Greenie512

I’m not sure where this article was first printed or when but I acquired it as part of the PDF you can download from the Madisound site. It’s rather too “glowing” for my taste ... but these are exception speakers. See my comments at bottom of page.

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LISTENING CRITIQUE BY DENNIS COLIN

Here is a loudspeaker that appears to be without audible coloration; that's how it sounded to me. Now that's quite a statement, deserving of intense scrutiny. After all, Joe D'Appolito designed these speakers, so of course I thought they should be excellent:

Jidda Krishnanmurti, the (less than should bee famous observer of the human condition, taught that thought itself is a corruption of free observation. You must instantly forget all the past-beliefs, memory, attitude, and so on, as you do when surprised by something new in order to freely and completely see the new, the present

I have no trouble doing this when listening to (not analyzing) music I like, When reviewing an audio component, I listen: if I hear a sonic anomaly I focus on it, then call on the analysis tool called thought to attempt a description, e.g. " 3dB dip at 2.5kHz," "blown woofer," and so fort h, But then I shut this off and just listen again. After each piece of music, I write down my impressions’

You may still question whether I' have a subconscious desire to believe a Joe D'Appolito designed speaker must be good. or a simple desire to please a master. To this I mention that I've also designed speakers, including one I want to be the world's best. So my biases include a competitive factor that would incline me to go the extra mile to find fault with anyone else's speaker, including Joe's.

But l was able to disregard all biases --positive and negative as I sat down and just listened.

THE SOUND

Compared to any forward only facing speaker, I like the extra sense of ambiance that a bipolar can provide, even if synthetically derived. To me, this can satisfactorily compensate the loss of original hall ambiance in two- (and even 5.1), channel format limitations. This, however, l find true only in a highly damped room, such as my living room: In Joe's room, where I auditioned his speakers, there's more liveness [although very smooth), and I think a forward-only facing speaker is the best. My impressions are:

1. Ambiance. While desiring: the presence of surround speakers (which Joe provided momentarily, resulting in astonishingly good 3D ambiance), this review is meant to he in pure two-channel stereo only. And as such, I heard an absolutely seamless, smooth, and deep stereo soundstage, even well off axis. Not a hint of gaps, phasiness, or loss of tonal naturalness.

2. Tonal naturalness ("Presence" in the sonic ratings chart). I could simply bear no flaws, not even subtle colourations! The speakers are so acoustically transparent, though, that 1 had no trouble hearing many recording deficiencies, including those of the 16/44 CD medium. But mind you that free of the usual speaker anomalies, I thoroughly enjoyed the music,

One recording, even though a CD, is remarkably clean in detail and resolution: the Turtle Creek Chorale (I've mentioned its "goosebump factor" previously). On these speakers, I've never heard more natural-sounding voice reproduction, period. The performers sounded right there in front of me, yet the vocal fades into reverberation sounded infinitely far off. For a while I wanted to be a Tibetan monk so I could hear this all day'

3. Bass, midrange, treble, and balance- Sorry, nothing to cormment on except personal perceptual flawlessness.

4. Bass, Now here's an area for comment: These are transmission-lure {TL} speakers after all: TLs are supposed to have "different" bass. Before hearing these, I used to think "What's the big deal? TLs are just basically highly-damped open-back cabinets, aren't they?" Well, no!

First of all, the bass I heard was superbly dampened not a trace of "hangover" or emphasis. But the bass was also very deep and powerful. At one point, I was startled to hear a large bass drum impact shake me and the room down to at least 25Hz; as of this writing

I don't know the speakers' f3 or the bass room gain, but 1 do know I heard powerful and clean output to at least 2;511z, very surprising from a pair of 6.5" woofers per channel.

Second, the bass quality was even more impressive. For example; with Jacintha singing "Georgia on My Mind," the bass viol was the most natural and present sounding I’ve heard {not to mention .Jacintha's voice and all else on the recording).

5. Transient- Response and Image Clarity. A very good test is "Percussion Fantastic" (Fmk 017).

On these speakers, every detail of every percussion instrument was there with pristine immediacy and focus, With large tubular bells, for example, I clearly heard the subtle but lush midrange "knock'* sound just before the blossoming resonance of the bell overtones, all spatially and temporally correct-sounding. From the deepest drums to what sounded like tiny (1”?) triangles (whose fundamental probably 5kHz), the speakers never added any confusion.

6. Overall Impression. The speakers appear to reproduce whatever is fed them with flawless transparency. So well. they ruthlessly reveal any recording or medium deficiency. At one point, after criticizing some of Joe's recordings (which are much better than the average CD, mind you), I attempted to remove any sense of personal offense by saying "Joe, these speakers must be first-rate to reveal such fine details of recording imperfection!"

Now, how can you argue with that if you've designed the speakers? I felt like a politician making that statement but nevertheless it's my true feeling.

7. One More Comment - To Sub or Not to Sub. Not! First, these speakers don't need any, unless you need response down to 5Hz. Second. I don't like separate sub (or any) woofers-I'm aware of a lack of coherence on well-recorded bass transients.

With these speakers. there was no audible separation or lack of coherence anywhere in the audio spectrum: the response in Joe's room sounded flat down to 25Hz. Of course, Joe could install eight 18" woofers (per channel) into the walls and design it to extend the response flat to 31-1z at 130dB SPL.

However I’ve very happy with the low end reproduction of these speakers and could live quite happily without a subwoofer [if I didn’t have one!].