for LPs. Power amplifiers were either a Mark Levinson No.331 or a pair of Krell FPB 250M monoblocks.

Interconnects were Krell Cogelco Yellow balanced, speaker cables a bi-wired set of Sumiko OCOS. All amplifiers were plugged into a 200A AC outlet. Reference speakers included the Totem Model One and Model One Signature and the Professional Monitor Company (PMC) LB1.—Larry Greenhill