$45,500

When, at AXPONA, Robert and I first auditioned the new, relatively demure, three-way, four-driver, aluminum-enclosed S3 2023—said to be the first Magico loudspeaker (the newly released M7 being the second) to use technology trickled down from the company’s flagship M9—both of us were floored by its sound. The room at the Chicago show was small, limiting soundstage width; nonetheless, the timbre and dynamics of the speakers were superb—particularly in the bass (which, as Alon Wolf showed us via in-room measurement, was going down to an astonishing 20Hz). In my own room, the sonics were even more impressive, with no soundstage limits (staging was wall-to-wall, in fact), even richer tone color, and the same rock-solid low end that wowed us in Chi-town. Indeed, I have never heard a small floorstanding cone loudspeaker that does as much as this one does for the money that Magico is asking. If that doesn’t make the S3 2023 a classic of some sort, I don’t know what will. Here is a truly great dynamic loudspeaker that competes with (and in some ways exceeds) the twice-as-expensive competition. (348)

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$63,400

Although the Hailey 3 looks identical to its predecessor, from a philosophical, technological, and sonic perspective the new speaker is a complete break from the past. Series 1 YGs were accurate and detailed but analytical to a fault. Series 2 models were much more musical, while still giving precedence to neutrality and resolution. But with the Series 3, YG has made engagement and musicality its top priorities—and has enlisted science (particularly in the form of multi-domain computational modeling) to achieve those goals. The result is a speaker that is perfectly balanced top to bottom, is wonderfully revealing, and has banished all traces of its predecessors’ analytical nature.

A natural—not overwrought—warmth contributes to this speaker’s accessibility and likability, while its refinement at frequency extremes means there are no nasties to distract from the musical experience. For retaining the best of its past yet forging forward with new priorities—and brilliantly succeeding—the Hailey 3 is a cinch for a Golden Ear Award. (Forthcoming)

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$109,000–$175,000/pair

For the better part of my 54 years as an audiophile, I have avoided horn-loaded loudspeakers owing to horn colorations. Then I had the opportunity to audition a pair of the latest version of Avantgarde’s Trios, the company’s flagship all-horn system, in a private home, set-up, adjusted, and tweaked to the nines, with four (!) of Avantgarde’s massive horn-loaded Spacehorn woofers, buttressed by the biggest REL sub-bass system. One of the principal things that separates electronically reproduced music from the real thing is that in live music, the tone, the timbre, the basic character of voices and acoustic instruments do not change with changes in level. To a degree almost unique in my experience, this is also true of the Trios. In a large but not immense room I heard without question the widest dynamic range I’ve ever personally experienced from a home-audio system, also the freest and most effortless. At the other end of the loudness scale, tonal drop-out at very low levels is absolutely nonexistent. The Trios are probably not completely free from horn colorations, but such as may exist never intruded upon my enjoyment, appreciation, or involvement, which was total. Indeed, the overall tonal balance struck me as falling within the bounds of what I call “acceptable neutrality,” yet with a degree of life, vitality, vividness, presence, and tactility all but unprecedented in my experience of home audio. When Jacob Heilbrun concluded his review by stating that Avantgarde “has set a new benchmark for performance,” he was not overstating. When I first auditioned the Trios, I was impressed—long before the end, I was blown away…and still am. (346)

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$18,999/pair

The latest version of Harbeth’s flagship, the Monitor 40.3 XD, benefits from the designer Alan Shaw’s “eX-tended Definition” upgrades. These consist of mostly in substantial improvements in cone material—bass and midrange drivers are now made from  RADIAL 2,  the company’s  proprietary compound known for its lightness, rigidity, and extremely low coloration—and crossovers, which further refine the integration of all three drivers for improved coherence and transparency. Yielding one of the smoothest, most linear in-room responses I’ve ever measured with Omni-Mic, the 40.3 XD is capable of reproducing a symphony orchestra top to bottom with truthful tonal balance that never sacrifices vividness, vitality, involvement, color, body, texture, resolution, and palpable presence, not to mention that Harbeth drop-dead gorgeous midrange. It will also reproduce virtually any other kind of music with comparable fidelity while eliminating the speaker itself as a source of listening fatigue. Power handling, medium efficiency, and a benign impedance curve are such that it will play cleanly, with great authority, at very loud levels in all but mansion-sized rooms. Unless you require the bottom half-octave (where there is little actual musical content) at full volume, the bass has sufficient reach and slam down into the upper thirties as to obviate the need for a subwoofer on most acoustic music. Solid stands that place the tweeters at ear level are mandatory, while the dedicated  Ton Träger  stands allow the speaker to perform at its absolute best. This 40.3XD version displaces the 40.2 Anniversary as my reference and is now all around the best large three-way speaker in my considerable experience of the genre. (342)

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$24,000; additional $1400 for Scala “Top-Hats”

