Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

In the past year, Stereophile has reviewed a number of cost-no-object flagship loudspeakers. B&W's">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/600/">B&W's Signature 800, MartinLogan's">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/390/">MartinLogan's Prodigy, Burmester's">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/601/">Burmester's B-99, Snell's">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/556/">Snell's XA Reference Tower, Krell's">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/382/">Krell's LAT-1, Linn's">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/555/">Linn's Komri, Dynaudio's">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/501/">Dynaudio's Evidence Temptation, Sony's">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/391/">Sony's ES SS-M9ED, and Rockport's">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/644/">Rockport's Antares have all passed through the review mill. Manufacturers like to submit their flagships for review for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the pride they take in showing what their engineers can do when given a blank check. However, while all these models do indeed provide great (if different) sound for the tens of thousands of dollars they demand from their owners, they are out of reach of the majority of audiophiles. It is important, therefore, for reviewers to spend time with real-world designs; when I heard the $1990/pair CS1.6 from Kentucky's Thiel at the 2002 CES last January, I requested a pair for review.

I have always had an affection for speakers designed and manufactured by the Canadian conglomerate Audio Products International Corp. (API), which markets speaker designs under the names Mirage, Energy, Sound Dynamics, and Athena. In fact, it was 20 years ago that API created the first budget speaker that caught my attention, the Mirage 350. At the time, the 350 was the only speaker I'd heard that cost less than $300/pair. It sounded open, musical, and detailed without seeming bass-shy. (A larger successor, the 460, was for many years my reference home-theater speaker.) Although I've been impressed with many other API designs I've heard over the years at friends' houses, press events, and hi-fi shows, it had been more than a decade since I'd formally reviewed an API product.

Antares is a giant red star in the constellation Scorpio. According to Rockport Technologies' Andy Payor, the $41,500/pair Antares loudspeaker is the "ultimate" reasonably sized, full-range loudspeaker, and is built to a standard "unequaled in the industry." Rockport's $73,750 System">http://www.stereophile.com//analogsourcereviews/258/">System III Sirius turntable came with equally boastful claims that turned out to be anything but hyperbole. Has Rockport done it again with the Antares?

Of the small number of times I have been totally swept away by listening to recorded music, a significant proportion have involved loudspeakers from Wilson Audio Specialties. It was my experience of their X-1/Grand SLAMM in the listening rooms of reviewer Martin Colloms, then-retailer Peter McGrath, designer Dan D'Agostino of Krell, and manufacturer Madrigal Audio Labs, that led me to name it my "Editor's Choice" for 1995 and join my vote with those of the Stereophile scribes to make it the magazine's "Loudspeaker of the Year." I wrote in my">http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/470/">my December 2001 "As We See It" about how a cross-country road trip had begun with a listen to the Cantus">http://www.stereophile.com//features/465/">Cantus CD on the Wilson WAMMs in their">http://www.stereophile.com//interviews/478/">their designer's Utah listening room. And, as I wrote in my">http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/557/">my April column, auditioning Peter McGrath's 24-bit Nagra-Dhttp://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/461/">Nagra-D; master tapes on Wilson MAXXes in the Halcro room was, for me, the highlight of the 2002 CES.

"You're a toy junkie!" laughed Trish, my fiancée. "Your life is a search for bigger and better toys!"

Sometimes it all comes down to the shape of the side panels. I was smitten by the gentle curves of the Burmester B99 loudspeaker's aluminum side grilles, which have uncommon grace. A love affair with an enclosure? Well, yes. After all, beauty is an intensely personal matter. In the words of Burmester's motto: "Art for the ear."

Interest in super-efficient, horn-loaded, compression-driver loudspeakers has grown in the past few years, fueled in part by a renewed fascination among many hobbyists with low-powered, single-ended triode tube amplifiers. But staring down the maws of two Tubby the Tubas is not every audiophile's idea of a good time—even when the resulting sound is spectacularly fast, coherent, and extended.