Grimm Audio LS1/LS1s
The moment four talented minds decide to get together to develop an active loudspeaker system, based on all the knowledge they have accrued, you expect something special. Grimm Audio is a Dutch company established by Eelco Grimm who is experienced in building studios, Guido Tent of Tentlabs is well known for his D/A converters, Bruno […]
PMC twenty.26
In an attempt to foil my fellow reviewers and audio loving friends I got my hands on one of the very first pairs of PMC twenty.26 loudspeakers that came to the Netherlands. This model was introduced to mainland Europe at the High End Show 2014 in Munich and is the latest member of the twenty […]
Cambridge Audio Aero 6
When I discovered that the Cambridge Audio Aero speakers were equipped with a BMR driver my interest was more than usually piqued. This type of driver is a pretty rare beast, you can find it in Naim’s Ovator speakers and on one other speaker that I know of, so the fact that Cambridge have put […]
NACSound Omni
Hanging loudspeakers on a wire from the ceiling is nothing new. Neither is the use of reflectors under or above driver cones to create an omnidirectional sound pattern. But a combination of both techniques in one design is different. NACSound is the only company offering these sorts of speakers. Originally based in Italy, now stationed […]
Guru QM60
‘Man suffers most from the suffering he fears’. That quote came to mind when I left the Dutch distributor for Guru loudspeakers. I had promised the editor a review of the largest Gurus, a brand that I only knew from hi-fi shows here and abroad. I never got excited about the performance at the shows, […]
Harbeth P3ESR
Some things will never change and we have little need to alter them. An instrument played in 1977, the year Dudley Harwood started his loudspeaker company, will sound the same in 2013 given the same room and the same conditions. So, if we were able to reproduce the instrument plausibly on a Harbeth loudspeaker then, […]
Focal Aria 948
I used Focal loudspeakers in my own system for the 15 years up to 2010. Over that time different cone materials from Focal have all made their mark; first impregnated paper with a polyglass coating, later yellow Kevlar was in use and finally the W-cone in the Electra and Utopia series showed up. The W-cone […]
Blumenhofer Genuin FS 2
After several visits to the Blumenhofer Acoustics company deep in the Bavarian forests, I finally got the chance to listen to their Genuin FS 2 horn loudspeakers in my own living room. Size and weight were always a problem since I live on the third floor of an apartment building without an elevator, but we […]
Acoustic Energy Reference 1
Most audio enthusiasts are aware that Acoustic Energy made its name with the AE1 in 1988 but fewer are aware that this classic speaker has been transformed into a luxury model with high gloss ebony wood panels. Changes have also been made inside the box and therefore time has come to see what the AE1 […]
PMC fact.12 nothing but the truth
Munich 2013 was the place to be for the launch of the latest PMC loudspeaker, the fact.12. The High End Show is filled with all kinds of loudspeakers from the almost affordable up to the very best and most expensive (not necessarily one and the same), it was the perfect showroom. The first notes I […]
Eminent Technology LFT-16
Eminent Technology first came to my attention with a parallel tracking, air bearing tonearm which is apparently still available in limited numbers. So it was surprising to discover that they are now a speaker company, something that became apparent when I was asked to review the floorstanding LFT-8B for another publication a couple of years […]
Q Acoustics Concept 20
I got a remarkable result with the Q Acoustics 2010i last year, at £120 it was the least expensive speaker I had reviewed in a long while but far from the least entertaining, almost the opposite. Q Acoustics has done well by using a top notch freelance designer, Karl Heinz Fink (the man behind Naim […]