Focal introduced the Sopra series in 2015, at the time there were two models, the No.1 bookshelf and N°2 floorstander, which I rather liked. This year Focal followed these with centre and surround speakers and a new floorstander, the Sopra N°3. This is bigger, heavier and has more cone surface on the woofers than the […]
These little Sony speakers came up in a conversation I was having with a Hollywood film editor who’s heavily into hi-fi. He had heard them at a reviewer’s house in the States and said I should give them a go as he thought I would like them, knowing my love for BBC monitor speaker designs. […]
Let’s get one thing straight from the start, the Mu-so does not shoot out colours like the picture on the Naim website, pity really as it looks rather good but I guess the novelty would wear off! It does look pretty gnarly without its wraparound grille though, drivers pointing everywhere in complete contrast to the […]
Years ago I reviewed a Raidho loudspeaker designed by Michael Børresen. The only thing I did not like about them was their high price. More recently, the same Michael Børresen designed a much cheaper loudspeaker range for the Scansonic brand, from which the small floor standing model MB-2.5 has been living in my listening room […]
In the past I have not been a big fan of Dynaudio loudspeakers, not that I doubt their quality, but somehow my rooms and the speakers never were a good match. But times change even at Dynaudio and as soon as I heard a demo of the Excite X18 on T+A electronics I asked for […]
Atohm may not be a familiar name to many readers, but when we couple Atohm to Devialet and mention that these two companies brought us the Devialet Ensemble 120/GT1 it might a ring a bell. Atohm is a French company that was chosen to supply loudspeakers for a Devialet package that is sold worldwide under […]
By way of an upside-down review, and to save you scrolling to the conclusion at this point, I wanted to like this product. I had liked this product at a couple of recent European events (no, correction: I absolutely adored the sound they made), and, thankfully, after correct amp-matching and room placement– I did like […]
For a long time German loudspeakers were considered heavy in the bass and bright in the treble, but that was last century, things have changed. Maybe ELAC considered this when they opened a second research centre, this time in the USA, to finally shed that image. The designer in the USA is Andrew Jones, a […]
There are more than a few reviewers around the world who own Harbeth speakers and I am among them. So when the first pair of Harbeth’s new M40.2 flagship monitor arrived in the Netherlands, I was one of the first to give them a listen. I instantly loved what I heard and when the opportunity […]
Small loudspeakers are attractive to nearly everyone, even audiophiles, and modern technology makes it possible to reduce cabinet size without losing too much quality. As the majority of speakers in the world attest it is possible to produce satisfying music even if the lowest bass notes are lost in the process. In their favour smaller […]
After the impressive debut of the Russell K. Red 100 no one will be surprised that Russell K. is bringing two more loudspeakers to the market: the Red 150 is a floorstander with twin woofers and the Red 50 a smaller stand mount. Having enjoyed the Red 100 immensely I opted for the smaller model […]
It took the Focal R&D team three years to come up with a range of loudspeakers to fill the gap between the Electra and the Utopia series. That’s six to eight engineers full time; a costly pursuit, one that only companies with Focal’s scale can afford. The result certainly looks like it was worth the […]