The Minissimo Forte bears a visual resemblance to Crystal Cable’s Arabesque Minissimo, reviewed in TAS 256 and still in production. The enclosure has the same exquisite apostrophe shape that invites caresses from passersby and, again, the stands are integral, this time a single-pillar design. Scan-Speak Illuminator drivers are utilized, a 1″ beryllium-dome tweeter and a 5.5″ paper-cone mid/woofer. What represents an entirely new direction is that the crossover, contained within the stand, is powered—the Forte requires AC to function, even though it isn’t what most would think of as a “powered loudspeaker.” Rather, a gainless Hypex NCore Class D amplifier is inserted between the crossover and the drivers. This eliminates the large series inductor between the amplifier and the woofer, which is felt to result in more lively dynamics as well as more linear performance and reduced distortion. Life is made easier for the external power amp and the choice of speaker cables becomes less critical. Bass response, both measured and perceived, is robust (a subwoofer won’t be mandated in most rooms), and the speakers are impressively “fast.” The optional heavy aluminum Scala “top hat” that’s designed to sit atop the speaker unquestionably improves image focus and dynamics, and really should be considered essential. (346)

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$14,950 base price; additional $1100 for u-BACCH

Dutch & Dutch—the company has been in business for a decade and, yes, it’s located in Holland—makes just one loudspeaker in two versions, the $14,950 8c and, for a few thousand dollars less, the 8c Studio intended for pro-audio use. The 8c is a 3-way, 4-driver powered speaker that can receive a digital signal (preferably) via a LAN connection and also happily accepts analog sources. The rear panel also sports a subwoofer output, but most listeners probably won’t require any additional bass support in a typical domestic environment. D&D’s speaker is of particular interest as it’s the first to license Dr. Edgar Choueiri’s BACCH crosstalk cancellation (XTC) filter as an optional $1100 “plug-in.” The u-BACCH version of the software is the most basic form of Choueiri’s technology and doesn’t require listener-specific in-ear measurements to work well. It’s a generic filter—the “u” stands for “universal” and it’s based on measurements Choueiri took in numerous rooms. The XTC filter, as implemented in the 8c, delivers at least 80% of the enhancement one hears with full-boat BACCH. That the Dutch & Dutch 8c is a fairly directional loudspeaker represents a significant advantage when it comes to crosstalk cancellation. The speaker is operated with Dutch & Dutch’s Ascend application, either web-based or installed on a phone or tablet. An inexpensive measurement microphone is needed for optimal setup of the speaker and software. (350)

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$218,000

The ascendance of Acora Acoustics to the top echelon of high-end loudspeaker manufacturers has been exceptionally rapid. Famous for its use of stone enclosures, the Canadian company’s first products were introduced in 2018, and the 420-pound VRC, which will remain Acora’s flagship for the foreseeable future, was debuted at Capital Audiofest in late 2022. The VRC is Valerio Cora’s first commercial 3-way design, and the care (and expense) lavished on the crossover is every bit as impressive as the advanced techniques required to fabricate the granite cabinets. The VRC excels in all the usual audiophile parameters, but the speaker’s most impressive sonic characteristic may be its aural immediacy—a function of exceptionally clean and rapid transient response that impacts not only dynamics but also tonal specificity and naturalness. The VRC is a big loudspeaker—though not as large as the “flagship” models of other elite brands—and, not surprisingly, provides a commanding sonic presentation in a large space. What is surprising is that the Acora VRC was designed to perform as well in a much smaller quarters, my 15′ x 15′ room being a case in point. A variety of granite types are available for the enclosure, some involving additional cost. (349)

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$3999 (stands $499)

This jumbo-sized stand-mount is the brainchild of designer extraordinaire Andrew Jones. It features a new 10-inch concentric driver housed in a 50-liter bass-reflex cabinet capable of 40Hz bass extension. A 1.25-inch silk-dome tweeter covers the range above a frequency of 1.6kHz. The result is a resounding success as the crossover region sounds seamless. Expect a massive sweet spot and a superlative boogie factor. Harmonic textures are fleshed out with consummate lucidity and transparency. The extreme treble range is tipped up adding a touch of air to the soundstage, an effect which is felicitous of female voice and violin overtones. There is plenty of low-level detail that seems to bubble effortlessly to the surface within the confines of a nicely layered depth perspective. Space truly is the final frontier, and the SP 10’s spatial solidity won me over in spades. With the right power amp, the SP 10 is capable of virtually lighting a fire under the soundstage, delivering dynamic peaks with no apparent compression. If one of your major priorities is to connect with the music’s passion and drama, this is the speaker for you. One of the things I like the most about the SP10 is its sense of coherence. It sounds very much like the single full-range driver loudspeakers I’ve experienced and enjoyed in the past. It is a superbly crafted and engaging transducer that may well prove to be addictive. (338)

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$6900

The new speakers from Golden Ear deserve serious accolades. The T66s are an update of and an homage to the popular Triton speaker series of the pre-AudioQuest era, but they aren’t backwards looking. The T66s maintain the thin wind-swept form factor and feature the active DSP-controlled powered subwoofer units that are the hallmarks of the GoldenEar brand. They also include the AMT High-Velocity Folded Ribbon tweeter, two 4.5″ mid/bass drivers, two 5″ x 9″ quadratic subwoofers, and 8″ x 12″ quadratic planar back-wave-driven radiators. But the real updates are primarily on the inside, including a new crossover design, high-quality internal wiring, new binding posts, and a new adjustable base. Overall, the T66s feature a tight satisfying low end, without the need for hunting down a separate sub unit, while the midrange and the treble are locked in and lush. AudioQuest took everything that worked in the previous Triton series and refined it to the next logical level, so that the whole package is a clear sonic upgrade. Beautiful speakers and a real contender dollar-for-dollar with any speaker in this price range. (347)

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$249,975

The DARC 250 Mk II is a 4-way design with 60dB/octave crossover slopes on all drivers. This speaker system utilizes a ¾” pure-diamond tweeter, a 2″ pure-diamond high-midrange driver, a 7″ ceramic lower-midrange driver, and two 9″ back-coated aluminum woofers paralleled in a high-pass-filtered bass-reflex enclosure.

