Bookshelves

The Yamaha NS-800A speakers have just landed at Carlton Audio Visual. We've had them running in and stretching their wings in the main demo space.

The NS-800A feature the same innovative cabinet design as the top of the range NS-5000 speakers. That is to say that instead of packing the insides of the cabinet with acoustically absorbing material like foam, Yamaha uses their 'absorber tubes'. These don't completely dampen the sound rather they keep a freshness and pep to the music.

Even without being fully run-in, these speakers are exciting, forward and immeadiate. They don't quite have all the pep of the NS-5000s but that's to be expected given that the NS-5000s are nearly triple the price.

They also don't feature the Zylon drivers of the NS-5000s having instead a pulp (paper) mix in the driver. The Zylon evidently works to give the higher range of speakers extra punch and attack.

But the lineage is still clear and if you love that Yamaha pure and fast sound, you're going to love these.

What I've also noticed is unlike a lot of bookshelf speakers, the mid-range is still quite present with the NS-800a. They are quite consistent throughout the frequency sweep and don't show the characteristic hole in the mids which plagues many a lesser set of bookshelves.

You won't be dissapointed by their bass either. Rich and full. Surprising for a bookshelf speaker, even one like this, that is on the larger side. But more importantly articulation and attack are not lost in the bass either. This can be another pitfall of less efficient bookshelves that find it difficult to articulate bass lines and give you more wooliness than crispness.

 

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Perhaps the best value in the Classic range. Absolutely gorgeous midrange. So lifelike!. Enough fast, accurate, bass to sound full range but a still easy to accommodate in any room enclosure size. Built in the UK to the same exacting standards as the SP200!

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From the origins of the loudspeaker industry in Glasgow comes this piece of musical intensity that is the Fyne Audio F700.
A very nice piece of engineering that proffers an explicit presentation with pin point imaging.

Fyne Audio F700 official site.

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Epos has risen, like a Phoenix from the flames and has come out with a new version of their classic ES14, the ES14N!

They state that they have deliberately gone for a 'non lifestyle, classic' aesthetic with their design but I can't help thinking they have time morphed from the 90s. Of they fit in perfectly in the downstairs of Carlton's main demonstration area, that also hasn't seen a redesign since the 90s!

But the 90s are cool again, aren't they!?

There are of course more technical reasons behind their choices in box and driver design and you can read all about that here at the official Epos website.

After initially feeling that these were a slightly bass shy design it transpired that after running in, the ES14 became one of the deepest note capable designs we’ve heard from a box this size. They do that trick of allowing a new listener to hear bass notes clearly in a familiar piece of music that have been previously undiscerned. Also they offer you spatial awareness, detailed treble and engaging mids that are the hallmark of a classic design. Totally worth a listen.

Epos ES14N speakers and stands package $8795

On display now at Carlton Audio Visual

A review by "LowBeats" publication on the ES14N

A review by AV forums on the ES14N

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We first saw this unique design as a tentative and secret prototype while drinking wine from the Krix Vineyard two years ago.

There is no doubt that Krix possess world class R&D facilities with state of the art instrumentation and analysis. It was with interest that I looked under a table in one of their laboratories and found the disassembled carcasses of B&W and Monitor Audio bookshelf speakers during that visit ...

It turns out that Scott has always nurtured an ambition to shake the audiophile tree for the high end bookshelf speaker. The Esoterix Altum is the result of that.

Now not everybody has grooved to their appearance it seems.

Think of them as that bespectacled fair haired girl who always sits quietly at the front of class while the cool kids hang shite on her. Then one day she’s on the front cover of Vogue while taking a break from studying medicine at Cambridge ... these speakers will one day be recognized as classics of sound and aesthetics ...

Matching stands for the Esoterix Altums are available at $1655.

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The natural evolution of today’s Sonus faber, is enclosed in this new creation. Minima Amator II is the restatement of a fundamental product first introduced in 1992 when the company was establishing key principles that would go on to guide future productions: accurate design and high-quality materials, combined to obtain a sound reproduction as natural as possible.

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The brand new Monitor Audio Platinum PL100 3G have just been unboxed last week. These are a seriously nice speaker. Solidly made with a classic Monitor Audio liveness transparency and fun!

Darren is our resident Monitor Audio fanatic having owned a pair himself. His verdict? - 'hmmm, very good!'

Don't trust Darren though, come in and listen for yourself! We're putting some good mileage on them running them in so they're ready for a good demo listening session.

These will be a very popular speaker, no doubt.

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A true classic English speaker taking its aesthetics and ethos from the 60s. The cabinets are made from a relatively thin wooden casing which like a hand made violin will flex ever so slightly at lower frequencies where we don't hear as much and are rigid where it matters for the upper bass, mids and treble.

A gorgeous warmth to these just oozes out of them.

This is how they've made speakers for the BBC for decades and those that love the 'Classic' sound will fall in love with these.

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These are another classic design that channels concepts from the 70s. JBL, Klipsch and Spendor have been making speakers like this too. Unlike the Klipsch and JBLs, these have a really rounded, mellow mid and treble quality that make them easy and relaxed to listen to.

They have a big beefy bass like sinking into a plush lounge chair.

