Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

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Sonus Faber Lumina III loudspeaker

John Atkinson Mar 26, 2021 First Published: Mar 26, 2021 0 comments

Time for some towers. In recent months, a succession of standmount speakers has passed through my listening room: GoldenEar BRXes, Bowers & Wilkins 705 Signatures, Marten Oscar Duos, original KEF LS50s, and the new LS50 Metas. All these loudspeakers sounded excellent, though different from one another. I felt that a floorstanding loudspeaker would make for an interesting change.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Wilson Audio Specialties SabrinaX loudspeaker

Brian Damkroger Feb 19, 2021 First Published: Feb 19, 2021 0 comments

Many companies in high-end audio and elsewhere use a trickle-down approach to advance their products. The process begins with the development of a suite of new technologies, capabilities, components, or whatever the relevant entities might be. Typically, it's a flagship product that functions as the impetus, target, and first deployment of the new technologies. Subsequently, the new technologies trickle down to other models, each one incorporating a subset appropriate to its price point.

Digital Processor Reviews Floor Loudspeaker Reviews Headphone Reviews

February FollowUp RoundUp

John Atkinson Feb 15, 2021 First Published: Feb 15, 2021 0 comments

When Stereophile publishes a followup review in the print magazine, we add it as a "child page" to the website reprint of the original coverage. We have recently done so with three significant products: the Magico M2 loudspeaker, the Linear Tube Audio Z10e tubed headphone amplifier/integrated amplifier, and the Okto Research dac8 PRO multichannel D/A processor.

Audacious Audio Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Göbel High End Divin Marquis loudspeaker

John Atkinson Sep 17, 2020 First Published: Sep 17, 2020 0 comments

Although it was founded by ex-Siemens loudspeaker engineer Oliver Göbel in 2003, I am embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of Göbel High End until I visited the room hosted by Florida retailer Bending Wave at the 2019 AXPONA. There, I listened to the German manufacturer's ginormous $220,000/pair Divin Noblesse loudspeakers, which were making their US debut. I was impressed by what I heard. I was interested, therefore, to learn that Göbel was introducing a smaller Divin model, the Marquis, which would not be too large for my listening room and would be priced at $80,000/pair.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Manger s1 active loudspeaker

Jim Austin Aug 26, 2020 First Published: Aug 26, 2020 0 comments

My first exposure to Manger Audio loudspeakers, which are based on the "bending-wave" technology invented years ago by the company, was to the Manger p2, their passive flagship speaker, at the 2019 AXPONA. I heard it again a month or so later at High End Munich. I was impressed both times, especially by its transient and spatial performance.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Piega Premium Wireless 701 wireless loudspeaker system

Julie Mullins Jul 21, 2020 First Published: Jul 21, 2020 0 comments

For the first time in the two years I've been living in this apartment building, I've received a noise complaint from a neighbor. Coincidence?

As it happened, yes it was a coincidence. True, my music was pretty loud, and the bass from the Piega Premium Wireless 701 loudspeaker system ($7495/pair) was anything but reticent, especially considering the tower's sleek appearance. But I was not the source of the specific noise that caused the complaint. That was the sloppy bass from another neighbor's inferior sound system. (The bass from this Piega system isn't sloppy.)

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Volti Audio Razz loudspeaker

Tom Gibbs Jul 16, 2020 First Published: Jul 16, 2020 0 comments

Volti Audio's room at the 2020 Florida Audio Expo showcased the company's newest offering, the $20k/pair Rival Special Edition hybrid horn loudspeaker. With a custom cabinet and exotic Bubinga wood veneer, it easily counted among the best-looking loudspeakers I saw at the show. I also found the Rival SE's sound, powered by Border Patrol amplification, intoxicating. I placed it near the top of my shortlist for Best Sound at Show.

Audacious Audio Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Von Schweikert Ultra 55 loudspeaker

Michael Fremer Jun 19, 2020 First Published: Jun 19, 2020 0 comments

Achieving room-filling, high-quality sound in a hotel room is difficult enough. Getting it in a cavernous ballroom is even more problematic. Yet, over the past few years at AXPONA, RMAF, and most recently at the February 2020 FLAX (Florida Audio Expo), Von Schweikert Audio, in association with The Audio Company of Marietta, Georgia, has managed thatand, other than the approximately 100 bodies occupying every seat in the house, they've done it without any room treatment, or without any that I could see.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

PMC fact.8 signature loudspeaker

Kalman Rubinson Apr 22, 2020 First Published: Apr 22, 2020 0 comments

Back in the Dark Ages, loudspeaker design was commonly based on semi-enlightened experimentation, with new enclosure configurations appearing almost monthly in professional and consumer journals. One of those, published in Wireless World in October of 1965, was A.R. Bailey's transmission line, a long, selectively resistive, folded-and-sometimes-tapered tube that loaded the back of the (woofer) driver for low-bass reinforcement.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Vimberg Mino loudspeaker

John Atkinson Mar 26, 2020 First Published: Mar 26, 2020 0 comments

The priciest loudspeaker ever to have taken up residence in my listening room was the Akira from German company Tidal Audio (footnote 1), which I reviewed in the November 2018 issue of Stereophile. Designed by Tidal founder and CEO Jörn Janczak, the Akiras cost $215,000/pair! "The sheer resolution of the Akiras continued to astonish me throughout my auditioning," I wrote in my review, concluding that "The Akiras are the best-looking, best-built, best-sounding speakers I have had in my listening roomas they should be at the price."