Oephi Lounge speakers and more in the South West
It had been too long since I had paid Mike and Caroline, proprietors of Audio Destination in Tiverton, Devon, a visit. I first met them back in 2017, when I purchased my first Melco server, along with a Moon 280D streaming DAC. Little did I realise the path this pairing would send me down, I would later return to make various purchases, notably my current Moon 780D and Totem Forest Signature speakers.
Audio Destination is a wonderful dealership and one that’s into its third decade of providing bespoke and personal service to audiophiles and music lovers in the South West and beyond. I speak from personal experience when I say that Mike and Caroline represent the genuine side of the industry. Indeed, when Mike visited my house a few years ago to replace a faulty part on a used component I had recently purchased, he suggested I should leave the system alone for a few years and enjoy it – good advice, which was duly ignored.
So when I received the invitation to this weekend’s Oephi (pronounced ‘oh-fi’) event, I arranged to skip the day job for the afternoon. Mike and Caroline were joined by Oephi’s proprietor and designer, Joakim Juhl, along with Glen Furness of distributor, Airt Audio. Joakim was in the UK for the launch of two new speakers, the Oephi Lounge 2 and Lounge 2.5. The Lounge range was designed to show inquisitive music lovers that acquiring a musically satisfying system need not be beyond their financial reach. Whilst it would be disingenuous to describe any Oephi speaker as budget, at £2,495, as I discovered, the Lounge 2 stand mount speaker puts in a delightful performance.
I know the main dem room well, and although not the very largest, Mike has gone to great efforts to ensure it represents a home environment, albeit the home of a committed enthusiast. The system had been set up and tweaked by Glen and Joakim prior to the dem and consisted of a Gold Note P1000 preamp and PA1175 power amp along with their DS10 Evo streaming DAC and external power supply. Cabling was Oephi’s Imminence analogue cables and Transcendence ethernet and power cables. Equipment racks were from Entreq and Lateral, with Solid Steel speaker stands used where appropriate. All music in this room was streamed over the shop network with the help of Qobuz and a Melco S100 Mk2 network switch.
We first listened to the standmount Lounge 2 speakers, which immediately impressed with their spacious, open and dynamic presentation. Lower-priced speakers are often a compromise between refinement and engagement, but not in this case. David Bowie’s Cactus hit hard, yet the music was remarkably free of the speakers. Bowie’s voice, which was presented within a strong central image, sounded unforced yet expressive. Moving up to the £4,495 Lounge 2.5 speakers, which are effectively a floor-standing version of the Lounge 2, with an additional bass/mid driver, delivers a similar sound, albeit with greater weight and low-frequency drive. Perhaps the imaging was not quite as pinpoint, and the music was slightly less spacious, but these compromises were minor compared to the gains elsewhere, which were made them highly compelling.
Moving up to the Oephi Transcendence 2.5 floorstanding speakers, which retail for £9,495, was an eerie experience, as they look identical to the Lounge 2.5. It turns out that each speaker in Oephi’s range has similar looking cabinets and drive units, apart from the Immanence, which uses a ribbon tweeter rather than the highly modified alloy and magnesium tweeter found in the lower models. The Lounge speakers use high-quality cables from a third-party supplier, whereas each model above uses Oephi’s own cable, from a range that matches the speaker’s name. Trick mods are applied to the drive units and crossover to the benefit of performance and power handling as you move up through the range, hence the higher costs.
The Transcendence 2.5 immediately showed where your extra £5k goes, sounding more organic, refined and detailed. The noise floor dropped, and music was now eerily free from the speaker’s cabinets and delivered superior instrumental separation and startling levels of transparency. Despite this, I did not find that the system overemphasised any rough edges that were present in the recording.
I missed hearing the £5,495 Transcendence 2 stand mount in the dem room, which the customer attending a private dem ordered there and then. I later got to listen to them in the main shop area, at the end of some seriously tasty kit, which included Simaudio’s top-of-the-range, £25,000 North 891 DAC/pre and 761 power amp. The stands used were too low for tall guy like me to get the sweet spot, but when crouched on the floor, I could hear a soundstage of seemingly endless depth. Transient performance and dynamics were another highlight of this exotic system.
Equally enjoyable was the fresh coffee and Caroline’s homemade cake, and the great company, which turned an insightful listening session into a great afternoon. I hope to try the Lounge 2.5 speakers at home soon and will be doing all I can to get my hands on the Transcendence 2.5 later this year.
Chris Baillie