Revival Audio is a new speaker brand from Alsace, France. You could be forgiven for thinking the above accolades as prematurely bestowed upon a speaker maker just entering the market. Yet, Revival Audio are no simple start up. The company’s sole two speakers (at this stage) are the fruit of decades of combined expertise from ex-Dynaudio’s Daniel Emonts and Jacky Lee, Revival Audio’s founding members.

While Emonts was Senior R&D Engineer and Lee was Chief Commercial Officer at Dynaudio, they became great friends and together took the plunge in establishing Revival Audio by the end of 2021, with the ambition of crafting some of the best speakers in the world. Together they make a formidable team and are well paired to take on the industry heavy weights.

Come and try them out now at Carlton Audio Visual.

Matching stands are an optional extra at $750 a pair.

 "The Ear.Net" on the Revival Audio Atalante 5 loudspeakers 

 "Soundstage Australia" on the Revival Audio Atalante 5 loudspeakers 

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Olympica Nova I is the bookshelf model of the line wonderfully finished in its clean design, intended to be used on a bookshelf or on its stand.

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We have the first pair of these on display in Australia. We only had to pledge one of our children to indentured servitude for life in Japan to acquire them, They are beautiful and much easier to live with than an annoying child.

"SoundStageAustralia.com" on the Yamaha NS3000 

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The Spendor Classic 1/2 Standmount speakers have the ultimate classic look and a classic sound as well that harkens back to that luscious era of 60s swinging London. 

But with a warmth and a ripened depth to the sound these aren't spekers that'll just look the part, they sound it as well. A full 3 way bookshelf loudspeaker with a serious pedigree.

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The original Electa Amator was one of the foundation models for Sonus faber that set the seductive timbre and musicaity allied to unique cabinetry artisanship that is very much the signature of this brand.

The Electa Amator III is immensly tactile with its combination of wood marble and leather, In my mind it feels like one of those precious pieces of preserved Roman art that is found in the corridoors of The Louvre rather than a mere loudspeaker.

These speakers do not come with the stands. Their matching stands which have a base of Carrara Marble can be purchased separately for $2995.

Sonus faber Electa Amator III official site

 

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Available to audition in their own Lygon st Showroom. These are a speaker of remarkable presence and beauty. They are highly capable of presenting the music in a natural and completely unfettered manner. Properly powered it doesn't matter what the volume is, they retain their particular quality at low volume and can very nearly do PA type sound pressure levels while remaining tonally consistent throughout. A remarkable performance envelope.

I fell in love with the spiritual and physical precursor to this speaker being the NS1000 of the 1980's, indeed I still have clients from that era who bought those speakers back then from me and feed them a diet of new amplification and sources every 15 years or so. These NS5000 speakers are better, like a new Lexus is better than my old Corolla.

The official Yamaha NS5000 web page

StereoNet on the Yamaha NS5000

Soundstage Australia on the Yamaha NS5000

The Absolute Sound on the Yamaha 5000 system

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The Classic series from Spendor is a unique design harking back to the good old days where vinyl records were carried around to house parties, speakers were big and their bass drivers were just as big!

If you miss the sound of smoky rooms, rock n roll and brown and gold interior decoration these are the speakers for you. 

With large 30cm bass drivers and retro styling you will be forgiven for thinking these are speakers from the 60s. And that's because they've been made to look, sound and feel like they were.

Thin walled and heavily dampened is something unusual these days as most modrn designs strive for super high rigidity in their cabinet to control the resonances as best they can. Spendor argues, however, that that's an impossibility - you'll always have a cabinet that resonates to some degree. The trick, they say, is to mke sure those resonances occur where you want them to and that's in the low frequencies where they are less audible to our ears.

Highly rigid cabinetry tends to push these resonances into the upper bandwidths creating a harshness or brightness to the tone. 

These Spendors don't have that built-in brittleness and are the classic easy-listening speaker. 

Read the What Hi-Fi review here

 

 

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With large 30cm bass drivers and retro styling you will be forgiven for thinking these are speakers from the 60s. And that's because they've been made to look, sound and feel like they were.

Thin walled and heavily dampened is something unusual these days as most modrn designs strive for super high rigidity in their cabinet to control the resonances as best they can. Spendor argues, however, that that's an impossibility - you'll always have a cabinet that resonates to some degree. The trick, they say, is to mke sure those resonances occur where you want them to and that's in the low frequencies where they are less audible to our ears.

Highly rigid cabinetry tends to push these resonances into the upper bandwidths creating a harshness or brightness to the tone. 

These Spendors don't have that built-in brittleness and are the classic easy-listening speaker.

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In the engineering of audio visual reproduction devices there are very few brands that have successfully broken the fundamental barriers of conservativism and fashion to be truly individual and accepted for what they are. McIntosh have broken the glass ceiling of consumerism by just being very good at what they do and building their product to their own rules.

These loudspeakers have been released at the Munich Hi Fi show and are a compelling statement of design. This ML1 loudspeaker Mk II is a reengineer of their original McIntosh Labs number one speaker and looks fantastic. To me this is like a Vincent motorcycle made with 2020s componentry and performance. These speakers are works of art as well as pure McIntosh music quality.

Official McIntosh ML1 Loudspeaker Mk II website

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