At the heart of the DARC 250 Mk II are complex and symmetrical 12^th-order passive crossovers that have 60dB/octave slopes. These steep crossover slopes allow each driver to play its intended spectrum of music with greater clarity and dynamic headroom, avoiding driver breakup modes and crossover-distortion characteristics that tend to reveal themselves much sooner in certain lower-order crossover designs using similar drivers. A vital component of the design of the DARC 250 Mk II are two compensating time-delay circuits used to counter the inherent inductor-induced group delay between the two diamond drivers and the ceramic midrange that results in generally observed smeared impulses and smoothed over transients. Implementing the Time-Delay-Control (TDC) circuit in the DARC 250 Mk II properly corrects this time-delay. The resultant output is a synchronous projection of sound into the listening room for a more precise impulse response that leads to better perceived instrumental attack without transient smoothing or energy robbing time smear.

The DARC 250 Mk II has three sets of adjustments that can help with in-room setup and/or personal sound preferences. The first are individual high-frequency and low-frequency shelf adjustments of ±1.5dB from a 0dB reference for the pure-diamond tweeter and woofers. The second in-room-selectable option is the novel Bass Extension adjustment that allows six different bass level settings between 30Hz and 70Hz, where room-related bass issues tend to arise.

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$258,421

This full-range four-way ribbon speaker from Spain is simply one of the world’s greatest loudspeakers. It has an uncanny ability to make reproduced music sound like the real thing, with a beautiful rendering of timbre, image tangibility, an expansive and detailed spatial presentation, and an ability to portray the physicality of instruments with lifelike transparency, resolution, and transient speed. The impression of an instrument or vocalist existing in your listening room—right there—is spooky. The way images float in space, completely detached from the loudspeakers, is unlike that of any dynamic loudspeaker. The instant the music starts, there’s a sudden frisson of excitement as this remarkable loudspeaker brings the music to life. What’s more, it does all this while belying the stereotype of ribbons being difficult to drive and lacking bottom-end oomph. With 94dB sensitivity and bass extension to 22Hz, the Caravaggio is remarkably easy to drive, will play loudly, and will deliver fabulous bass weight and low-end dynamic authority. Indeed, I drove it to satisfying listening levels with a 20W single-ended triode amplifier. In its combination of sound quality and technical performance, the Caravaggio is a sui generis creation. The only caveat is that you need to be able to position these big dipole panels well out into a room to realize their performance. But if you have the room and the budget, the Caravaggio will bring music to life with stunning realism. (350)

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$94,000

The Vandersteen Audio Model Seven XTRM is the culmination of 47 years of continuous development that can trace its fundamental design principles to Vandersteen’s Model Two from 1977. It incorporates innovative thinking that separates it from other “cones-in-a-box” loudspeakers. For one example, this four-way system has an integral 400W amplifier to drive the dual 11″ side-firing woofers, along with an 11-band equalizer built into the speaker that helps smooth the speaker’s in-room bass response. This feature, along with Vandersteen’s foolproof technique for accurately setting that equalizer, results in a bottom end that is big, robust, and powerful yet doesn’t sound thick, heavy, or bloated—regardless of your room. The drivers are Vandersteen’s patented balsawood/carbon-fiber sandwich; the crossovers are first-order to assure perfect time alignment and phase coherence; and the enclosure is a tri-laminate design to suppress resonances.

If I had to sum up the Model Seven XTRM with one word, it would be “involving.” The sheer timbral beauty, fabulously muscular bass with no bloat or boom, and treble detail without brightness, all add up to a speaker that makes you want to continue the listening sessions long into the night. The Seven’s ability to sound at once smooth and relaxed yet richly detailed is a rare quality; most speakers lean one way or the other, the so-called “romantic” vs. “analytical” dichotomy. Vandersteen speakers have a reputation for falling on the romantic side of that line, and I would agree with that generalization. But the Seven’s great achievement is that this smoothness and ease don’t come at the expense of detail. You don’t appreciate the Vandersteen’s resolution by listening for it or pointing to it. Rather, it sneaks up on you in the listening session when you recognize a previously unheard musical gesture, a newfound contribution by a player in the back of the mix, the realistic inner detail of an instrument or voice, and other musically communicative aspects of the sound that make listening to music involving. The Model Seven XTRM is a relative bargain in the world of top-echelon loudspeakers and an easy choice for a Golden Ear Award. (348)

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