2019 is becoming a very Italian year in my audio life. Like many of us immersed in this hobby in the UK I was aware of a few Italian brands but this year I have had the privilege to hear several which were hitherto not on my radar, and the first of them is Gold Note. Based near the renaissance city of Florence, this small group of dedicated audio engineers and designers have a catalogue that includes turntables, cartridges, phono stage, CD players, DACs and cables too. I previously reviewed the PH10 phono stage and its matching PSU. I was sufficiently smitten with that to make it a permanent fixture in my system. Thus when John Simm of Audio Pinnacle, now Gold Note’s UK distributor, offered me a review pair of the Gold Note A6 Evo floorstanding loudspeakers, I jumped at the chance.
The first thing to say about these loudspeakers is that they are strikingly handsome, with the review pair clad in a lovely lacquered Italian walnut finish. The cabinet sides are curved elegantly towards a narrower back panel where nickel plated high quality single wire binding posts are located. The black grilles attach with magnets but we mostly left the grilles off for sonic and aesthetic reasons. The A6 Evos immediately received spousal approval, which as many of you know is often the biggest obstacle to the acquisition of new gear, especially loudspeakers. They sit on their own plinths, which also inclines them back a few degrees and allows the downward firing SEAS woven polypropylene bass cone to work effectively. The front baffle is matte black and houses a pair of SEAS treated paper midrange cones. Above them sits a soft dome tweeter with a catenary profile, a design that’s rarely seen outside of Vivid Audio’s metal drivers (Gold Note does not identify the manufacturer). Impedance is quoted at four Ohms and recommended amplifier power is from 20-150 watts. My Yamaha A-S3000 drove them very comfortably but I would love to hear them within a totally Gold Note system, since that is how they were developed back in Florence.
Gold Note recommend these enclosures for small to medium sized rooms – they have larger models for bigger spaces. In our 16 x 11 foot lounge they were very comfortable. So how did they sound? These are grown up loudspeakers which reveal their many strengths over an extended period of listening. In a short dealer demo they may not be the ones to grab your attention in the way that some more ‘eager beaver’ designs may, but get them home and live with them and they will reward you with a very unfatiguing listening experience, with unforced musicality and communication of both the detailed content and the emotion of your chosen music. These are not loudspeakers for those who live on a diet of heavy metal but if your taste is more catholic, they will serve you really well. I played classic rock, jazz, blues, modern pop, electronica, vocal music, classical orchestral, chamber music, solo piano, violin and cello, choral music and spoken voice (our television sound is channelled via the hi-fi system ) and the A6 Evos delivered a most engaging take on whatever they were asked to reproduce. These really are musical instruments. The soundstage is wide and deep, with every instrument in the ‘right’ place. I found the best results in this room were with them about 30 cm from the rear wall and toed in towards the listening chair. As always, experiment!
My ‘work’ means that I am sitting in my listening chair for extended periods most days of the week and sometimes I can find my attention wandering but not with the A6 Evos. Without wrestling your ears into submission they encourage a browse through the record collection and the ripped music library and my time with them here was a real pleasure. For me, the sign that a review item has really hit the spot is that I am genuinely reluctant to see it leave our home, and that was certainly the case with the A6 Evos.
Are there any weaknesses? Despite the dual main drivers and the internal subwoofer, bass slam was not of the thump you in the chest variety and the highest frequencies were not quite as sparkling as the very best designs I have heard, but generally I think that the combination of musicality, build quality and gorgeous looks of the A6 Evos make it very easy to recommend them to the discerning buyer. If you are in the market for a sophisticated small floorstanding loudspeaker I would urge you to add these to your short list – you may not be familiar with the brand but trust me, Gold Note is a very serious player and I believe we shall be hearing a lot more of them in the coming months and years.