High-End Audio Buyer’s Guide 2024: Audiovector R1 Arreté

$7000

Audiovector builds all its own drivers in Denmark, and the company’s founder, Ole Klifoth, has long been partial to the Heil Air-Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeter, a design that permits very extended high-frequency reproduction with the acoustic output of a much larger dome. A portion of Audiovector’s AMT output is sent backwards, enhancing the R1’s spatiality. In addition to utilizing Audiovector’s best AMT tweeter, all the R Series models with the Arreté designation have a grounding circuit that channels mechanical energy away from the 6.5″ woofer’s basket to a third binding post on the back of the speaker. The Freedom Grounding Concept circuit, as Audiovector calls it, is included in the base price of $6950; the $850 cable that connects to both speakers and terminates in a Schuko connector that plugs into a wall outlet must be considered essential, given what it does for perceived dynamics and bass articulation. The R1 mates exceptionally well with a good subwoofer, and although it’s among the finest stand-mounts at its price point by itself, with the addition of a sub you have a three-way full-range loudspeaker system that in anything other than a very large room will beat the pants off any $10k floorstander you’d care to put it up against. (319)